LEARNING FOCUSED Glossary of Terms



LEARNING FOCUSED Glossary of Terms

Acceleration – a preview of information before the instruction occurs in the classroom with the other students. It builds background knowledge focusing on key vocabulary and/or an advance organizer. When acceleration is combined with remediation it “catches kids up!” It is “scaffolding” for new learning. (Acceleration 3)

Achievement – performance on assessments (all types) including state and national assessments.

Activating Strategy – the first part of an acquisition lesson. The purpose is to build prior knowledge, motivate, preview key vocabulary, and prepare students for learning. (Activating 3)

Acquisition – the first level of learning. During acquisition, a person learns concepts or skills that are new information to him/her. (Acquisition 5)

Acquisition Lesson – A lesson designed to help learners acquire new knowledge regarding important concepts and skills as directed by state standards. During the lesson the student will be given opportunities to link prior knowledge, create meaning, and internalize skills. (Acquisition 5)

Advance Organizer – An organizer is provided before the unit, lesson or task. IT may be used to provide the “big picture”, to guide a learning activity, or to outline steps in a process. Acceleration uses all four types of advance organizers: graphic representations (content or higher order thinking), expository (descriptions of content), narrative (story maps), and skimming information prior to the lesson. The lessons can be as short as 20 minutes or as long as 3 days. (Acceleration 3)

Authentic and Meaningful Use – the third level of learning. Students are able to use the information learned in meaningful, authentic tasks. (Overview 19)

Benchmarking – process of dividing the Curriculum Map into quarterly sections, and assessing each section as a benchmark.

Benchmark Assessments – assessments in the same format as standardized tests that are periodically administered and used to assess students’ grasp of standards taught. These assessments are used to determine what support is needed to ensure necessary growth for success on standardized tests.

Collaborative Pairs – Students working with partners. When pairs are used throughout the lesson to talk about new information, it keeps students actively engaged and focused on the learning. (Acquisition 24)

Consistent – Using research-based strategies in every unit or lesson every time. (Example: Use an organizer in every lesson to lift out key ideas, or for students to summarize key learning at the end of the lesson every time.)

Content Map – an advance organizer outlining the unit. Based on state standards, the content map visually shows the key concepts and skills to be learned in the unit. A Content Map provides teachers with the concepts prior to planning, and provides students with the “big picture” and key vocabulary of the learning unit. (see also Student Learning Map and Curriculum Map)

Continuous Improvement – Always improving; continuing to implement new research-based strategies for improvement.

Culminating Activity – the product, performance, or project that students complete at the end of an essential unit to show they can answer the unit essential question. It provides students the opportunity “to do” and to apply the knowledge which they have learned studying the unit through a project, product or written research. (Learning Units 4)

Curriculum Map – a map of standards that indicates the topic and key concepts to be taught at that grade level or course using the standards. Typically contains state standards on the map. In some cases, may be used as the Student Learning Map. In other cases, the Student Learning Map may be developed using the Curriculum Map.

Data Driven – use of data to set goals for increasing achievement, creating a plan to reach the goals, and for monitoring progress.

Dead Horse – a strategy, procedure, program or schedule that is no longer effective and does not raise student achievement.

Differentiating – Accommodations made in order to meet the varied interests, learning styles and ability levels of all students. (Extending 32)

Distributed Guided Practice – Practice is distributed throughout the teaching. Example: The teacher demonstrates/models for 10 minutes. Then the teacher stops and allows the students to practice while monitoring the practice. The practice continues for a few minutes. The same process of check, re-teach, demonstrate, or go farther is determined again. The teaching time decreases as practice time increases. Practice is distributed throughout the lesson and not saved for the end of the lesson. (Acquisition 26)

Distributed Summarizing – Summarizing by the students is distributed throughout the lesson. Example: The teacher teaches/presents for 10-15 minutes and uses a collaborative paired activity for the students to summarize what has been taught for 1-2 minutes. This structure is distributed at even intervals throughout lessons to allow students to summarize and to give the teacher an informal assessment if the material needs to be re-taught or to go farther in the content (Acquisition 27)

Essential Question (Unit) – An objective written in the form of a question aligned to state standard(s). The Unit Essential Question asks for a broad understanding of the whole unit. Students should be able to answer the unit essential question at the end of the unit to demonstrate overall learning from this unit. Essential Questions should be worded in student-appropriate language. (Acceleration 15)

Essential Question (Lesson) – A concept or skill aligned to state standards written in the form of a question. The Lesson Essential Question asks for broad understanding of the whole lesson. Students should be able to answer the Lesson Essential Question at the end of the lesson. Essential Questions should be worded in student-appropriate language. Essential Questions main purpose is to have students summarize their learning. (Acquisition 15).

