- 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?
The expert teacher knows when material is so difficult that students need support in the form of organizational maps to see relationships or when students need an analogy to learn. This will save time in the long run of having to reteach something. Content Enhancement Routines are used as a tool for all teachers to use as they recognize the needs of their students, content area standards and growing assessment demands. It is important to identify the critical content and focus instruction on that critical content rather than teaching less critical information. Using the SMARTER planning process will help teachers promote the information in ways that are more accessible for the students. By planning SMARTER, teachers select critical content outcomes and questions, map the organization of the content, analyze difficulties in learning, reach enhancement decisions, teach according to those decisions, evaluate, and reteach based on that evaluation.
Bulgren, J. A. (2004) Effective content-area instruction for all students. Research in Secondary Schools Advances in Learning and Behavioral Disabilities, Volume 17, 147 - 174.
4. How does Content Enhancement increase student involvement in the classroom?
One of the principles that content enhancement routines are based on is that students learn more when they are actively involved in the learning process. This helps the students enhance their retention of the content. All of the routines are co-constructed where the students and the teacher can work together to fill in the organizer. It can also be filled in by students in groups where the teacher serves as a facilitator. It is exciting to watch teachers find unique ways to incorporate co-construction into the content enhancement routines. When students are able to get involved in the learning process, the content tends to be more relevants and they are able to retain more of the information. Students make personal connections in some way when using each routine.
Schumaker, J. B., Deshler, D. D., McKnight, Phillip C. Ensuring success in the secondary general education curriculum through the use of teaching routines. Interventions for Achievement and Behavior Problems, (29) 791 - 823.
6. Why do I need to know about the “big picture” of SIM?
Knowing the “big picture” of SIM will help you understand how, why, and when to use the different Content Enhancement Routines and Learning Strategies. In the classroom, we are able to promote content literacy knowledge by using interventions within the content areas. Understanding the 5 levels of the Content Literacy Continuum will ensure that the students attain content literacy as well as learn subject-matter content. The Content Enhancement Routines such as Unit Organizer, Concept Comparison, and Recall Enhancement all have been designed by and for general education teachers to use while instructing diverse classes. Each intervention level has specific routines and/or embedded Learning Strategies to assist in student learning. Only by understanding the “big picture” can an educator successfully provide “a comprehensive, well-conceptualized array of services that are focused on developing independent learners.
Deshler, D.D., Schumaker, J. B., Lenz B. K., Bulgren, J. A., Hock, M. F., Knight, J., and Ehren, B. J. (2001) Ensuring content-area learning by secondary students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 16(2), 96 - 108.
9. How will I be able to teach my students Learning Strategies and Content Enhancement?
This question is important due to the new challenges that educators are facing. There is more complex information that the students are required to know resulting in thicker textbooks that are difficult to comprehend and students must meet certain standards showing academic improvement and success. This is especially difficult when teaching secondary students with learning disabilities. Learning strategies and content enhancement routines will help meet these needs in an effective, efficient way. When using content enhancement routines, teachers are able to teach the content matter ensuring that they are able to understand it and remember it by using a variety of routines for organization, understanding, recalling, and application by actively involving students in the process. The teaching of the eight stages of a learning strategy may involve support from other professionals such as a coteacher or learning specialist. The strategies can be taught during small group instruction and/or choice time. The group of students receiving learning strategy instruction are typically at-risk students and are identified for the strategy based on student need. In the general ed classroom, teachers are able to embed the mnemonic for the strategy and those receiving the strategy are able to be leaders within the classroom on how to embed it in other content classes.
Schumaker, J. B., Deshler, D. D., McKnight, Phillip C. Ensuring success in the secondary general education curriculum through the use of teaching routines. Interventions for Achievement and Behavior Problems, (29) 791 - 823.
10. Why do I need to sit through hours of staff development in Content Enhancement? Can’t I just get the manuals?
Reading the manuals gives basic information and is a great resource but attending the actual trainings will allow the participants to see demonstrations of the Content Enhancement Routines and Learning Strategies. It is important for teachers to see a model of the routine or strategy. By attending training, implementation is more likely and teachers feel more confident seeing the model and when given time to create and implement SIM. The training gives step by step instruction on implementation and the logic behind it. Teachers are given time to apply this to their subject area and collaborate with other grade level content area teachers.
“What Can We Do About Teacher Resistance?” Phi Delta Kappan by Jim Knight, March 2009.
11. Why is the Cue-Do-Review Sequence so important?
Content Enhancement Routines are based on five principles.
- students learn more when actively involved;
- students learn abstract content easier if it is presented in concrete form;
- students learn more information when the structure or organization of the information is presented to them first and when relationships among pieces of information are explicitly taught;
- students are more likely to learn new information if it is tied to information they already know;
- students learn more important information if that information is distinguished from unimportant information.
Schumaker, J. B., Deshler, D. D., McKnight, Phillip C. Ensuring success in the secondary general education curriculum through the use of teaching routines. Interventions for Achievement and Behavior Problems, (29) 791 - 823.
