Are You Most Fearful of What You Are Not?

Barbara McSwain
Oct 12, 2009

In his Daily Insight Email newsletter, James Allen, writes:

"A while back I spoke to a group in Houston and I showed them pictures of some very famous people.
They included Thomas Edison, Cher, Walt Disney, Richard Branson, Jay Leno, Whoopi Goldberg, Ted Turner and my hero Winston Churchill. Then I asked the audience what they all had in common. Can you guess?
There were quite a few answers from the audience and they were all wrong. It was only after I pulled out $100 and offered it as a prize that a person in the back overcame his fear of being wrong and volunteered the correct answer... they were all dyslexic! I pointed out that the role that made each of them famous also required a lot of reading. Do you know how hard it is for a dyslexic person to read? But not a single one of those great people that I cited let dyslexia keep them from being all they were created to be." "That's why one of my most favorite quotes is - It's not what you are that holds you back, it's what you think you're not", Allen concludes.

The article made me think about how many schools are held back simply because they are not convinced they are exemplary material. Perhaps they are scared of success. I remembered the first time that I heard Max Thompson, founder of Learning-Focused, speak. I wanted so badly for the school to become an exemplary site. I know that I was a little apprehensive about the possibility of success initially. However, I do remember thinking, "If they can do it, so can we!"

I remember the pride I felt when later, state leaders came to visit the school, and remarked on a teacher they felt was exemplary in every way. I knew that specific teacher had once struggled, and it was only when he began to try the Learning-Focused Strategies that he and his students began to experience success!

If schools are to become exemplary, then teachers and administrators need to be able to identify exemplary instructional practices and how those practices will be implemented consistently and pervasively within their schools.

School reform needs to address common unit and lesson design with common assessments. Otherwise, how will we know where our gaps are if educators are independently practicing the art of teaching? Classroom instruction must be based on state performance standards. Without common assessments, how will we know all of our students have mastered state standards?

Additionally, there must be monitoring of classroom instruction to ensure that the top 5 strategies that raise achievement (USDOE 2002) are being used consistently and pervasively.

  • Extending Thinking
  • Summarizing
  • Vocabulary in Context
  • Advance Organizers
  • Non-Verbal Representations

By 2011, 70% of all testing will include Extending Thinking. Currently do your units include enough Extending Thinking activities and lessons? Do your unit and lesson Essential Questions include the teaching and use of Extending Thinking strategies?

Are you using Distributed Summarizing and Distributed Guided Practice in your lessons? Are you using Collaborative Pairs for Distributed Summarizing and Distributed Guided Practice? Do Assessment Prompts in mathematics include error analysis? Are students justifying their answers? To learn more about Assessment Prompts see Unlocking the Secrets of the Learning-Focused Strategies Model Version 7.

If you are a 4-12 teacher, do you continue to use traditional lecture techniques only or most of the time?

How do you determine the essential vocabulary words you are expecting students to master? Are the words coming from standards?

Do you know the difference between an advance organizer and a graphic organizer? The main differences are how and when they are used. An advance organizer is started prior to the unit or lesson to help students organize learning efficiently during units and lessons. Are you using word maps or frayer diagrams to teach vocabulary words? Are you using acrostics or mnemonics?

These and other questions are answered in the Learning-Focused Strategies workshops. George Bernard Shaw said, "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." How do you envision your school, your classroom, and your students a year from now? Three years from now? Five years from now? Let us create that vision together for your school to become an exemplary school!