FOCUS: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning

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.

Using this book for a graduate course I’m teaching on school improvement. The students love the common sense, simple instruction descriptions that are all based on years of research.

At some points, the book seems a bit repetitive, but Schmoker drives home the point that as a nation we cannot hope to succeed in providing our kids with a quality education if we don't begin to focus on literacy which is key to ALL academic success. He provides numerous examples from the world of school where this has proven true and a few examples where strong focus has been the key to success in the business world. He quotes numerous experts from the field of education. In my opinion, ALL administrators and the politicians making decisions about education policy/reform should read this book.

This a great guide to help you sort through the demands of what what should be taught and what is essential in the classroom.

This book should be required reading for all teachers. Schmoker validates what all teachers know-that they rarely have an opportunity to engage students in authentic reading, talking, and writing because they are consumed with trying to cover an outlandish number of standards. Even better than providing that validation, Schmoker goes on to explain the essentials of what teachers NEED to teach in order for their students to be ready to enter college, careers, or simply to be informed citizens. (And yes, students will perform well on "the test", too.) As in so many areas of life, we often (with good intentions) overcomplicate education to the point we are unsure of what to teach and how to teach it. Schmoker has weeded out the distractions, illuminating the essentials that should have been obvious to us all. Having read this book, I am heading into a new school year with a clearer focus for myself and my students than I have ever had in 20 years.

It's always a good idea to get refocused to then focus on the material that matters. This book was recommended to me by a well respected instructional coach. I've marked it up, taken notes and looking forward to implementing the strategies.

The first chapter gives clear, ample information about how to use simple concepts for successful students. It is confirmed that educators can stop throwing spaghetti at the classroom walls, start using proven strategies and see academic progress, before adding a plethora of “innovative” techniques not properly proven nor productive. Read on!

A concise and easy to read book about implementing a few high impact strategies that can support learning for all students. This was refreshing because it feels as though educators are pulled in too many directions. The book may feel repetitious to some (the author admits this) because the few, high impact strategies are repeated often in each chapter. However, this helped reinforce Schmoker's points. Some schools and districts are poised to implement the ideas in the book. Others will need culture building and professional development.