“It doesn’t take a lot of time. You can get big results quickly!”
— JJ Burnham, Third-grade teacher, Swan Valley School District, Saginaw, Michigan
The Focused Instructional Model is a research-based instructional method developed by the Institute for Excellence in Education. FIM is transforming classroom instruction and driving increases in student achievement. This systematic process trains teachers to develop integrative lessons that naturally demonstrate real-world application. Teachers use the process to monitor their students’ mastery of the content and provide interventions when appropriate. It is an integrative, holistic approach to teaching built upon instructional best-practices.
Facilitated by IEE’s coaches, FIM implementation occurs in two phases: an in-depth professional development workshop with all of your school’s subject-matter teachers, followed by ongoing coaching and support to assist individual teachers with FIM operation in the classroom. The focus of the workshops is in-depth and intense. Throughout the session, participants learn the FIM methodology and the instructional best-practices necessary for successful execution.
There are two parts to the FIM program — FIM Systematic Practice and FIM Curriculum Development — and the entire program is available in four content areas: mathematics, science, English language arts, and social studies.
Here are a few examples of the results we’ve seen with FIM Mathematics:
FIM Systematic Practice
FIM SP provides teachers with foundational knowledge to building content and skill mastery in their students. Teachers work as collaborative grade-level and/or content-area teams to identify Critical Focus Areas (CFAs), which are core content standards that students are expected to master by the conclusion of a course. Students are then provided daily class time to practice each of the CFAs on a weekly basis, even as the teacher covers different instructional units. This cyclical pattern ensures that students do not have the opportunity to forget what they studied earlier in the year and cements their learning into habit.
Teachers monitor their students’ understanding and retention of content with a bi-weekly formative assessment, and stage interventions as appropriate. The formative assessments alternate weekly with demonstrations of the studied content’s real-world application.
FIM Curriculum Development
FIM CD utilizes Understanding by Design, or backward planning, to help teachers through a process of creating high-quality curriculum units while keeping the end target in mind. The process includes identifying desired learning results (outside of unit tests), determining how students will show evidence of true learning, and planning learning experiences and instruction to meet the diverse needs of today’s students. Teachers focus on in-depth content area practices and are provided a framework for allowing students an active role in classroom learning. A key component of the curriculum units’ design is integrating real-world applications into instruction.
Increasing Student Achievement!
FIM has been implemented in hundreds of classrooms, resulting in phenomenal increases in student achievement. Our partner schools are experiencing tremendous growth! How can we help your school experience increased student achievement? Call us today at 989-317-3510
We have several coaches who specialize in FIM. Click here to meet our team and explore the FIM possibilities they could bring to your school.
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YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS: Our coach, Blake Pratt, has written a practical explanation of how FIM is often used in the classroom. Read it here.