TEACH LIKE A CHAMPION: TECHNIQUES THAT PUT STUDENTS ON A PATH TO COLLEGE
Technique 1: No Opting Out.
One of the first things kids learn is that "I don't know" often gets them off the hook. Effective teachers don't permit a child to opt out. The teacher cues the child, or the teacher helps the child gain the information that he or she needs by eliciting it from other children. And the teacher attempts to get the child to answer the question several times.
Let's put that in a special education setting: you are working on a lesson on plane geometry. You are identifying polygons. You ask a student to find a triangle. The student, Jeremy says, "I don't know." You say, "Who can tell Jeremy how many sides a triangle has? Bradley? Yes, three is right. Okay, Jeremy, come up here and let's find a shape with three sides. Very good! What's it called? A triangle. Good."
I would also extend the "No Opt Out" to include "hand over hand" prompting, if necessary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWeaMBxmNeE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teFOHUMLyXk
http://teachlikeachampion.com/wp-content/uploads /Field-Guide-sample chapter.pdf
http://vimeo.com/30098111
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/04/04/teach-like-a-champion-technique-number-one.htm
DVD clips 1, 2, 5, and 9
Technique 2: Right is Right.
This reminds me a little of what we used to say to our kids when they were little: "No means No." In this case, "Right is right" basically means that when a teacher asks a question, they hold out for a complete answer, or one that would be acceptable on the test. In other words, you ask the class "What is a peninsula?" and a child responds, "It's where the water indents into the land." If you respond, "Right, but it's kind of the other way around. It's the land indenting into the water," you have inadvertently reinforced the wrong answer. A better way would be to say, "No, that's a bay. You are right that it is a geographical formation. Can anyone else describe a peninsula?"
Lemov describes four characteristics of the Right is Right technique.
Hold Out for All the Way: Good teachers reward for effort, but don't confuse effort for mastery. So, if a number needs a negative sign, you don't say, "Right, John, but you need to be sure there is a negative sign." No, it's not right. You say, "John, you seem to have done the math right but you have the answer wrong. Let's look--is this greater than zero, or less than zero? Less? Right! What do you need to make the answer correct? That's right, a negative sign."
Answer the Question: Sometimes students know they can get you off the subject by introducing something that is true, but doesn't actually answer the question. Say, you ask a question about setting and the student, who isn't quite sure what the setting is, answers "That reminds me of something that happened in our neighborhood." By relating it to the story, the student gets off the hook. A great teacher would respond, "That's really interesting, Juan, but I need you to tell me the setting of the story. What is setting? The place where it happens. So, where did the story happen?”
Right Answer, Right Time: Some students who want to show that they already know how to solve a math problem, may come up with a solution while you're still asking for one of the steps. Back them up and have them just name the step you wanted. Teaching is not about the right answer. Teaching is about getting to the right answer.
Use Technical Vocabulary: The answer for an addition problem is a sum. Be sure your student knows that. Ask, "What is the sum?" and encourage students to say, "The sum is 14."
Modification of Technique 2 for Special Education
Shaping (accepting approximations successively till you get a complete response) would seem to rule out this technique. Not so. It is a reminder that special education teachers need to ask questions that students can answer successfully. If a child can't answer "Is the number negative or positive?" You need to have them come to the number line and tell you on which side of the Zero on the number line the answer would fall. Then practice writing those numbers with a negative sign.
So, plan ahead. Be sure you break the skills or information you are teaching into "chunks" with which your students can be successful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghPRJRs09-U
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/04/11/teach-like-a-champion-technique-two.htm
DVD clips 5-8
Technique 3: Stretch It. The sequence of learning does not end with a right answer; reward right answers with follow up questions that extend knowledge and test for reliability. This technique is especially important for differentiating instruction. (TLC, p. 41)
It's great when students get the answer right. It's better when they learn from it. If a child gets the right answer a follow up question will verify that the student understands the answer, cement that answer and extend knowledge. Here's a little model:
Teacher: About how far is it from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.?
Juan: About 60 miles.
Teacher: Good Answer! How did you get it?
Juan: I measured. An inch on the legend is 12 miles, and it is 5 inches from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. I added 12 plus 12, plus 12, plus 12, plus 12 and got 60.
Teacher: Would there have been a quicker way to find out it was 60?
Juan: I could multiply 12 by 5.
Teacher: Excellent! That would have been a much more efficient and quicker way to get the same answer.
This technique includes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar00u6Hyt9c
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/04/17/teach-like-a-champion-technique-three.htm
DVD clip 21
Technique 4: Format Matters. "The complete sentence is the battering ram that knocks down the door to college."
This has two components, correct grammar and complete sentence format.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/05/02/teach-like-a-champion-technique-4.htm
DVD clips 2, 4
Technique 5: No Apologies
Lemov notes that how we talk about expectations may automatically lower them. We may apologize for content, or apologize for students.
If you teach English, teach English. Don't apologize for teaching Shakespeare. I love Shakespeare! (I actually saw Kenneth Branagh in Henry V at the Barbizon in London, but I was mostly impressed with the rain at the battle of Agincourt. Still that "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;" is majorly cool.) But how many teachers have said, "I have to teach you Shakespeare." But King Lear's daughters are such manipulative hussies (except for Cordelia, of course.) If you are dealing with students having difficulty with reading, it's one thing to modify the text. It's another to diss the text. There are ways teachers apologize for content.
"A lot of adults find this challenging, so when you've mastered it, you'll be smarter than a lot of adults!"
Apologize for Students:
The first program that Lemov started in an inner city community offered Mandarin as a foreign language. Lot's of people said, "You can't teach these kids Mandarin." Even their parents said, "My kid won't sit still for that." But Lemov points out--millions and millions of people learn Chinese, even very poor ones. They're Chinese.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/05/09/teach-like-a-champion-technique-5.htm
DVD clip 10
Technique 6: Begin with the end.
Doug notes that too often teaching objectives are written with the activity in mind. Say, the curriculum says, "teach King Lear," so the teacher writes a lesson plan that goes with King Lear.
With technique 6, the teacher is thinking, "What do I want the students to know about King Lear at the end of the class?" The teaching objective will drive toward that goal. So, what do skills do you want the students to gain from King Lear? It might be a great time to talk about the difference between comedy and tragedy. It might also be an opportunity to talk about character development. By knowing the end result, the methods and strategies the teacher chooses will drive toward those goals.
Begin with the end will also mean that the teacher will:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyw75NaZK_I
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/05/23/teach-like-a-champion-technique-6.htm
Technique 7: the 4M's.
4 M's: Teaching objectives need to be:
• Unmanageable: Students will add multi-digit numbers regrouping when a column exceeds 10.
• Manageable: Students will add two digit numbers regrouping in the one's place.
Measurable: Build in an assessment. You might even want to use an "exit ticket" strategy, especially when you teach in a high school or middle school setting. In other words, for the manageable goal above, you would have your students complete a short, 10-problem assessment and hand it to you as they are leaving the room. In an elementary classroom it might be traded in for a preferred activity.
Made First: This is supported by Technique 6, Begin with the End. Teachers who decide what they are going to teach and then write the objective miss the boat. Sometimes what they post (technique 8, next week) is just a vague state standard. Write the objective, and then design the lesson.
Most important: The objective should focus on what is most important on the path to college, nothing else.
For special educators, this particular goal may be less important for lesson planning than for goal writing. Working in a residential program that pulls kids from 6 states and the metropolitan districts of New York (bad) to Washington D.C. (abysmal) I have seen some pretty lame goals. They're lame because they fail to meet the 4 M's.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/05/31/teach-like-a-champion-technique-7.htm
http://tlacashleyb.weebly.com
Technique 8: Post it.
Lots of school districts require that you post your objective for the day. Many, like Philadelphia, require that you use their objective straight from their "core curriculum." Useless, according to Lemov.
You post the objective so that the students, your peers and any supervisors know clearly what you expect your students are going to learn during the 45 to 60 minute period in which you are teaching. Hopefully you used Technique 7, the 4 M’s:
When you post your objective, be sure to refer to it as you are teaching: "Today, you can see from our objective, we will be comparing the government of the United States with the government of England. Everyone will be expected to write down 4 things that are similar and 4 things that are different."
For significantly disabled students, either with autism or in a life skills program, you will probably be creating objectives for each student, you probably want to carry your individual plans with you, in a basket or as I do in a notebook that goes with me for "Table Time." That way I can review my objective as I move from child to child to refocus. It is also available for my supervisor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tflqUDeHQfc
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/06/06/teach-like-a-champion-technique-8.htm
Technique 9 -- the Shortest Path.
We may be tempted by the allure of clever activities, clever lessons, or interesting approaches, but Lemov has found that the shortest distance between two points continues to be a line. The activity that most quickly gets you to the final point, the objective, is the best.
Of course there are lots of ways to pace a 45-minute lesson, and lots of ways to reinforce a lesson. Those things can be added and will be addressed later. The point of this technique is to get to the objective quickly and then hammer the lesson home with lots of practice, collaborative activities, drill, and other techniques that will guarantee that the objective is well learned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf1E1POR0B0
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/06/13/teach-like-a-champion-technique-9.htm
Technique 10: Double Plan
You might be tempted to think that this means plan twice as much as you need. But successful teachers double plan.
Most teachers focus on what they do as they are teaching. A lesson plan focuses on what they are doing. But what are the students doing? What do you ask them to do to support their own learning? Fill in a graphic organizer? Take notes? What kind of notes.
