The Fundamental 5 Summit - Start Packing!

Story Time... The Fundamental 5 Summit

The Fundamental 5: The Formula For Quality Instruction (Cain & Laird) has now sold over 100,000 copies, has made the Washington Post Best Sellers List, and has been a #1 best selling education book on Kindle more than 20 times. But that is not the story.

   

We did not invent The Fundamental 5...

In the early 2000’s, there was a team with nearly unlimited campus access that was in the field, assisting struggling campuses improve student performance.   In addition to this significant charge, the team was also searching for what the great schools were doing differently.  But not “great” as measured by high test scores. Instead, great, as measured by a school outperforming its peers.  And the team did discover what the great schools were doing differently. But that is not the story.

During the search for what the great schools were doing differently, it did not take the team long to realize that though it was not a common occurrence, it was not unusual to visit a campus and find an exceptional teacher.  A teacher that in spite of the overall performance of the campus was having noticeably more success than that of the overall staff.  Success that was not driven by who or what the teacher was teaching. Success that seemed to be the result of some magical “It” factor. An “It” that some teachers had, and the rest of us did not.

So the team decided, “Since we are already in the field and in schools daily, we should also study these exceptional teachers.”

After 1,000’s of classroom observations here is what the team discovered.  These great teachers were not doing anything extraordinary.  Instead, they were doing the ordinary.... extraordinarily well!

These great teachers were using the solid instructional practices that we all know about, talk about, and plan to do... occasionally. But the great teachers were not thinking and talking about best practices, they were actually using them. Lesson after lesson. Day after day. Week after week. Month after month.  And not only were they using these practices more often than all the rest of us, but due to the fact that they used them so often, they were also doing them better.

This might sound like bad news, but it is really great news.  Because this meant to be a great teacher, you didn’t have to be born with some magical “It.” Instead, it meant all of us can make ourselves great.  These great teachers that the team was studying were not teaching dramatically different than all the rest of us.  They were teaching slightly different. But those slight differences in delivery were making a dramatic impact on student performance. Regardless of content, grade level, or student ability.  That is the story.

We did not invent The Fundamental 5.  We found a pattern.  The Fundamental 5 is a pattern of delivered instructional practices that improve teacher effectiveness and increases student performance. 

Come to The 3^rd Annual Fundamental 5 Summit in Austin, Texas on November 8 and 9, 2015 and join K-12 educators from across the country as they share how they have used the instructional practices spotlighted in The Fundamental 5 to dramatically improve the academic performance of their students (from the most at-risk to the highest achieving) and the success of their schools.

It is the most exciting and most real conference of the year and I hope to see you there.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations); American Association of School Administrators Conference; National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Superintendent Writes... Minutes Instead of Days - Part 1

In response to the 10/20/15 post, “Credits Earned – Minutes Instead of Days,” a LYS Superintendent writes the following:

LYS Nation,

The minutes provision was implemented in order to get around the waiver issue.  It seems to me like a complex solution to a simple problem.  The waiver process wasn't that difficult.

The new law assumes a 7-hour school day, 420 minutes.  420 minutes multiplied by 180 days is 75,600 minutes.

However, many schools go longer than 7 hours.  My district goes 7.5 hours, 81,000 minutes.

Interestingly, from my understanding, ADA is now to be calculated from minutes.  So, a child earns full ADA money once the child is in school for 75,600 minutes.  But my schedule has almost 6,000 more minutes.  

In my district a student with perfect attendance (ADA of 1.0) will reach 75,600 minutes in 168 days.  That leaves 12 days!  What if a student misses 5 full days of school for an illness?  No worries as I have the nearly 6,000 additional minutes built in.  The odds are the student, even though missing 5 days of school, will still be able to reach an ADA value of 1.0 (75,600 minutes).  

Of course the implication is that as more students approach an ADA value of 1.0, the district will approach an ADA value of 1.0.  So, instead of the old .95 ADA you turned in, it should be no real trick to hit .98, or in some districts even 1.0.

Think of the additional funding that means!

