Explicit Math Instruction Toolkit

explicit math instructionNewsflash! MSMI releases a NEW Mathematics Toolkit: Explicit Instruction

During classroom instruction, teachers often engage students in learning about a new topic or procedure by having them explore the mathematics that will be involved. Due to the large teacher-student ratio, the standard instructional cycle of demonstration, guided practice, corrective feedback, and review may be insufficient to help all students make progress toward expected outcomes. Furthermore, students having difficulty with mathematics require explicit and systematic instruction that includes modeling concepts, procedures, and proficient problem solving processes; verbalizing thought processes; guided practice; corrective feedback; and frequent cumulative review.

UT research professor

“The MSM webinar that Sarah did is fantastic.
I shared it with my fellow homeschooling mamas and they love it!
Thank you for making these public.”

Writing Makes Middle School Students Better Learners

This installment of the Middle School Matters Institute Blog focuses on the importance of writing in the middle grades.

Contributors:
Steve Graham, Ph.D., Arizona State University (Research Perspective)
Leslie Feinglas, Ed.D., Principal, Wilkinson Middle School in Mesquite, Texas (Practice Perspective)

The Research Perspective

There are many reasons why people write. One of my favorite explanations comes from the present day master of horror, Stephen King, who indicated that he writes such gross books because “I have the heart of a small boy—and I keep it in a jar on my desk.” Another explanation that resonates with me as an educator is E.M. Forester’s observation: “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” Or as Alfred Kazin, the American writer and literary critic, succinctly put it: “The writer writes in order to teach himself.”
The basic idea underlying Forester’s and Kazin’s observations is that writing helps you understand better what you already know and what you are coming to know. So what does this mean for middle school students? It means that writing provides a tool to help them learn and more fully comprehend ideas presented in class and their textbooks. On average, students experience about a 10-point percentile jump in learning when they write about information presented in science, social studies, math, and other content classes (Graham & Perin, 2007). Comprehension scores increase by almost 20 percentile points when students write about the text they are reading in these same classes (Graham & Hebert, 2011).

Why does writing make such a difference in students’ learning and understanding? Simply put, it makes you think more deeply about ideas. Writing fosters explicitness, as students must decide what to write and which ideas are most important. Writing is integrative, as it encourages students to establish relationships between selected ideas and organize the ideas into a coherent whole. Writing facilitates reflection, as the permanence of writing makes it easier for students to review, re-examine, connect, critique, and even construct new understandings of ideas they have committed to paper. Writing fosters a personal involvement with ideas, as it requires active decision-making about what is written and how it is treated. Writing involves students putting ideas into their own words, making them think about what the ideas mean. In short, writing about ideas provides middle school students with a tool for visibly and permanently recording, connecting, analyzing, personalizing, and manipulating information to be understood and learned (Applebee, 1984; Graham & Hebert, 2011; Klein, 1999).

This does not mean that comprehension and learning are automatically enhanced when students write about ideas. Consider the following examples from four students:

A hamlet is a little pig.
The Treaty of Trianon cost Hungary more than sixth-fifths of its land.
An active verb shows action, as “he kissed her”; and a passive verb shows passion, as “she kissed him.”
With all the uses of rubber, it was necessary to find a substitute. After all, rubber does not grow on trees.
In each of these examples, writing provides a window into students’ misconceptions about specific ideas, but it did not appear to facilitate learning. Like any tool, writing is likely to be of little use if a student does not know how to apply it effectively. Fortunately, there is an easy remedy for this situation—students can be taught how to apply specific writing strategies as learning tools.

To illustrate, writing a short synopsis or summary of material presented in class or a textbook can improve students’ understanding of such information (Graham & Hebert, 2011). Writing a short synopsis is not an easy task, however, as students must determine which ideas are most important, which ideas are trivial and redundant, how ideas connect to one another, and the core idea underlying the material to be summarized. One way to ensure that students can write such a synopsis successfully is to present them with a strategy for creating a summary, describe how the strategy works and when to use it, model how to apply the strategy to relevant classroom material, and provide guided practice in using the strategy until students can apply it effectively and on their own.