Exemplary School – A school with 90% or more its students on or above grade level on standardized assessments. (Overview 8)

Exemplary Practice – Practices and activities that exist on a consistent and pervasive basis in exemplary schools. These practices are classified into the following components: planning, curriculum, instruction, assessment, and organization. (Overview 8)

Extending and Refining Activity – An activity that deepens understanding, builds connections and uses higher levels of thinking. Students extend their knowledge of key concepts and skills through higher level thinking activities and writing. (Extending 1)

Extending and Refining Lesson – A lesson which includes activities that require specific types of level 2 learning concepts or skills from students. Typically 1-3 days involving a performance or product assessment. (Ext/Ref. 24)

Extend Thinking/Reasoning – the second level of learning. It is to deepen understanding, to build connections, and to give the students an opportunity to think on a higher level. (Overview 19)

Frayer Diagram – An organizer used for teaching vocabulary which consists of four sections and usually includes examples and non-examples. (Acceleration 39)

Graphic Organizers – a visual display that graphically organizes information. Graphic Organizers lift out the key ideas of the lesson to assist students with organizing, storing and retention of information. Becomes an exemplary practice when a completed Graphic Organizer is utilized as a tool to assist students with performance or product assessments. (Graphic Organizers 2)

Instructional Coach – an educator (teacher) partners with teachers and school leaders to facilitate effective implementation of exemplary practices in the school to increase learning and achievement for students as part of a school reform strategy. The coach assists teachers in efficient, effective instructional decision making through reflective practice and planning.

Key Learning (of a unit) – The most significant big idea to student learning and understanding within the unit. It encompasses the broad understanding that teachers should retain over time. (Acceleration 15)

Launch Activity – The first part of instruction within a unit. It is an activity or lesson that crates student interest and links prior knowledge. Students preview key vocabulary and are provided a content map of the unit. (Learning Unit 4)

LEARNING-FOCUSED Schools Model – A school reform model designed to assist systems, schools and teachers in using exemplary practices to increase learning and achievement. IT is a planning model that provides frameworks and tools for organizing, planning, assessing and designing instruction. (Overview 3)

LEARNING-FOCUSED Strategies Notebook – A resource book for designing and implementing exemplary practices in K-12 classrooms.

Learning Pyramid – the graphic that describes learning which emphasizes the active involvement of the student during the learning process. Based on the Cone of Learning by Edgar Dale, from Audio-Visual Methods in Technology, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 169. (Overview 6)

Learning Unit – A unit is built around a topic, theme, literacy genre or skill with a few lessons clustered around it. Each unit takes the learner through the three levels of learning and teaches the connection between each concept and the unit theme to the learner. (Overview 20)

Lecture – Teacher gives informative talk to the class.

Levels of Learning – Learners progress through levels of learning with each level taking the learner to more depths of understanding and the capabilities to apply those skills and concepts in their lives. The three levels of learning are: Level One, Acquisition: Level Two, Extending and Refining or Thinking/Reasoning; and Level Three, Authentic and Meaningful Use. Adapted from the Dimensions of Learning, Marzano, et al, ASCD, 1982. (Overview 19)

Literacy-based Instruction – students identify and use reading comprehension strategies and writing skills to learn about content.

Measurable Objective – specific goal that clearly states what the outcome will be and how it will be measured.

Mnemonics - Memory devices that provide a systematic approach for organizing and remembering facts. Mnemonics provide the tools necessary to memorize and recall almost any information. A framework is created and new information is attached to the framework for remembering such as an acrostic or acronym. (Acquisition 33)

Monitoring – Checking the quality or content of classroom instruction on a regular basis using “Look Fors” and “Ask Abouts”. Provides on-going data observations focused on the consistent/pervasive practices of the school.

Non-Verbal Representation – A graphic description of a word or phrase.

90/90 Schools – Schools were 90% of the students are on or above grade level, 90% of the students are on free/reduced lunch, and 90% of students are minority – the school may be highly impacted by low expectations and racism. Researcher Doug Reeves was the first to identify these schools. (Overview 8)

Performance Assessment – Students demonstrate the acquisition of concepts and skills learned through a performance or product of some type, usually an authentic task.

Pervasive – A large percentage of the teachers within a school are collaborating and using exemplary practices throughout the school to raise student achievement.