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations); American Association of School Administrators Conference; National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

How To Turn "Pencil on Paper" Activities Into Critical Writing

Yesterday, (Post: How Do I Recognize Critical Writing) we discussed the fact that just because the student has “pencil on paper,” does not mean that Critical Writing is occurring. In fact, most likely, it is not.  Here are the writing activities that elevate the writing task to that of Critical Writing:

A. The written identification of similarities and differences.

B. Written summarizations.

C. Note making (not copying).

D. Any other writing activity that meets all elements of the 4-Part Critical Writing Test.

Which begs the question, “What is the 4-Part Critical Writing Test?”

Here is the answer:

Cain’s 4-Part Critical Writing Test 

1. The brain moves the pencil.

2. The prompt forces a connection.

3. The prompt forces cognition.

4. There is at least the illusion of accountability.

What the 4-Part Test illuminates is the fact that the writing we generally observe in classrooms, even ELAR classrooms, is not quite critical writing. The good news is that this fact is not necessarily bad news.  Every teacher knows that the hard part is getting students to actually put their pencil on the paper. The easy part is tweaking the prompt to get true instructional value from the activity.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations); American Association of School Administrators Conference; National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Asks... How Do I Recognize Critical Writing

A LYS Assistant Superintendent asks:

SC,

I have attended many of your sessions on curriculum.  Currently I am trying to support my district with its implementation of The Fundamental 5.  After conducting a classroom walk-thru the following question came up... 

“When you are in ELAR, does writing count as critical writing or does the ELAR teacher have to go beyond her current expectations to have the rigor of critical writing?”  

Our team was divided...I have reread the Critical Writing chapter in, The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) and do believe essays in ELAR are critical writing but wanted to ask the source.

SC Response

Thank you for your fantastic question.  A question that befuddles a lot of educators, including me, when I got started.  We asked the same question after speaking to Mike Schmoker in the early 2000’s. He had reported that critical writing was occurring in less than 5% of the classrooms he studied, including ELAR classrooms.

As a Texas educator, I took that statement as a direct challenge and my team attempted to prove him wrong.  We didn’t.  

As teachers, we make an almost universal mistake. We operate under the incorrect assumption that when a students has "pencil on paper" that critical writing is occurring. This is not the case.  Critical writing equals critical writing. And that is what fools us in the classroom.  Students have their pencils on paper a lot, but the tasks they are completing do not elevate to the level of critical writing, even in the ELAR classroom.

So how do we determine if a writing activity represents critical writing, in any setting?  Look for the following:

A. The written identification of similarities and differences.

B. Written summarizations

C. Note making (not copying)

D. Any other writing activity that meets all elements of the 4-Part Critical Writing Test (which we will discuss tomorrow).

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool)
• Upcoming Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations); American Association of School Administrators Conference; National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of October 18, 2015

If you are not following @LYSNation on Twitter, then you missed the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of October 18, 2015 when they were first posted.  And if you are on Twitter, you might want to check out the Tweeters who made this week’s list.

1. How do you KNOW what's happening in your school? Get out and watch it happen! (By @MsSmith221)

2. How leaders spend their time is the clearest example to others of what is important to them. What signal do you send? (By @TroyMooney)

3. ... In the absence of feedback people create their own... (By @KAKellner)

4. "Awareness is not action. Action is not expertise." (By @kendall218)

5. Good intervention cannot replace poor instruction! (By @AP_Emery)

6. People long for leaders who do what they say they will do.  It is really that simple to build credibility. (By @TroyMooney)

7. Don't mistake routine for commitment. Just showing up isn't enough... everyone does that. Have the courage to do more than everyone else. (By @RobertShipley2)

8. "If there isn't push back, it isn't happening." (By @joyinteaching)

9. Why do we keep allowing crazy people to have guns? (By @dallasnews)

10. Thanks to the LYS Nation, The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) has now officially sold over 77,000 copies! (By @LYSNation)

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations); American Association of School Administrators Conference; National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

The Fundamental 5 Summit - Five Times Better Than A Regular Summit!