It's funny how many high school teachers will fret and fume that students don't take notes. But have they ever taught them? I was in "honors" English, science and history in high school, and my English teacher my junior year taught us how to make an outline. It stuck with me for years, and I will sometimes still commit an outline to paper when I am writing (these articles are short enough that I can project it in my mind.) But, if you want students to take notes, what will they look like? Do you know if the students can make notes, or do you need to give them a format?
To succeed at Technique, Lemov recommends that you make a T chart for your plans. At the top you put the objective for the lesson. On the left you write what you, as the teacher, do. On the right side you write what the students do for each activity you put on the left. Do they fill in a graphic organizer? Do they make a list of important facts? Do they brainstorm with a partner? Do they create flash cards? There are all kinds of ways to support and reinforce a lesson. Be sure that you have plans and materials to support your objective and collect information about their success.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IokPbMGrlqI
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/06/27/teach-like-a-champion-technique-10.htm
Technique 11: Draw the Map
Drawing the map is basically planning the environment. Or, more simply put, it is the seating chart. Of course I wrote potentially longer, because the seating chart and the classroom environment, like everything else, needs to be evaluated constantly and changed when needed. Lemov notes that all too many teachers make a seating chart at the beginning of the year and don't change it according to the changing needs of a class.
When you draw the map, you need to ask some important questions:
Lemov's preferred formation is paired columns of rows: three paired columns, of six across, and 4 to 5 rows. It makes it possible for the teacher to be able to move among students, and always be able to lean over and whisper in a student's ear. It means students will face the teacher in the front of the room. Pairs also encourage two students to collaborate. For larger groups, the teacher may make another map and establish a routine to get into groups.
Drawing the map also refers to what is on the walls. Lemov warns against too much or unimportant things on the walls. This is especially true for special education students, who are often distracted by two much visual information. He also recommends student work, but suggests that what is written on it is more specific than "Good," or "Outstanding." He suggests that teachers comments on work that is posted is specific to model what the teacher values as good work--so the comments might be "Excellent use of adjectives to describe," or "Your neat work on this paper helped you do an accurate job."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgfK0N9XA08
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/07/04/teach-like-a-champion-technique-11.htm
Technique 12 -- Hook it.
The "hook" Doug speaks of is called the "anticipatory set" in educational circles, but "hook" is a good vernacular way of expressing "anticipatory set." It's the thing that grabs, or "hooks" your attention and helps to focus you on the topic at hand. It could be a story, a puzzle, a picture, or a riddle that grabs your student's attention and then leads them into the topic at hand. Doug suggests the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6jI4cMbKP0
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/07/11/teach-like-a- champion-technique-12.htm
Technique 13 - Name the Steps.
Lemov notes that few gifted athletes make good coaches. What they learn naturally does not come easily to the typical athlete, and they never have to break tasks down into discrete steps--they see the whole. In fact, an important skill for children with more severe disabilities that for certain tasks, a "task analysis" is required.
Lemov wisely points out that as teachers we need to keep in mind the difference between a "Champion Performer" and a "Champion Teacher." A champion performer is good at a task; a champion teacher helps someone else succeed at that task.
There are four key components of Name the Steps:
2. Apposition--look for words in apposition, which help rename the word. (i.e. She adjusted her tiara, the small crown of diamond-encrusted gold.)
3. Relational Words: check for but (the word means the opposite) and or also (means the same thing.)
The teacher made the acronym CAR from the steps, and made frequent reference to "Driving the CAR."
Teacher: "John, add the numbers in the ones column. What do you get? "
John: "8 plus 5 is thirteen."
Teacher: "Excellent. Mark, what do we write here, under the 5?"
Mark: "A three. You put the one over the 8 because it goes in the tens place."
Teacher: "Excellent. I see you anticipated my next question.
https://www.inkling.com/read/teach-like-a-champion-doug-lemov-1st/chapter-3/field-guide-to-technique-13
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/07/18/teach-like-a-champion-technique-13.htm
Technique: 14 Board = Paper.
This particular technique requires preparation, at least the first time you teach material. A name commonly used for this technique in special education is "graphic organizers," with this particular organizer referred to as "guided notes." It is a great way to teach note taking and help all students, both special education and typically developing students, learn to look and listen for cues as to what is important in a lesson or a textbook passage.
The teacher prepares an outline for the day’s lesson with the things he/she wants the children to learn. The teacher then prepares a mock up of the same outline, with lots of blanks. Start out with only a few missing words and circulate as you teach to be sure the children are filling it in: you may also want to put the whole outline with the missing words on a Smart board or on a transparency with an overhead. The trick is to increase the number of spaces, to the point that there is just a bare outline, and students listen for what needs to go next to a, b, and c.
The guided notes are also a good place to differentiate instruction: you won't be able to withdraw the support for note taking as quickly as you can for typically developing children, but the notes can be part of the special education students test preparation. A "study guide" based on the guided notes (the student searches his or her own guided notes for the answers) is a good way to help students with specific learning disabilities prepare for tests. Be sure that the student, not an educational aide, fills in the guided notes: this is one place where an educational aide will get frustrated with a student's slow pace and will over function for them.
https://www.inkling.com/read/teach-like-a-champion-doug-lemov-1st/chapter-3/technique-14-board--paper
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/08/01/teach-like-a-champions.htm
Technique 15 -- Circulate.
The seating plan you choose not only should fit your main teaching strategy, but should also permit you, as the teacher, to circulate, moving around the room in order to support instruction. Doug offers lots of different parts of the strategy:
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/08/01/teach-like-a-champions.htm
DVD clips 3, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 21
Technique 16: Break It Down
Lemov clearly sees that the instructional moment is imbedded in the regular instructional practice of asking and answering questions. He also clearly sees that a wrong answer may actually be a more powerful tool for teaching than a right answer. That's where "breaking it down" comes into practice.
In "Break It Down," rather than immediately moving on to the next student, the teacher redirects in an attempt to help the student find the answer. It can be as simple as giving a single clue (I often prompt my boys with Autism with the first letter of a word: "S" "summer!" "That's right, it's summer!") Lemov suggests you attempt successive strategies:
Technique 17 -- Ratio
A teacher’s getting a good intellectual workout at the front of the room rarely marks a successful lesson. Push more and more of the cognitive work out to students as soon as they are ready, with the understanding that the cognitive work must be on-task, focused and productive. p. 93
When teaching, the challenge is to make the students do the intellectual work, not the teacher. It requires teaching strategies that question, but focuses students back on the intellectual task at hand. The notion is that the ratio of student to teacher participation in class discussion should go up with time, so the teacher is leading less and the students are developing skills at gaining knowledge. Effective teachers use a number of strategies. Here are the first six.
More strategies to increase student to teacher participation ratio:
· Whys and How’s: Asking why or how instantly pushes students to engage in more rigorous intellectual work, explaining why a process worked, or did not work.
· Supporting Evidence: There's a lot more cognitive work in supporting a position than in taking or holding one. Ask constantly for students to support their answers: i.e. "Rachel, you said that the first generation of American politics was not partisan. Why was that?"
· Batch Processing: This particular strategy encourages more than one student to respond to a particular question or discussion point. This requires a certain level of experience and maturity for students to handle this well. Lemov refers to this as "volleyball" rather than "tennis" or "soccer." In tennis, the ball comes back to the teacher each time a question is asked. This is the most typical method of processing questions. In soccer, each team tries to keep the ball away from the other team. On the teacher’s behalf, that is lecture. On the students' behalf, it becomes meaningless shooting the breeze. By seeking 3 or 4 "players" touch the ball (question,) you increase the amount of cognitive work happening. You might even try teaching the procedure by using a tennis ball or a beanbag that is tossed from student to student. Example: "What are some limitations of a two party political system? You start, John, and pass the question to someone else."
· Discussion Objectives: Increasing ratio might become problematic if no direction is given to students. The teacher needs to begin with a clear objective in mind and redirect discussion to conform. Let's say the discussion objective is for the students to compare and contrast. Perhaps the discussion question is like this: "In Little House in the Big Woods, Ma and Pa have very different ways of solving problems. Let's work together on a Venn Diagram that compares them, by listing common traits in the middle, and contrasting traits in each of the outside circles." "No, Melanie, we want to go back to Ma and Pa and not discuss how Mary responds."
It seems that these are fairly complex strategies: it would be useful to model and practice each of the strategies together as a class.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/08/22/teach-like-a-champion-technique-17-part-one.htm
DVD clip 30
Technique 18: Check for Understanding
This is really an "on your feet" kind of technique although Lemov designates it as "data collection." Special educators do a lot of data collection, but this is meant to be more of a "down and dirty" way of evaluating whether students are "getting it" while you are teaching. Later techniques will focus on daily assessment: I especially like "exit ticket"(technique 20.) You may want to actually use a "check list" to check for understanding.
Keep a class list for each class or class period. They can be attached to the front of a pack of assignments, to check to see who turned in assignments. You can place one on a clip board and carry it with you as you teach: you can circle the names of children who continue to get their answers wrong, put a plus for correct answers and minuses for wrong answers. Glance down, and see if you are getting more pluses than minuses. If not, go back and reteach.
Example: You have asked the class to name causes for the revolutionary war. You find that 3 of 4 answers are way off the mark or incomplete. You decided to review the causes of the American Revolution before you move on to seeking the help of the French.
