Chapter 5 Classroom-Level Success Factors

The focus for this chapter is simple: it's not how much you do; it's what you do, and for how long.
The earlier chapters were looking at schools. This chapter focuses on the classsroom. It talked about the classroom-level SHARE factors.
*S tandards-Based Curriculum and Instruction.
*H ope Building.
*A trts, Athletics, and Advanced Placement.
*R etooling of the Operating System.
*E ngaging Instruction.

Standards-Based Curriulum and Instruction:
Alot of this information is what we already know as teachers. It talked about aligning curriculum and instruction with state standards. The action steps that they mentioned sounded alot like project based activities. It talked about creating plans which differentiate instruction,supplemennted by other forms of support that help students perform to the level of standards. It suggested breaking down standards to daily objectives. Using pre -assessments and adjusting your lesson plans as needed.

Hope Building:
Bottom line kids that are hopeful try harder, persist longer, and ultimately get better grades. Kids in poverty have a hard time feeling hopeful. We need to help them set goas and take self inventories. Biggest point " Hope changes brain chemistry, which influences the decisions we make and the actions we take. Hopefulness must be pervasive, and every single student should be able to feel it, see it, and hear it daily."

Arts, Athletics, and Advanced Placement:
"The arts and a challenging curriculum enhance essential learning skills and cognition, whearas sports, recess, and physical activity increases neurogenesis and reduce kid's chance for depression" That statement sums up the chapter. We need to challenge students and encourage them to get involved in extra curricular activities. There are a lot of studies that show that kids involved in these activities achiever higher.

Retooling of the Operating System:
The retooling mean giving students "upgrades" in memory, attention, processing speed, and sequencing skills (Shaywitz et al., 1998) as well as in perceptual-motor skills, suditory processing, voilition, and problem-solving skills.

Engaging Instruction:
Again this is someting I hope we all do. It reminded us how important it is to develop lesson plans that include our students interests. We need to take think about our audience not just the material when we are developing lessons.