SIM
Frequently Asked Questions
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?
Two forces present in every classroom work counter to a teacher’s best efforts: the Instructional Time 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 can be selected through state standards or the lowest performing standards. SIM Content Enhancement provides tools and strategies to assist teachers in planning “SMARTER”.Working with students to learn and understand the routines takes an initial investment of time, and as a result more focused learning takes place for all students. By planning SMARTER, here is what teachers must do: S: Select critical content to be taught and develop critical questions that students should be able to answer by the end of instruction M: Map the critical content in a way that will be meaningful to the students A. Analyze why critical content might be difficult to learn R. Reach decisions about how content will be taught and which routines and strategies can enhance instruction T. Teach student about content enhancement routines and strategies and how to use them to be actively involved in the learning E. Evaluate mastery of critical content R. 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. Strategic Instruction in the Content Areas by Janis Bulgren and Keith Lens Strategram, Volume 10, Number 3, April 1998
3. Why should I teach Content Enhancement Routines to my students? The reality is that you are not “teaching” Content Enhancement Routines; you are using them as a powerful, research based, tool to amplify your personal teaching style and curriculum. Content Enhancement Routines are powerful tools to help learners master the content in a given subject. Through the planning, design, and creation of a Routine teachers determine which information is most important for students to know about their content. It is this design that makes CERs so powerful. The way the information or characteristics are placed in specific categories corresponds directly to the hierarchical patterns of superordinate, coordinate, and subordinate concepts into which a concept fits. The CERs also offer an array of designs that can provide scaffolded instruction for differentiation. They are one of the most powerful ways to enhance not only your teaching but more importantly your students’ learning. Instructional Practices Designed to Promote Success for Students with Disabilities in Inclusive Secondary content classrooms A Review of Literature (March 2001).
4. How does Content Enhancement increase student involvement in the classroom?
Classrooms in which Content Enhancement Routines are used with fidelity and successfully rely on the Cue, Do, Review process to allow an increase in student involvement. In addition, Linking Steps unwrap the devices in an easy to understand process for students and teachers alike. As a result, student’s confidence level increases and creates a safe environment for learning and sharing. Students will always be engaged in these types of classrooms. Because teachers identify the content that they judge to be most important and teach it using powerful routines that actively engage students, the class sees relevance and thus the teacher secures buy-in. Content Enhancement is a way of teaching an academically diverse group of students in which four conditions prevail. First, both group and individual needs are valued and met. 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. Last, instruction is carried out in a partnership with students. Some Content Enhancement Routines show students how to think about and organize content in such a way they see the organization. Others help teachers explain text, topics, and details. A third group helps teach complex concepts to students gain a deep understanding and develop a shared vocabulary for talking about important information. A final group of routines help students complete work in the classroom. All of the routines promote direct, explicit instruction. This type of instruction helps students who are struggling, but it also, facilitates problem-solving and critical thinking skills for students who are doing well in class. http://www.kucrl.org/sim/contnent.shtml
5. How will Content Enhancement work with my really low students? How?
Research conducted by the Institute for Academic Access (IAA) whose members are Don Deshler and Jean Schumaker of the University of Kansas resulted in the Content Literacy Continuum. The CLC enhances content instruction with the goal that students learn critical content required, regardless of literacy levels. This framework provided rationales for research on and development of both individual and integrated sets of Content Enhancement Routines (CERs). Content Enhancement (CE) principles, on which all CERs are based, support both students and teachers. The teacher acts as a mediator of instruction, builds on students’ prior knowledge, selects the most important content information, and organizes and transforms that information so that all students can succeed. This approach uses collaboratively developed graphic devices to help students understand and generalize information, and to benefit from different ways of learning. Content Enhancements respond to teachers’ recommendations for using a variety of teaching methods and modifying curriculum, and the need for higher-order thinking scaffolds. Each graphic device is designed to support a specific goal of learning. Using an integrated set of Content Enhancement Routines holds the promise of helping all students respond to rigorous content-area standards by incorporating individually researched routines throughout a course. Integrated Content Enhancement Routines
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
9. How will I be able to teach my students Learning Strategies and Content Enhancement?
First, I think it important to recognize what the Learning Strategies and Content Enhancement Routines were designed to do. If you look at the Content Literacy Continuum, CERs are typically used to help learners master critical concepts in the general education classroom setting. They serve as kind of the foundation for building student understanding of critical concepts. Learning Strategies are more targeted interventions that help strengthen the foundations of learners who struggle with mastering those critical concepts. They can serve as let’s say “additives” that strengthen the concrete and help prevent the foundation from cracking. The key is to be strategic. To quote from the CLC itself, Level 2, which addresses how Learning Strategies fit in to the larger literacy picture: “From a small set of powerful learning strategies, teachers select one or two strategies that match the specific demands needed to learn the critical content in their core curriculum courses. … Teachers adopt a mindset that it is important to embed instruction in learning strategies within content-area instruction.” (Strategic Instruction Model, Content Literacy Continuum) As professional educators, we evaluate the needs of our students, strategically choose the right CER for the right concept and then embed one or two Learning Strategies that will best support our learners’ comprehension when/if we see cracks in their comprehension. We integrate and embed. We don’t do everything.
