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Teaching What Matters Most, by Strong, Silver, & Perini

In the final chapter of Teaching What Matters Most, the authors challenge teachers, systems, and students to look closely at the responsibilities of achieving learning goals. Discussion of assessment contracts between teachers, students, and systems can aid in explicitly communicating the goals and responsibilities that each party holds. The authors reiterate that "the goal of education is not the security of adults and their systems, but the learning for our children. The goals of standards is to guarantee that all our children receive a meaningful education."

While most of the ideas of the authors are not new, they have provided many examples of how teachers provide rigorous, authentic, diverse, and thoughtful instruction that is built upon standards in effort to improve student achievement. The authors have devised rubric to help identify strengths and weaknesses in teachers' instructional practices and practical examples of strategies. These ideas fit well into the implementation of the new Georgia Performance Standards. Reading the text was made more difficult by the extensive (possibly over-extensive) use of case examples.

Teaching What Matters Most, part 2

Strong, Perini, & Silver continue to describe standards for raising student achievement in chapters 7-12 of Teaching What Matters Most. The next 2 standards are diversity and authenticity. The authors define, describe strategies for each standard, and discuss assessment of diversity and authenticity. Successful schools identify and emphasize the diversity within the building. Four key principles of effectively addressing diversity in the classroom include: quality of content and skill standards, rotation of instruction and assessments to include a variety of strategies and activities, focused and supported choices, and validation and compensation of student strengths and weaknesses. The schools have a responsibility to first identify the diverse ways that students learn and to teach toward a variety of learning styles and giving students the opportunity to learn from others' perspectives as they work toward a common goal. Authentic instruction and curriculum is teaching and learning that is reality based and transfers to what students will be expected to do out in the real world in life. The topics and activities are like that which students will likely encounter in careers, require students to look for real-life sources of information, require communication with other people, and are often complex, non-routine type of problems.

As we transition to the new Georgia Performance Based Standards, authenic and diverse topics, strategies, and activities are being included on a regular basis. Students are being asked to communicate and write about their ideas on solving real life problems. Application is more heavily part of the new standards. Diversity is being identified and differentiation is planned toward meeting the individual instruction needs while learning the same standards.

Teaching What Matters Most by Strong, Silver, & Perini

In Chapters 1-6 of Teaching What Matters Most, the authors explain their first 2 of 4 standards and strategies for raising student achievement. The first standard is Rigor. Rigor is described as the quality of content, not a mesure of quantity. According the the authors, rigor lays the foundation of deep and meaningful thought by students, thus increasing understanding and ultimately achievement. Strategies and assessment for rigor are part of the standard. A rigorous content has instruction that explicitly targets students' abilities in inference, organization, imagination, and understanding. Assessments in a rigorous system are varied and show an understanding of how students think and learn, as well as, provide practice in skills.

The second standard is thought and strategies and assessments that identify thoughtful learners in the school. To make thoughtful learners, educators are challenged to understand the 5 disciplines of thought: knowledge acquistion, inquiry, problem solving, communication, and reflection of ideas. Examples are given that show how teachers instruct and assess student thinking and communication of ideas, and connections between the disciplines of thought. Rubrics are provided that show the different levels of thoughtful-ness.

 We have often discribed our curriculum as rigorous, however, usually we were referring to the amount or quantity of material we expected students to master. With the implementation of the state standards, a shift is occurring which concentrates on a deeper understanding of less skills at each grade level. Communication, reflections, and problem solving are being used on a more frequent and widespread basis.

17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player by J. Maxwell

In the final chapters of this book, J. Maxwell completes the 17 essential qualities of a team player. The final 5 qualities are: relational, self-improving, selfless, solution- oriented, and tenacious. These five deal with the individual working on self for the good of the team. The players must seek to build positive relationships with other team members, improve themselves through study, put others first, seek solutions to challenges, and be so focused on the goal that they "never quit!"

Maxwell's book provides many ideas to ponder and reflect on what makes a good team player, as well as, ideas on how to become a better team player. The stories are motivating. This book is appropriate for anyone who must work with other people and who wants to be successful. After reading, this book can be read again to motivate and inspire us to be better players on our team.

17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player by J. Maxwell

In chapters 7-12, John Maxwell continues to describe the 17 esstential qualities of a team player. Qualities 7- 12 are discipline, enlarging, enthusiastic, intentional, mission conscious, and prepared. In addition to providing a description for each quality, Maxwell provides a rationale and prescription for "bringing each quality home" in an effort to build a successful team.   Enthusiasm is described as the heart and source of energy for the team. Teams which focus on the mission at all times and work diligently and together to plan and prepare to meet the challenges with the end result in mind are more successful. Understanding the mission, staying focus on the team mission, and working smarter toward the mission is essential if we are to succeed in making the goal.

Too often, we work longer and harder and get lost in the day to day details of the job and temporarily forget the mission we are trying to accomplish. Maxwell suggests posting the goals where they become a constant reminder of what we want to accomplish. Team members need to put the team goals ahead of their own, allow the leaders to lead, and finally do whatever is necessary to accomplish the goal.

