A new LYSer share the following:
SC,
It has been about 6-weeks since I attended the Fundamental 5 National Summit. If you had asked me prior to the F5 Summit I would have told you that I was already good at all five practices. However, after watching the speakers “talk the talk,” but more importantly, “walk the walk,” by actually modeling how we need to teach in our classrooms, I realized many more things that needed to be implemented in my everyday teaching.
I went back to my school pumped up and ready to start the very next day with real Lesson Framing and Critical Writing.
Yes, I used to start my class by pointing out our “We Will,” and “I Will” statement, but I never expressed the importance of the “I Will” statement. Upon my returning to class, I made a HUGE deal out of our “I Will” statement. My students thought I had lost my mind. I made it very clear that at the end of the class they were going to write a summary of what we were learning in class that day.
Many students still thought I was crazy and didn’t do the close, or if they did it, it wasn’t done very well. So, the very next day I gave their closing card back and told them that my expectations were higher than that for them and I wanted a quality answer. Once I did that my students realized that I wasn’t playing around about this “writing thing in Math.”
Their writing is getting better and better each week and as you taught, my class has a critical writing close at least 3 times a week, whether it is listing steps to solve a problem, or a summary of how to do something, or justifying their answers to me.
I was so curious to find out if this was really making a measurable impact on student performance so I pulled data from the 2016 District Unit 5 Test (last year) and this year’s 2017 District Unit 5 Test (which was the exact same test), and compared the data. I have attached it for you to see. The sense of urgency to learn something has been raised to an all new level and students are more engaged in class, along with learning more valuable information and being able to apply it more than we ever have. Students are also starting to make up their own questions and story problems for their classmates to answer!!! Lead Your School people, I hate to admit it, but you guys are RIGHT, your stuff works!!! (I’m just kidding, I don’t hate admitting this!!)
Here’s my testament to the power of the Fundamental 5, and I can’t wait for next year when the LYS team comes and trains out entire teaching staff!
| Percent Correct | >= 35% | >=45% | >=55% | >=65% | >=75% | >=85% | >=95% |
| 2016 Test | 65% | 47% | 27% | 18% | 6% | 4% | 1% |
| 2017 Test | 77% | 64% | 48% | 29% | 12% | 6% | 1% |
| Improvement | +12 | +17 | +21 | +11 | +6 | +2 | 0 |
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn…
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