Even though this is an informal, on your feet method, Lemov suggests that you apply the same standards as you would for collecting data for research:
DVD clip 5, 12, 13, 16, 20
Technique 19: Up to Bats
Technique 20: Exit Ticket
DVD clip 13
Technique 21: "Take a Stand”
This technique asks individual students or the class as a whole to take a stand on material in the lesson:
"Take a Stand" helps students process more content and helps a teacher check for understanding. The technique brings the students answers to the forefront.
It's important that when a teacher asks students to "take a stand" that it doesn't become perfunctory, like the technique of asking students to put thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs sideways, and then ignoring the results. If you challenge students "So, Sheila, why did you choose to put your thumb sideways?" You get better quality answers and you hold everyone accountable.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/09/26/teach-like-a-champion-technique-21.htm
DVD clip 4
Technique 22 is one of the most important: Cold Calls.
Cold calling in business means making a sales call to someone who does not expect you, perhaps even someone who doesn't even know you. It's tough, and makes or breaks you. In the classroom, cold calling means calling on students whether they have their hands up or not.
You know how the drama usually goes. You ask a question. Eager Beaver Billy and Kiss Up Katie are almost out of their seats, arms extended, wanting you to call on them. You wait for another hand. None appears. You call on Billy or Katie. The rest of the class has won: you haven't asked anyone to do anything.
In cold calling you let your class know you will call on them and expect an answer. You will not accept "I don't know." You stick with them, using earlier techniques until you get an answer. Sooner or later, everyone is prepared for the question, not just Billy and Katie.
Cold Calling has three advantages:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PARfIwF215k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoB_0oTrv9A
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/10/10/teach-like-a-champion-technique-22.htm
DVD clip 16
Technique 23: Call and Response.
You may be most familiar with this as the method by which singing was lead for many, many years in African American congregations. The preacher would sing a line and the congregation would respond. In the same way, "Call and Response" as a teaching technique is a method by which the whole class participates in questioning. Call and Response has three primary goals:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38-5jddiP1Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhxN9VxUE8
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/10/18/teach-like-a-champion-technique-23.htm
DVD clip 18, 23
Technique 24: Pepper
Pepper is a "game" and a form of practice used in baseball. One person is the batter, while a group of players stands in a semicircle around him. The players lob balls at the batter, who hits them back out the players, who catch them and throw/lob the balls back. It's fast paced and gives all the players practice at fielding as well as one player practice at bat.
Pepper is fast paced questioning done to review with the class. It can also be "cold calling" where the teacher calls the name. It is meant for review and can be for more than the last lesson. Say, in geometry review, you may pepper students with polygons:
Pickup sticks: A final suggestion for pepper is an old technique that is great for calling on students in any educational environment: the good old popsicle sticks (okay, tongue depressors for you big printers,) put a popsicle stick with each student's name on it in a cup or jar. Grab a stick as you go around the room with questions, and ask the student on the stick. It needs to be fast paced to be fun, so read and throw or drop, and keep it rockin' and rollin'!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DveAnbzwZLo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZysOf-GOgSw
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/10/31/teach-like-a-champion-technique-24.htm
Technique 25: Wait Time.
Teachers, like many other people, are uncomfortable with silence. Lordy, I've been to lovely town center style shopping centers both here in Las Vegas and in Scottsdale, Arizona; where there is music blasting from ”speaker rocks" all around the lovely, beautifully landscaped parking lots. So, teachers jump in with a prompt or grab the first hand that goes up after, research shows, between one and one and a half seconds. By merely doubling that time, several things happen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnuSUL0ymM
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/11/07/teach-like-a-champion-technique-25.htm
DVD clip 19, 20, 21
Technique 26 -- Everybody writes.
This is in some ways just like technique 26, Wait Time. The difference is that in "Everybody Writes" the teacher directs the class to jot down their thoughts. When the teacher delivers a question that requires some thought, she (or he) recommends that students take out their notebook or journal and record their thoughts on the question. It mean that when the teacher cold calls she can do it confident that everyone should have something to share. So make 'em accountable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq406j8qDZw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_cuE8fmZK0
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/11/15/teach-like-a-champion-technique-27.htm
Technique 27: Vegas
If you've been following my blog, you know I now teach in Las Vegas. In fact, after short trips to California, Phoenix and the Grand Canyon, I decided to stay close to home this weekend and just took a walk on the strip. Vegas means adding a bit of glitz, some sparkle, and some showmanship. Here, it's entertainment that promotes gambling. In the classroom, it should support your objectives and you lessons. This can happen in several ways:
"Vegas," the technique, comes from Dave Levin, founder of the KIPP schools, a group of charter schools across the county, which have been successful in helping inner city kids, achieve. It could be a class doing the "action verb shimmy," or sing the "long division song." Here are some guidelines:
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/11/21/teach-like-a-champion-technique-27-2.htm
DVD clip 18, 22
Technique 28; Entry Routine.
I have often sung praise for routines to build effective and efficient classroom management. I'm a big fan of Harry Wong's The First Day of School, which lays out classroom routines as the foundation of good classroom management that supports instruction.
Making expectations for entering a classroom explicit helps get students into their seats and prepared to begin instruction quickly and effectively.
Technique 29: Do Now
A "Do Now" is part of the entry routine. It's what Harry Wong, and many elementary teachers call "bell work." It is an assignment that students engage in as soon as they enter the room. It needs to be short; support instruction and students should be held accountable for its completion. Lemov lists four criteria:
When I taught in inner city Philadelphia, I had a journal prompt on the board, to which students knew they were expected to respond. I greeted everyone, but otherwise I circulated and handed out white poker chips (see Token System.) When we were ready to start everyone was in his or her seat, quiet and ready. Kids liked to come to the resource room because it was one place that they knew would be calm, where no one would bully them (peers) or yell at them (teachers.)
Here are some examples:
Technique 30: Tight Transitions.
Transitions are the time between different academic settings and activities. Transitions in high schools and middle schools will be different because many transitions occur between classes (and out of a teacher's control.) Still, keeping transitions tight, and controlled, will both create more time and avoid the kind of highjink or downright low down harassment that can occur in some classrooms, especially inner city classrooms.
As a teacher, you need to invest time early in the year in being sure that the procedure for transitions is clearly understood and crisply executed. The term "procedure" is carefully chosen: it's part of the "routines" approach advocated by Harry Wong in The First Day of School. Procedures, rather than rules, are values neutral but do effectively create an efficient classroom. Be sure that you teach and rehearse the transition procedures. Map out the path for your students. i.e. "Those in the first row line up first, those in the second row, line up second, across the front of the room,” etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uuk9anq4c8
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/12/13/teach-like-a-champion-technique-29.htm
Lemov has other suggestions:
Have a required format for organizing papers within the binder so everyone is using the same system and you can check to make sure everyone has and can find what they need. You might, for example, assign a number to all materials you expect students to keep in their binders and have them enter then into a table, for example, 37: notes on subject-verb agreement: 38: subject-verb agreement worksheet, 39: subject-verb agreement homework, and 40: worksheet for subject-verb agreement with compound subject.
To ensure that students follow through, take the time to have the students put their materials away during class. “Please add number 37, notes on… to your table of contents, and file these notes away on my signal. I want to hear your binders popping on… three.”
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/12/26/teach-like-a-champion-technique-31.htm
Technique 32: SLANT
It's an acronym for the "procedure" for efficient attention behavior, or the behavior a student uses to best benefit from instruction. We teach and drill students on how to line up for fire drills, but we seldom spend specific attention to what good "attention" or on task and attending behavior, look like. The Acronym SLANT should help:
One of the best things about the acronym is that it serves as shorthand for appropriate behavior, so you don't have to use class time to remind students what they should be doing. It should be posted on the wall, and once it is imbedded in classroom behavior, the teacher need only say, "Must have been a rough night. I'm not seeing SLANT today. Hey! I see Natalia is sitting up! Great Job! And so is Jamal!
A teacher might also chose to introduce hand signals to remind students of the components of slant, say folding his hands in front of him to remind them to sit up, or using the ASL sign for look or see to remind them to track the speaker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cItKLgeM0QU
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/01/01/teach-like-a-champion-technique-32.htm
DVD clip 4, 8, 26
Technique 33 - On Your Mark
No coach would let a player walk on the field or the court without being prepared to begin to play: a football player needs his helmet, a basketball player needs to have his shoes tied and a tennis player will have her racket in hand. In just the same way, a student needs to have his or her tools out and ready.
How to Ensure your Class is On Its Mark When the Class Starts:
Technique 34 - Seat Signals
Two necessary (somewhat) interruptions during the day are use of the bathroom and sharpening a pencil. In some settings, especially inner city settings, some students have created elaborate Kabuki performances surrounding these activities. The procedures for using the school bathroom can border on quelling a prison uprising at San Quentin. “Hand Signals” is a technique to accomplish those little distractions quickly and without a lot of time destroying fuss.