Another approach for teaching summarization is to show students model summaries of classroom material, discussing with them what makes these models good summaries. Next, students are shown additional models with one part of the summary missing (e.g., a sentence providing important details). They supply the missing part and discuss how well their various attempts to solve this problem worked. This basic approach is repeated with additional material deleted from the summary until students complete the full summary on their own.

Other writing activities that can effectively support middle school students’ understanding and learning of academic content include taking notes from a lecture or text; answering or generating written questions about classroom material; writing journal entries guided by open-ended questions about key concepts; and working on extended writing projects that involve applying key ideas to a new situation, defending a specific perspective related to these ideas, or personalizing the ideas (e.g., asking students to write about how their life as an adolescent differs from the life of Frederick Douglas as an adolescent).

I would like to close with a simple, but not much practiced proposition. Teaching middle school students how to use writing as a tool to support learning is not the responsibility of the English teacher. It is the responsibility of all middle school teachers (Graham, Cappizi, Harris, Hebert, & Morphy, 2014). It is clear that writing about academic content can improve learning, but students need to know how to do write academic content in each discipline. Although middle school students sometimes use similar writing strategies for learning in subjects such as science, English, and history, they typically use these strategies for different purposes and in different ways (Southern Regional Educational Board, 2013). A social studies teacher is much more qualified than an English teacher to teach students to think and write like a historian, just as a science teacher is better at teaching students to think and write like a scientist.

Below, Leslie Feinglas of Wilkinson Middle School, a Middle School Matters “Tier III support” school, shares the school’s experience incorporating research-based writing practices within each content area to support students’ reading comprehension and content area learning.

Reflections From the Field
Wilkinson Middle School is in Mesquite, Texas, and has 950 students in grades 6 to 8. The student population is roughly 60% Hispanic, 33% African American, and 7% Caucasian. We receive Title I services because we are 88% economically disadvantaged. Many students come to us struggling with reading, so our campus decided to focus on reading and writing across all content areas after attending the Middle School Matters Institute Summer Conference. With the help of the Middle School Matters Institute, we implemented three practices to increase the amount of time our students spend reading and writing across the content areas: (1) the writing to learn strategy, (2) exit tickets, and (3) explicit instruction with modeling and think-alouds. The following is a description of how each content area uses the strategies in the classroom.

Writing to Learn

Writing to learn is a research-based practice that typically incorporates four strategies: (1) note taking, (2) summary writing, (3) answering or creating and then answering questions, and (4) extended writing. At Wilkinson Middle School, we combine three of these practices and refer to this as the “Wilkinson close reading” strategy, which is used in several of our content areas.

Science

With below-grade-level reading and comprehension difficulties posing a prevalent problem for so many students, we have noticed that the writing to learn strategy levels the playing field and helps even our struggling readers gain meaningful insight when reading passages. We use a three-step process that includes having students (1) take notes while they read, (2) write a brief summary after reading, and (3) generate two questions about the text and answer those questions. Before we began using this strategy, we asked students to read information above their grade level, but we did not support the students. By using this strategy at least twice each week in our science classrooms, students learn how to read critically and gain a better understanding of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. We are the most economically disadvantaged middle school in our district, and we now have the highest science scores.

History

The history department also uses a version of the writing to learn strategy with expository texts and primary source documents. When applied in our history classes, students find the important information while they read, turn and talk with their neighbors, and create questions about what they read. We feel this strategy helps our seventh- and eighth-graders understand how to read these texts and locate and understand the important information. The strategy helps students comprehend what they read without becoming overwhelmed with the reading passage.

We also use exit ticket quick writes. This is a great way for students to process what they learned and for teachers to see whether students mastered the content. (See more information about this strategy below.)

Reading

In reading classes, the writing to learn strategy has helped teachers understand what students should do before, during, and after reading a text. Before using this strategy, teachers spent far too much time in the prereading phase and not enough time actually reading the text. Teachers now have a better understanding of how much time to spend in each stage and what exactly to do and have students do. It has also provided teachers with research-based strategies for students to use while reading. The strategy has greatly improved reading comprehension and has given teachers a way to monitor comprehension, so they can make proper adjustments.