11. Why is the cue-do-review sequence so important?
Every SIM routine is purposefully crafted with an instructional sequence that helps teachers instruct strategically. According to Lenz and Scanlon, the cue-do-review sequence has the teachers explain the device, explain how it will help them and include them in the creation of the device, and lead students through the creation and use of the device. Furthermore, the next time the device would be helpful for students in working with content, it is recommended to remind them of the cue-do-review sequence and go through it with them again. Through the repetition of steps, students will be able to become more independent in their use of the devices.1 The cue-do-review sequence “provides an overall structure for how the [device] and linking steps are embedded in the lesson.” To be more specific, the cue draws the students’ attention to the device being utilized. The do explicitly involves students in the process of utilizing the device to “target and structure critical information at the beginning of and during the lesson.” The review wraps up the lesson and helps to check the effectiveness of the device.2 The cue-do-review sequence utilizes an “I do, we do, y’all do, you do” approach to instruction to gradually release control of the learning to the students while scaffolding and supporting the learning. The sequence is so important because it keeps teachers and students on track to hit every part of the lesson and the device to ensure fidelity and maximize student learning.3
15. How can I get administrative support?
As with any professional development and new strategy or initiative to take back to campus and implement in the classroom, administrative support is key in ensuring fidelity of implementation. This is why it is so important for administrators to participate in every professional development for each SIM routine that their campus receives. According to the article “Effective Professional Development for Adult Learners,” the “two strongest influences to support transfer are the organizational support and the immediate supervisor’s support for utilizing new competencies”.4 Administrators must put measures into place to ensure that the SIM routines learned and their teachers have the resources and support in place to become more adept in integrating the routines into their contents in order to increase literacy and build fidelity in the Content Literacy Continuum. Schumaker, Deshler, and McKnight argue in their article that administrators or other organizational leaders must provide necessary financial and personnel support. Furthermore, it is vital that they explicitly “voice the necessary expectations so that learning specialists and general education teachers, in turn, can fulfill their roles and can work together productively.”5 To sum up, the support of the administration is paramount to ensuring success in SIM. Ask your administrator for any support needed. Make sure to articulate your concerns explicitly and ask for how you can best implement SIM in your classroom. Work with your SIM instructional coach or other SIM professional developers/supporters in your district to ensure the support to implement SIM with fidelity is in place.
17. How will I get general education teachers to “buy in” to Content Enhancement?
Content Enhancement was originally “designed to respond to the needs of teachers as they analyze curriculum and content standards, the learning needs of a variety of students, the demands associated with complex content information, and the need to create learning partnerships in communities of learners. In short, it is intended to help all students learn and use content information in “inclusive general education classes.” Developed around graphic organizers with explicit linking steps, Content Enhancement Routines help all students to build on prior knowledge, provide multiple opportunities for practice without penalty, and allows for a variety of responses based on different learning styles and abilities. All Content Enhancement Routines are based on prior research “showing how students’ understanding of critical information can be enhanced by focusing on attributes, properties or characteristics by which things are placed in categories of classes, the rules by which these attributes are joined in a concept class, hierarchical patterns of… concepts, and examples of concepts….” The purpose behind the creation of Content Enhancement Routines is to help students learn content information and strengthen their content structures. Research has validated the use of routines with general education, as well as special education students, to enhance the learning experience, as well as retain content and increase understanding.6
18. How do I fit Content Enhancement into my day?
Ideally, using a CER is the bulk of your day. Through the SMARTER planning process, you will have identified the critical concepts that need to be enhanced in order for students to truly grasp them. Then while analyzing those concepts and deciding the most effective approach to their instruction – that’s when you select the appropriate Content Enhancement Routine. Following the linking steps within the Cue-Do-Review lesson cycle, you co-construct the CER’s device with the students as they break down the concept through the routine. So the CER becomes your lesson and the students become empowered over their own learning. Let’s hear from an expert, Janis Bulgren of the University of Kansas. She explains that: “Specifically, the major use of the Concept Teaching Routine is to promote understanding of information. However, other Content Enhancement Routines are also designed to enhance the meaningfulness of by helping students organize, remember and believe in the importance of information. Used together as part of a teacher’s instructional plan, these Content Enhancement Routines can potentially increase the chances that students at risk for school failure, students with learning disabilities, and students without learning disabilities will learn content as part of regular classroom instruction.” (Bulgren, Strategram, June 1992) So it really isn’t about “fitting” in CERs, it’s about utilizing them as effective, efficient tools for instruction so that our students learn. And that’s our main goal as educators anyway. Win, win.
