4. Content Enhancement Routine Expertise

CERs implemented in my classroom:
-Unit Organizer Routine
-FRAME Routine
-Concept Anchoring Routine

As I gradually began to implement Content Enhancement Routines in my classroom, I saw a shift in how my students understood and retained information. This first happened with the Unit Organizer Routine. I started to connect my daily learning targets to the current unit organizer, and as I did that, students began making more and more connections between the content in a unit and across units. If there was a day when I forgot to make an explicit connection, students often brought up the fact that we were learning something from our unit organizer. I also noticed that students were able to remember and use the general vocabulary we were learning during class. Before they would always say something like, "You know that thing we learned the other day," but now they could articulate their thoughts with the correct vocabulary. 

While the Unit Organizer Routine helped my students learn the big picture and make connections, FRAME and Concept Anchoring helped them learn and retain much more content than they were able to before. In the past I have tried multiple creative methods for teaching concepts like figurative language and theme, but I'll never forget the first time I taught them using FRAME and Concept Anchoring because my students did not forget either. They remembered terms and definitions after one lesson that they had not remembered after an entire unit in previous years. The devices also served as clear and organized notes that students frequently referred to if they did not remember something. Going through the routines combined with having the devices has definitely created a more meaningful and memorable learning experience for my students. 

As my PLC began to implement the Unit Organizer Routine, I realized that it is not only good for students, but it's good for teachers as well. As my PLC began each new unit, we first had to construct the Unit Organizer. This allowed us to have a conversation that we were not having before. In order to create the Unit Organizer, we had to decide on the big ideas and how they connected to each other and to other units. Once we made these connections as a team, we were able to explicitly make the connections for our students. It also gave us the chance to clarify our content for ourselves and make sure we were all interpreting the standards and curriculum the same before teaching it to students. I had so much peace of mind knowing that our students with disabilities and our advanced students were having the same learning experiences. 

SIM has helped me grow as a teacher and has helped my PLC refine the curriculum work we have been doing for several years. I feel more confident about how I present information to my students and have seen improvements in their learning. As SIM is used in more classrooms across content areas in my school, students are seeing the value of the routines and are growing their ability to see big ideas, make connections, and retain information, 

Question Exploration Routine
Unit Organizer
Course Organizer
LINCING Routine
Concept Comparison Routine

I presented PD on the Concept Comparison Routine. I also implemented the above routines in my classroom. I have also planned additional PDs in QER and Concept Comparison in my new school district. 

- Course Organizer Routine
- Unit Organizer Routine
- Concept Comparison Routine
- Vocabulary LINCing Routine
- Framing Routine

Our school has been working on implementing Course and Unit Organizers school wide for the last two years. This school year (2020-2021) we rolled out a Course Organizer and Unit Organizers for every class offered at Washington Middle School. Our leadership team has worked hard to train our staff and other schools in our district on these two routines. They are the routines I feel most comfortable with. 
We have also implemented the Concept Comparison Routine, Framing Routine, and Vocabulary LINCing Routine regularly in our social studies content, for which I am the PLC leader. These are used more frequently by some teachers, but all teachers have been trained and incorporate the routines at least once a nine weeks.

• Course Organizer Routine
• Unit Organizer Routine
• FRAME Routine
• Concept Comparison Routine
• LINCing routine

During my apprenticeship I worked with staff at my school to implement SIM Routines.  Specifically, we worked with Unit Organizer and FRAME routines.  Both, I felt, would be a good segue into using other routines for my co-workers.  I found that they really enjoyed the demonstration of the routine with them as students.  I found it important to model and then to give time for teachers to process and create their own Unit Organizers or FRAMEs that they could then use in class.  Finally, sitting down with each participant to discuss what they had created and giving tips to help them be more successful had a positive outcome for both me and the teacher.  By the end of the professional development session teachers could really see how they would use each routine in their own classes.  A few weeks after our session I checked back in with teacher to see how their own implementation went of the routine and if they had any questions.

