This document outlines 10 essential elements for maximizing student achievement in schools. It discusses providing dynamic skills training for all students, implementing school-wide systems for increasing academic learning time, incorporating a rich academic curriculum, applying appropriate pedagogical techniques, collecting and reviewing student performance data, training student focus and brain function, engaging parents as partners, promoting independent student reading and knowledge acquisition, developing student character, and ensuring administrative support clears obstacles from teachers' paths.

1. Welcome


2. A Comprehensive Approach

3. Essential Elements for Maximum Student
Achievement:
1. Dynamic, accelerated SKILLS TRAINING for all students
2. School-wide organizational systems and procedures for
maximum Academic Learning Time
3. Rich, broad academic content
4. Clear application of appropriate pedagogy
5. Data collection, reporting and review
6. Consistent and relentless brain training
7. Parents as partners – home habits
8. Scholar Development - Massive amounts of independent
reading (outside of school)
9. Student character development – connect
knowledge, wisdom and virtue
10. Administration ―clears the way‖

4. Essential Element #1:
Dynamic, accelerated SKILLS TRAINING for all students

 Small group instruction based upon achievement
level
 TEACH MORE, FASTER!!
 DI Curriculum – scientifically proven to be most
effective, allows teachers to become expert
teachers
 Students MASTER basic skills at each level
which are essential for the next step, allowing
them to progress rapidly and without faltering –
no ―holes‖.

5. Essential Element #2:
School-wide ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEMS AND
PROCEDURES for maximum ACADEMIC LEARNING

TIME (ALT)
Classroom procedures –
timers, countdowns, taught to MASTERY
create efficiency and increased ALT
Bell to bell teaching! Transition teaching!
TEACH MORE, FASTER!!!
Teacher Preparation = Maximum ALT!
Teachers have schedules and routines – prep
time schedules, consistent curriculum and
planning time, regular reporting and
scheduled collaboration

6. Learning Time

Analyzing Academic Learning
Allocated Managem- Time Engageme Time on Success Acedemic
Time ent Spend -nt Rate Task Rate Learning
Efficiency Teaching Time
Typical 60 75% 45 75% 34 80% 27
Classroom Minutes (50 - 90%) Minutes (45 – 90%) Minutes (40 – 90%) Minutes
Effective 60 85% 51 90% 46 90% 41
Classroom Minutes Minutes Minutes Minutes
Annual ALT Totals:
Effective Schools: 861 hours; Typical Schools: 567 hours
A difference of 294 hours, equal to 42 school days!!!

7. Elements of Effective ALT

Academic Focus Drill/Controlled
Pre-Planned Practice
Curriculum Fast Pacing
No Interruptions + Reinforcement
Efficient Classroom Ratio (3-1)
Organization and Accurate Placement
Management Parsimonious
Slick Routines Strategies

8. Elements of Effective ALT

Quick Transitions Efficient Sub-Skill
Instructional Clarity Sequence
Teacher Directed Adequate Practice
Presentation Daily Monitoring
Interactive Teaching Frequent
with Frequent Assessment
Student Responding Supportive/Correcti
ve Feedback

9. Essential Element #3:
Rich, broad academic content

Once students can decode, it is vital to begin
immersing them in academic content – high
quality literature and informational readings.
Core Knowledge
Reading University
LOGIC PHASE – lots of thinking about and
talking about what they know!

10. Essential Element #3:
Rich, broad academic content

Vocabulary Development
 An important international comparison test for
reading is the PIRLS, administered to ten-year-
olds.
 Hong Kong went from 14th to 2nd in
international ranking on the PIRLS (an
important international reading test).
 a group of researchers at the University of Hong
Kong worked to analyze the data from the 2006
PIRLS to determine which instructional factors
were associated with student reading
achievement.