20. How will I persuade other teachers in my school to use Content Enhancement?
The simple answer is through your own example. From my own teaching experience, I recognize that I learn best when I see other teachers using a CER. By the same token, if I see a teacher modeling a CER, I can be pretty certain that he/she believes in its effectiveness or realistically, he/she would have stopped or never started using it, right? When I see my colleagues get results, I want them too. Teacher is just another word for thief after all. Still not convinced? Let’s show them the numbers. The Strategic Instruction Model and its Content Enhancement Routines are not only research-based, they are research-validated. That means that each and every CER that KU puts out into the educational world has been tried and tested through rigorous studies with real students in real classrooms. For example, when conducting research on the Concept Mastery Routine, (then known as the Concept Teaching Routine,) Bulgren, Schumaker, & Deshler found that “both students with LD and other students wrote three times more items of concept-related information in their notes than before the Concept Teaching Routine was used. When students took the test over the concept information covered in a given unit, mean test scores also increased above the baseline levels for all students. … During baseline only 57% of the students with learning disabilities were passing the regularly scheduled unit tests. During the concept training and review conditions, however, 75% of the students with learning disabilities were passing the tests.” (Teaching Routines for General Education, 809-810) And that’s just one routine! With the Concept Anchoring Routine, LD students earned an average test score of 69% as opposed to 40% for those LD students who had not learned the routine. Roughly the same happened for low-achieving and general education students. For Concept Comparison, mean test scores for low-achieving students went from 63% to 86% and gen ed students went from 76% to 84%. Every group of learners benefitted from using these routines. (Teaching Routines for General Education, 810) Research to support every published routine is available to help “persuade” your fellow educators that they really do work for kids.
22. How long will it take for my students to learn to create their own Content Enhancement devices?
Well, as in most things related to kids, it depends on the kid. But there are some general things to consider. The more opportunities you give students to practice with the device, the faster they will absorb it. One of the fundamental aspects of the Content Enhancement Routines is that devices should be co-created with learners. That means that the teacher has to let go of some the control and provide time for learners to think and resources for them to use. When you act more as a facilitator who asks higher level questions to elicit higher level answers from students, then you are strategically supporting learners as they prepare for that gradual release of responsibility – “you do.” You may also start with some of the less complicated routines like the FRAME. Students tend to grab hold of this device quicker than the others because it allows them to organize the information that often gets thrown at them. With a simple structure, the FRAME can be used as a note-noting device, a review sheet, a formative assessment and much more. So how do you get students to use the devices on their own? Like we mentioned before, gradually release the responsibility to them. Schumaker, Deshler and McKnight of the University of Kansas provide some useful ideas for how to go about this. For example, using cooperative group instruction. “In essence, with this method, the teacher introduces the strategy to the whole class, and then students work in cooperative groups during the practice activities to help each other master the strategy.” (Teaching Routines for General Education, 801-802) Research done to test the effectiveness of this approach using the Sentence Writing Strategy and the Paraphrasing Strategy found that all types of learners “showed improvement in their skills and mastered the use of the strategy.” (Teaching Routines for General Education, 802) These experts also suggest peer tutoring as a way to promote the use of these devices and even having one peer provide instruction to several other students in a small group setting. In this manner, the teacher becomes the facilitator, but the learner becomes the owner of the routine and master of the device. How long that takes is really up to you.
