Principal Speak:  Finding Focus by Greg Furlich

Post date: Nov 4, 2012 11:13:57 PM

By now I imagine most of us have read all or at least large chunks of Mike Schmoker’s, book, Focus. I have enjoyed reading the Edmodo posts to see what different principals have taken away from this short but powerful book. The one thing we all seem to agree on is that it is a timely selection and that with everything going, now is a good time to step back and take a close look at what is most important to effective instruction. The elements of high-quality schooling, “coherent curriculum, effective whole-group instruction, and purposeful reading and writing,” have never seemed more important. This book left me with some affirmations, some “ah has” and also a few questions.

I think we all know an effective lesson when we see one, but it always great to see some of the things we believe affirmed by researchers. It seems that all that time we spent on Madeline Hunter was and is still relevant. The hallmarks of a good lesson are still clear learning objectives coupled with teaching, modeling, and demonstrating. Guided practice and assessment in the form of checking for understanding are just as important as we were taught in our methods classes. And guess what, the anticipatory set (now more commonly known as “the hook) remains relevant. Truly amazing were Schmoker’s statistics that indicate that effective instruction and formative assessment to check for understanding

·        Would have 20 to 30 times as much positive impact on learning than most popular current initiatives.

·        Are about 10 times effective as reducing class size.

·        Students would learn four times as fast with consistent use.

I also loved what Schmoker had to say about teacher talk. We’ve all encountered the teacher who felt she could talk the content in to her students. We’ve probably all been in a class where a teacher or professor felt he could talk the content in to us. It was great to see a researcher understand what we all know intuitively, if a teacher talks or lectures for more than five consecutive minutes, the class is going to be lost. It is no surprise to us that including some interactive elements (Kagan structures anyone?) can make all the difference in engagement.

Schmoker makes a number of other strong arguments for improved instruction. Where he does lose me a little, however, is on his seemingly total reliance on whole class instruction. What are we to do about the students our formative assessment tells us have not quite mastered fundamental skills and need further practice? A lot of the best instruction I see every day takes place in small settings. In a well-run structured classroom in Virginia Beach you will not find that, “students sit passively waiting for their turn to learn.” I also believe it is possible to honor our students by creating some differentiated assignments for individuals and small groups for extended guided and independent practice opportunities.

 At its core, Focus asks us to get back to basics and to the essentials of what we teach, how we teach, and how to provide students opportunities to engage in authentic literacy. It is hard to argue against the fact that reading, writing, and thinking critically are the real skills our students will need for the 21st Century.