An Interview with a LEARNING-FOCUSED Teacher

Laurian Phillips
Oct 13, 2008

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet with teachers and really get their opinion on what they think about their teaching since participating in the Learning-Focused Instructional Model workshop. I am going to share with you the conversation I had with Amy Thomas of West Bainbridge Middle School in Decatur Co., GA. Her Principal is Stephen Dupree, the Assistant Superintendent of Decatur County is Dr. Suzi Bonifay and the Superintendent is Dr. Ralph Jones.

Phillips: The essential question for the Learning-Focused workshop is: "How do I think about, plan, and deliver instruction so that students learn it faster and retain it longer?"
So Mrs. Thomas, since you have implemented Learning-Focused Strategies in your classroom, do you think about instruction differently?

Thomas:  Yes, I do.  Before, I just looked at the lesson in the book and taught what was there. Now, I start with my standards. I think about what students should know, understand, and do at the end of the unit before I even begin planning instruction. This has become, for me, the most important part of planning the lessons and units. It has changed the whole focus of what I teach. I think about what prior knowledge students bring with them to the lesson and how to best draw upon that prior knowledge to make the link to the new knowledge. I also think about which graphic organizers fit the content and how to teach the structure of those organizers before students are asked to use them with new information. Sometimes I will brainstorm and make notes and just think about my units days before I even begin actually planning any lessons. It is amazing how much more in-depth my lessons become when I do this.

Phillips: When it comes to actually planning lessons and units, why do you believe that the Learning-Focused framework is helpful?

Thomas:  Because the framework for the lessons and units is based on the research for exemplary strategies and practices, it ensures that I include these strategies in every lesson.  During the launch, I preview the Student Learning Map and key vocabulary with students. I also preview any organizers that we will use in the unit. Use of advance organizers by students shows a 28 percentile gain.  Previewing and Acceleration are exemplary practices that all of the 90/90/90 schools used and they are built into the unit plan during the launch. Having the Essential Question gives a focus for the lesson, but more importantly, it serves as evidence of student learning during the summarizing portion of the lesson.  This is the number two strategy for raising student achievement. I have students write during this portion of the lesson, so we are incorporating writing strategies in my math class. During the teaching part of the lesson, I am reminded that I need a graphic organizer and to distribute the summarizing and practice throughout the lesson, not just at the end. There is a place for me to write questions and prompts for pairs that is highly important. If I think about these questions ahead of time, and plan them and write them down, I find that I ask much better questions. During the activating part of the lesson, I link to prior knowledge and preview vocabulary that will be used in context in the lesson.  Students must use this vocabulary to answer the Essential Question during the summarizer. Then, there are the Extending Thinking lessons that I use to consciously take students to a higher level of thinking. This raises achievement by a 45 percentile!  Without the framework, it was just hit-or-miss to make sure I did these things. With the framework, I thoughtfully plan the lessons to include the research-based strategies. Also in planning the unit, I start with the culminating activity which means that I plan my assessment first instead of teaching and then testing what I taught. I start with the standards, plan assessments based on the standards, and then plan instruction to teach to those assessments.

Phillips:  What about the delivery of instruction?

Thomas:  Wow! Students are engaged! With the use of activators and collaborative pairs, students don't have time to be off task.  Graphic organizers are absolutely necessary for students to "get it."  I am amazed each time they take a test, and I see them recreating their graphic organizers on scratch paper to help them.  This means it is working!  With the summarizers, I know who gets it and who doesn't - before the test.

Phillips:  Do you think your students learn it faster and retain it longer?

Thomas:  I would say that instead of learning it faster, they are learning it deeper.  I don't really save any time, but where I would have spent a week teaching nothing but skills, I now spend a day on skills and the rest of the week on concepts and higher-level thinking.  When you take students to this level of thinking, they definitely retain it longer.

Phillips:  Overall, are you pleased with Learning-Focused?

Thomas:  I would never go back to teaching any other way.  "This stuff works!"