For more information, see the following resources:

Exit Tickets

Math

The math department asks students to create an exit ticket at the end of each class period by writing about a specific topic from the day’s lesson. This exercise requires students to process what they learned in math and write about it in their own words. The following day, we ask the students to go back to their exit tickets and read what they wrote the day before. This review helps put their minds on the right track for the new day and provides another reminder about what they learned the previous day. This year, we have passed the seven other middle schools on our district testing, which makes us the highest-scoring middle school in seventh- and eighth-grade math.

For more information, see the following resource:

Explicit Instruction With Modeling and Think-Alouds

English

English has seen incredible gains in writing by making instruction more explicit. First, teachers keep the “I do, We do, You do” phases of instruction in mind as they plan and teach. Teachers first model a particular writing skill, then teachers practice the skill with students, and finally, students practice the same skill independently while the teacher monitors. It is essentially a way to scaffold that begins with a high level of teacher support that gradually decreases until students are confident and competent enough to move to independent practice. In addition to building confidence, this process has helped students understand exactly what is expected of them. In the past, writing tasks were unclear and even somewhat abstract. Because teachers now begin by modeling exactly how they would approach the particular writing task, students are clear as to what is expected. If students continue to struggle after the teacher modeling stage, there are plenty of opportunities for more practice with the help of the instructor in the “We do” stage. Teachers can spend as much time in this stage as necessary until they feel their students are ready to move to the “I do” stage. This flexibility is crucial because it allows teachers to move at an appropriate pace.

Another strategy we have implemented is think-alouds, which we use simultaneously with the “I do” stage of instruction. Think-alouds allow teachers to voice their own thought process during a writing task, so students understand the internal dialogue of a good writer. Students do not inherently know how to have this internal dialogue, so we need to teach them. As a result of listening to their teachers, students learn to have their own internal dialogue wherein they analyze their writing and make changes and improvements.

As a result of both strategies, writing test scores have improved immensely. We were significantly below the district average on our district testing when the school year began, and now we are even with the district average. Additionally, teachers have reported that student writing has improved and that students are much more confident in their abilities. Teachers have also reported being able to decrease the amount of support they must provide, which will undoubtedly help students to be more successful on our upcoming state exams.

For more information, see the following resources:

Overall, we are pleased with the gains we are making in every subject area. Next month, we will train our teachers on a strategy called talk, read, talk, write, which is another way to increase the reading and writing that happens on our campus. We know that for our students to be successful in our classrooms, on state tests, in college, and in their careers, they have to become critical readers and writers.

References

Applebee, A. (1984). Writing and reasoning. Review of Educational Research54, 577–596.

Klein, P. (1999). Reopening inquiry into cognitive processes in writing-to-learn. Educational Psychology Review11, 203–270.

Graham, S., Cappizi, A., Harris, K. R., Hebert, M., & Morphy, P. (2014). Teaching writing to middle school students: A national survey. Reading & Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal27, 1015–1042.

Graham, S., & Hebert, M. (2011). Writing-to-read: A meta-analysis of the impact of writing and writing instruction on reading. Harvard Educational Review81, 710–744.

Southern Regional Educational Board. (2013). Get it in writing: Making adolescent writing an immediate priority in Texas. Retrieved from http://publications.sreb.org/2013/GetItInWriting_TX_Final.pdf

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

References for Quotes of Students’ Writing

Brodie, D. (1997). Writing changes everything. New York, NY: St. Matins.

Charlton, J. (1980). The writer’s quotation book: A literary companion. Boston, MA: Farber & Farber.

Henriksson, A. (2001). Non campus mentis. New York, NY: Workman.

Linkletter, A. (1962). Kids sure are funny! New York, NY: Random House.

Safire, W., & Safir, L. (1992). Good advice on writing. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Strategic Planning for Implementing Evidence-Based Practices in the Middle Grades

This month, the Middle School Matters Institute Blog focuses on strategic planning to effectively implement research-based strategies and practices in schools and classrooms.