Vocabulary LINCing Implementation Donni Davis-Perry   I partnered in a middle school, co-taught classroom in an urban school district.  The school is currently unaccredited by VDOE. The group of students I facilitated with the SIM Vocabulary LINCing Routine was comprised of general education and special education students. There was one girl and three boys, all sixth grade students. During their initial introduction, the students took two 30 minute class sessions to engage in the strategy for four new vocabulary words.  This has become faster as they become more familiar with the routine.   Using the routine overall went very well.  The students learned with the initial instruction the process for using the device.  The second session went smoother-with students wanting to work independently. One student with autism got a little 'stuck' on developing reminding words. He wanted to use a reminding word that didn't fit the 'criteria' but felt like it was the only word that would trigger him remembering the word/definition.  He used his word initially, but eventually softened as he saw other students' work and their reminding words.  He actually created a reminding phrase.  The students enjoyed the process and were excited about how well they did on their assessment.  They were eager to use it again with different vocabulary words.  The only challenge was that the kids worked at different rates, some finishing very early.  After introducing and teaching the routine, I was able to allow them to work independently or in pairs so they could have as much or little time as they needed to complete the process.  This was the main adjustment needed to support the kids in their learning. We continue to use the routine in the classroom.  Additional students are cycling through the SIM ‘station’ and learning the routine. I have used the strategy on two days in November and two days in December. I plan to continue to use it through the rest of the year. When asked, 100% of the students have been able to recall the definition of all the vocabulary words they learned.

During my apprenticeship, I regularly implemented Course Organizer, Unit Organizer, Clarifying, Vocabulary LINCing and the Frame Routines.

I am a Professional Developer by trade and no longer in the classroom, I used them as part of my professional development. I found that they helped adult learners focus and it made the expectations very clear.

Additionally, my daughter, who has an identified learning disability was in high school at the time and I used them with her quite extensively, as well. The benefit to her phenomenal. The connector lines on the Unit and Course Organizers gave her the language to form complete thoughts around the subjects she was studying and allowed her to connect and organize the details to the big picture. The routines absolutely allowed her to be successful in high school and she even used them in college.

I provided professional development for the Unit Organizer Routine and Concept Mastery Routine during my apprenticeship time. For each, I provided a SIM Overview as well as information pertaining to the specific CER. Additionally, we did a "Book Walk" to highlight key information in the respective CER handbooks. I did find that I spent a bit of time discussing how you can use a particular CER to launch, float, and tie up a unit/topic depending on what fit best for each teacher's classroom. The teachers with whom I worked did find this information the most helpful, because it help them to see how they can have choice in implementation based on the needs of the content and/or students in each class. Within each professional development session, I modeled how to complete each routine and gave teachers an opportunity to draft a routine of their choosing as practice. At this point, the implementation plan for each CER took a different route.

When providing professional development for Concept Mastery, I was working with teachers participating in the VDOE' ASSET academy at James Madison University. The downside of presenting in this manner is that I do not personally work with the teachers who participated. I did attempt to connect each to a SIM professional developer following the conference in hopes the would be able to connect with these teachers and provided continued support for fidelity of implementation. Unfortunately, I do not know how effective this format was in terms of continued fidelity of implementation.

The professional development and implementation with the Unit Organizer Routine felt much more successful, because of my direct contact with the teachers who participated in the professional development. For these teachers, after I modeled the routine, we ended session #1 and the teachers' homework was to draft a routine with content of their choosing. About three weeks later, we reconvened and the teachers practiced co-constructing with their colleagues. Additionally, we were able to have a discussion around any questions and concerns they thought of since our first session. I felt this was helpful in alleviating any fears these teachers had prior to implementation with their students. Following session #2, I visited the teachers' classes and observed them during instruction and provided feedback using the fidelity of implementation checklist. Unfortunately, soon after my second observation and feedback opportunity, the administration allowed the teachers to stop implementing due to them being overwhelmed by other school and division initiatives. The teachers, however, did like the routine, so I hope this means I can begin reimplementation during the next school year. 

Prior to 2019-2020:
Course Organizer
Unit Organizer
Framing Routine
Concept Comparison
Question Exploration