3. Frequently Asked Questions Assignment

SIM Content Enhancement FAQ Responses 1. How will SIM Content Enhancement address this concern? In the August 2000 edition of Strategram, Dr. Deshler addresses how Content Enhancement helps address the Instructional Time/Content Explosion Dilemma. He describes this dilemma as the struggles to “shoehorn an ever-increasing mountain of content into the same limited instructional time year after year.” The reality of the situation is that teachers just can’t teach it all. They must be deliberate and strategic in how they identify critical content and focus student interaction on those critical features. All routines promote direct, explicit instruction. Several help teachers organize the content and present it to students in a way that students can understand. “Other routines help teach complex concepts so students gain a deep understanding and develop a shared vocabulary for talking about important information.” Another group of routines help students create quality work products. When implemented effectively, Content Enhancement can provide a strong framework for meeting state and national standards without compromising content or creativity. 2. How does SIM Content Enhancement promote student understanding of texts?  Many students have difficulty comprehending classroom texts. The Survey Routine is one strategy designed to support student comprehension of complex text. It allows students to see the main ideas first so that they can better remember the facts related to those ideas. The Survey Routine acts as a lens or filter to focus students on what should be learned or understood from a passage. As students become proficient with the device, construction can be turned over to the student, supporting them in becoming skilled independent readers. (Strategram, November 1996) 5. How will Content Enhancement work with my really low students? In any general education class there will be a diverse population with varied levels of content background. Content Enhancement helps teachers attack the performance gap of students by “developing interventions that focus on how information is selected and presented to academically diverse classes” to make it more understandable and compensate for the gap as well as developing interventions that equip students to navigate the curriculum independently. U-CRL research has broken interventions into five tiers. Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions focus on things that would happen in a general education classroom with the support of the classroom teacher. Tiers 3-5 focus on supports that would be provided by support personnel such as a special education teacher, paraprofessional, or specialist. Tier 1 routines help teachers organize and present critical content in a way that students can understand, organize and recall information. Tier 2 focuses on explicitly teaching students strategies to give them skills in processing and mastering the content. Both tiers create an apprenticeship environment where the teacher is the content expert, explaining and modeling for a novice to imitate. “The outcome of the apprenticeship is students who not only know and understand information, but who also can learn information on their own.” This experience and new found skills allows students to not only compensate and access their content, but generalize their learning strategies across content areas. 

I complete my responses to FAQ's on December 2012.  This seven page response to the 15 questions strengthened my conceptual understanding of SIM CER and the foundations of SIM.