26. What are the benefits of schoolwide implementation of Content Enhancement?
Whenever you can provide consistency for the adolescent mind, you increase the potential for comprehension and retention. Put yourself in their shoes. Every time you enter a new classroom, you have to reset your mind for the new teacher expectations, the new content, the new students, the new environment – and you have to make that shift in just a couple of minutes. I don’t know that many adults that can make that shift let alone students with developing minds and awkward bodies. When students go from class to class and have to reset and relearn the rules for learning, their minds are not processing the information we want them to master. Their minds are focused on the transition from one teacher to another and adjusting to new expectations. Lead4Ward calls this cognitive hopscotch. By utilizing the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) across the campus, we reduce, if not eliminate, the hopscotch effect and allow our students to focus on the information processing. We provide the consistency in expectation and safety in learning that our learners need so badly. Students will become familiar with the process of the CERs being used and can then focus primarily on the information the routine is designed to help them understand. As a schoolwide instructional system, there are few, if any, better than SIM in my opinion (and in the research, too). Another benefit includes the teacher in providing them a common language for planning. In my experience, SMARTER Planning has fostered a more cohesive PLC and a more collaborative team of teachers. Everyone knows the process of planning, so that conversations and considerations delve more deeply into the standards, the critical concepts, and the strategies for imparting this information to students. It becomes less about the activities and more about the information and how to convey it effectively. Janis Bulgren of the University of Kansas comments on this as she explains the value of the Concept Diagram. “One of the benefits of using the Concept Diagram is that during the planning the teacher explores each concept in depth. Teachers who use it indicate that as they explore a concept in detail and interact with students their confidence is increased.” (Bulgren, Strategram, April 1992) I’m sure we’ve all been on that “team” where everyone does their own thing. Who is there to share the increasing load placed on teachers? And what happens to the learner who has to move from class to class? How long will it take that learner to catch up and how much knowledge will be lost in the meantime? If every educator is on the same page with CERs, then it is no longer an educational lottery. Every teacher provides quality instruction guaranteed through Content Enhancement. Though I’m certain there are more benefits to a schoolwide system of SIM, one other powerful thing to consider is the connection that the consistency of instruction can make between facilitators and families. When schools have a consistent and strategic instructional system, it becomes easy to explain to parents how the school works to support their child’s learning. Learners can take home the devices they complete in various classes and explain them to their parents. Once again, Janis Bulgren articulates this point in relation to science instruction when she says, “To achieve the goal of science literacy for all, it is necessary that researchers, educators, parents, teachers, and agencies have common understandings about educational goals and how to achieve them.” (Bulgren, Content Area Instruction, 151-152) I would argue that this point extends to all kinds and contexts of literacy. This is the thinking that brought Content Enhancement Routines and the Strategic Instruction Model into being. It can be the glue that binds a community/educational system together.
27. What kind of hurdles can I expect when teaching Content Enhancement?
As with any new teaching strategy, there is always a learning curve when first implementing it, and there is no different in teaching Content Enhancement Routines. One myth that is dispelled in Strategram 5 is that Content Enhancement Routines are not appropriate for use by special education teachers, and instead are for the general education teacher and student only. It is important to approach Content Enhancement with the knowledge that it is for all students and can be scaffolded or accommodated to meet the varying needs of students.7 One hurdle that many people trip over is thinking that the Content Enhancement Routines do not have to be pre-filled out by teachers. Many teachers are comfortable with their content and with being able to go into class and deliver a seamless lesson. However, when implementing any new strategy or initiative, practice makes perfect, and it is important to make sure you’ve thought it all out beforehand. Co-construction of Content Enhancement Routines is one of the most common hurdles that teachers experience. When first learning the routines, it is more comfortable for a teacher to either hand out a completely filled-out device or to talk students through the device and have them copy from the projector. It takes some practice to get used to giving up control to the students and have them assist with the creation of the device. Another common hurdle that many teachers face when beginning to implement Content Enhancement Routines is, “If I don’t get it right the first time, I won’t ever get it right!” Just like anything, it takes some time and practice to get used to the cue-do-review sequence and explicit linking steps to each routine. The best advice is to have your device already constructed and have each step planned out to reference. When preparing for delivery, there is also a checklist that hits the cue-do-review sequence and every linking step to make sure the routine is planned to be delivered with fidelity.9
29. How do you infuse good staff development principles in the professional development sessions? There are staff development programs already in place in my service area.
Delivering professional development for SIM does not require a specific, set-in-stone set of staff development principles. SIM professional developers use common principles of working with adult learners that are easily adapted to meet the needs of any staff development program in any service area, district, or campus. The importance is to ensure that quality some basic tenets of training adult learners are in place. First and foremost, any staff development program should have principles that address “adults’ inherent readiness to learn and their valuing such activities as: critical reflection, autonomous learning, experiential learning through active participation, real life learning with application, and a content focus.” Before any professional development is delivered, the adult learner must have a motivational perspective about their incentive to participate and be an active participant. All too often, teachers are directed to attend particular professional developments and they aren’t front-loaded with what they will learn, how it will help their students, and how it will grow them as a professional. Adult learners need motivation, just like students. During the professional development, it is important to keep several key factors in mind, as they influence participation and attention. The factors range from the work climate, the sense of progress, the amount of engagement, and the sense of worth or usefulness to the learner. Once professional development is completed and it is time to take the learning back to campus and implement in the classroom, it is imperative to make sure there are systems in place to keep the initiative going. This can include support and coaching, feedback, follow-up professional development, etc. No matter the current staff development program, these three main aspects should be at the heart of any program. It is important to keep these in mind when planning and delivering professional development.8
Additional Works Cited 1 SMARTER TEACHING: Developing Accommodations to Reduce Cognitive Barriers to Learning for Individuals with Learning Disabilities 2 Strategram, Volume 6, Number 3, March 1944 3 Strategram, Volume 10, Number 3, April 1998 4 Effective Professional Development for Adult Learners 5 Ensuring Success in the Secondary General Education Curriculum Through the Use of Teaching Routines 6 Effective Content-Area Instruction For All Students 7 Strategram, Volume 9, Number 5, August 1997 8 Effective Professional Development for Adult Learners 9 The Content Enhancement Series Books
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?
