An ASCD Study Guide for Learning in the Fast Lane: 8 Ways to Put ALL Students on the Road to Academic Success

Most of the questions contained in this study guide are ones you can think about on your own, but you might consider pairing with a colleague or forming a study group with others who have read (or are reading) Learning in the Fast Lane.

Introduction

1. Think about a class you took that posed significant challenges for you. For some, it was statistics; for others, a foreign language. List three words or phrases that describe the experience.
2. What do you believe was the primary cause of your struggles in the class? Consider factors such as your prior knowledge, interest level, and vocabulary.
3. As you struggled through the class, how did your behaviors related to the class change? Consider your attendance, level of enthusiasm, and engagement.
4. What strategies did you employ to help you either succeed in the class or simply survive the experience?
5. Apply your experience and the tactics you employed to students who are currently struggling in your class. Why do you think they are they struggling? How have their behaviors changed as a result of their situation? What tactics are they using to attempt to overcome their failure?

Chapter 1. Acceleration: Jump-Starting Students Who Are Behind

1. Describe how your school serves students who arrive with significant academic gaps.
2. How does your school assess the effectiveness of the approach it uses to help students with academic gaps?
3. What steps will staff at your school need to take to implement acceleration? Consider factors such as scheduling, how you will identify students who need intervention, and how you will monitor student progress.
4. Using sticky notes, create a simple chart comparing and contrasting acceleration and remediation.

Chapter 2. Standards Walls: Transforming Standards into Clear Learning Goals

1. Explicit learning goals are fundamental to learning. What are the disadvantages of simply posting standards?
2. Select an upcoming standard. Deconstruct the text into explicit learning goals on a concept map, first signifying the starting point with a symbol such as an arrow. Identify the critical academic vocabulary for the unit and list these words in the "term" section of a TIP chart. (As your class encounters the new vocabulary, you and the students will complete the "information" and "picture" sections of the chart together.)
3. When are the best times to articulate learning goals during a learning episode? At what point in your lessons do you generally state the learning goals?

Chapter 3. Success Starters: Sparking Student Success Right Away

1. What advantages do success starters offer in comparison with traditional warm-ups?
2. What are some strategies you might use to reserve the precious opening minutes for acquisition of new content?
3. What characteristics do effective success starters share?
4. Consider the learning goal of your next lesson. What success starter would spark interest, tap into prior knowledge, and establish value?

Chapter 4. Formative Assessment and Feedback: Checking Student Understanding Minute by Minute

1. Drawing from your own classroom experience, how do higher- and lower-achieving students respond differently to graded assessments?
2. Create a sticky-note chart that identifies less-effective versus more-effective feedback practices.
3. Select one or more of the formative assessment strategies described that will fit nicely into your next lesson.
4. Reflect on a recent occasion when you received feedback on a task. Did it motivate you to work harder, or did it make you want to give up? What made the difference?

Chapter 5. Vocabulary Development: Implementing a Strategic Plan

1. What is the difference between incidental and academic vocabulary? In your classroom, what challenges seem to result from inadequate vocabulary?
2. How do the numbers of terms listed in Figure 5.1 compare to the quantity of vocabulary words your students are expected to master for current units across the content areas?
3. Why might expanding low-achieving students' reading be insufficient to close their vocabulary gaps?
4. Select one or more of the vocabulary strategies presented to integrate in an upcoming lesson.

Chapter 6. Student Work Sessions: Giving Students Greater Responsibility with Valuable Work

1. How can traditional remedial instruction inadvertently widen academic gaps in vulnerable student groups?
2. What are two benefits of effectively implemented cooperative learning?
3. What purposes does the teacher-directed portion of the student work session serve?
4. Select a cooperative learning technique or a menu and implement it in an upcoming lesson.

Chapter 7. Student Motivation: Creating Engaging Tasks and a Positive Learning Environment

1. How do tasks' value and students' confidence level relate to student motivation?
2. Within a single learning episode, students' reactions to the tasks presented to them fluctuate. Using Figure 7.1 as a reference, reflect on the various student behavioral tactics you observed in your most recent lesson.
3. Students with high levels of self-efficacy are apt to respond differently to academic challenges than are students with low self-efficacy. What are the potential academic benefits of supporting student self-efficacy?
4. This chapter lists multiple strategies that help foster student self-efficacy. Which of these would most benefit your students?
5. Strategies to increase student motivation fall into two categories: creating tasks that engage students and creating a safe learning environment. Select one category and brainstorm improvements you can make that will boost student motivation in your classroom.

Chapter 8. Scaffolding: Providing What's Missing Just in Time

1. Reflect on an occasion, in or out of the classroom, when scaffolding helped you master a skill or concept.
2. Consider a standard you're currently teaching. Which prerequisite skills do some students lack? Which scaffolding techniques would be best suited to help you bridge these gaps?
3. In the absence of scaffolding, what student behaviors and outcomes are you likely to see?

Chapter 9. Why Are Some Students Still Failing, and What Can We Do About It?

1. Create a list of students who are currently at risk of failure. What are the underlying causes of each student's struggle? Some culprits may include homework challenges, lack of student motivation, harsh grading policies, or students' difficulty grasping content. Generate a list of potential solutions for these underlying causes.
2. What can be done schoolwide to foster students' mastery of content the first time they encounter it and thereby minimize the number of course failures?
3. What can you do individually to maximize academic success for all students? List two strategies from each chapter that you will implement in the classroom. After implementation, evaluate their success and tweak if necessary.

Learning in the Fast Lane: 8 Ways to Put ALL Students on the Road to Academic Success was written by Suzy Pepper Rollins. This 176-page, 7" x 9" book (Stock #114026; ISBN-13: 978-1-4166-1868-3) is available from ASCD for $19.95 (ASCD member) or $26.95 (nonmember). Copyright © 2014 by ASCD. To order a copy, call ASCD at 1-800-933-2723 (in Virginia 1-703-578-9600) and press 2 for the Service Center. Or buy the book from ASCD's Online Store.