New Year’s Resolution: Develop a “Fit” Teaching Approach
As 2016 draws to a close, market researchers will shift into overdrive to entice us to start the New Year with a determination for getting fit, or staying fit. January sales will include treadmills, elliptical machines, home gyms and ab wheels. Protein shakes will replace milkshakes, morning walks will replace morning waffles. Some will succeed in their quest for physical transformation, others may find themselves wandering the road of good intentions with a cookie in one hand, and a Diet Coke in the other. “There’s always next year”, they’ll say . . . and mean it.
We know that getting fit takes work. It requires a lifestyle change to which we carefully tend day after day, week after week, month after month. A consistent regimen of healthy eating, and daily exercise brings positive change and accelerates one’s success. Eventually, you look forward to your morning walk. It helps ground your day. You find joy in discovering ways to prepare Michelin Star meals that are both healthy and delicious. You realize it has all been worth it!
It occurred to me that it is with this attitude we should approach our craft as professional educators in our schools. In Intentional and Targeted Teacher, Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey and Stefani Hite articulate a plan for FIT teaching. Their inquiry was around the following three questions:
- What did the most effective teachers do in order to promote successful learning?
- How did they plan, instruct, and assess?
- What specific practices could be isolated as making the most difference?
(Fisher, Frey, Hite, 2016)
So, how DO we build a FIT practice?
F Step 1: Build a Framework
A framework is an instructional approach that shifts the focus from teaching to student learning. This approach includes identifying clear targets, teacher modeling, guided instruction, collaborative learning as well as independent tasks. In other words, our CBL workshop model of instruction. These components are mixed and matched as needed for high student engagement. The order is not as important as including each component every time we teach. Modeling, for example, may occur over and over in one lesson, while collaborative group work makes up the majority of another lesson. The purposeful variety of these strategies helps to promotes successful learning, and we’re doing it!
I Step 2: Be Intentional
Teachers’ actions make a difference! Every instructional decision should be purposeful. In our district’s Model for Continuous Improvement, we know that four critical questions guide our PLC work. The first one speaks to intentionality, “What does each student need to know and be able to do?” We need to launch every lesson knowing what students need to learn, and expecting that they will. With planning around the targets, execution that evokes high student engagement, and frequent formative assessing, the rate of student success increases. For the past year, I have watched our ELA writers dedicate hundreds of collective hours to frame out our ELA targets. They have been thoughtful and thorough, working with the intention of increasing student learning. Our Math writers are doing the same. With each methodical step, these talented men and women focus on the task of clearly identifying the targets every student needs to reach.
T Step 3: Deliver Targeted Instruction
We know that our responsibility is to monitor student progress by asking ourselves, “How will I know they have learned it?, What if they don’t? What if they already know it?” When we ask these questions, and plan next steps around our classroom data, we are increasing the chances of closing the gap for our students who struggle. It also allows us to open up deeper and wider learning opportunities for those who already have mastered the grade level targets.
A recent conversation with a second grade PLC left me excited about the “FITness” level of our teaching staff. The meeting opened up with celebration stories, students making breakthroughs, teachers witnessing moments of brilliance from children who had been struggling. It was inspiring!
The most impressive part of the PLC discussion, however, was the sober contemplation about what else could be done. There was no sign of weariness, no white flag, no “there’s always next year” attitude. Instead, these skilled professionals continue to push forward in their pursuit of better ways to meet the needs of our Eden Prairie students. It was inspiring!
Taking inventory of one’s instructional practices is essential to professional health. How FIT are you? Where are you wildly successful, and where do you need to intensify your fitness routine? Your PLC partners can be your workout team, your instructional coach . . . your personal trainer. We are, after all, our communities’ instructional professionals. When we help our teammates in their quest for “fitness”, we all win!
Heidi Fitch
Multi-Tiered Support Coordinator
Eden Prairie Schools
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