Two forces present in every classroom work counter to a teacher’s best efforts: the Instructional Time 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 can be selected through state standards or the lowest performing standards. SIM Content Enhancement provides tools and strategies to assist teachers in planning “SMARTER”.Working with students to learn and understand the routines takes an initial investment of time, and as a result more focused learning takes place for all students. By planning SMARTER, here is what teachers must do: S: Select critical content to be taught and develop critical questions that students should be able to answer by the end of instruction M: Map the critical content in a way that will be meaningful to the students A. Analyze why critical content might be difficult to learn R. Reach decisions about how content will be taught and which routines and strategies can enhance instruction T. Teach student about content enhancement routines and strategies and how to use them to be actively involved in the learning E. Evaluate mastery of critical content R. 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. Strategic Instruction in the Content Areas by Janis Bulgren and Keith Lens Strategram, Volume 10, Number 3, April 1998
3. Why should I teach Content Enhancement Routines to my students? The reality is that you are not “teaching” Content Enhancement Routines; you are using them as a powerful, research based, tool to amplify your personal teaching style and curriculum. Content Enhancement Routines are powerful tools to help learners master the content in a given subject. Through the planning, design, and creation of a Routine teachers determine which information is most important for students to know about their content. It is this design that makes CERs so powerful. The way the information or characteristics are placed in specific categories corresponds directly to the hierarchical patterns of superordinate, coordinate, and subordinate concepts into which a concept fits. The CERs also offer an array of designs that can provide scaffolded instruction for differentiation. They are one of the most powerful ways to enhance not only your teaching but more importantly your students’ learning. Instructional Practices Designed to Promote Success for Students with Disabilities in Inclusive Secondary content classrooms A Review of Literature (March 2001).
4. How does Content Enhancement increase student involvement in the classroom?
Classrooms in which Content Enhancement Routines are used with fidelity and successfully rely on the Cue, Do, Review process to allow an increase in student involvement. In addition, Linking Steps unwrap the devices in an easy to understand process for students and teachers alike. As a result, student’s confidence level increases and creates a safe environment for learning and sharing. Students will always be engaged in these types of classrooms. Because teachers identify the content that they judge to be most important and teach it using powerful routines that actively engage students, the class sees relevance and thus the teacher secures buy-in. Content Enhancement is a way of teaching an academically diverse group of students in which four conditions prevail. First, both group and individual needs are valued and met. 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. Last, instruction is carried out in a partnership with students. Some Content Enhancement Routines show students how to think about and organize content in such a way they see the organization. Others help teachers explain text, topics, and details. A third group helps teach complex concepts to students gain a deep understanding and develop a shared vocabulary for talking about important information. A final group of routines help students complete work in the classroom. All of the routines promote direct, explicit instruction. This type of instruction helps students who are struggling, but it also, facilitates problem-solving and critical thinking skills for students who are doing well in class. http://www.kucrl.org/sim/contnent.shtml
5. How will Content Enhancement work with my really low students? How?
Research conducted by the Institute for Academic Access (IAA) whose members are Don Deshler and Jean Schumaker of the University of Kansas resulted in the Content Literacy Continuum. The CLC enhances content instruction with the goal that students learn critical content required, regardless of literacy levels. This framework provided rationales for research on and development of both individual and integrated sets of Content Enhancement Routines (CERs). Content Enhancement (CE) principles, on which all CERs are based, support both students and teachers. The teacher acts as a mediator of instruction, builds on students’ prior knowledge, selects the most important content information, and organizes and transforms that information so that all students can succeed. This approach uses collaboratively developed graphic devices to help students understand and generalize information, and to benefit from different ways of learning. Content Enhancements respond to teachers’ recommendations for using a variety of teaching methods and modifying curriculum, and the need for higher-order thinking scaffolds. Each graphic device is designed to support a specific goal of learning. Using an integrated set of Content Enhancement Routines holds the promise of helping all students respond to rigorous content-area standards by incorporating individually researched routines throughout a course. Integrated Content Enhancement Routines
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
9. How will I be able to teach my students Learning Strategies and Content Enhancement?
First, I think it important to recognize what the Learning Strategies and Content Enhancement Routines were designed to do. If you look at the Content Literacy Continuum, CERs are typically used to help learners master critical concepts in the general education classroom setting. They serve as kind of the foundation for building student understanding of critical concepts. Learning Strategies are more targeted interventions that help strengthen the foundations of learners who struggle with mastering those critical concepts. They can serve as let’s say “additives” that strengthen the concrete and help prevent the foundation from cracking. The key is to be strategic. To quote from the CLC itself, Level 2, which addresses how Learning Strategies fit in to the larger literacy picture: “From a small set of powerful learning strategies, teachers select one or two strategies that match the specific demands needed to learn the critical content in their core curriculum courses. … Teachers adopt a mindset that it is important to embed instruction in learning strategies within content-area instruction.” (Strategic Instruction Model, Content Literacy Continuum) As professional educators, we evaluate the needs of our students, strategically choose the right CER for the right concept and then embed one or two Learning Strategies that will best support our learners’ comprehension when/if we see cracks in their comprehension. We integrate and embed. We don’t do everything.
