If we teach a focus lesson and don't see children putting it into immediate practice, we don't worry, and here's why.

We select focus lessons that fit the needs of the majority of our students. Since our goal is to teach the strategies most needed, we endeavor to teach them often and in great depth. We know students will need repeated exposure and modeling of the strategies before they will apply them in their own work and internalize them so they can access them whenever needed. Depending on the child and their individual level of need, they may only be exposed during the focus lesson, or they may receive additional instruction in small group or one-on-one settings.

Since students will get repeated exposure to the strategies, we don't worry or panic if they don't all try it during their independent time the day we teach it. We provide extensive practice time and frequent opportunities during sharing to articulate how the strategies we've put on our Café Menu board are helping them become proficient readers. The combination of repeated instruction and peer sharing insures that what we are focusing on slowly becomes part of the vocabulary and repertoire of each child.