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FOCUS: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning, by Mike Schmoker
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Bestselling author Mike Schmoker describes a plan for radically improving student learning that is built on three core elements: a focused and coherent curriculum (what we teach); clear, prioritized lessons (how we teach); and purposeful reading and writing, or authentic literacy.
With this "less is more" philosophy, educators can help students learn content at a deeper level, develop greater critical thinking skills, and discover more clearly how content-area concepts affect their lives and the world around them.
Both a call to action and a blueprint for creating more effective classrooms, Focus: Elevating the Essentials for Radically Improved Student Learning will challenge your assumptions about schooling and show how educators who have embraced this approach quickly achieved spectacular results.
- Sales Rank: #18521 in Books
- Published on: 2011-01-21
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.75" h x 5.75" w x .50" l, .75 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 237 pages
Review
In an age where teachers are forced into the unrealistic pursuit of unobtainable standards, finally, a book emerges that cuts through the noise and helps us return to sensible, authentic teaching. Focus: Elevating the Essentials for Radically Improved Student Learning is insightful, practical, and, above all else, inspiring--a must read for all teachers, administrators, board members, and policymakers. Reading this book has made me a better, more reflective teacher. --Kelly Gallagher, educator and author of Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It
Few writers on education ever get close to the clarity provided by Mike Schmoker. He is a pleasure to read, but always makes me angry. I keep thinking, why can't the rest of us see schools this clearly? In this book, he blows me away. He identifies the faddism that keeps killing our schools, and tells us precisely what educators must do--just a few simple things, but difficult because they contradict what the crowd thinks is right. Read it and be amazed, and frustrated, and motivated to do something to fix this mess. --Jay Mathews, education columnist for the Washington Post and author of Work Hard. Be Nice: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America
Once again, Mike Schmoker takes a wide array of complex concepts and initiatives and weaves them into a framework that is not only easily understood but translates into immediate action. --Robert J. Marzano, C.E.O. of Marzano Research Laboratory and author of The Art and Science of Teaching: A Comprehensive Framework for Effective Instruction
From the Inside Flap
Bestselling author Mike Schmoker describes a plan for radically improving student learning that is built on three core elements: a focused and coherent curriculum (what we teach); clear, prioritized lessons (how we teach); and purposeful reading and writing, or authentic literacy.
With this "less is more" philosophy, educators can help students learn content at a deeper level, develop greater critical thinking skills, and discover more clearly how content-area concepts affect their lives and the world around them. Both a call to action and a blueprint for creating more effective classrooms, Focus: Elevating the Essentials for Radically Improved Student Learning will challenge your assumptions about schooling and show how educators who have embraced this approach quickly achieved spectacular results.
Most helpful customer reviews
48 of 51 people found the following review helpful.
Valuable, If Repetitious
By KC
In the conclusion of FOCUS, author Mike Schmoker identifies his own book's weakness. He writes, "We know what to do, so please, let's do it. If you'll allow just a little more repetition in what has been an admittedly repetitious book...."
Understatement, thy name is Schmoker. Throughout this book, he bangs away at simple templates you can use to teach, at the right way to lecture, at the necessity that reading, writing, and talking be at the core of all education. You might give him a pass and say repetition is one way we teach, or you might grow resentful and say ANYONE who is reading this book already cares enough and is curious about education, thus needing no repetitious drills to get the point.
The book's other weakness is its ambivalence over textbooks. Schmoker appears to want it both ways -- condemning textbooks and their monopoly on what is taught in one breath, and extolling the virtues of their efficient and broad use of facts in another.
So why the 4 stars? In short, his message, though redundant and perhaps inflated to reach book-length muster, is both sound and important. Depth, not breadth, is his war cry. Cut the standards in half at the very least. Mistrust even the new federal standards coming your way. Don't place all your eggs in technology's over-hyped basket. And finally, the key to good teaching is not some holy grail and not some undiscovered secret. It's been known for a long time -- and Schmoker will not only provide the details, he will pound away at the formula again and again, showing it by subject area, even, in chapters devoted to language arts, social studies, science, and math.
