May 15, 2024

Let’s talk Foundational Skills!

When I think about expertise, I think of Misty Copeland, Prince, and Roger Federer. They are masters of their domains.

  • Do you think Misty Copeland began as a principal dancer?
  • Did Prince play flawlessly the first time he picked up a guitar?
  • Did Roger Federer fluently execute his serve the first time he held a racket?

Of course not! They acquired these skills through the learning process!

First Things First

Before we can master anything, we must first master the basics, or the foundational skills of master the basics, or the foundational skills of a repertoire.

I assure you that Misty, Prince and Roger all started at the beginning. They first learned and practiced foundational skills.

This same process applies to academic skills. Learners must always master “first things first” before they can achieve expertise in a complex academic repertoire.

For example, reading is highly complex and comprised of lots of foundational skills such as:

  • Identifying letter names
  • Identifying letter sounds
  • Understanding phonetic principals
  • Sounding out words

Learners must master each of these skills in isolation before they will be able to fluently read stories and passages!

More than 60% of students in the U.S. are below proficiency in all academic areas (see figure above). This tragic outcome results from pushing students ahead to higher-level skills before they have mastered the basics.

Unfortunately, schools tend to skip over foundational skills or spend too little time ensuring learners truly master them.

But, decades of evidence indicate that schools should spend MORE time on the basics not less.

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Unlike traditional schools, at Fit Learning, we ensure that our learners achieve true mastery, or fluency, in foundational academic skills BEFORE they advance to higher-level skills.

As a result, our learners gain an average of 26 percentile ranks on norm-referenced assessments in just 40 hours of instruction (see figure above).

Coaching experience that speaks to you

Expert performers don’t strive for average, and you shouldn’t accept that for your child’s academic skills either. Click the link below to find out more or schedule a call with one of our experts. Let us help your child discover their greatness.

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