Framing The Lesson

We are well underway with our study of The Fundamental Five by Sean Cain and Mike Laird. On Friday's Waiver Day, we had the chance to dig deeper into each practice with Mrs. Green. As I visited classrooms this week I came across an excellent example of Framing the Lesson in Mrs. Gordon's Classroom:

These are short, yet to the point and in student friendly language. The students know exactly what it is they are learning at the knowledge level and the product they will be expected to produce to show mastery at a higher level of Blooms.  Great work Mrs. Gordon!

How are you incorporating the Fundamental Five into your classroom? Post a comment to share with everyone.

At the beginning of this year I signed up to receive a daily e-newsletter from WALKTHETALK.COM. I get daily quotes and updates on inspirational materials they publish, some of which make their way to those Simple Truths videos I love to show at faculty meetings. Some days I read the quote and delete and others, like today, the quote hits at the heart of something that has been rolling around in my mind. Today's quote came from an advertisement for Nido Quebin's book Attitude: The Remarkable Power of Optimism. Mr. Quebin's story echoed with me in that it could describe some of the families here in our school: immigrating to America with little English and $50 in his pocket yet achieving his dreams through hard work and determination. Nido Quebin's quote from the book shared in the article is:


The secret is this: Whether you reach success or failure in life has little to do with your circumstances; it has much more to do with your attitude…with your faithful courage…with your choices. You see, non-achievers blame their circumstances; winners rise above their circumstances. Some concentrate on the blank wall that boxes them in; winners always look for a way to get under it, over it, around it, or through it.


I have been thinking a lot about rewarding and reinforcing our students to break the cycle of failure and build a culture of success. This quote hit home. Our students often face struggles in their lives that we may not have experienced as children. Sometimes, these struggles affect their ability to shine at school, particularly for our students who are living with traumatic experiences. Nido's words reminded me how important each of us are in our students' journeys through life. We may not be able to change the challenges they face outside of school , however, we can teach them to rise above their circumstances, to have faith in themselves and to have courage to overcome their obstacles. We can show them the box they are in and help them find ways to break free from the boundaries and limits that box has placed upon them. That is the power of a teacher.

During this "crunch" time, take a minute for yourselves to acknowledge and celebrate the positive impact you have had on your students. Please take time to reward and reinforce yourselves - without your praise, faith and encouragement, our struggling students face a seemingly insurmountable challenge alone. With you, they ride upon the shoulders of their greatest champions.

On January 13th we began our study of the Fundamental 5 by Sean Cain and Mike Laird:

• Framing the Lesson
• Work in the "Power Zone"
• Recognize and Reinforce
• Frequent, Small Group, Purposeful Talk (FSGPT)
• Write Critically

This week we will be looking for these strategies in practice in the classroom. Stay tuned for pictures in a future blog!

We will be digging deeper into the Fundamental 5 during upcoming professional development. For today's blog, I would like to focus on Recognize and Reinforce. When reading Kevin Parr's blog on celebrating student success (read it here http://inservice.ascd.org/teaching/celebrate-success/) I thought about this piece of the Fundamental 5 and how critical it is to celebrate even the smallest of successes in order to break the failure cycle and create a culture of success. I was reminded of a specific time when I observed this process of recognize and reinforce make a difference in the life of a particular student - I'll call him Mr. C. Mr. C had the reputation of being a handful and he lived up to it every day; frequently hitting the office before lunch on red and still full of energy. Like a 5 year old tornado turning over everything in his path. Mr. C did not respond to the typical disciplinary action - loss of recess, detentions, counseling visits, even suspensions. It got to the point where Mr. C was in the office more than he was is class due to extremely dangerous and disruptive behaviors - not the way to have a successful Kindergarten year. Enter the point sheet. We began celebrating every success Mr. C had, no matter how small. As the green smiley faces began to pile up and Mr. C earned time playing PBS Kids in my office, we began to see an increase in positive behaviors. Mr. C still had his moments but he no longer went to the extreme frequently and actually began to experience success in the classroom. Thanks to the patience of his teacher, consistently rewarding good choices, Mr. C ended the year stronger than he ever had. Celebrating successes worked!

This got me thinking about how we celebrate our student's successes at Daggett: Read, Lead, Succeed Like a Boss reading incentive, AR parties, and PAW Pride Board and celebrations. All  excellent ways of celebrating student success but all over long intervals of time. How are we celebrating our students daily? How are we turning those small victories into an infectious "Can Do" spirit? How are we turning around our Mr. C's so that they are able to be successful in the classroom? How are we Recognizing and Reinforcing every day?

 Please share your thoughts.