The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction: Framing the Lesson

Cain and Laird have identified a plan that if utilized efficiently and consistently will help improve teacher instruction. In their book, The 5 Fundamentals: The Formula for Quality Instruction explain that often teachers are unwilling to recognize that they need to improve. That when a new idea or strategy is presented to them they simply claim, "I already do that." and ignore the opportunity to grow and improve as an educator. The 5 Fundamentals will help improve the focus of education. It will provide a foundation for teachers to reflect and revamp their instructional tools. The 5 Fundamentals are structures to help boost student-drive and confidence as well as creating an open-dialogue between student and teacher: a positive feedback cycle that helps connect learning and social skills.

Framing the lesson is much like an essential question but rather than an objective that may last days, the teachers created a daily objective and a daily product. This is the beginning "We will..." statement using student friendly verbiage and a clear and concise idea of the expectations of the days lesson. This is basically the standard dissected into a doable daily lesson. The product of the lesson, the task of the day will be written as a product statement. "I will..." the description of what will be completed today the performance task. For example: We will be discussing the types of adaptations that occur in nature. I will be creating a poster using art and words to describe different animal adaptations in a given ecosystem. This way when students enter the room they see the question of the day- the big picture. But also how they are going to get there specifically. In other words, the goal and proof that the goal was achieved by both teacher and student. The I will tasks should provide closure to the lesson, provide the teacher with documentation of what students learned that day, contain an action verb describing how the task will be completed, and looked at every day by the teacher.

The We will task should not be a test or a quiz, completed as a whole group activity, designed to be graded daily, verbal or a repeat of the we will statement (objective). Daily objectives should be displayed in the room visible to all, and referred back to throughout the day. The We will....objective should be discussed at the beginning of class. The tasks should be reasonable and purposeful. There should be enough time to complete the objective within the class period. It needs to be written in student friendly language and be specific enough to clarify the goal.

The task statement or I will statement should be completed by the student within the class period. The product should produce evidence of learning and be relevant to students. The product should be likely to increase the opportunity for students not to just learn new information but also retain it to memory and add it to their schema. finally it needs to be quickly accessible and easy for the teacher to identify student growth and learning. Framing the lesson is like placing bookends in place to help organize, structure, and support your lesson. The opening and closing of class should be clearly written on the board as objectives and products. This will guide the day and help make sure the goal of the day is in fact achieved and students have learned and retained the information of the day.