Contributors:
Sarojani S. Mohammed, Middle School Matters Institute (Research Perspective)
David Barrett, Frank B. Agnew Middle School, Mesquite Independent School District (Practice Perspective)


The Research Perspective

When I first saw the Middle School Matters Research Platform and Field Guide, I was overwhelmed by the vast, comprehensive documents. Don’t get me wrong—I was heartened to see that so much research had been conducted to identify specific ways to improve the middle grades experience, but I knew it would be a challenge to support educators as they implemented the numerous research-based practices.

The research and practices described in the Field Guide serve as the foundation of Middle School Matters. It is critical for educators to understand what practices are most effective with middle grade students. But the real work of the Middle School Matters Institute (MSMI) is translating research into practice and assisting educators with implementing this practice.

Below, we describe how the Field Guide is organized, why we developed a specific planning process (the MSMI Implementation Plan Templates) aligned with the Field Guide, and how that planning process works. Finally, you will learn how one of the Middle School Matters “Tier II” schools has used the templates and the planning process to improve outcomes for its students.

Organization of the Middle School Matters Field Guide

The Middle School Matters Field Guide breaks down research into digestible parts. To begin, it is divided into three main sections, or pillars:

  1. Research-based instruction (for example, reading, writing, advanced reasoning)
  2. Student supports (for example, school climate, dropout prevention, extended learning time)
  3. Foundational dimensions (effective teaching, performance management, school leadership)

These three main parts are further divided into 13 “content dimensions,” or discrete areas in which the existing evidence base is summarized. Perhaps most importantly, the research within each content dimension is further distilled into a series of practical and applicable “principles” and “practices” that support each principle. This all sounds very hierarchical and complicated, but the bottom line is that the Middle School Matters Field Guide explicitly describes practices, validated by rigorous research, that are effective with middle grade students.

Also in the Field Guide are tools to improve individuals’ instructional practice, including the following:

  • Self-reflection questions that guide users’ critical thinking related to their practice
  • Quality frameworks that gauge the extent to which users implement these evidence-based practices

To help educators reflect on and plan instruction with the highest-needs students in mind, MSMI created Implementation Plan Templates—one for each of the 13 content dimensions in the Middle School Matters Research Platform and Field Guide. Our 2013 MSMI Summer Conference participants used these templates, and now, we’d like to share those templates with you. The three-step process in each template incorporates data-based instructional decision-making, helping schools use evidence to guide needs determination and action planning.

The Planning Process

Step 1: Self-Reflection
A critical first step to successful implementation of evidence-based practices is honest self-reflection on current practices that is based on evidence, not “hunches” or “gut feelings.” The MSMI Implementation Plan Templates ask schools to document what practices are in place, the extent to which they are in place, and the extent to which they are effective. School personnel gather and review evidence from reliable data sources and then indicate which instructional conditions are already in place. Schools document how they determined (in other words, what evidence they used) whether each condition was met. To encourage objective self-reflection, a “level of implementation” rubric is provided.

Step 2: Needs Determination
After reflecting, schools are guided through a needs determination process. Needs are classified into categories, which help schools problem-solve ways to address the needs. For example, a “translation” deficit exists when educators have basic knowledge about a principle but need support in translating this knowledge into instructional practice. Coaching, modeling, and scaffolding from an instructional leader who has successfully implemented the practice might address such a deficit.

Step 3: Action Planning
The final step in the planning process is developing action steps. Here, schools form specific implementation steps based on their previously identified needs and their goals for incorporating research-based practices. Schools also identify the individual(s) responsible for ensuring each action is completed and the date by which it should be completed. In this way, schools have a series of concrete steps to improve implementation of evidence-based practices. Schools also have documentation of where they began the process (their needs), and they can revisit their plans periodically to gauge any changes.

The goal of these templates is to develop manageable steps for the complex task of creating school transformation plans, so that research can be translated into practice in real classrooms for the benefit of real students. I hope that you find the templates to be useful, and if you don’t, we’d love to hear your suggestions for improvement.

Below, Agnew Middle School describes its experience with the MSMI Implementation Plan Templates, including real-world challenges and successes.