At almost $28 for a paperback, this book is shamelessly overpriced. If you have a Kindle, opt for the $15 electronic version. Still, his points are well-taken and, with measures of salt here and there, worth adopting. If you teach and feel like you're in over your head with material most of the time, I'm sure you'll appreciate his arguments -- once, twice, or multiple times over.
31 of 35 people found the following review helpful.
Just What I Was Looking For!
By idateacher2
First, a brief review of what I was looking to get out of this text when I purchased it: I am currently a 5th grade teacher heavily involved with the school improvement process and developing an evaluation model for our district. This past school year I was sent up to 5th grade due to 80% of the district's fifth grade teachers retiring. I found the year to be chaotic due to the demands of not only adjusting to the grade level, but mentoring and the other long list of extra curricular activities that I enjoy supporting. Overall I have an excellent attitude and am a nationally recognized teacher. In a nutshell, my summer goal was to refocus on my classroom instruction and keep the chaos at bay for my students in this next school year. So how did this book do such an extraordinary job of meeting my goal?
The school improvement goal for my building is focused heavily on incorporating writing across the disciplines and increasing the proficiency of informational text reading by our students. The book focuses on exactly this. The author explains with extreme clarity what needs to be focused on in order to significantly improve reading and writing. The simplicity of his recommendations is what struck me to the core- it is something that may easily be digested and implemented. I am particularly fond of the Discussion Rubric he outlined- a few simple points that even my fifth graders can understand and that I already have posted on my wall ready for next year. His advice is straight forward- read text daily closely, model how to read closely for students, have students practice reading closely daily. (Ok, my redundancy in that last sentence was intentional, as it mirrors the book's redundancy.)He further outlines how important it is for students to discuss the texts read and formulate and support in writing an opinion. Again he offers clear guidelines on what this looks like. Beautiful!
I also sympathize with other reviews that point out the redundancy in the text. It is true that the meat of the book is clearly outlined in the first three chapters, then he recycles these ideas over and over during the rest of the text. And this is a bit irritating as I read through it. I felt, however, that a teacher that struggles in the classroom would be more likely to implement his suggestions as a result of pounding the key ideas through. He did sprinkle in a few resources that he particularly likes, of which I purchased and completely agree that the text is worthwhile. (Specifically the book "They say, I say" by Graff. This text outlines how to write opinion pieces with tremendous efficiency. Not so keen on his recommendation of the magazine The Week.) Other objections to the book lament that it is an old school type approach and that the redundancy in the teaching method will bore the students. Personally, I agree with the author that IF a student is highly engaged in a spirited debate then the student will not tire of the intellectually stimulating reading, writing, and discussions. The pitfall would be if the teacher only used this method, but failed to properly facilitate discussions that led to the spirited debates. Choose your text wisely and facilitate carefully. Develop the deeply thought provoking questions that he refers to, don't skip this step!
My one true objection to his beliefs is that he writes that whole group instruction is the way to go and that small group work results in one small group working and all others talking quietly or otherwise engaged in superficial learning. Although this may be true of a teacher who does not effectively know how to manage small groups, Mr. Schmoker's view smacks of a high school English teacher that simply does not feel the need to differentiate instruction. I advocate balance. I found it ironic that he cited the work of Richard Allington throughout the book. If you read Mr. Allington's book on RTI he explains the critical importance of matching the reading level to the reader. Yep, small groups. For any practicing teacher it is obvious in any classroom that reading levels range several grade levels in any given year. I tend to run first grade through high school reading levels each year in my class, and the idea that I could effectively reach ALL of my students in only a whole group delivery of instruction is flawed. Balance is the key!
The one truth that Schmoker points out is that throughout the school day there is an abysmal amount of time actually spent reading and writing. I couldn't agree more. And when he recommends that students read 20 books or more per year in class, I also concur. My peers perhaps would not think this possible, but I am able to say with out a doubt that it is possible and my student achievement levels also support how effective it is. Students who read a lot are going to get better at reading, and students who do not read much will not get much better in reading. It is what it is.