11. Why is the cue-do-review sequence so important?
Every SIM routine is purposefully crafted with an instructional sequence that helps teachers instruct strategically. According to Lenz and Scanlon, the cue-do-review sequence has the teachers explain the device, explain how it will help them and include them in the creation of the device, and lead students through the creation and use of the device. Furthermore, the next time the device would be helpful for students in working with content, it is recommended to remind them of the cue-do-review sequence and go through it with them again. Through the repetition of steps, students will be able to become more independent in their use of the devices.1 The cue-do-review sequence “provides an overall structure for how the [device] and linking steps are embedded in the lesson.” To be more specific, the cue draws the students’ attention to the device being utilized. The do explicitly involves students in the process of utilizing the device to “target and structure critical information at the beginning of and during the lesson.” The review wraps up the lesson and helps to check the effectiveness of the device.2 The cue-do-review sequence utilizes an “I do, we do, y’all do, you do” approach to instruction to gradually release control of the learning to the students while scaffolding and supporting the learning. The sequence is so important because it keeps teachers and students on track to hit every part of the lesson and the device to ensure fidelity and maximize student learning.3
15. How can I get administrative support?
As with any professional development and new strategy or initiative to take back to campus and implement in the classroom, administrative support is key in ensuring fidelity of implementation. This is why it is so important for administrators to participate in every professional development for each SIM routine that their campus receives. According to the article “Effective Professional Development for Adult Learners,” the “two strongest influences to support transfer are the organizational support and the immediate supervisor’s support for utilizing new competencies”.4 Administrators must put measures into place to ensure that the SIM routines learned and their teachers have the resources and support in place to become more adept in integrating the routines into their contents in order to increase literacy and build fidelity in the Content Literacy Continuum. Schumaker, Deshler, and McKnight argue in their article that administrators or other organizational leaders must provide necessary financial and personnel support. Furthermore, it is vital that they explicitly “voice the necessary expectations so that learning specialists and general education teachers, in turn, can fulfill their roles and can work together productively.”5 To sum up, the support of the administration is paramount to ensuring success in SIM. Ask your administrator for any support needed. Make sure to articulate your concerns explicitly and ask for how you can best implement SIM in your classroom. Work with your SIM instructional coach or other SIM professional developers/supporters in your district to ensure the support to implement SIM with fidelity is in place.
17. How will I get general education teachers to “buy in” to Content Enhancement?
Content Enhancement was originally “designed to respond to the needs of teachers as they analyze curriculum and content standards, the learning needs of a variety of students, the demands associated with complex content information, and the need to create learning partnerships in communities of learners. In short, it is intended to help all students learn and use content information in “inclusive general education classes.” Developed around graphic organizers with explicit linking steps, Content Enhancement Routines help all students to build on prior knowledge, provide multiple opportunities for practice without penalty, and allows for a variety of responses based on different learning styles and abilities. All Content Enhancement Routines are based on prior research “showing how students’ understanding of critical information can be enhanced by focusing on attributes, properties or characteristics by which things are placed in categories of classes, the rules by which these attributes are joined in a concept class, hierarchical patterns of… concepts, and examples of concepts….” The purpose behind the creation of Content Enhancement Routines is to help students learn content information and strengthen their content structures. Research has validated the use of routines with general education, as well as special education students, to enhance the learning experience, as well as retain content and increase understanding.6
18. How do I fit Content Enhancement into my day?
Ideally, using a CER is the bulk of your day. Through the SMARTER planning process, you will have identified the critical concepts that need to be enhanced in order for students to truly grasp them. Then while analyzing those concepts and deciding the most effective approach to their instruction – that’s when you select the appropriate Content Enhancement Routine. Following the linking steps within the Cue-Do-Review lesson cycle, you co-construct the CER’s device with the students as they break down the concept through the routine. So the CER becomes your lesson and the students become empowered over their own learning. Let’s hear from an expert, Janis Bulgren of the University of Kansas. She explains that: “Specifically, the major use of the Concept Teaching Routine is to promote understanding of information. However, other Content Enhancement Routines are also designed to enhance the meaningfulness of by helping students organize, remember and believe in the importance of information. Used together as part of a teacher’s instructional plan, these Content Enhancement Routines can potentially increase the chances that students at risk for school failure, students with learning disabilities, and students without learning disabilities will learn content as part of regular classroom instruction.” (Bulgren, Strategram, June 1992) So it really isn’t about “fitting” in CERs, it’s about utilizing them as effective, efficient tools for instruction so that our students learn. And that’s our main goal as educators anyway. Win, win.
