Teachers can apply FRAME in three distinct ways. First, they can utilize it within the first ten minutes of class; FRAME offers teachers and their students a comprehensible opener that ensures all students understand what is being asked of them during the lesson. Second, during the lesson, applying each component of FRAME offers students the opportunity to solidify their understanding of learning expectations and demonstrate what they are expected to know and be able to do. In essence, FRAME offers teachers a highly adaptable framework to structure learning for students that lets them develop understanding of learning goals and demonstrate that learning in real and relevant ways. Third, teachers can use FRAME to improve the efficacy of their own classroom instruction through peer observations and feedback. To facilitate this third process, the tool “FRAME Peer Observation and Feedback Form for Teachers” (pages 105–107) offers teachers a valuable resource to collaborate with each other on their journey toward implementing FRAME with their classroom instruction.
Over the rest of this introduction, I will introduce you to the individual components of FRAME, the audience I’ve designed it for, details about its creation, and a primer for what you can expect from the rest of this book.
The Components of FRAME
The following text briefly explains each component of the FRAME model; upcoming chapters will investigate these components based on the three specific usage scenarios I just outlined.
Focus
If you want optimal learning to take place, it’s vital that you focus your class on the goals for a day’s lesson. A focused and structured classroom, one that is prepared for learning, helps students take the guesswork out of what comes next. Derrick Meador (2018) explains, “A structured classroom often translates to a safe classroom, one where students can enjoy themselves and focus on learning. In a structured learning environment, students are more likely to thrive and experience personal and academic growth.” Using the FRAME model, the teacher establishes this focus by creating a learning intention and success criteria for each lesson that are student friendly and student centered; these help focus students of all abilities and all grade levels on their own progress and development.
Reach
Reach gives each student the personal attention that is so important in developing a sense of classroom community. Educator Janice Wyatt-Ross (2018) clarifies, “School leaders and classroom teachers should view their school or classroom spaces as culturally inclusive classroom communities where everyone is welcome.” Acknowledging each student’s presence with an engaging smile, individual eye contact, and his or her preferred name (pronounced correctly) supports a student’s sense of self within the community. When you reach out to them, your students will be energetic community members and know that you will meet their ideas, critiques, successes, and challenges with respect, empathy, and mindfulness as they learn to determine and become their best selves.
Ask
It’s no wonder teachers get discouraged when students don’t seamlessly move through a lesson; often, this occurs because students have no idea where the learning is going, a frustrating experience for both teacher and student. Students will succeed at staying true to the learning intention and the success criteria only if they understand what you are asking them to know and be able to do. Therefore, it is important to teach students how to ask questions and analyze the expectations for the work they will soon undertake. If students do not understand the work ahead, as Connie M. Moss, Susan M. Brookhart, and Beverly A. Long (2011) write, “The teacher will always be the only one providing the direction, focusing on getting students to meet the instructional objectives.” Teachers need to demonstrate how to ask robust questions and how to analyze the what of the learning intention and success criteria through a series of clarifying and probing questions. These clarifying and probing questions help students paraphrase the learning intention and success criteria, illustrating how to dive deep into the tasks ahead and why those tasks are valuable.
Model
When teachers model and provide instruction on the task, students are no longer unsure of what the finished product should include or how to arrive at it. When directions overwhelm students, or they get lost in the myriad steps to get their work done, they may become frustrated and check out. By modeling the process, the teacher takes the mystery and frustration out of students’ work. Additionally, Marlynn K. Clayton (2010) expresses that a teacher breaking down a task “sends the message that you value the process of learning, not just the products.” During this component, the teacher might show two or three pieces of the task along with the final product so that students visualize what the task is all about. For example, if the finished product is a data table showing the effects of climate change on water resources, an eleventh-grade environmental science teacher might begin with a list of how to shrink one’s carbon footprint; then, he might offer two or three scholarly websites as a way for students to gather information; and finally, he might show an example of what a completed data table looks like. Modeling is meant as a brief overview of the upcoming work (not a detailed demonstration) to help students visualize both the finished product and the steps necessary to get there so they see that they, too, can accomplish the learning intention. As literacy specialist Rebecca Alber (2014) suggests, showing the finished product first “can guide students through each step of the process with the model of the finished product in hand.”
Encourage
Finally, encourage students’ work by praising the process of that work in a supportive classroom community. Praising the process means that you encourage students’ hard work, strategies, and perseverance, rather than just praising intelligence (Stanford Alumni, 2014). By praising the process, you are offering your students vital feedback about the work; not about the student. Annie Brock and Heather Hundley (2018) contend that “process praise…acknowledges effort, strategies, or actions that contributed to the success of the task” (p. 74).
You have designed a lesson that will support your students’ curiosity; therefore, tell them the work might challenge and, at times, perplex them. But remind them they have support within the classroom community to understand the learning intention and conquer the success criteria because the teacher has taken specific steps to create a safe community. Teachers can drive the presence of this support home for students by reaching out to each of them, encouraging them to ask about their learning, modeling the process of the learning, and giving them the chance to reflect on how they learned. These processes create a caring and respectful classroom of learners.
The Audience for FRAME
Teachers can use FRAME in all grade levels, in all content areas, and with students of all abilities. This is because the model itself is designed for flexibility. You can adapt FRAME for all your students’ academic, personal, and emotional needs, such that all students have the chance to succeed based on their own differing abilities. Developing learners will appreciate the consistency that FRAME offers and will be able to use those first ten minutes of structured classroom time to organize and prepare for learning. The routine and structure that FRAME provides give intention and significance to your lesson plans.
As with students, FRAME is meant for all educators. Novice teachers will appreciate the explicit and systematic method of introducing structure during the first ten minutes of class. According to Kitty Green (2006):
Without such a structure, fledgling teachers hope for the best, frequently viewing results as either total success or complete failure. In reality, neither emotion supports the development of a new teacher into a more reflective practitioner—the central practice of a professional educator. (p. 1)
When they apply FRAME, novice teachers do not have to hope for the best. Instead, intentionally and deliberately implementing the structured FRAME approach is designed to make them more reflective practitioners and more professional educators.
Veteran teachers may feel that they already know some of the content in this book. However, according