The Goldilocks Principle of Effective Scaffolding
Have you ever looked at a student's work and thought, "This is too easy for them," or maybe you thought, "They're completely lost"? Those thoughts are your teaching instinct informing...
Acceleration Strategies and Interventions Blog
Whether you’re looking for additional support for struggling students, or instructional strategies to improve student engagement, Learning-Focused is here to help. Check out our Accelerated Learning 101 guide and our articles below, designed for educators and school leaders looking for proven, data-driven insights, tools, and classroom tips.
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Curriculum Planning: Why (and How) Educators Should Adopt a Standards-Driven Approach
Have you ever considered how you approach travel planning may be the same as how you approach curriculum planning? I love traveling, but I must sheepishly admit I think I...
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For Instructional Improvement, Address the Knowing-Doing Gap Represented In Instructional Continuums
If learning can be thought of as a continuum or an ongoing journey to improve, adapt, and grow, then so must instruction. After all, instructional improvement, or effective instruction, is...
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"Reviewing" Strategies That Increase Student Achievement
How do exemplary schools use “Reviewing” strategies to increase student achievement? When reviewing for end-of-course tests or final exams, or even unit tests, there are several things to consider doing...
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Five Strategies to Increase Student Motivation
Why are some students reluctant to learn? Experienced teachers will tell you that there are many reasons why a student may be less than enthusiastic about learning, such as hunger,...
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3 Previewing Strategy Examples That Increase the Impact of Technology
Technology has often been seen as a catalyst that would revolutionize education. But whether that technology was papyrus and ink, slate and chalk, the Socratic Method, or a Chromebook, what...
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Ways To Reduce Stress for Students: 3 Actionable Classroom Tips
In his book, Mind Rules, John Medina describes key principles on how the brain works. One of these principles is “Stressed brains do not learn the same way as non-stressed...
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Accelerate Learning: How Do You Move Them Forward Quickly and Effectively?
Schools and school districts know the importance of communicating a shared vision of success for their students, staff, and community. This vision often focuses on the idea of preparing students...
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Scaffolding Supports Student Success
How can the use of scaffolding support student achievement? “Start with where you want them to be (the grade level standard) and make it learnable.” (C. Boyles). As educators, we...
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Learning Loss Recovery: 2 Case Studies of Successful Schools
There has been an ongoing discussion of COVID learning loss: how much learning did students forget from March of 2020 to the school’s return and how effective hybrid or complete...
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ELL Classroom Strategies: Activating Prior Knowledge in English Language Learners
There are many challenges that face students whose native language is other than English and whose background experiences may have occurred in a different culture and geography. Early experiences may...
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Behavior Management In the Classroom or Academic Instruction: What Comes First?
A popular viewpoint among educators is that discipline must come before instruction. Because student disruptions create a ripple effect across a classroom, teachers often feel forced to immediately deal with...
