Reflection on Learning - Week 2: Focus Lesson

This is week 2 of 6 in our 6-week reflection on our instructional effectiveness, and our goal is to collect the very best instructional strategies so that we make next year even better in every classroom.  This week, we will use our collaboration time to reflect on our instructional practices to introduce the class to new content at the beginning of class after the bell-ringer activity.  This week we will reflect on the next component of instruction, the Focus Lesson.

Description

To begin any lesson, the teacher sets the tone for learning by focusing students on the content that they will need to master for the day.  In a focus lesson “teachers must clearly establish a purpose and model their own thinking.   It’s not enough to simply state the purpose.  We must ensure that students have opportunities to engage with the purpose and obtain feedback about their performance.   Additionally, the focus lesson should provide students with information about the ways in which a skilled reader, writer, or thinker processes information.” (Fisher, Frey. 2008).

Since a focus lesson serves as the first scaffold to guide students toward mastery in learning any concept, the success of a focus lesson involving new content depends on three components:  the teacher’s preparation and understanding of the content, the students’ cognitive ability to connect with the content, and the teacher’s efficient use of time.  In ineffective classrooms, the focus lesson takes an excessive amount of time because kids are unable to connect with the content due to the teacher’s poor preparation, and as a result, time is lost redelivering or clarifying the introduction.  In a classroom of excellence, a focus lesson communicates everything that a student needs to know in about 5-15 minutes, so that students can have an opportunity to interact with content through other modalities. 

Engagement Activity	Description	Questions	Content	Time Frame
		How are DOK 2 & 3 questions provided and responded to?	What type of content is addressed?	The approximate time that the activity should take.
Focus Lesson	Activity that involves new or unfamiliar content and requires the teacher to model learning for students through whole group instruction.	Posed by the teacher during focus lesson and the teacher models thinking and problem solving for the students.	New content or content that must be retaught to the  majority of the students.	5-15 minutes depending on content and age of student.

Reflection

Describe how you effectively and efficiently model your thinking and learning of content (new or in need of reteaching) to your students in a 5-15 minute focus lesson. (CLICK HERE)