Issue 27: Nov 17, 2008 Connections Newsletter

Red Mill Elementary Leads the Way in Implementing Learning-Focused

Barbara McSwain
Nov 17, 2008

I first met Michael Zang at a Learning-Focused Connecting Strategies training at the Capital Area Intermediate Unit in Central Pennsylvania. I was impressed with his leadership abilities and his interaction with the teachers representing his school. I recently asked Mr. Zang, principal of Red Mill Elementary School in Etters, PA, to tell me about his experience with implementing Learning-Focused and the impact that Learning-Focused has had on his school.

Red Mill Elementary is located in the West Shore School District and has a student population of 615 students in grades kindergarten through fifth. There are five sections of each grade, except for grade three where there are four sections. In addition to these 29 classes, there are seven special education classrooms, four of which are district wide classes for full time learning support and emotional support students. The special education population is around 18 percent of the entire student body.

Zang reported  "In the first year of implementation we trained only seven staff members out of 40. This past summer, in preparation for our second year, an additional 15 individuals attended the training.  We now have 22 out of 44 staff members trained in the Learning-Focused Strategies Model. This is 50 percent of all teachers, which includes K-5, special education, reading, art, music, physical education, and library staff.  In addition to the Learning-Focused Strategies training, some individuals attended each of the Learning-Focused Vocabulary, Acceleration, and Coaching workshops. These teachers returned from the trainings very enthusiastic and willing to share some of what they learned with their colleagues."

In addition to those opportunities for sharing, the teachers at Red Mill are also conducting morning Koffee Klatches (8:00 to 8:30) several times a month to share with their colleagues.  Since collegial planning is a critical component to the success of Learning-Focused, a common planning time of approximately 30 to 45 minutes for each grade level is part of their schedules one time per 6-day cycle. This small amount of time enables teachers to share their ideas with one another, receive positive collegial feedback and divide the planning involved for each successive Learning-Focused unit.

"A regular activity during any in-service program is conducting a building walkthrough of the classrooms. We divide the staff into groups of eight to ten individuals, and one of the teachers leads each group. Upon entering a classroom, the teachers discuss the materials displayed throughout the room. This activity provides opportunities for staff members to talk about what they are doing in their classrooms and for others to learn what is going on in the various classrooms. In addition, the teachers discuss the children's responses to the materials. The feedback from these walkthroughs has been extremely positive. It is not uncommon to hear a teacher say how easy it would be to replicate an idea or how they wish they had thought of that idea. This activity is especially helpful in answering the question from teachers about all of the material being distracting to children.  The special education teachers are great in responding to this question. Everyone understands the importance of all the curriculum related materials, when they realize how frequently students are using the displayed materials in their daily work," Zang continued.

Red Mill has been very interested in the Know-Understand-Do (K-U-D) organizer of the Learning-Focused training and the impact it can have on creating quality units. 

"We did an Early Dismissal Day group activity on creating a K-U-D organizer from the state academic standards and district curriculum using an upcoming fourth grade unit. This activity was attended by all of Red Mill trained staff members. All members actively participated in its creation and we were surprised by how easy the process really is when done collaboratively," Zang stated.

Zang reported that another very important part of the implementation was the attendance of two staff members at the Learning-Focused Training of Trainers workshop.  "It enables us to provide guidance immediately to the teachers."

Zang is a principal who leads through example. He attended all the requested Leadership trainings and was trained along with his teachers during the Learning-Focused Strategies workshops in June 2006.  Since that time, he has been actively involved in the training process for other teachers at Red Mill and throughout West Shore School District. Tricia Chapman, a second grade teacher, is one of the Learning-Focused Certified Trainers at Red Mill Elementary. Chapman's enthusiasm and eagerness to embrace the Learning-Focused Strategies Model and to help her teammates is a model for everyone going through any Learning-Focused training. There is no doubt that she has served her school well in the role of in-house Trainer!  Mr. Zang  and Ms. Chapman are planning to attend the Learning-Focused National Conference in Atlanta in February. Red Mill Elementary Literacy Coach, Peg Strohecker, attended the Learning-Focused Reading Training of Trainers workshop.

 "The literacy coach is modeling lessons for staff members on a continuous basis. In addition, she and Tricia are using their planning time to visit classrooms and to provide feedback to teachers. This results in continuous improvement. Other teachers, who have not received Learning-Focused training, are now inviting her into their classroom for this feedback. Since neither Ms. Chapman nor Ms. Strohecker is an administrator, the teachers feel more comfortable in asking them into their classroom. They have no worry about the visit turning into an evaluative one!