11. Essential Element #3:
Rich, broad academic content

FINDINGS: This analysis showed that four
predictor variables were critical:
the frequency with which the teacher used
materials from other subjects in reading
instruction. (THINK Core Knowledge!)
using assessment to assign grades. (groupings)
 the frequency with which students took a quiz or
test after reading.
 using assessment to provide data for national or
local monitoring.

12. Essential Element #3:
Rich, broad academic content

Once students can decode, background knowledge is
crucial to reading comprehension. Ensuring that
students have wide-ranging knowledge of the world
ideally begins at birth, through a rich home
environment. Schools must do everything possible to
support and expand that knowledge base, and
integrating material from other subjects into the
reading curriculum is an important step in the right
direction.
Daniel Willingham - July 6th, 2009

13. Essential Element #3:
Rich, broad academic content

LOTS AND LOTS
AND LOTS of facts
and
information, learned to
mastery by each
student!

14. Essential Element #3:
Rich, broad academic content

A reading of the research literature from cognitive
science shows that knowledge does much more than
just help students hone their thinking skills: It
actually makes learning easier. Knowledge is
not only cumulative, it grows exponentially.
Those with a rich base of factual knowledge find it
easier to learn more—the rich get richer. In
addition, factual knowledge enhances cognitive
processes like problem solving and reasoning. The
richer the knowledge base, the more smoothly and
effectively these cognitive processes—the very ones
that teachers target—operate. So, the more
knowledge students accumulate, the smarter
they become. Willingham, 2009

15. Essential Element #4:
Clear application of appropriate pedagogy

How much Difference Does a Good Teacher
Make?
Among students with initially similar
achievement levels, Tenn. Researchers found
that in Reading and Math students taught by
effective teachers for three consecutive years
outscored students taught by ineffective
teachers by:
34 percentile points in Reading
49 percentile points in Math!!!

16. Essential Element #4:
Clear application of appropriate pedagogy

Appropriate pedagogy: Grammar Phase: DI, di
Model
Lead
Test
Delayed Test
WHAT DIRECT INSTRUCTION IS AND IS
NOT:

17. Essential Element #4:
Clear application of appropriate pedagogy – WHAT
DI IS AND IS NOT

Direct Instruction has the same goals as
other approaches that call themselves
“constructivist”, “holistic”, or “child
centered.” These goals include teaching
students to love and be skilled at
reading, writing, and math; to love and be
skilled at understanding what they read and
how math works; and to use skills at
reading, writing math and comprehending to
achieve objectives in other subjects
(e.g., history and science) and activities.

18. Essential Element #4:
Clear application of appropriate pedagogy – WHAT
DI IS AND IS NOT

Direct Instruction Uses Authentic
Literature. The Reading Mastery
curriculum uses writings in
poetry, fiction, history, plays, women’s
literature, multicultural
literature, math, astronomy, geography,
anatomy, physics, and zoology.

19. Essential Element #4:
Clear application of appropriate pedagogy – WHAT
DI IS AND IS NOT

 Direct Instruction Integrates Smaller Learnings
Into Meaningful Wholes. Direct Instruction does
not teach basic or simpler skills (parts) in isolation
from meaningful contexts (e.g., activities, problems).
In the beginning (first 15 minutes) of early lessons in
Reading Mastery, the students work on sounds.
However, this is done in the context of an activity
that is meaningful for students—namely, a quick-
paced, small group activity in which all of the
students know they are working together to learn a
new task, and successfully meet a new challenge.

20. Essential Element #4:
Clear application of appropriate pedagogy – WHAT
DI IS AND IS NOT

Direct Instruction Is Not Drill and
Kill – it IS Drill and Skill! At most, the
teacher has students practice an action
a few more times until they are ―firm‖.
―Try that again. Once more time.
Great!‖ Additional practice—to assure
fluency, generalization, retention, and
independence (mastery) ---is given
later, when the skill is integrated with
other skills in larger tasks.