Firstly, the technique implies a classroom rule: always remain in your seat. This may seem harsh for folks in the suburbs, though for you I would recommend the procedure in my article on the Color Wheel, that helps students know when they may get up and sharpen their pencil, and when it is inappropriate. In most inner city schools you are inviting way too many cats out of the bag without the "always remain in your seat" rule. Wandering bullies pinch and hit other students when you're not looking. You may turn to the board and turn back to find your students have soundlessly had a Chinese fire drill. In these environments, the "Always remain in your seat" rule is golden. When a student needs a sharp pencil, to use the restroom, or to pick up something that has fallen on the floor, they need a hand signal that:
These signals were suggested:
I did a long-term sub about 15 years ago in a second grade in an elementary school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The children were the children of physicians and professors at the University of Michigan. One boy's parents were both professors in the geology department. They were a scanty group and since we had a bathroom in the classroom, some of them spent a good part of the day in there. I soon decided I had to get it under control. I had used paper money as a re-enforcer when I taught second grade (before seminary) quite successfully. I gave each child 50 cents in paper money every day. There were four free times for the bathroom: right after they arrived, 10 minutes before morning recess, 10 minutes after they returned from lunch recess, and the last 15 minutes of the day. Otherwise, they paid me ten cents. Worked like a dream. One of my parents, an anesthetist at the University of Michigan Hospital, complained, but other parents offered to write me recommendations for a teaching job. At the end of my six-week stay, I had an auction and the children used the money they had accumulated over the time I was there to bid for items.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/01/16/teach-like-a-champion-technique-34.htm
Technique 35 - Props
You may think of props as funny hats or “show and tell” (which can be good ways to support instruction,) but this has a different, specific meaning.
Props are routines that effectively harness and use peer praise. A vernacular title might be "a shout out." It might be having the whole class "Give two claps for Ernie," when Ernie gets an answer right, or Ernie does a truly effective job of explaining a tough concept. Who doesn't like praise from their peers? By teaching praise routines that engage the whole class and happen quickly, you can provide powerful reinforcement while not disrupting the class or taking away from instruction. Here are some necessary criteria for successful "props."
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/01/22/teach-like-a-champion-technique-35-2.htm
Technique 36: 100 percent.
Lemov spends a lot of time discussing the potential pitfalls, for good reason. 100 percent means that a teacher expects 100 percent compliance. The trick is to be sure that your expectations are reasonable and that asking for 100 percent compliance does not become a power struggle.
He uses, as an example, a teacher who asks her class to be quiet by having the class raise their hands when she raises hers. Often teachers will accept the performance of a class if they are quiet, although only 60 percent of the class raises their hands. It gives the class the message that less than 100 percent is acceptable, and that message may become a real problem, when things continue to slip down the slippery slope. What would be a better result? Asking that when the teacher’s hand goes up, the class is quiet, hands are on top of desks and feet are flat on the floor. That leads to an automatic and smooth transition to instruction.
Enforcement needs to be steady, considerate and unemotional. If students know that compliance is not negotiable, they will follow through.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC0ltKOwF_A
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/01/31/teach-like-a-champion-technique-36.htm
Technique 37: What to do.
We often assume that students who don't follow directions or don't comply are being defiant, or we punish them or put them down when they don't follow directions or comply. We may have missed a simple point: the student may not know what we want them to do.
We need to avoid telling them what we don't want them to do. We too often say things to students like "Don't lose your focus." "Don't fidget." Instead we need to be very clear about what the behavior we want should look like. In order to be effective directions need to be:
What to Do, Version 2
If you know that the reason for failure to comply is incompetence, giving directions again with more explicit details can help the child succeed. Lemov also discovered this can work in a crisis situation. When asking a child to get up and go with him, as the principal of a building, the student shut down. He found that if he broke it down into a sequence, he had success. The student (we'll call her Sheila) put her head on the desk when she was told to go to the office. Mr. Lemov kneeled down next to her desk and firmly but quietly said, "Sheila, stand next to the desk." She did. "Sheila, please come with me." She did. The specificity helps her overcome her reluctance.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/02/05/teach-like-a-champion-technique-37.htm
Technique 38: Strong Voice
You've seen those teachers (you may be one yourself,) you know the ones, who when they walk into a room everyone sits up straight and is ready to start. It's not just an aura you're born with, it's a set of skills acquired over time. Lemov can't tell you how you become that teacher, but he does lay out 5 principals of strong voice, a technique that establishes your authority as the teacher in a classroom:
Economy of Language: Fewer words are stronger than more. Speaking briefly and to the point when giving directions. It shows you are prepared, and doesn't expect students to figure out what you want.
Do Not Talk Over: If what you are saying is important and worth attention, then students have a right and responsibility to hear it. You have a clear cue for attention and then wait until you have everyone's (remember 100 Percent) attention. By never competing for attention, you make it clear to students that you are in charge and what you are saying is important.
Do Not Engage: Students quickly learn to get you off task once they find they can engage you. You say: "Jonathon, please take your foot off Shaquanna's seat." Jonathon says "But she called me nappy headed!" If you say, "Shaquanna, is that true?" you've given Jonathon what he wants. He's shifted your attention from his behavior to Shaquanna's and also off the academic task of the moment. He's won, because you've changed the subject, he's created drama and a teacher inquisition, and taken the class's attention off of what you are teaching. No, strong voice repeats ”John, just take your foot down." Thank you (when he complies.)"
Square Up/Stand Still. Your physical presence speaks a thousand words. Body language is important, often more important than what you say. Be sure both shoulders are directed at the person to whom you are speaking. Be sure eye contact is direct. Stand straight or lean in close. If the student is several feet away, move closer, into his or her space is best. Stop moving when you are giving important directions.
Quiet Power: When teachers are nervous or worried that their students won't follow directions, they tend to speak faster and more loudly. Kids pick that up. They get the message that they are in control. When you feel anxious, you need to lower your voice. When I taught second grade and things were getting off the hook, I turned off the lights, and lowered my voice. They hated it. "Why did you yell at us?" they would say later. I of course would laugh and say, "I never yell. But you knew I was serious, didn't you?"
Strong voice is so important that I will be continuing next week with part two, to help you, readers, to get fully understand.
Part two is an essential part of "Strong Voice," which Doug identifies as "Formal Pose."
Research has shown that body language conveys often more than the specific spoken words used in interactions. Nowhere is that truer than in the classroom.
How will Susan stand if you meet her at the counter at the neighborhood coffee shop? Will she have her hand on one hip, weight on one foot, and her head cocked to one side, inviting informal comment? Will she flip her hair in a sort of friendly, coquettish sort of way, to imply she is happy to see you? Plop Susan into a classroom at that moment, and that posture will invite intimacy she probably doesn't care to share with 28 13 year olds. Her posture suggests that what she has to share is not really all that important, merely incidental to the social relationship she is acknowledging.
She certainly isn't inviting compliance. For that she needs to find what Lemov calls "Formal Pose," or "Formal Register." In formal pose, a teacher squares up his or her shoulders, places equal weight on each of his or her feet, and faces the student/s he or she is addressing directly. Lemov adds putting hands behind the back. This pose clearly communicates that information being shared is important. Eyes are steady and direct, not darting around. The Champion teacher uses formal pose in most statements where control is needed. Formal pose is the wrapping in which Strong Voice will come.
How about urgency? What if the building is on fire? In those situations you would expect a person to move in close, perhaps touch your shoulder. They may lower their voice and separate the words. "You need to come with me, immediately." Eyes are locked rather than focused.
Is urgency an effective tone to use to gain compliance? Well . . . if the building is figuratively burning. This loses its effectiveness if it is used to often. Like crying, "wolf" after a while students will disregard it. So use formal pose in those situations where you need strong voice to redirect your students, to assert control of the situation, and to transition to new activities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s_WwYIKoOk
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/02/13/teach-like-a-champion-technique-38-part-one.htm
Technique 39: Do It Again
How many times have you asked the class to line up again? We know it works. It gives students an opportunity to practice a routine the way we expect it to be done. It is also one of the few negative reinforcers that work. Negative reinforcement is the thing which when removed, is most likely to make a behavior reappear. The next time you ask the class to line up, they are more likely to do it to your standards.
This technique is effective for 7 reasons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVerVPPTTrA
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/02/27/teach-like-a-champion-technique-39.htm
DVD clip 4, 15, 25, 26
Technique 40: Sweat the Details
It's way too easy, when you're dealing with individualizing or differentiating instruction, to let those "little things" slide. But Lemov uses the "Broken Window Theory of Policing" as a metaphor to make his point. New York found that when police enforced the little things, no graffiti, no jay walking, fixing the broken windows, people in neighborhoods perceived that their environment was one that was worth preserving. They acted in ways to protect that environment. Crime dropped.
The same is true in classrooms. When students accept the values of an orderly, well run classroom, they will put their hearts into performing as well as possible. The key to “Sweat the Details” is preparation. Make some decisions about what you want in your classroom and design procedures to be sure students know what is expected:
Technique 41 - Threshold
The threshold in this technique is the one at the door. It's the place where a class starts and expectations are set. In an earlier technique, we saw a teacher drill her students in what she wanted to see in the hallway before they were admitted. Meeting the students at the door helps set the standard, start everyone off on the right foot, and establish a warm, friendly environment.
Ideally, the students line up outside the door, and the teacher stands at the threshold, in the doorway. The teacher greets each student with a pre-established handshake and a greeting. Make it clear that no matter what is expected elsewhere, you always expect their very best. It is an opportunity to establish rapport, as well, by individualizing your greeting: "Great game yesterday, Andre." "Love the ribbons, Aisha." or "Loved your response on the exit ticket, Rodney."
The teacher should also use the threshold to correct unacceptable behavior by controlling access to the room: get shirts tucked in, get rid of chewing gum, remind students to hand in homework. It's another reason to shake hands. If students don't give a strong handshake, or perhaps mumbles their greeting, you have their hand. You can gently steer them to the back of the line to do it again, right.