Reflections From the Field

Agnew Middle School’s RTI Campus Leadership Team has had an overall positive experience with the MSMI Implementation Plan Template. Like the Middle School Matters Field Guide, the planning template is very detailed—leaving no stone unturned. Such a document can be an excellent tool for driving growth, or it can be an overwhelmingly daunting task. It is the how that is the determinant. As a Middle School Matters Tier II participant, we can share our experience with this tool and offer some suggestions for how you can use it to facilitate continuous, data-driven improvement on your campus.

Agnew_Team_Photo

Our Experience

The Middle School Matters Field Guide is useful in both its depth and breadth. Likewise, the MSMI Implementation Plan Template is a thorough, logical, and sequential tool. As suggested by the MSMI team at the summer conference, it was especially helpful to limit our focus to three specific content dimensions this academic year. Based on needs already identified on our campus improvement plan, we chose Reading and Reading Interventions, School Climate/Culture, and Performance Management.

We focused on Reading and Reading Interventions for our initial use of the template. We were fortunate to have a facilitator from The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk guide us through the process. Still, initial progress was slow, as our over-analytical minds wrestled with every detail and we debated finer points and the definition of terms. After powering through the first few principles, we called it a day and team members looked over the rest of the implementation plan individually. This first plan was completed the subsequent day.

We next moved to School Climate/Culture, a content dimension with fewer principles and practices than Reading and Reading Interventions. Having gained experience with the template, we moved more swiftly. Additionally, we had already made several improvements in this area on our campus. In hindsight, it might have been better for our team to start with this content dimension to achieve a “quick win,” gain momentum, and increase our confidence and understanding in this specific planning process.

Having completed two plans with the guidance of our facilitator, we felt confident creating the third plan on our own. Over the summer, our team met to complete planning in our third content dimension, Performance Management. Here, our understanding and mastery of the process were put to the test. Not only were we delving into this plan on our own, but also we had to train members of our campus leadership team who did not attend the conference. There is an old adage that the best way to learn something is to teach it. Indeed, as we explained and demonstrated the use of the template, it became apparent that our work at the MSMI conference, under the tutelage of our facilitator, had paid off, and our understanding of this tool expanded yet again.

The “action plan” is an integral piece of the planning template. Our team concretized our goals and objectives into actionable steps that got into the “nuts and bolts.” During this school year, we have referred to these steps frequently, especially during our bimonthly meetings. The action plan enables us to easily monitor our progress and to set and achieve short-term goals. Having this list of necessary steps, due dates, and people responsible has helped us sustain our progress.

Agnew_Team_Planning Agnew_Team_Plannin


Our Recommendations

As we mentioned, it is the process that can make or break a team’s success with this in-depth tool. Here, we present some of the lessons learned by Agnew Middle School.

  • Prepare for Planning: It is beneficial for the committee chair or principal to review the MSMI Implementation Plan Templates in depth before the full leadership team uses them. Then, he or she can present the templates to the team, discuss the planning steps and implementation stage rubric, and delegate the collection of necessary data and evidence to inform the self-reflection process.
  • Establish Immediate Success: To get the ball rolling, start with a content dimension that you already implement well and that you want to improve. That can help your team become familiar with the template, so that when you move on to another content dimension, you have established a good process.
  • Stay on Target: One of the benefits of the template is that it generates discussion and critical analysis. However, time is a precious commodity in education, and your team will not have enough time to discuss each topic that presents itself. Your team will need to stay focused and avoid “rabbit trails” (no matter how tantalizing they may be). Have individuals take notes on these side issues for discussion at a more appropriate time.
  • Speak the Same Language: One of our team’s initial challenges was finding a common language. Define terms from the outset. Here, the leader’s advance study of the template will help.
    Be Flexible: Treat these templates as a “living document,” especially the action steps. You will refer to these steps regularly throughout the year and, as always in education, you will have to modify and adjust.
  • Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew: Change takes time. To establish and maintain momentum, develop a plan that lends itself to success, not one that overwhelms staff. Don’t develop too many action steps for a short of a period of time. It is better to do a couple of things really well than many things poorly.