What is FIT Teaching? What is a FIT Teacher?
The Framework for Intentional and Targeted Teaching®—or FIT Teaching®—is a research-based, field-tested, and experience-honed process that captures the essentials of the best educational environments. In contrast to restrictive pedagogical prescriptions or formulas, FIT Teaching empowers teachers to adapt the most effective planning, instructional, and assessment practices to their particular context in order to move their students' learning from where it is now to where it should be. To be a FIT Teacher is to make a heroic commitment to learning—not just to the learning of every student in the classroom, but to the professional learning necessary to grow, inspire, and lead.
This book introduces the powerful FIT Teaching Tool, which harnesses the FIT Teaching approach and presents a detailed continuum of growth and leadership. It's a close-up look at what intentional and targeting teaching is and what successful teachers do to
- Plan with purpose
- Cultivate a learning climate
- Instruct with intention
- Assess with a system
- Impact student learning
Designed to foster discussion among educators about what they are doing in the classroom, the FIT Teaching Tool can be used by teachers for self-assessment; by teacher peers for collegial feedback in professional learning communities; by instructional coaches to focus on the skills teachers need both onstage and off; and by school leaders to highlight their teachers' strengths and value. Join authors Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Stefani Arzonetti Hite for an examination of what makes great teachers great, and see how educators at all grade levels and all levels of experience are taking intentional steps toward enhanced professional practice.
Douglas Fisher is a professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College. He is a member of the California Reading Hall of Fame and was honored as an exemplary leader by the Conference on English Leadership. He has published numerous articles on improving student achievement, and his books include The Purposeful Classroom: How to Structure Lessons with Learning Goals in Mind; Enhancing RTI: How to Ensure Success with Effective Classroom Instruction and Intervention; Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom; How to Create a Culture of Achievement in Your School and Classroom; and Using Data to Focus Instructional Improvement.
Nancy Frey is a professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College. Nancy is a recipient of the Christa McAuliffe Award for Excellence in Teacher Education from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Early Career Award from the Literacy Research Association. She has published many articles and books on literacy and instruction, including Productive Group Work: How to Engage Students, Build Teamwork, and Promote Understanding; The Formative Assessment Action Plan: Practical Steps to More Successful Teaching and Learning; and Guided Instruction: How to Develop Confident and Successful Learners.
Stefani Arzonetti Hite is a professional education consultant who specializes in supporting systemic educational change initiatives in schools, districts, learning associations, and state departments. Her work is primarily focused on building teacher and administrator instructional capacity, standards-based grading practices, curriculum development, and strategic assessment strategies. She is a member of ASCD's FIT Teaching Cadre, wrote the ASCD white paper Using the FIT TeachingTM Framework for Successful Teacher Evaluations, and aligned the framework with major teacher evaluation models in use across the United States. She served as deputy head (principal) of a preK-13 international school in the United Kingdom; curriculum director for a countywide support institution; curriculum supervisor for several school districts in Pennsylvania; and a classroom teacher in elementary, middle, and high school.