Threshold will match a teacher's style. It might be warm and friendly, or it might be crisp and businesslike. Either is good, because you start the class with a shared baseline, and students have an understanding of what to expect from your instructional style, as well.
Sometimes teachers may not be able to line up students outside their door because of school policy. Then you may want to establish another entry routine. Still, you can stand at the door, greet each student as they arrive and make it clear that they need to start the bell work or "to do" on their desk or on the front table. It may require some extra preparation before the day begins, having each class's set of assignments or "to dos" assembled and ready for pick up at the front of the room. It would be an investment whose pay off would be a well-organized class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAYsCyxj7u4
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/03/13/teach-like-a-champion-technique-41.htm
DVD clip 27
Technique 42: No Warnings.
Using small consequences or re-teaching rather than trusting your charm or your relationship to the students will help you avoid getting emotional, losing your students and control of the situation. The goal should be to take action rather than to get angry.
Act Early. Remember, by acting quickly and administering a minor consequence you save the student from a major consequence.
Act reliably. Be predictably consistent to eliminate the variable of how you will react and focus on the behavior you need to change.
Act proportionately. Start small when the misbehavior is small. "Don't go nuclear unless the situation is nuclear."
Often the behavior that gets in the way of taking action is the warning. A warning is not taking action, but rather threatening action. You give the student the understanding that they have one or more free misbehaviors.
First, as in Technique 37 "What to Do," be sure that the student’s failure is not due to the fact they don't know exactly what is expected. In those situations, where "incompetence" rather than disobedience or noncompliance are the issues, the consequence will be re-teaching or modeling the behavior. It should be quick and done. The important thing is to have consequences that are proportional in place for misbehavior. You don't suspend a student for failure to spit their gum out. You might keep the child behind to clean the desks ("The reason we don't permit gum in school is it messes up our desks. I would like you to be sure our desks are clean for your peers' good quality work.") Also, be sure that the issue is not stamina rather than noncompliance: if a student's head is beginning to sink, they might need a little encouragement rather than a consequence.
Lemov recommends that you have your responses prepared so you can be consistent and proportional. It also avoids using the biggest consequence first: not only will it be less effective the next time you use it, it will also get your students' backs up. All students have "fair" -o-meters, and even your most compliant students will be offended if you go nuclear for small infractions. Doug also recommends that as consequences you take small, incremental parts of privileges: 5 minutes of recess, 5 minutes of the end of class. Consequences should be delivered following three criteria:
DVD clip 11
Technique 43 - Positive Framing
People respond much better to positive than the negative. When you correct or redirect children, putting your intervention in a positive rather than a negative way will help the lesson go home and stay home. Of course, positive reinforcement for acceptable behavior is always preferable, but when a child needs to be redirected, putting that correction in the best light will help other lessons to be learned. This is may be a challenging technique: It will take two blogs to do the technique credit. Components of successful Positive Framing, include:
Teacher one: (Stopping to be sure students are ready before giving directions.) I need three people. Make sure you fix it if that's you! Now I need two. We're almost there. Ah, thank you. We're ready to rock and roll.
Teacher two: (Same circumstance.) I need three people. Oh, one more person doesn't seem to understand the directions, so that makes four. Some people don't appear to be listening. I'm a waiting, gentleman. If I need to give out detentions, I will.
Teacher one is narrating the behavior he wants in a positive, forward motion. He is calling his students attention to the correct behavior, normalizing it. Teacher two is telling a story no one wants to hear. Students can smell the fear: otherwise, why does the teacher need to make the threat? No Big Mo in classroom two.
With positive framing, perception can quickly become reality. Narrating your weaknesses normalize them. Draw attention instead to what is good and getting better, and raise your students' expectations
Rule 5: Challenge. Kids love to be challenged to prove they can do anything, to compete and to win. Create situations where students can prove what they can do. Challenge them to compete against one another, as individuals or in groups. Let them compete
A variation of this has been very successful with my students. Working with boys with autism, I know that behavioral challenges have often prevented them from performing as highly as they could. Some teachers of students with autism are not as well grounded in the curriculum, and students are behind. I know I have challenged students to take on lots of new material with the proviso: "We're getting you ready for college." One of my boys found out what my first name was. I informed him he was free to come back and call me by my first name when he finishes college. He's talking about college now.
A couple things Lemov advises to avoid in order to stay positive.
Rhetorical questions: Don't ask questions you don't want an answer to. Don't pretend to ask a question when you are not. Avoid saying things like "Would you like to join us, David?" as if it were an option. Instead say "Thank you for joining us on the rug, David."
Contingencies: Don't say, "I'll wait," unless you will. The point is, you won't and you make your actions contingent on your students. "We need you to be with us" is much more productive, positive and strong.
http://teachlikeachampion.com/blog/teaching-and-schools/how-positive-framing-and-precise-praise-fit-together/
https://www.inkling.com/read/teach-like-a-champion-doug-lemov-1st/chapter-7/technique-43-positive-framing
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/04/02/teach-like-a-champion-technique-43-part-two.htm
Technique 44 - Precise Praise.
I have written over and over again how important positive reinforcement is. I have also written over and over again how you must be your strongest reinforcer. I also don't think you can do praise justice unless you focus on the quality and purpose of the praise.
From the 70's onward we were on a "self esteem" crusade, believing that all academic, societal and international problems. Praise was ladled out in huge portions, although research has shown that high self-esteem does not really guarantee success. Some students with high self-esteem will go off to college and fail miserably, because they don't realize they lack the skills to succeed in a rigorous academic environment. Some individuals with overly high self-esteem can create a danger to themselves and others, if their inflated opinion of their own abilities leads them to take risks that might endanger them.
Kids know whether praise is authentic and whether it is deserved. It is true that an effective way to build a baseline for positive behavior is "catch them begin good,” as it is also a good way to explicitly teach your students your expectations. But ladling praise out indiscriminately is more likely to earn you the disrespect of your students than their compliance. Lemov suggests several criteria for "Precise Praise."
Differentiate Acknowledgment and Praise. Acknowledge when students are doing a good job of following classroom routines. Also, when they have improved their follow through, it's good to acknowledge it. I have found that one of the best ways to get classroom compliance is to thank and acknowledge the students who are already complying. "Thanks, John, for having your book out and showing me your ready to start." " I see Emily is also ready. Thank you." Save praise for those times students exceed you expectations.
Praise (and Acknowledge) Loudly, Fix Softly. When you have good news to share, be sure everyone knows about it. When you need to correct a child, do it in a whisper, or even using a hand signal. It not only avoids embarrassing the child, if the child's purpose was to disrupt the class or draw attention to him or herself, you have avoided that.
Praise Must Be Genuine. Early on, children listen for insincere praise: they read it as a sign that they are doing badly, according to Carol Dweck, in her book Mindset: the New Psychology of Success. That implies that students are receiving waves of insincere praise that are undermining their independence and their ability to fairly appraise their own work. Don't say, "Oh, Julie, you're so creative!" Say instead something explicit, like "I really enjoyed the dialog in your story." I would also add some constructive direction, like "I wish I knew more about your characters, Julie. Can you fill them out either by telling your readers what they are thinking, or showing them doing something that lets us know?" When your praise is explicit, it helps students know that you really do value their effort. With my students, when they really bat one over the fence, get extra praise: "Boy, Jordan, you really made this so much neater than your last story. You really took my direction to heart and did a super job." In instances like that I also make a point of posting it on the board: I like to keep some board space just for student work.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/04/16/teach-like-a-champion-technique-44.htm
DVD clip 11
Technique 45 - Warm/Strict
It may seem like an oxymoron: How can you be both warm and strict? Lemov points out that it is in fact a false dichotomy. Strictness and warm are not opposites; in fact they may not even be related.
To use this technique effectively, you need to be both strict and warm. While you are being friendly, kind, good-humored, you also need to be strict: you expect everyone to live up to expectations. It's not "I care about you, but you still have to do the consequence for not turning your work in," instead it's "Because I care about you, you will do the consequence for not turning your work in."
When you are consistent, firm and unrelenting but at the same time positive, thoughtful, and enthusiastic you send the message to students that having high expectations is part of being a caring person.
Make your Warm/Strict technique work by:
DVD clip 5, 11
Technique 46 - The J Factor
The J in this technique stands for joy. Certainly, a teacher who brings joy to teaching and brings joy to his or her students' learning will have not only a happy classroom, but also a successful classroom. Lemov describes 5 categories of J factor activities that champion teachers employ in their classrooms:
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/04/24/teach-like-a-champion-technique-46.htm
DVD clip 28, 29
Technique 47: Emotional Constancy.
This can be a tough one. One of the things that kids learn, especially children in low socio-economic and minority communities, is how to push your emotional buttons. I just read a Facebook post from a friend who taught with me at Woods Services who took a job this year in Philadelphia. She was ready to quit: I understand, having seen kids work their evil magic at getting under my skin.
Lemov recommends that "Emotional Constancy" needs two parts.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/05/14/teach-like-a-champion-technique-37-2.htm
Technique 48 - Explain Everything.
You need to be sure that explain everything doesn't become "excuse everything." As you are teaching and correcting or redirecting behavior it's important to explain what your expectations are and the purpose of your interventions. If students are reminded of your expectations and have a clear picture of what success is, they are more likely to pursue it. If a teacher couches language in a way that explains the purpose of the expectations it is more likely that the next time the student faces a similar situation, he or she will make an appropriate decision on his or her own.
