Instructional Focus Calendar Refresher

1. Instructional Focus Calendar Refresher Teaching and Learning Kati Pearson, Director Tammy Demps, Program Specialist Rehana Insanally, Program Specialist Zhakima Spratley, Program Specialist

2. Purpose for FCIM Focus Calendars: • Collaboratively creates a roadmap for teaching, re-teaching, and assessing targeted benchmarks during the academic school year. • Places focused instruction on the tested benchmarks while answering the following questions: • What do students need to know? • What do I need to teach them? • How much time do I need to do it?

3. FCIM CalendarsAre Not….but, they Are….. • “The Instructional Focus Calendar or FCIM calendar is not your lesson plan or scope and sequence. • It is simply a guide that tells what objectives will be focused • on during a particular week. It ensures that every concept on the state assessment will be covered in the classroom. • It helps align the written curriculum, with the taught curriculum, • with the tested curriculum.” (Taken from Closing the Achievement Gap: No Excuses by P. Davenport and G. Anderson) • Instructional Focus Calendar or FCIM calendar may look • different at each school based on the data and the needs of the students.

4. Developing FCIM Focus Calendars • Determine areas of focus based on academic needs of whole class, course, and/or grade-level assessment data. • Map dates for a specific benchmark skill to be taught, re-taught, or reviewed.

5. Which specific skills do we map? • Select specific skills with the weakest performance data. • Prioritize by most highly tested benchmark skills using FCAT Content Assessed Reports. • Determine the order for specific skills to be re-taught/reviewed. • Prioritize by sequence of specific skills within benchmark cluster. • Map specific skills to calendar dates. • Allow sufficient time for introducing the skill, providing opportunities to practice the skill, and assessing the skill.

6. Curriculum Planning • Align curriculum with Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS) and K-1 CCSS. • Identify most highly tested benchmarks. • Identify benchmarks with weakest student achievement data. • Prepare FCIM Focus Calendar. Effective classrooms are data driven and benchmark focused.

7. Sample Reading Instructional Focus Calendar

8. Academic School Year: Segments January – March Using mid-year data, instruction prioritizes benchmarks and skills identified through the analysis of the school’s student data. April – June Instruction prioritizes benchmarks not covered earlier in the school year and skills essential to learning for the next grade level or course. August – January Using baseline data, instruction prioritizes benchmarks and skills identified through the analysis of the school’s student data. Prioritize based onmost highly tested benchmarks with more time allotted for benchmarkswith the weakest student performance data. The academic school year should be viewed in three distinct segments as you implement FCIM Focus Mini-Lessons.

9. Alignment of Instructional Focus Calendar’s MUST: Align to: • Next Generation Sunshine State Standards and K-1 CCSS • Instruction • Assessment Data

10. Additional Resources Instructional Focus Calendar FAQs Instructional Focus Calendar Sample and Blank Template