2. Learning Focused SchoolsWhat is it? The Learning Focused Schools model provides the roadmap for educators to deliver a consistent and pervasive strategy of learning that organizes and relates information for better retention and achievement for students long term. ("Learning focused: solutions," 2010) http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2179120975/
3. Learning Focused ResearchFive Top Strategies Each of the top five strategies related to the Learning Focused approach have been researched for over 20 years by several different sources and well-known educational leaders in the field. Extended Thinking Summarizing Vocabulary in Context Advanced Organizers Non-Verbal Representations ("Learning focused: solutions," 2010) http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2551039289/
4. Extended Thinking Extended Thinking activities involve moving students past acquisition skills into the highest order of thinking where they must connect their knowledge in some way to produce new information. Examples of this would include activities that promote: Comparing and contrasting – Abstracting – Categorizing – Inductive Reasoning – Deductive Reasoning – Error Analysis - http://www.flickr.com/photos/nypl/3110133998/
5. Summarizing Summarizing involves learning more than teaching! When students summarize, which may very well be the key thinking strategy for learning, they do two things: they construct meaning for themselves and bring to light any confusion or misunderstanding for the teacher to correct. Activities that summarize include: Learning logs/journals – Ticket Out – Create organizers – The Important Thing – KWL charts - http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlscotland/3007997338/
6. Vocabulary in Context In order for vocabulary to be remembered over time, the new vocabulary must be presented in context to the student. It must be connected to an idea or concept and not taught in isolation. This is one of the top ideas when dealing with Learning Focused methodology. http://www.flickr.com/photos/streetfly_jz/2754459246/
7. Advanced Organizers Graphic organizers create a visual representation of how information fits and flows together. Reinforcing what students hear with a visual that they actually fill in on their own creates not only the visual for them, but creates repetition of facts that will also help them retain the information for longer periods of time. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmiehomeschoolmom/3820231770/
8. Non-Verbal Representations Non-verbal representations are graphics that depict a word or phrase. These representations put a mental image with a definition of word or phrase so that they may be more readily remembered through association versus rote memory. This type of approach produces a longer term memory of words for students.
9. References Learning focused: solutions that work. (2010). Retrieved April 12, 2011, from http://www.learningfocused.com/index.php/why-learning- focused Flickr. (2011). Retrieved April 13, 2011, from http://www.flickr.com/commons