20. How will I persuade other teachers in my school to use Content Enhancement?
The simple answer is through your own example. From my own teaching experience, I recognize that I learn best when I see other teachers using a CER. By the same token, if I see a teacher modeling a CER, I can be pretty certain that he/she believes in its effectiveness or realistically, he/she would have stopped or never started using it, right? When I see my colleagues get results, I want them too. Teacher is just another word for thief after all. Still not convinced? Let’s show them the numbers. The Strategic Instruction Model and its Content Enhancement Routines are not only research-based, they are research-validated. That means that each and every CER that KU puts out into the educational world has been tried and tested through rigorous studies with real students in real classrooms. For example, when conducting research on the Concept Mastery Routine, (then known as the Concept Teaching Routine,) Bulgren, Schumaker, & Deshler found that “both students with LD and other students wrote three times more items of concept-related information in their notes than before the Concept Teaching Routine was used. When students took the test over the concept information covered in a given unit, mean test scores also increased above the baseline levels for all students. … During baseline only 57% of the students with learning disabilities were passing the regularly scheduled unit tests. During the concept training and review conditions, however, 75% of the students with learning disabilities were passing the tests.” (Teaching Routines for General Education, 809-810) And that’s just one routine! With the Concept Anchoring Routine, LD students earned an average test score of 69% as opposed to 40% for those LD students who had not learned the routine. Roughly the same happened for low-achieving and general education students. For Concept Comparison, mean test scores for low-achieving students went from 63% to 86% and gen ed students went from 76% to 84%. Every group of learners benefitted from using these routines. (Teaching Routines for General Education, 810) Research to support every published routine is available to help “persuade” your fellow educators that they really do work for kids.
22. How long will it take for my students to learn to create their own Content Enhancement devices?
Well, as in most things related to kids, it depends on the kid. But there are some general things to consider. The more opportunities you give students to practice with the device, the faster they will absorb it. One of the fundamental aspects of the Content Enhancement Routines is that devices should be co-created with learners. That means that the teacher has to let go of some the control and provide time for learners to think and resources for them to use. When you act more as a facilitator who asks higher level questions to elicit higher level answers from students, then you are strategically supporting learners as they prepare for that gradual release of responsibility – “you do.” You may also start with some of the less complicated routines like the FRAME. Students tend to grab hold of this device quicker than the others because it allows them to organize the information that often gets thrown at them. With a simple structure, the FRAME can be used as a note-noting device, a review sheet, a formative assessment and much more. So how do you get students to use the devices on their own? Like we mentioned before, gradually release the responsibility to them. Schumaker, Deshler and McKnight of the University of Kansas provide some useful ideas for how to go about this. For example, using cooperative group instruction. “In essence, with this method, the teacher introduces the strategy to the whole class, and then students work in cooperative groups during the practice activities to help each other master the strategy.” (Teaching Routines for General Education, 801-802) Research done to test the effectiveness of this approach using the Sentence Writing Strategy and the Paraphrasing Strategy found that all types of learners “showed improvement in their skills and mastered the use of the strategy.” (Teaching Routines for General Education, 802) These experts also suggest peer tutoring as a way to promote the use of these devices and even having one peer provide instruction to several other students in a small group setting. In this manner, the teacher becomes the facilitator, but the learner becomes the owner of the routine and master of the device. How long that takes is really up to you.