The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player by JC Maxwell

JC Maxwell writes The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player. In Chapters 1-6 the author describes and explains the first 6 qualities of the team player. A team player is adaptable, collaborative, committed, communicative, competent,and dependable. For each of these qualities the author gives further explanation and examples of how a person of each quality would act. Also, in support of the author's opinion, are numerous quotes from successful leaders who also believed and often exemplified these essential qualities. 

While these words themselves aren't unfamiliar to most "players", the explanation of what behaviors are and are not associated with the qualities helps to identify strengths and weaknesses of team players. Maxwell devotes a small part of each chapter to give the reader time to evaluate how well he/she demonstrates each qualitiy. Personally, the explanations helped me identify immediately what behaviors I need to continue and change in order to be a better team player! 

How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms, Chp. 11-14

In chapters 11-14, the author talks about differentiation by content, by process, by products, and how to grade in a differentiated classroom. Curriculum has 3 elements: content, process, and process. While they go together, the author suggest that by looking at each one individually, in the beginning, may help in the implementation of differentiation. Content differentiation can mean adapting what we teach or adapting how we give access to what we want them to learn. Often what we teach is mandated, therefore differentiation comes in the way we teach students what they must know. Differentiating process refers to activities which lead to student making sense of the material. The final chapter deals with grading in the differentiated classroom. Because students in a differentiated classroom are often working at different paces and are assessed on varying goals, yet the public expects a "normed" report card, grading is a critical issue and often a debate. Some schools have chosen to change the traditional grading scale, use portfolios to chart progress, and combine traditional grades and personal growth scores. Whatever type of grading is used, communication with students and parents helps them understand that learning is the important issue.

Using some of the activities listed by the author and ideas for planning lessons that address different learning styles is a way to reach more children and improve student learning.

How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, chp. 6-10

In chapters 6-10 of How to Differentiate in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, the author gives advice on how to manage the differentiated classroom. the first step is to begin. The author stresses that beginning with a rationale and proceeding at a comfotable pace is essential for success. the author list both low- and high- tech strategies that can be utilized to help differentiate. Parents and students must be prepared for what will happen in the differentiated classroom. Communication at the beginning and throughout the implementation of differentiation. The chapters 8-10 are "how-to" chapters on how to plan for differentiation. Differentiation can be planned based on student readiness, student interests, and by learning profile. Student readiness refers to matching the instruction to students' skills and understanding. Activities which address student interest ignite curiousity. Learning profile factors include the environmental or personal factors. For example, some student learn best when they move around while others prefer to sit still.

While reading the list of differentiation strategies, I found that I have used some of them on occassion. The next step would be to increase the use of differentiation in isntruction. The case studies provided by the  author helps to build a picture of what differentiated instruction looks like in practice. To call my instruction fully differentiated, would be to include a combination of differentiation by student readiness, student interest, and learning profile.

How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms by C.A. Tomlinson

In chapters 1-5 in How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms, the author reviews the definition of differentiation, the rationale for differentiated instruction, and the roles of the teacher in a differentiated classroom. Using an example of a classroom, the author introduces the reader to what the environment and learning look like when instruction is differentiated for students. The author begins by defining the instructional practices that do not provide differentiated instruction or learning. Differentiated does not assume a separate level of learning for each learner, is not chaotic, is not another way to provide homogeneous grouping, nor questioning or assessing students on easier versus harder scale. Discussion of differentiated instruction continues by highlighting the 7 adjectives that describe true differentiation. They are: proactive, qualitative rather than quantitative, rooted in assessment, multiple approaches to content, student centered, a blend of whole-class, group, and individual instruction, and a regular part of life in the classroom (organic). The rationale for differentiated instruction is driven by the research on how people learn which finds that instruction must be organized, meaningful to the learner, and content that is challenging and engaging. These ideas are true for both lower and higher level ability students. In a differentiated instruction classroom, the teacher uses best practice strategies to create an effective learning environment.

Some instructional practices thought to be differentiation are identified as unitary rather than true differentiation. By identifying what differentiation is and is not, instruction can be modified to create an environment which improves student achievement by providing multiple avenues of access to academic content.

In chapters 5-10, the author gives information on how to create, manage, and provide differentiated instruction.

 

Getting Excited about Data by Edie L. Holcomb

In chapters 11-15, the authors discusses how to move from identifying the passion (mission) and putting it together into a description of the school profile, and continuing the process of creating workable goals for improvement. The priorities of the school should be limited to 3 feasible goals which can be addressed and the impact can be monitored. Under No Child Left Behind guidelines, reading and math are already priorities and schools can list 3 additional goals. Once the priorities have been set, then the job of looking at the data closely to identify specific skill gaps and program gaps. Schools must look closer than the reported data and look at individual strengths and weaknesses. This student specific data can help set expectations and guide instructional planning in an effort to meet the expected level of performance. The process means examining current practices, investigating practices of others, developing an action plan, working at achieving gaols, and finally celebrating when the goals are met. The author also talks about unexpected benefits. Sometimes, when a goal is set and the expectation is high the students achieve beyond the expected goal.

Student achievement is likely to improve if we adopt a plan to study student specific data and set goals, create an action plan, and monitor progress on a yearly basis. In the author's words, "Combining people, passion, and proof to maximize student achievement."

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