"I am scheduling my 5x5s a week in advance to ensure other meetings and administrative tasks do not preclude me conducting these visits. As I leave every classroom, I always leave a short note for each teacher on his or her desk.  Afterwards I conference with some and ask others to respond to a question which focuses on their implementation of Learning-Focused." Learning-Focused recommends that administrators visit five different classrooms for five minutes, five days a week.

When asked what impact the implementation of Learning-Focused has had on his school Zang reported the following information:

1. The Learning-Focused model is rapidly spreading into the classrooms of the non-trained staff members.

2. The grade levels are planning together more frequently, beyond the time built into the building master schedule. They are creating grade level units, lesson plans, Student Learning Maps, etc.

3. There is an increase in student engagement because of implementation. The amount of time the children are working is increasing during a lesson, while the teacher-led direct instruction time is decreasing.

4. The teaching strategies are being used throughout the building, specifically collaborative pairs, a form of ticket out the door, summarizing, previewing, and activating.

5. There is a "WE" philosophy growing among the staff, particularly within the grade level.

6. Our special education students are participating at a higher level in class discussions. Their contributions are topic related. The teachers are reporting that some of the regular education students are making comments that these students are smarter than they thought they were.

7. There is consistency across all grade levels with the students looking for Essential Questions and Student Learning Maps. One teacher reported when she did not begin her lesson referencing the Essential Question, a student asked "Aren't we learning anything today?"

8. Use of an essential question is moving the students to a greater understanding of the material; more level 2 and 3 learning is happening than level 1.

When I questioned Mr. Zang about any frustrations he experienced during implementation, he pointed to "The low percentage of teachers trained in our first year, 7 out of 40, hindered our growth. In addition, only training one teacher per grade level did not provide enough collegial support for the teachers. Initially, as we adopted this model, it would have been better to train more staff per grade level!  Now, the frustration lies in not being able to train the remaining staff quickly enough."

The Non-Fiction Connection to Persuasion

Peggy Corbett
Nov 17, 2008

The irony is inescapable. Almost all state-mandated writing assessments require students to respond to persuasive prompts, yet we continue to make fiction the cornerstone of our instruction. I am not knocking fiction; I am a dyed-in-the-wool lit teacher from way back. However, the common research says 80% of our instructional reading requirements come from fiction with only 20% coming from non-fiction. Understanding, or acknowledging, that, in terms of minutes, the bulk of reading we do throughout the day is non-fiction,  it is easy to concede that the reverse should be the case. Our students should be reading non-fiction 80% of the time and fiction the other 20%. Test yourself; how many minutes of your day are spent reading fiction? For me, it is roughly 45 minutes or the amount of time it takes me to go to sleep once I pick up my novel when I go to bed at night.

In attempting to prepare students for timed writing prompts, we sometimes fall into a pattern of assigning writing, reading the responses, and then editing the paper for the students, playing the role of the struggling reader. Sadly,our students do not have much experience with being the reader and the writer of their papers and do not understand the game I am attempting to engage them in when I ask "What do you mean here?" In Nancy V. Wood's Perspective on Argument, she suggests that students question other students' thesis statements and subsequent responses in order to help the writer understand what information is needed by the reader. She gives this example:

Student 1: The university should be more student-friendly. (Thesis)

Student 2: Why do you think so? I think it's fine.

Student 1: Because students are its customers, and without us they wouldn't exist.

Student 2: Why wouldn't it?

Student 1: Because we pay money to keep it going.

Student 2: Why do students keep it going? There are other sources of income.

Student 1: Because our tuition is much more than all of the other sources combined (284)

If a teacher starts from this point, he or she might model the process with an article on a contemporary topic that students are familiar with and follow Wood's example using a technique called nutshelling. The speaker(reader) explains to the listener the gist of a piece of writing. For demonstration I might nutshell an article on global warming by saying "The water levels of the Great Lakes are rising as a result of global warming." Based on this nutshell, the students would generate a list of questions they might expect the author to address:

• Why are water levels rising?

• Are levels of other water bodies rising?

• What is the evidence that they are rising?

• Are water levels the only things changing in the environment?

Then students read the article and decide which questions were answered - or not. The general idea I want students to take away is that readers expect writers to anticipate their questions and to respond to them.

It should be evident that this is as much a reading activity as it is a writing activity. Donna Qualley in Using Reading in the Writing Classroom states "When students experience active reading in conjunction with their own writing, transference from one process to the other is more likely to occur. We can instruct students to consider the needs of their readers when they write, but when their own experience of being readers themselves confirms it, the learning is centered. (114)

Of course, there are huge implications here to other content area classrooms. Everyone benefits when all teachers encourage their students to be questioning readers. Ideally, the practice is so wide spread that when students sit down to a writing prompt, the skills are internalized and not just a test gimmick.