15. How can I get administrative support?
Administrative support is extremely important to the implementation of the Strategic Instruction Model. They must provide the financial support, voice the necessary expectations to teachers and others involved so that they can fulfill their roles and work collaboratively. Administrators must also provide ongoing professional development for staff members. They must also require accountability in the form of reports of student progress. If there is no prior knowledge of SIM, a meeting should be set up to provide an overview and answer any questions they may have. It is important to show the research so they know that it is proven to be a best practice. Administrators should be able to see SIM in action to gain deeper knowledge about the routines and strategies. Have the students share their thoughts about SI and how it has helped them.Schumaker, J. B., Deshler, D. D., McKnight, Phillip C. Ensuring success in the secondary general education curriculum through the use of teaching routines. Interventions for Achievement and Behavior Problems, (29) 791 - 823.
16. What Content Enhancement Routines can I use with my high achievers?
The Institute for Academic Access (IAA) did research which focused on the teaching of content material to students regardless of level of literacy. The CLC framework provides rationales for research and development of Content Enhancement Routines (CERs). The principles on which all CERs are based support both students and teachers. The teacher, as the mediator of instruction, builds on students’ prior knowledge, selects the most critical content information, and organizes the information so that all students can be successful. This approach uses graphic devices that are collaboratively developed to help students understand and generalize the information. Students benefit from the different ways of learning. CERs help teachers to use a variety of teaching methods, modify the curriculum, and scaffold learning for higher order thinking. Using an integrated set of CERs enables the teacher to help all students respond to rigorous content standards by incorporating researched routines throughout the course.
Bulgren, Janis A. Integrated Content Enhancement Routines: Responding to the Needs of Adolescents with Disabilities in Rigorous Inclusive Secondary Content Classes. Teaching Exceptional Children, 38(6), 54 - 58.
17. How will I get general education teacher to “buy-in” to Content Enhancement?
A Content Enhancement Routine is a set of integrated instructional procedures designed to help structure teaching so that learning difficulties are addressed in the content classroom. A routine is built around an instructional device and involves the delivery of large amounts of information. They are designed to enhance the meaningfulness of content by helping students organize, remember and believe in the importance of information. Used together as a 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,k and students without learning disabilities will learn content as part of regular classroom instruction.
Strategram, Vol 4 (5) June 1992, “Concept Teaching Routine”, Janis Bulgren.
18. How do I fit Content Enhancement into my day?
There are numerous ways to effectively and efficiently incorporate Content Enhancement into the day. The Course Organizer, Unit Organizer, Lesson Organizer, Quality Assignment, and Survey Routines all set the stage for learning, launching a process that requires in-depth conceptual and factual knowledge. The Concept Mastery, Concept Anchoring, and Concept Comparison Routines focus on the acquisition of conceptual knowledge. The Clarifying and Recall Enhancement Routines focus on the acquisition of factual knowledge. There are many opportunities throughout the day that teachers can revisit their content enhancement routines. If a teacher “floats” a routine, this means they are referring back to it in some way. They might be filling out another part of the routine, answering questions, or reviewing what they have already learned from it.
Strategram, Vol 9 (5) August 1997, “Routines to Strengthen Learning: An In-Depth Look at Content Enhancement” by Keith Lenz.
20. How will I persuade other teachers in my school to use Content Enhancement?
Truly the research speaks for itself. Content Enhancement Routines support both students and teachers as they respond to rigorous course challenges. The teacher serves 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. It uses collaboratively developed graphic organizers to help students understand and generalize information, and to benefit from different ways of learning. Content Enhancement Routines respond to teachers’ recommendations for using a variety of teaching methods and modifying curriculum, and the need for higher-order thinking.
Bulgren, J. A. (2006) Integrated Content Enhancement Routines: Responding to the needs of adolescents with disabilities in rigorous inclusive secondary content classes. Teaching Exceptional Children, Vol 38, No 6, 54 - 58.
21. Now that I have knowledge about Content Enhancement, how do I know which routines to use first? Is there any sequence?
Though there is not a specific order as to which routines to use and when, it is important to understand the three general sets of Content Enhancement Routines so that you can make the best decisions about what routines to use when. The first set is setting the stage. This includes the Course Organizer, Unit Organizer, Lesson Organizer, Quality Assignment, and Survey Routines which all set the stage for learning, launching a process that requires in-depth conceptual and factual knowledge. The second set is learning conceptual knowledge. This includes the Concept Mastery, Concept Anchoring, and Concept Comparison Routines which focus on the acquisition of conceptual knowledge. The third set is mastering factual knowledge. This includes the Clarifying and Recall Enhancement Routines which focus on the acquisition of factual knowledge. When implementing Content Enhancement Routines in my school, the sequence that worked best for our campus was teaching Course Organizer first and Unit Organizer second. These two seemed like the best tools to start with and then using the other routines throughout the course and units.
Strategram, Vol 9 (5) August 1997, “Routines to Strengthen Learning: An In-Depth Look at Content Enhancement” by Keith Lenz