Cien Por Ciento

Something I obsessed over as a principal (and should have obsessed over even more than I did as a teacher!) is helping 100% of a classroom's children master a lesson (or unit...or course) objective.  While some might argue that not all children are ready or that 100% is an unreasonable goal, I would counter with our school's long-term goals:  100% of students attend the 4 year college or university of their choice & 100% of students are fully bilingual and biliterate within 3 - 5 years of dual language participation.  Lofty goals for sure!  However, the whole premise of IDEA Public Schools is that every child who chooses to enroll will have the benefit of being in a classroom, school, district that believes he or she can and will go to college.  Will every child in our community go to college?  No, not likely.  However, it should never be a school deciding who should or shouldn't attend college.  That's for a student and her parents to decide.  Every child should be encouraged to shoot for the stars and given an education that can equip them to actually reach them.

So, if a school's long term goal is 100%, then the only way to get there is by obsessing over short-term 100%s--at the semester, quarterly, weekly, and daily levels.  And it then follows that the only way to help 100% of a classroom's students master a lesson objective is to engage 100% of them in meaningful practice of that objective and in high-level questioning about their new learning.

Now, think about a typical classroom's whole group instruction.  A teacher asks a question and an excited student or two raise their hands to answer it.  If your class size is 24, then you just engaged a mere 8% in answering your question.  You then have a brief practice activity that you call 4 or 5 students to come up and participate in while the others watch.  You just engaged 21% of your class in meaningful practice of the lesson objective while the remaining 79% remained, essentially, mentally and physically disengaged.  You are especially careful to shelter your second language learners--you don't ask them questions or engage them in whole group practice as it might be difficult for them to handle making a language mistake in front of their peers.  More than likely your ELLs (or SLLs) know they'll never be asked to do things during whole group (or at least to do difficult things!) so a good 100% of them have no need to really try and understand your instruction.  You then send the children to their desks to do some independent work, hoping that 100% will master the objective.  However, only roughly half are able to do so (remember, only a small handful actually engaged in meaningful practice during your whole group instruction!) and you might chalk it up to the fact that the other half simply wasn't ready to master that yet, or any other number of reasons why such a small number mastered the lesson objective.  I know...I've occasionally thought those same things!

Instead, every student deserves to be taught by a teacher who literally obsesses over 100%--cien por ciento.  Whole group instruction should include multiple opportunities for 100% of students to engaged in meaningful practice of the lesson objective.  Here's an article that points out a few ways to accomplish this and the positive outcomes that they produce:  Click here  Will every child be ready to show mastery immediately?  Nope.  Prior knowledge/skill, developmental readiness, etc do have an impact on a child's readiness to master a skill, but the job of excellent teachers is to accelerate the journey from where children are to where they need to be.  We need to plan additional supports to help the children we already know will likely struggle (alternative approaches, scaffolding, modifications, sheltered instruction for language learners, etc).  How children get there might look a little different based on individual need, but 100% means somehow every child ends up getting there.  We have mountains of evidence that tells us great teachers are able to help all children get there, even when others around them felt that a particular child or group of children wasn't ready or capable.  It's all about the teacher and all about a total commitment to 100%.

Here are some easy ways to engage 100% of children in simultaneous practice of a lesson objective.  These can also be quick and easy checks for understanding to help you informally assess student knowledge and skills throughout and at the end of a lesson.

• Whiteboards for children to write answer and show simultaneously
• Hand signals & body kinesthetics (thumbs up/down, sign language to show letter choices, "touch your head if it's living, touch your feet if it's non-living," etc)
• Signal cards (colored cards, letters on popsicle sticks, different pictures, etc)
• Human sorts (ex:  "I'm going to show you pictures of different natural resources.  I've put up three signs on three different walls of the classroom.  If you think a resource is renewable go to that wall.  If it's non-renewable go to this wall.  If it's inexaustible, then go to the far wall."  etc)
• Electronic clickers
• Exit slips
• Turn & talk to answer question with a partner
• Think, pair, share
• Clock partners
• Clipboards for children to jot answers on while on rug
• Chalk Talk
• Here are some non-questioning techniques from Teach For America that are great for practice/checking for understanding
• Teach Like a Champion, by Doug Lemov also has lots of techniques you can use (and a DVD full of video clips with teachers modeling them) to increase rigor and ensure all students are on the path to mastery

If you've got some other great 100% ideas, leave a comment!