If a third grader asks to go to the nurse, you explain that he not only will be missing class time, he won't be able to go to recess with the others: too sick for class, too sick for recess. It may help him change his mind and make him less likely to use the nurse's office as an escape.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/05/02/teach-like-a-champion-technique-48.htm
DVD clip 4
Technique 49: Normalize Error.
Too often children won't answer a question because they are afraid of being wrong. Where did they learn that? Most of us learn that making mistakes is a part of learning, and the more risk you take, the more likely you will succeed. So, this technique has two parts: part for the wrong answer and part for the right answer.
The Wrong Answer: Don't Chasten, Don't Excuse
http://specialed.about.com/od/managementstrategies/a/The-49-Techniques-From-Teach-Like-A-Champion.htm
Avoid chastening wrong answers: i.e. "We went over that last week. I can't believe you don't know that." You don't also don't want to excuse the mistake either, i.e. "That's okay Lucy. You'll probably get it right next time."
You want students to know that it is normal to get an answer wrong: as it is to find the right answer. In fact, if errors are a normal, healthy part of learning, then they don't need any narration.
Spend less time naming "the wrong" than moving on to getting the right answer. You might just respond "not quite," and go back. "What's the first thing we need to do to find out how many each person took home? That's right, find the total." If you leave the response ambiguous, students will stick it out until they find out what the "real" answer is.
Right Answers: Don't Flatter; Don't Fuss.
Praising right answers can have two unexpected effects on students: if you make too much of a fuss, you convince students you're surprised that they got the answer right. It also has the perverse function of making students less likely to risk wrong answers: they are afraid getting a wrong answer will make them look stupid. Praising students for hard work will encourage them to take risks.
By all means, give students credit, but move on. Then students will know that making mistakes and getting correct answers are both a normal part of education.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/05/09/teach-like-a-champion-technique-49.htm
DVD clip 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdhUeONAz_c
Teach Like a Champion Technique Mapping
The following techniques relate to other techniques and are great when used in conjunction with others. The following is a technique mapping listing to show which techniques works well with the stated technique.
Technique: Like Techniques(s):
1. No Opt Out: 2, 3, 4, 6, 22, 25, 36, 38, 42, 43, 47, 48, and 49.
2. Right is Right: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 32, 36, 43, 44, 47,
3. Stretch It: 1, 2, 22, 35, 43, and 44
4. Format Matters: 7, 43, 45, and 48
5. Without Apology: 6, 7, and12
6. Begin with the End: 7, 8, 9, 10, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 26, 29, and 43.
7. 4 M’s: 6, 8, 18, and 20
8. Post It: 6, 7
9. Shortest Path: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 18.
10: Double Plan: 6, 14, and 28
11. Draw the Map: 15, 30, and 32
12. The Hook: 5, 6, 9, and 11
13. Name the Steps: 3, 14, 16, 24, 36, and 39
14. Board = Paper: 3, 15, 18, and 48
15. Circulate: 11, 18, 29, 36, 37, 38, 43, and 44
16. Break it Down: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 17
17. The Ratio: 3, 5, 14, 21, 25, 26, and 32
18. Check for Understanding: 3, 11, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 49
19. At Bats: 4, 15, 18, 20, 22, 23, and 24
20. Exit Ticket: 3, 6, 18, 19, and 29
21. Take a Stand: 3, 9, 17, 18, 22, 36, 39, 42, and 49
22. Cold Call: 1, 6, 16, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26, 32, 38, 42, 45, and 46
23. Call and Response: 18, 19, 22, 26, 36, and 39
24. Pepper: 22, 46
25. Wait Time: 3, 6, 7, 9, 15, 18, and 43
26. Everybody writes: 6, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, and 31
27. Vegas: 6, 12, 36, 37, 38, 39, 43, and 46
28. Entry Routine: 10, 11, 26, 29, 32, 41, 43, 44, and 46
29. Do Now: 6, 28
30. Tight Transitions: 10, 11, 23, 27, 28, 31, 32, 39, 43, 44, and 46
31. Binder Control: 1, 10, 11, 14, 28, and 30
32. Slant: 11, 36, 39, 42, 43
33. On Your Mark: 11, 13, 28, 29, 31, 41, and 42
34. Seat Signals: None
35. Props: 36
36. 100%: 6, 10, 11, 15, 23, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 42, 43, 48, 49
37. What to Do: 30, 36, 38, 39, and 42
38. Strong Voice: 15, 37, and 48
39. Do it Again: 2, 5, 19, 23, 28, 30, 36, 7, 38, 39, 43, 46, 48, and 49
40. Sweat the Details: 4, 15, 30, 31, and 39
41. Threshold: 20, 28, 39, 43, 45
42. No Warnings: 11, 34, 36, 38, 39, 43, and 47
43. Positive Framing: 16, 37, 38, 39, 42, 44, 45, and 47
44. Precise Praise: 3, 43, 44, and 47
45. Warm/Strict: 5, 21, 29, 44, 47, and 48
46. Joy Factor: 6, 18, 19, 23, 27, 30, 32, 41, 42, and 48
47. Emotional Constancy: 15, 28, 41, and 48
48. Explain Everything: 5, 13, 18, 36, 37, 38, 42, 44, and 47
49. Normalize Error: 1, 2, 4, 16, 18, 27, 39, 43, 44, and 47
Technique 1: No Opting Out.
One of the first things kids learn is that "I don't know" often gets them off the hook. Effective teachers don't permit a child to opt out. The teacher cues the child, or the teacher helps the child gain the information that he or she needs by eliciting it from other children. And the teacher attempts to get the child to answer the question several times.
Let's put that in a special education setting: you are working on a lesson on plane geometry. You are identifying polygons. You ask a student to find a triangle. The student, Jeremy says, "I don't know." You say, "Who can tell Jeremy how many sides a triangle has? Bradley? Yes, three is right. Okay, Jeremy, come up here and let's find a shape with three sides. Very good! What's it called? A triangle. Good."
I would also extend the "No Opt Out" to include "hand over hand" prompting, if necessary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWeaMBxmNeE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teFOHUMLyXk
http://teachlikeachampion.com/wp-content/uploads /Field-Guide-sample chapter.pdf
http://vimeo.com/30098111
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/04/04/teach-like-a-champion-technique-number-one.htm
DVD clips 1, 2, 5, and 9
Technique 2: Right is Right.
This reminds me a little of what we used to say to our kids when they were little: "No means No." In this case, "Right is right" basically means that when a teacher asks a question, they hold out for a complete answer, or one that would be acceptable on the test. In other words, you ask the class "What is a peninsula?" and a child responds, "It's where the water indents into the land." If you respond, "Right, but it's kind of the other way around. It's the land indenting into the water," you have inadvertently reinforced the wrong answer. A better way would be to say, "No, that's a bay. You are right that it is a geographical formation. Can anyone else describe a peninsula?"
Lemov describes four characteristics of the Right is Right technique.
Hold Out for All the Way: Good teachers reward for effort, but don't confuse effort for mastery. So, if a number needs a negative sign, you don't say, "Right, John, but you need to be sure there is a negative sign." No, it's not right. You say, "John, you seem to have done the math right but you have the answer wrong. Let's look--is this greater than zero, or less than zero? Less? Right! What do you need to make the answer correct? That's right, a negative sign."
Answer the Question: Sometimes students know they can get you off the subject by introducing something that is true, but doesn't actually answer the question. Say, you ask a question about setting and the student, who isn't quite sure what the setting is, answers "That reminds me of something that happened in our neighborhood." By relating it to the story, the student gets off the hook. A great teacher would respond, "That's really interesting, Juan, but I need you to tell me the setting of the story. What is setting? The place where it happens. So, where did the story happen?”
Right Answer, Right Time: Some students who want to show that they already know how to solve a math problem, may come up with a solution while you're still asking for one of the steps. Back them up and have them just name the step you wanted. Teaching is not about the right answer. Teaching is about getting to the right answer.
Use Technical Vocabulary: The answer for an addition problem is a sum. Be sure your student knows that. Ask, "What is the sum?" and encourage students to say, "The sum is 14."
Modification of Technique 2 for Special Education
Shaping (accepting approximations successively till you get a complete response) would seem to rule out this technique. Not so. It is a reminder that special education teachers need to ask questions that students can answer successfully. If a child can't answer "Is the number negative or positive?" You need to have them come to the number line and tell you on which side of the Zero on the number line the answer would fall. Then practice writing those numbers with a negative sign.
So, plan ahead. Be sure you break the skills or information you are teaching into "chunks" with which your students can be successful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghPRJRs09-U
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/04/11/teach-like-a-champion-technique-two.htm
DVD clips 5-8
Technique 3: Stretch It. The sequence of learning does not end with a right answer; reward right answers with follow up questions that extend knowledge and test for reliability. This technique is especially important for differentiating instruction. (TLC, p. 41)
It's great when students get the answer right. It's better when they learn from it. If a child gets the right answer a follow up question will verify that the student understands the answer, cement that answer and extend knowledge. Here's a little model:
Teacher: About how far is it from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.?
Juan: About 60 miles.
Teacher: Good Answer! How did you get it?
Juan: I measured. An inch on the legend is 12 miles, and it is 5 inches from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. I added 12 plus 12, plus 12, plus 12, plus 12 and got 60.
Teacher: Would there have been a quicker way to find out it was 60?
Juan: I could multiply 12 by 5.
Teacher: Excellent! That would have been a much more efficient and quicker way to get the same answer.