Previewing – Another term for acceleration. Provides prior knowledge to students prior to the acquisition lesson. (Acceleration 11)

Prioritized Curriculum – The curriculum standards have been sorted according to the amount of time that will be spent on each. The amount of time a teacher is spending on each curriculum standard/objective. The Prioritized Curriculum impacts the time allocated for the learning unit, what is accelerated or previewed, what is reviewed during the structured review and what is the focus of extending and refining. (Overview 10)

Results Driven – begin with the end in mind and implement all strategies toward accomplishing that goal.

Rubric – an assessment tool for scoring performances or products. A rubric consists of a fixed scale and a list of characteristics describing the indicators for each of the points on the scale. The LEARNING-FOCESED TOOLBOX provides a tool for developing rubrics () (Rubrics 2)

Scaffold – a temporary strategy for providing support to learners enabling them to successfully complete a task. Over time, the strategy is removed as the learner no longer needs the support. (Acceleration 3)

Sowing Seeds – presenting ideas, concepts and vocabulary as readiness for a change that is coming.

Standards-based curriculum – a curriculum developed by creating the standards for all students, and then back-mapping to create benchmarks needed to get students to that point.

Structured Review – periodic review of key concepts taught (scheduled every 4-5 weeks). Students gather prioritized content information taught the month prior to the review and organize that information. Then, students actively use their organized information, usually in the form of a test, game or extended thinking activity. (Extending 34)

Student Learning Map – an advance organizer that outlines the unit. Based on state standards, it visually shows the key concepts and skills to be learned in the unit. The main purpose is to provide students with the “big picture” and key vocabulary of the learning unit.

Successful Learners – the characteristics of successful learners are: knows and understands the principles of learning, has knowledge of self as a learner, uses the tools of the discipline, takes responsibility for his own learning, uses and goes through all three levels of learning and understands the nature of knowledge. (Overview 21)

Summarizing – stating the main points. Learners must do the summarizing in order to construct meaning and to create a “schema” for the information to remember it longer. At the end of the lesson, the students answer the Essential Question. Teachers use it to assess and determine re-enacting needs. Summarizing should be distributed throughout the lesson and not just at the end. (Summarizing 2)

Summary-Point Writing – As teachers teach a lesson, they stop at various times and tell students to write a list, summary, description, clarification, explanation, etc. of something recently learned in this particular lesson.

Taught Curriculum – what is actually taught in the classroom.

Teaching Strategies – the part of the Acquisition lesson where new concepts and skills are taught. Teaching strategies are cognitive strategies that help learners create meaning, organize and store information. The cognitive strategies include collaborative pairs, distributed practice, distributed summarizing, graphic organizers, and mnemonic devices. (Overview 13)

Team-Based Planning – The concept of a group of teachers who hold something in common planning together and at the same time. They may hold students in common such as a middle school team, or they may hold a grade level in common such as a 4th grade team of 4 teachers who all teach 4th grade. It also may be a high school teacher who teaches the same course.

Ticket Out the Door- a summarizing strategy that may be used at the end of lesson or for transition to another activity as distributed summarizing. Students list key points and give it to the teacher as they transition (like a ticket). (Summarizing 5)

Toolbox (1) – the framework provided for organizing learning strategies to improve student achievement. LEARNING-FOCUSED is not so much about adding to the toolbox, but making sure that the tools that we are using are the most effective that we have at this time. It is about organizing research-based tools into an instructional framework. (Overview 2)

Toolbox (2) – The LEARNING-FOCUSED TOOLBOX online application is a resource that assists the LEARNING-FOCUSED community with planning, developing, sharing, and learning. Learning Units and Lessons can be developed, shared, and published. Additional tools include Prioritizing and Mapping Curriculum, Rubric development, Graphic Organizer templates, and LEARNING-FOCUSED DIRECT (online workshops/videos), and Monitoring (walkthroughs) and Reflections.

Vertical Alignment – curriculum that flows from one grade level or course to the next in a logical, consistent manner.

Vertical Teams – When a school has designated a group of teachers to be a team holding students in common across grade levels. Example: A kindergarten teacher, a 1st grade teacher, a 2nd grade teacher and a 3rd grade teacher hold students in common across 4 years (K to 1st to 2nd to 3rd).

Walkthrough – A member of the Administrative or Leadership Team spends time in each classroom at each level using “Look Fors” and “Ask Abouts” as a part of Monitoring. Often done as a 5x5 (five classroom per day, five minutes each).

Writing Assignments:

• Creative Writing – (Also called Narrative Writing) A writing assignment in which the writer is telling or creating a story or a work of fiction.

• Writing to Inform – (Also called Expository Writing) A writing assignment in which the main goal of the writer is to inform a reader about a topic or concept.

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