Get the book. It is ok to stop after the 3rd chapter if you are not a huge reader- you will get the gist of it by then. It is worth finishing though, and truly worth considering implementing his ideas in the classroom. The book was so good I purchased his title Results Now. Both of his texts are guiding my in my current development of a unit that I will implement for next year. I am refocused!
Update: I am about half way through the new school year now and thought that I would let you know how the implementation is going. I love it!! Our school uses Nwea testing for growth, and my informational text reading sub score has jumped significantly. My 5th grade group started out the year at a mid 4th grade level and this sub score is now nearly at the end of the fifth grade level and that test was administered in January. Thus far this year I use the close reading method with this type of text predominantly, incorporated opinion pieces (think Common Core here), and now will be working on doing more of this with the narrative text. This will take a bit more effort, as informational pieces are easy to come by for copies allowing students to mark them up. Now, I plan on start pulling a page from a novel and going from there. The discussion rubric is still of interest, but I need to work on this more consistently. The students do a nice job of acknowledging the previous speaker now and posing a counter argument, but more progress needs to be made. The principal also had the entire staff read the first three chapters, and they cheered (literally) when he spoke about focusing in on standards. The staff has pared down the CCS, but we shall see how that works out long term. This is probably the part that feels the riskiest to me, as I am very careful to cover standards.
42 of 51 people found the following review helpful.
Another Reformer Jousting at Branches
By Jack Donachy
The core of Mike Schmoker's ascertions are correct: students benefit from ongoing assessment of how much they understand; direct instruction is effective; whole-class instruction is generally the most efficient way to teach (the faddish notion that there are individual "learning styles" is finally being debunked); teachers ought to be on their feet, circulating as they deliver instruction.
And we don't need a lot of technology to accomplish the above.
But I'm reminded of a seminal turning point which occurred in the 1992 presidential election. Ross Perot and George Bush had each taken a turn detailing their plans to get the economy back on track. Though their answers were somewhat different, both had made the task sound like an easy one. When it was Bill Clinton's turn to address the issue, he turned to them and said something to the effect of: Gentlemen, your plans are easy to understand, and parts of what you said even made sense. But it's not that simple.
Schmoker's breezy claims of 400% increases here and 92% meeting expectations there deserve a healthy dollop of skepticism. Every education reformer for the past 40 years has made similarly outlandish claims for all manner of failed ideas, from Whole Language to New Math to "hands-on" approaches that ignored the fact that at some point, to succeed academically and in most jobs, people have to be able to read and write and to analyze reading and writing.
I don't know much about the teachers, classrooms and schools Schmoker anecdotally cites. I do know that anecdotes do not constitute scientific research, and I also know that in the science-free (science-phobic) world of education research, reformers are generally free to cherry pick only those examples which support the point they are making in any given moment. Sustainability is inevitably the next person's problem. Schmoker's books are selling, and so he can take an "Apres mois, le deluge" view.
My main irritation with the fixatives offered in Focus is this: It isn't that simple. Schmoker has overlooked at least three of the main challenges facing many American schools. His examples taken from Ohio State University and Harvard notwithstanding, some of us would argue that until we get a handle on these three challenges, utopic classrooms of productively engaged students will continue to be found only occasionally scattered across the k-12 landscape, and seldom sustained in any one place for very long.
--Many American education settings lack sufficient order and discipline. As one school leader observed, "You can't teach students who aren't disciplined and ready to learn."
--Much of American public school education suffers from a motivation problem. This lack of motivation applies across the board to school leaders, teachers, parents, students and community.
--Too many of our schools show little evidence that they have a "finish line" in mind for their students. From kindergarten on, we test at every level, but then award one-size-fits-all diplomas that are often nearly meaningless. Few districts bother to collect or use data regarding college attainment rates or job placement. As former West Virginia Governor Bob Wise observed, it's like we have our kids run a mile, meticulously time them for three laps, and then don't even watch them run the fourth lap.
Henry Thoreau observed that there are 1,000 striking at the branches of any given challenge to only one striking at the root. Add Schmoker's name to the myriad education reformers jousting at branches.
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