The 10 Essential Elements Story
We as teachers design instruction with the great intent and hope that all of our students will have meaningful, relevant and rigorous academic engagement every day. This idealism matched with the reality and the challenge of educating and inspiring all students, every day, with high quality instruction, is a lofty task and one that we teachers embrace with great will and passion.
During the 2007 – 2008 school year, former Superintendent Tom Murphy formed district wide advisory committees to evaluate and reflect on the levels of effectiveness regarding student achievement across the district. These advisories gathered district wide student data and educational research to help make recommendations to improve student achievement in Federal Way. The most explicit recommendations came from the ELL Advisory Committee. Their recommendations led to a district wide focus on ten essential elements that identify high quality instruction. This grass roots process validated the voices of educators across the district that impact teaching and learning. From this leadership, a call to action emerged: a common focus of the 10 Essential Elements. These, ten essential elements originate from research gathered from over thirty years of studies compiled in Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock’s book, Classroom Instruction that Works, 2001.
According to Dr. Bob Marzano there are actually 45 strategies that identify high quality instruction, but to start with a few to focus on is a vital beginning, but not an end in itself. These elements can have a positive impact on student achievement, if our district and school systems are highly effective and there is a highly effective teacher leading, teaching, and inspiring students every day to rise to their full potential. If we can bring to light a true symphony in our complex system of education, then our possibilities are endless.
The Teaching for Learning Department is committed to providing meaningful and high quality professional learning workshops to educate, inspire and model high quality teaching. We are designing our systems to be comprehensive (meet the needs of our staff in a tiered model), efficient (provide PD that is chunked and offered in various venues, one to one, small group and whole group) and constant (developing a cycle that promotes professional conversations). We look forward to partnering with educators across the district to reach our goals.
Research – Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement
Identifying Similarities & Differences |