26. What are the benefits of schoolwide implementation of Content Enhancement?
Whenever you can provide consistency for the adolescent mind, you increase the potential for comprehension and retention. Put yourself in their shoes. Every time you enter a new classroom, you have to reset your mind for the new teacher expectations, the new content, the new students, the new environment – and you have to make that shift in just a couple of minutes. I don’t know that many adults that can make that shift let alone students with developing minds and awkward bodies. When students go from class to class and have to reset and relearn the rules for learning, their minds are not processing the information we want them to master. Their minds are focused on the transition from one teacher to another and adjusting to new expectations. Lead4Ward calls this cognitive hopscotch. By utilizing the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) across the campus, we reduce, if not eliminate, the hopscotch effect and allow our students to focus on the information processing. We provide the consistency in expectation and safety in learning that our learners need so badly. Students will become familiar with the process of the CERs being used and can then focus primarily on the information the routine is designed to help them understand. As a schoolwide instructional system, there are few, if any, better than SIM in my opinion (and in the research, too). Another benefit includes the teacher in providing them a common language for planning. In my experience, SMARTER Planning has fostered a more cohesive PLC and a more collaborative team of teachers. Everyone knows the process of planning, so that conversations and considerations delve more deeply into the standards, the critical concepts, and the strategies for imparting this information to students. It becomes less about the activities and more about the information and how to convey it effectively. Janis Bulgren of the University of Kansas comments on this as she explains the value of the Concept Diagram. “One of the benefits of using the Concept Diagram is that during the planning the teacher explores each concept in depth. Teachers who use it indicate that as they explore a concept in detail and interact with students their confidence is increased.” (Bulgren, Strategram, April 1992) I’m sure we’ve all been on that “team” where everyone does their own thing. Who is there to share the increasing load placed on teachers? And what happens to the learner who has to move from class to class? How long will it take that learner to catch up and how much knowledge will be lost in the meantime? If every educator is on the same page with CERs, then it is no longer an educational lottery. Every teacher provides quality instruction guaranteed through Content Enhancement. Though I’m certain there are more benefits to a schoolwide system of SIM, one other powerful thing to consider is the connection that the consistency of instruction can make between facilitators and families. When schools have a consistent and strategic instructional system, it becomes easy to explain to parents how the school works to support their child’s learning. Learners can take home the devices they complete in various classes and explain them to their parents. Once again, Janis Bulgren articulates this point in relation to science instruction when she says, “To achieve the goal of science literacy for all, it is necessary that researchers, educators, parents, teachers, and agencies have common understandings about educational goals and how to achieve them.” (Bulgren, Content Area Instruction, 151-152) I would argue that this point extends to all kinds and contexts of literacy. This is the thinking that brought Content Enhancement Routines and the Strategic Instruction Model into being. It can be the glue that binds a community/educational system together.
27. What kind of hurdles can I expect when teaching Content Enhancement?
As with any new teaching strategy, there is always a learning curve when first implementing it, and there is no different in teaching Content Enhancement Routines. One myth that is dispelled in Strategram 5 is that Content Enhancement Routines are not appropriate for use by special education teachers, and instead are for the general education teacher and student only. It is important to approach Content Enhancement with the knowledge that it is for all students and can be scaffolded or accommodated to meet the varying needs of students.7 One hurdle that many people trip over is thinking that the Content Enhancement Routines do not have to be pre-filled out by teachers. Many teachers are comfortable with their content and with being able to go into class and deliver a seamless lesson. However, when implementing any new strategy or initiative, practice makes perfect, and it is important to make sure you’ve thought it all out beforehand. Co-construction of Content Enhancement Routines is one of the most common hurdles that teachers experience. When first learning the routines, it is more comfortable for a teacher to either hand out a completely filled-out device or to talk students through the device and have them copy from the projector. It takes some practice to get used to giving up control to the students and have them assist with the creation of the device. Another common hurdle that many teachers face when beginning to implement Content Enhancement Routines is, “If I don’t get it right the first time, I won’t ever get it right!” Just like anything, it takes some time and practice to get used to the cue-do-review sequence and explicit linking steps to each routine. The best advice is to have your device already constructed and have each step planned out to reference. When preparing for delivery, there is also a checklist that hits the cue-do-review sequence and every linking step to make sure the routine is planned to be delivered with fidelity.9
29. How do you infuse good staff development principles in the professional development sessions? There are staff development programs already in place in my service area.
Delivering professional development for SIM does not require a specific, set-in-stone set of staff development principles. SIM professional developers use common principles of working with adult learners that are easily adapted to meet the needs of any staff development program in any service area, district, or campus. The importance is to ensure that quality some basic tenets of training adult learners are in place. First and foremost, any staff development program should have principles that address “adults’ inherent readiness to learn and their valuing such activities as: critical reflection, autonomous learning, experiential learning through active participation, real life learning with application, and a content focus.” Before any professional development is delivered, the adult learner must have a motivational perspective about their incentive to participate and be an active participant. All too often, teachers are directed to attend particular professional developments and they aren’t front-loaded with what they will learn, how it will help their students, and how it will grow them as a professional. Adult learners need motivation, just like students. During the professional development, it is important to keep several key factors in mind, as they influence participation and attention. The factors range from the work climate, the sense of progress, the amount of engagement, and the sense of worth or usefulness to the learner. Once professional development is completed and it is time to take the learning back to campus and implement in the classroom, it is imperative to make sure there are systems in place to keep the initiative going. This can include support and coaching, feedback, follow-up professional development, etc. No matter the current staff development program, these three main aspects should be at the heart of any program. It is important to keep these in mind when planning and delivering professional development.8
Additional Works Cited 1 SMARTER TEACHING: Developing Accommodations to Reduce Cognitive Barriers to Learning for Individuals with Learning Disabilities 2 Strategram, Volume 6, Number 3, March 1944 3 Strategram, Volume 10, Number 3, April 1998 4 Effective Professional Development for Adult Learners 5 Ensuring Success in the Secondary General Education Curriculum Through the Use of Teaching Routines 6 Effective Content-Area Instruction For All Students 7 Strategram, Volume 9, Number 5, August 1997 8 Effective Professional Development for Adult Learners 9 The Content Enhancement Series Books