1.       Teachers feel pressure to deliver large quantities of content to students in a short period of time. A great concern is that students experience meaningful learning. How will SIM Content Enhancement address this concern?                  
As stated in Strategram’s Combating the ‘coverage’ mentality, “Two forces present in every classroom work counter to a teacher’s best efforts: the Instructional Time/ Content Explosion Dilemma and the Performance Gap. SIM provides ways to minimize the effect of these forces and improve the educational process for both teachers and students.”                  The solution is to identify and focus instruction on critical content that is of greatest worth for kids to learn.  SIM Content Enhancement provides tools  and strategies to assist teachers in planning “SMARTER” through the “ReflActive Planning Process”  Working with students to learn and understand the routines takes an initial investment of time, and as a result a more focused and increased learning takes place for all students. By planning SMARTER, teachers: a.       Select critical content to be taught and develop critical questions that students should be able to answer by the end of instruction b.      Map the critical content in a way that will be meaningful to the students c.       Analyze why critical content might be difficult to learn d.      Reach decisions about how content will be taught and which routines and strategies can enhance instruction e.      Teach student about content enhancement routines and strategies and how to use them to be actively involved in the learning f.        Evaluate mastery of critical content g.       Reevaluate planning and teaching decisions   SMARTER planning and teaching the CER establish a sense of community by helping to create a positive and productive classroom environment for students. SIM offers and integrated approach by providing a framework for working toward meeting state standards and mandatory testing requirements.                                   Ideas from “Strategic Instruction in the Content Areas” by Janis Bulgren and Keith Lens; “Combating the ‘coverage’ mentality” by Don Deshler and Julie Tollefson   3.       Why should I teach Content Enhancement Routines to my students?                  
  Content Enhancement is an instructional method that relies on using powerful teaching devices to organize and present curriculum content in an understandable and easy- to-learn manner. There are several benefits to teaching CER to your students.   First, both group and individual needs are valued and meet. Second, the integrity of the content is maintained. Third, critical features of the content are selected and transformed in a way that promotes learning for all students. Fourth, Instruction is carried out in a partnership with students. Having class routines with high expectations allow students to feel comfortable in participating, leading to success in class that in return builds confidence for students. Students become more efficient because they know the expectations, feel comfortable using the routines, and understand how the devices support their learning.                                   Ideas from “Strategic Instruction Model in Support of Secondary Literacy” by KUCRL
4.       How does Content Enhancement increase student involvement in the classroom?                    
Students are actively engaged during the use of Content Enhancement Routines, because the students and the teacher work in a partnership to ‘co-construct’ the device. The students become actively involved in the learning process by contributing facts, sharing their ideas, and writing information during the development of the device. There is a direct relationship between the use of the devices and the verbal interactions that occur between students and teachers in general education classrooms. Teachers who used the CER devices significantly increased the number and variety of questions that they asked students during the lesson.                   Ideas from Strategram “Raising Questions about Questions” by Sherrel Lee Haight                        
5.       How will Content Enhancement work with my really low students? How?                  
 The Content Enhancement Routines are examples of Level 1 Interventions and represent your first response to meeting the needs of students who are struggling with in content instruction. The major types of CER can be categorized as Planning & Leading Learning, Explaining Text/Topics/& Details, Teaching Concepts, and Increasing Performance Routines.                   The Planning & Leading Learning routines have been designed as frameworks to help orient students with in the content by Course, Unit, and Lesson. For example, the Unit Organizer supports struggling students by pre-exposing critical information/ vocabulary in a unit, by clarifying what content has been taught and what’s to come, and finally as review and formative assessment at the end of a unit.                 The Explaining Text, Topics, & Details routines include Framing, Survey, and Clarifying, and guide teachers’ translation of concepts into easy-to –understand formats. For example, the Clarifying Routine can be used as an intervention to re-teach a difficult concept identified after a formative assessment.                 The Teaching Concepts routines help students comprehend and acquire new information by specifying what concept is going to be learned, accessing the knowledge students possess related to the new concept, explicitly depicting information related to the new concept, and summarizing what has been learned. Examples of these routines are Concept Mastery, Concept Anchoring, and Concept Comparison.                 The last group of routines includes Quality Assignment, Question Exploration, Recall Enhancement, and Order Routines. These focus on Increasing Performance, by enhancing the concreteness and meaningfulness of information presented during a lesson, thereby making the information easier to recall.                 The Content Enhancement Routines have been designed to be integrated in general education classes that include students with LD and other at-risk students. These tools will allow you to build routines and give you ability to successfully instruct academically diverse classes.                   Ideas from Strategram “Ensuring Content-Area Learning by Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities” Donald D. Deshler, Jean B. Schumaker, B. Keith Lenz, Janis A. Bulgren, Michael F. Hock, Jim Knight, and Barbra J. Ehren.     6.       Why do I need to know about the “big picture” of SIM?                   CLC - levels  
7.       I have previously participated in staff development sessions on graphic organizers. How do the Content Enhancement Routines compare to other graphic organizers?                  
  Content Enhancement Routines are like other graphic organizers in that they are both visual tools used in the classroom to organize information in a way that promotes recall and retention of facts. Unlike other graphic organizers, the CER are designed with an instructional routine, known as the Cue-Do-Review process, to help teachers mediate student learning, explore and use prior knowledge, assure deep understanding, promote strategic thinking, and assure success on assessments.  Included in the process are the essential linking steps of each device; these follow the cognitive process learners need to understand new content information. The CER also respond to the needs of students of diverse abilities and maintains content integrity.  Often facilitating the instruction of new information using the CER with fidelity of the linking steps; a teacher can develop students who take control of their learning. These students will not only improve at retrieval of critical information, but also the application of critical information in a variety of situations.                                                 Ideas from “Effective Content- Area Instruction for All Students” by Janis Bulgren  
13.   Under what conditions can I make adaptations to the Content Enhancement devices?                  
There are several things to consider when Shrinking, Expanding, Adapting, or Modifying (SEAM) Content Enhancement Routines (CER). You should consider if the SEAM affects the underlying process captured by the device. If there is a change in the Linking Steps or an adjustment to the Cue-Do-Review process, then it may take longer to see desired results or those results may not be reached at all.  Adaptations should not change the goal of the routine; they should be consistent to data-driven solutions, aligned with standards, and most importantly help move students beyond simple recall to deeper thinking, problem solving, and generalization.                                                 Ideas from “Routine Rules for SEAM CER LENZ” shared by Vicky Yarbrough