21. Essential Element #4:
Clear application of appropriate pedagogy – WHAT DI IS AND IS NOT

Direct Instruction Is Not JUST Rote
Learning.
2 + __ = 4 and 4 - __ = 2.
When students learn how to solve
these problems, they automatically
know that 2 + 2 = 4.

22. Essential Element #4:
Clear application of appropriate pedagogy – WHAT
DI IS AND IS NOT

Direct Instruction Is Not Basic Skills
Only. In fact, DI focuses much more on
higher-order cognitive learning. Half of
the Corrective Reading curriculum is on
complex forms of comprehension. And
in Reading Mastery, students learn to
write and analyze stories as soon as
they can read.

23. Essential Element #4:
Clear application of appropriate pedagogy – WHAT
DI IS AND IS NOT

Direct Instruction Is Not Boring and
Alienating. In fact, students love it
because there is so much individual
attention (small groups); it moves
quickly (which is great for students
with attention problems); they are
challenged continually; they are
virtually always successful; and each
child’s success contributes to the group.

24. Essential Element #4:
Clear application of appropriate pedagogy – WHAT
DI IS AND IS NOT

Direct Instruction is Not All Teacher
Directed. There is much teacher direction in
early lessons, especially the first part of
lessons—when students are learning new
material. But after 20 or so minutes, students
work independently (e.g., reading and
writing stories). Then they may return to the
group to read and discuss each other’s
stories.
 What Direct Instruction Is and Is Not :
http://www.uncwil.edu/people/kozloffm/whatdiis.html

25. Essential Element #5:
Data collection, reporting and review

Teachers teach to mastery, check for
mastery, reteach and recheck for mastery
Teachers administer regular assessments
Teachers report data weekly
Teachers meet to review data and collaborate
on strategies to improve student achievement
by improving teaching

26. Essential Element #6:
Consistent and relentless brain training

Students are taught how to prepare for
learning by completing PROCEDURES that
CUE their brains ―this is a learning time –
engage‖
CHAMPs
SLANT, Learning Position
Brain Gym
ALWAYS tell students what they are going to
be doing – this organizes their brain and ―sets
it up‖ for learning

27. Essential Element #7:
Parents as partners

Home habits & Parent Communication
and Involvement
Daily Homework
TV Turnoff (videos, computers)
Learning Plans – Family
Involvement

28. Essential Element #7:
Parents as partners

Study Time
Bi-monthly reports, progress reports,
SIS, emails
―Empty chair‖ policy
Volunteer opportunities
Positives, positives, positives!!!

29. Essential Element #8:
Student-initiated knowledge acquisition

Massive amounts of independent
reading outside of school
High-quality literature and
informational reading (Reading
University)
Accountable for reading
Write about their reading

30. Essential Element #8:
Student-initiated knowledge acquisition

Variations in Independent Reading
R.C. Anderson, P.T. Wilson, L.G. Fielding 1998 Reading Research Quarterly V. 23 pg. 292
% Rank 98 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 2
Min. per 67.3 33.4 24.6 16.9 13.1 9.2 6.2 4.3 2.4 1.0 0
day/text
Min. per 65.0 21.2 14.2 9.6 6.5 4.6 3.2 1.8 0.7 0.1 0
day/books
Words per 4,733 2,357 1,697 1,168 722 601 421 251 134 51 8
year/text
Words per 4,358 1,823 1,146 622 432 282 200 106 21 8 0
year/books

31. Essential Element #9:
Student character development
 wisdom and
Connect knowledge,
virtue
Study heroes (starting in K)
Study biographies (science, history)
Study virtues that are demonstrated in
literature (examples and non-examples
)
Provide monthly themes to practice
virtues - Builders

32. Essential Element #9:
Student character development

NOTICE & NAME virtuous behaviors
Give awards and accolades
Provide opportunities to serve at school
Provide opportunities to serve the
community
Provide opportunities to serve the nation
Provide opportunities to serve the world
Provide Social Leadership Program –
Builders, Ambassadors

33. Essential Element #10:
Administration clears the way


34. 