This technique includes:
- Ask for how or why. The teacher asked "how."
- Ask for a better word. If Juan had said "That measurement thing," the teacher might prompt for "legend."
- Ask students to integrate a related skill. You could ask Juan which direction he would travel, which would require referencing the compass rose.
- Ask students to apply the same skill in a new setting: The teacher could ask Juan to come up to the US map and use the yardstick to demonstrate to the class how to get the distance from Washington D.C to Savannah, Georgia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar00u6Hyt9c
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/04/17/teach-like-a-champion-technique-three.htm
DVD clip 21
Technique 4: Format Matters. "The complete sentence is the battering ram that knocks down the door to college."
This has two components, correct grammar and complete sentence format.
- Correct grammar: even though you may accept that in some settings alternative language, slang and popular usage may be appropriate, for school only the correct grammar will work. You should:
- Identify the error. Offer the student an opportunity to self-correct. "We was walking down the street?"
- Begin the correction: "We were . . ."
- Complete sentence format: Provide students maximum experience creating sentences on the spur of the moment.
- Provide the words to start the sentence: "How many dogs are there?" "Six." "There are . . ." "There are six dogs."
- Provide a reminder in the question: "Who can tell me in a complete sentence how many dogs are left?"
- Provide a simple, direct prompt after the question: "How many dogs are left?" "Six." "Complete sentence, please?"
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/05/02/teach-like-a-champion-technique-4.htm
DVD clips 2, 4
Technique 5: No Apologies
Lemov notes that how we talk about expectations may automatically lower them. We may apologize for content, or apologize for students.
If you teach English, teach English. Don't apologize for teaching Shakespeare. I love Shakespeare! (I actually saw Kenneth Branagh in Henry V at the Barbizon in London, but I was mostly impressed with the rain at the battle of Agincourt. Still that "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;" is majorly cool.) But how many teachers have said, "I have to teach you Shakespeare." But King Lear's daughters are such manipulative hussies (except for Cordelia, of course.) If you are dealing with students having difficulty with reading, it's one thing to modify the text. It's another to diss the text. There are ways teachers apologize for content.
- Assuming something will be boring. "Guys, I know this is kind of dull . . .” Maybe you think it's dull, but could you be wrong? Thousands and thousands of accountants love columns of numbers.
- Blaming it. Pointing to the state curriculum ("The state says we have to teach this,") or the head of the department ("Mrs. Johnson wants us to teach this.") leaves students that there is no real intrinsic value to the assignment.
- Make it "Accessible." Substituting rap for sonnets is not the same as using rap to introduce alliteration and then examine Shelley. Some alternatives to apologizing:
"A lot of adults find this challenging, so when you've mastered it, you'll be smarter than a lot of adults!"
Apologize for Students:
The first program that Lemov started in an inner city community offered Mandarin as a foreign language. Lot's of people said, "You can't teach these kids Mandarin." Even their parents said, "My kid won't sit still for that." But Lemov points out--millions and millions of people learn Chinese, even very poor ones. They're Chinese.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/05/09/teach-like-a-champion-technique-5.htm
DVD clip 10
Technique 6: Begin with the end.
Doug notes that too often teaching objectives are written with the activity in mind. Say, the curriculum says, "teach King Lear," so the teacher writes a lesson plan that goes with King Lear.
With technique 6, the teacher is thinking, "What do I want the students to know about King Lear at the end of the class?" The teaching objective will drive toward that goal. So, what do skills do you want the students to gain from King Lear? It might be a great time to talk about the difference between comedy and tragedy. It might also be an opportunity to talk about character development. By knowing the end result, the methods and strategies the teacher chooses will drive toward those goals.
Begin with the end will also mean that the teacher will:
- Refine and perfect the objective based on the previous day's success.
- Include a short assessment for the end of the class to see whether the objective was mastered.
- Plan an activity or series of activities that lead to mastery of the objective.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyw75NaZK_I
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/05/23/teach-like-a-champion-technique-6.htm
Technique 7: the 4M's.
4 M's: Teaching objectives need to be:
- Manageable
- Measurable
- Made First
- Most Important
• Unmanageable: Students will add multi-digit numbers regrouping when a column exceeds 10.
• Manageable: Students will add two digit numbers regrouping in the one's place.
Measurable: Build in an assessment. You might even want to use an "exit ticket" strategy, especially when you teach in a high school or middle school setting. In other words, for the manageable goal above, you would have your students complete a short, 10-problem assessment and hand it to you as they are leaving the room. In an elementary classroom it might be traded in for a preferred activity.
Made First: This is supported by Technique 6, Begin with the End. Teachers who decide what they are going to teach and then write the objective miss the boat. Sometimes what they post (technique 8, next week) is just a vague state standard. Write the objective, and then design the lesson.
Most important: The objective should focus on what is most important on the path to college, nothing else.
For special educators, this particular goal may be less important for lesson planning than for goal writing. Working in a residential program that pulls kids from 6 states and the metropolitan districts of New York (bad) to Washington D.C. (abysmal) I have seen some pretty lame goals. They're lame because they fail to meet the 4 M's.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/05/31/teach-like-a-champion-technique-7.htm
http://tlacashleyb.weebly.com
Technique 8: Post it.
Lots of school districts require that you post your objective for the day. Many, like Philadelphia, require that you use their objective straight from their "core curriculum." Useless, according to Lemov.
You post the objective so that the students, your peers and any supervisors know clearly what you expect your students are going to learn during the 45 to 60 minute period in which you are teaching. Hopefully you used Technique 7, the 4 M’s:
- Manageable
- Measurable
- Made First
- Most Important
When you post your objective, be sure to refer to it as you are teaching: "Today, you can see from our objective, we will be comparing the government of the United States with the government of England. Everyone will be expected to write down 4 things that are similar and 4 things that are different."
For significantly disabled students, either with autism or in a life skills program, you will probably be creating objectives for each student, you probably want to carry your individual plans with you, in a basket or as I do in a notebook that goes with me for "Table Time." That way I can review my objective as I move from child to child to refocus. It is also available for my supervisor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tflqUDeHQfc
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/06/06/teach-like-a-champion-technique-8.htm
Technique 9 -- the Shortest Path.
We may be tempted by the allure of clever activities, clever lessons, or interesting approaches, but Lemov has found that the shortest distance between two points continues to be a line. The activity that most quickly gets you to the final point, the objective, is the best.
Of course there are lots of ways to pace a 45-minute lesson, and lots of ways to reinforce a lesson. Those things can be added and will be addressed later. The point of this technique is to get to the objective quickly and then hammer the lesson home with lots of practice, collaborative activities, drill, and other techniques that will guarantee that the objective is well learned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf1E1POR0B0
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/06/13/teach-like-a-champion-technique-9.htm
Technique 10: Double Plan
You might be tempted to think that this means plan twice as much as you need. But successful teachers double plan.
Most teachers focus on what they do as they are teaching. A lesson plan focuses on what they are doing. But what are the students doing? What do you ask them to do to support their own learning? Fill in a graphic organizer? Take notes? What kind of notes.
It's funny how many high school teachers will fret and fume that students don't take notes. But have they ever taught them? I was in "honors" English, science and history in high school, and my English teacher my junior year taught us how to make an outline. It stuck with me for years, and I will sometimes still commit an outline to paper when I am writing (these articles are short enough that I can project it in my mind.) But, if you want students to take notes, what will they look like? Do you know if the students can make notes, or do you need to give them a format?
To succeed at Technique, Lemov recommends that you make a T chart for your plans. At the top you put the objective for the lesson. On the left you write what you, as the teacher, do. On the right side you write what the students do for each activity you put on the left. Do they fill in a graphic organizer? Do they make a list of important facts? Do they brainstorm with a partner? Do they create flash cards? There are all kinds of ways to support and reinforce a lesson. Be sure that you have plans and materials to support your objective and collect information about their success.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IokPbMGrlqI
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/06/27/teach-like-a-champion-technique-10.htm
Technique 11: Draw the Map
Drawing the map is basically planning the environment. Or, more simply put, it is the seating chart. Of course I wrote potentially longer, because the seating chart and the classroom environment, like everything else, needs to be evaluated constantly and changed when needed. Lemov notes that all too many teachers make a seating chart at the beginning of the year and don't change it according to the changing needs of a class.
When you draw the map, you need to ask some important questions:
- When should students interact in school?
- How should students interact in school?
- What should the way student's sit signal and incentivize about the various kinds of interactions?
- Which kinds of interactions support which kinds of lesson objectives?
Lemov's preferred formation is paired columns of rows: three paired columns, of six across, and 4 to 5 rows. It makes it possible for the teacher to be able to move among students, and always be able to lean over and whisper in a student's ear. It means students will face the teacher in the front of the room. Pairs also encourage two students to collaborate. For larger groups, the teacher may make another map and establish a routine to get into groups.
Drawing the map also refers to what is on the walls. Lemov warns against too much or unimportant things on the walls. This is especially true for special education students, who are often distracted by two much visual information. He also recommends student work, but suggests that what is written on it is more specific than "Good," or "Outstanding." He suggests that teachers comments on work that is posted is specific to model what the teacher values as good work--so the comments might be "Excellent use of adjectives to describe," or "Your neat work on this paper helped you do an accurate job."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgfK0N9XA08
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/07/04/teach-like-a-champion-technique-11.htm
Technique 12 -- Hook it.
