LEARNING-FOCUSED Collections
Transform Teaching & Boost Student Performance
Hello

Recently, I had the opportunity to enroll in a 12-week online course focused on Mastering Design Thinking. One of my biggest takeaways was the clear and obvious connection that in education we are constantly going through the development process. An essential component of this process is the testing phase, which is crucial in determining if the planning and development work.

As schools begin to focus on the idea of learning loss or a growing achievement gap it is obvious that crucial decisions and planning must occur. This inspired me to write our newest article, Catching Up At-Risk Students: How Do You Move Them Forward Quickly and Effectively? because every school has gone through the "testing phase" of how to catch kids up and only about 2% of schools have demonstrated a pathway. Scroll down to the article and see how these schools effectively catch kids up. Hint: It is not by focusing on remediation.

Thank you for taking the time to view our newsletter and feel free to share it with your colleagues. @LearningFocused #withLF #learnon

Don
@MarlettDon
"If everyone is moving forward together then success takes care of itself." -Henry Ford
5 Minute Learning
What is The Fundamental Attribution Error?

When we assume that others do contrary things because it's in their makeup or they actually enjoy doing them and ignoring any other potential motivational forces is a mistake. This mistake is classified as an attribution error.

Why does this error occur?

Most of the time we (human beings) argue that people act the way they do because of personality factors (their disposition) as opposed to doing what they do because of forces in their environment (the situation).

This error occurs because when we look at others, we see their actions easier than we see the forces behind them. This is different from our own actions because we are aware of the forces behind our choices.

Think About It:

How can we shift our focus from judging actions to focusing on the forces?

Why would this type of shift be beneficial in your professional and personal relationships?
School Spotlight

Harns Marsh Middle School, Lee County, Florida
Looking for professional learning ideas to use or adapt for your school? Why not use one of our LEARNING-FOCUSED Collections Newsletter articles! That is exactly what Harns Marsh Middle School did with February’s article, “Behavior Management In the Classroom or Academic Instruction: What Comes First?." Take a cue from Harns Marsh and model and use Distributed Summarizing Strategies like Think-Ink-Share while engaging with your colleagues in collaborative conversations about the best strategies and practices to move your school from good to great!
Upcoming Events
As educators, we all want to promote deep and lasting learning. The one thing that we all wish is that we would have more time with our students to deepen their knowledge. Since our time with students does not fluctuate much, our overall impact is determined by the types of learning opportunities that we provide our students.

With that focus in mind, we are excited to announce a series of virtual events that target those exemplary practices that have been shown to have a large impact on student learning. Also, these events will help address the concerns that so many have about learning loss.

These events include:

Effective Vocabulary Instruction Training of Trainers Institute
  • 3 Different Sessions: April, May, and June
  • Registration is now open - Learn More

Catching Kids Up! Training of Trainers Institute
  • 3 Different Sessions: April, May, and June
  • Registration is now open - Learn More

Designing Effective Assignments and Assessments for All Students
Training of Trainers Institute
  • 3 Different Sessions: April, May, and June
  • Registration is opening soon - Request Info

Learning-Focused Instructional Framework Training of Trainers
  • The summer session starts on June 7th
  • Registration is now open - Learn More


New Articles
Catching Up Kids and At-Risk Students: How to Move Them...

Schools and school districts know the importance of communicating a shared vision of success for their students, staff, and community. This vision often focuses on the idea of preparing students for their future. But what happens to that future...

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learningfocused.com
Writing Development: Teaching Writing to Kindergarten

Early literacy starts when students begin to scribble lines and shapes on their paper. This early form of writing is based on a student's personal code, or their ideas about how to represent their ideas.

Read more
learningfocused.com
Have you thought about writing an article? If you have an idea for an article contact us.
New Resources
Example Lessons
Check out these three new lessons that were provided to us by teachers within our LEARNING-FOCUSED Community!
  • Third Grade ELA: How do I distinguish a narrator’s or character’s point of view and my own point of view when reading a story?
  • Sixth Grade ELA: How does Odysseus represent the archetype of the hero?
  • Fourth Grade Math: How do I use error analysis to help me solve and evaluate solutions to area problems?
Vocabulary Strategies
Check out these new Review Vocabulary Strategies that we just added to LEARNING-FOCUSED Online:
  • Last Word Synopsis
  • Metaphor Madness
  • Riddle Me
  • Sensory Imagery
  • Visualize and Draw
  • Rhyming and Visual Mnemonics
Instructional Strategies Worth Using Video
Learn more about the powerful collaborative Think-Pair-Share strategy.
Leroy's Book
To celebrate Read Across America, Leroy finally got a chance to read his first book on Manners. He will be making a special announcement on Twitter so follow @LearningFocused.
In Case You Missed It!
6 Student Questioning Strategies to Increase Achievement

Are you asking the "just right" questions to increase student achievement? Are you answering your own questions, or are students interacting with the questions being asked? Are your questions well planned and do they have a purpose and intent?

Read more
learningfocused.com
7 Assessment Strategies That Put Aside Paper and Pencil

Traditional Assessment When you think of assessments, the traditional method is of course paper and pencil. And when you think of paper and pencil "testing," you may think of the required countless hours of grading that inevitably follows.

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