The "hook" Doug speaks of is called the "anticipatory set" in educational circles, but "hook" is a good vernacular way of expressing "anticipatory set." It's the thing that grabs, or "hooks" your attention and helps to focus you on the topic at hand. It could be a story, a puzzle, a picture, or a riddle that grabs your student's attention and then leads them into the topic at hand. Doug suggests the following:
- A Story: Tell a quick and engaging story. If you're teaching the bill of rights, you might want to tell a story about a child who got sent to the office because of a shirt he was wearing. If you're introducing multiplication, you might tell about a caterer deciding how many chicken fingers he needs to buy for a banquet to serve all the children in your class.
- Analogy: Find something in your students' lives that connects with the concept you are teaching. Maybe you're going to teach about the circulatory system and you brainstorm with your students how they might get a crate of oranges to all the people on a city block by carrying 3 oranges in each backpack of the 25 children in your class.
- Prop: A good prop can quickly engage your students. Want to talk about spores? Nothing like a really green moldy piece of bread to get your student's interest. Talking about the 2nd world war? I still have my father's Army Air Force uniform, which would certainly give kids a hands on experience of what people felt and experienced as the United States joined with the allies to battle fascism.
- Media: A popular song or a brief piece of video might introduce your lesson. For some great little teaching videos, you might check Teacher Tube. This week they're featuring an actor doing a dramatic presentation of the Gettysburg Address. While I was a Lutheran Pastor I lead a workshop for young church leaders (teens) on worship and used a scene from Mad Max: Beyond the Thunder Dome. It was a real hit, and quickly got across the elements of worship.
- Status: With the furious energy that is focused on celebrities, status and fame capture the attention of many students. You might want to ask your students if they heard about Lindsey Lohan going to jail--and you might connect her to someone like Nelson Mandela (if your are talking about apartheid or slavery or some other injustice.) When introducing a topic, talk about how it is "great." "The book we are reading was on the best seller list for 36 months." Or, "This author is considered the greatest of the beat generation."
- Challenge: Give the students a task, individually or in small groups. Back to introducing multiplication: "There are 24 children in our class. If I buy jelly beans for the whole class, and everyone will get 8 jelly beans, how many jelly beans must I buy? The three people in your group see if you can figure it out, and be prepared to report out how you got your result." If you're teaching Shakespeare, you might challenge the class to translate a speech from your reading for the day into modern English (You might show a clip of Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo and Juliet to talk about updating Shakespeare's dialog.)
- It's short. It's the introduction, not the lesson.
- It yields. It will quickly get you to instruction, not down a side alley. Something that is clever but doesn't actually serve the lesson will only waste your time.
- It's energetic and optimistic. You dwell on what is great about Shakespeare, or multiplication or the bill of rights, not what is hard, or confusing or difficult, unless that is what makes it great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6jI4cMbKP0
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/07/11/teach-like-a- champion-technique-12.htm
Technique 13 - Name the Steps.
Lemov notes that few gifted athletes make good coaches. What they learn naturally does not come easily to the typical athlete, and they never have to break tasks down into discrete steps--they see the whole. In fact, an important skill for children with more severe disabilities that for certain tasks, a "task analysis" is required.
Lemov wisely points out that as teachers we need to keep in mind the difference between a "Champion Performer" and a "Champion Teacher." A champion performer is good at a task; a champion teacher helps someone else succeed at that task.
There are four key components of Name the Steps:
- Identify the steps: Be sure that the steps are clear and follow in logical order. Be sure there are not too many, or it will overwhelm your students and make it difficult for them to succeed.
- Make them stick. First name the steps so they will be easy to remember. Then find a way to make them "stick" through a mnemonic or a story. One example was a teacher who taught the steps of finding the meaning of new words. She found three steps:
2. Apposition--look for words in apposition, which help rename the word. (i.e. She adjusted her tiara, the small crown of diamond-encrusted gold.)
3. Relational Words: check for but (the word means the opposite) and or also (means the same thing.)
The teacher made the acronym CAR from the steps, and made frequent reference to "Driving the CAR."
- Build the steps. You can use the process of discovering the steps to build the steps. A strong and memorable lesson would be one where the students are challenged to discover the rules themselves.
- Use Two Stairways. There are often two parallel stairways rising in your class: the steps for solving the particular problem you are dealing with. The second staircase consists of the steps that rise to solving all problems of the same kind.
Teacher: "John, add the numbers in the ones column. What do you get? "
John: "8 plus 5 is thirteen."
Teacher: "Excellent. Mark, what do we write here, under the 5?"
Mark: "A three. You put the one over the 8 because it goes in the tens place."
Teacher: "Excellent. I see you anticipated my next question.
https://www.inkling.com/read/teach-like-a-champion-doug-lemov-1st/chapter-3/field-guide-to-technique-13
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/07/18/teach-like-a-champion-technique-13.htm
Technique: 14 Board = Paper.
This particular technique requires preparation, at least the first time you teach material. A name commonly used for this technique in special education is "graphic organizers," with this particular organizer referred to as "guided notes." It is a great way to teach note taking and help all students, both special education and typically developing students, learn to look and listen for cues as to what is important in a lesson or a textbook passage.
The teacher prepares an outline for the day’s lesson with the things he/she wants the children to learn. The teacher then prepares a mock up of the same outline, with lots of blanks. Start out with only a few missing words and circulate as you teach to be sure the children are filling it in: you may also want to put the whole outline with the missing words on a Smart board or on a transparency with an overhead. The trick is to increase the number of spaces, to the point that there is just a bare outline, and students listen for what needs to go next to a, b, and c.
The guided notes are also a good place to differentiate instruction: you won't be able to withdraw the support for note taking as quickly as you can for typically developing children, but the notes can be part of the special education students test preparation. A "study guide" based on the guided notes (the student searches his or her own guided notes for the answers) is a good way to help students with specific learning disabilities prepare for tests. Be sure that the student, not an educational aide, fills in the guided notes: this is one place where an educational aide will get frustrated with a student's slow pace and will over function for them.
https://www.inkling.com/read/teach-like-a-champion-doug-lemov-1st/chapter-3/technique-14-board--paper
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/08/01/teach-like-a-champions.htm
Technique 15 -- Circulate.
The seating plan you choose not only should fit your main teaching strategy, but should also permit you, as the teacher, to circulate, moving around the room in order to support instruction. Doug offers lots of different parts of the strategy:
- Break the Plane: The "plane" is an imaginary line parallel to the front board, just about where the first row of desks begins. In order to assert control over the whole room, that imaginary line needs to be broken early and often.
- Full Access Required: You must have access to every corner of the room. The teacher needs to be able to stand naturally next to any student in the room at any time without interrupting your teaching. You don't want students to create a "No Fly" zone with backpacks, so you need to be sure students know that backpacks need to be under their seat, not on the side or on the aisle.
- Engage When You Circulate: Teach as you move around the room and make constant verbal and non-verbal interventions as you go: "Laurisa, I think I asked you to have your book on your desk," or tapping someone on their shoulder, to remind them to get out their book.
- Move Systematically: Look for opportunities to move systematically: universally, impersonally but also unpredictably. It creates an environment where students know you may stand next to them any moment, and make them accountable. Making a beeline to the most difficult student gives the message to that student that you know he (or she) is a challenge. Moving systematically means that you can show up at that student’s desk without making your anxiety visible.
- Position for Power: Face as many students as possible. The most powerful position is where you can see a student, the student knows you can see him, but he cannot see you.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/08/01/teach-like-a-champions.htm
DVD clips 3, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 21
Technique 16: Break It Down
Lemov clearly sees that the instructional moment is imbedded in the regular instructional practice of asking and answering questions. He also clearly sees that a wrong answer may actually be a more powerful tool for teaching than a right answer. That's where "breaking it down" comes into practice.
In "Break It Down," rather than immediately moving on to the next student, the teacher redirects in an attempt to help the student find the answer. It can be as simple as giving a single clue (I often prompt my boys with Autism with the first letter of a word: "S" "summer!" "That's right, it's summer!") Lemov suggests you attempt successive strategies:
- Provide an example. Say you ask for a student to name a prime number and are met with a blank stare. Try "7 is prime, and so is 11."
- Provide context. In a reading selection you come upon a new word that will be part of a vocabulary exercise. "The council clearly found Martin's failure egregious." You could suggest "I would find it really egregious if you stole my chocolate pudding." Students would be likely to come up with "really bad."
- Provide a Rule. In meeting the new word "circuitous" in a reading passage, the teacher could point out that there is a suffix, ous, on the end of the word "circuit." If that doesn't help, reminds the student of the rule”C followed by i, e or y makes an "S" sound." It will help with the two different sounds the c makes in the word. In this case, you still will want to model correct pronunciation.
- Provide the missing (or first) step. When a child answers an addition problem with fractions with an irregular fraction (say 15/6) the teacher might prompt: "After adding the two denominators, what do we do when the numerator is bigger than the denominator?" The child might respond "Oh, yeah, I divide the top by the bottom to make a mixed number: 2 and 3/6." (Next step: reducing the fraction.)
- Rollback: Sometimes it's enough to repeat the student's answer back to them to help them reconsider. "You said you would multiply the top number . . . does that seem right?" "Oh, that's right. Divide!"
- Eliminate false options. "You said that if you gave John 5 of your apples, you would still have 14 apples. Didn't you start with 9 apples? Wouldn't you have fewer apples instead of more apples?
Technique 17 -- Ratio
A teacher’s getting a good intellectual workout at the front of the room rarely marks a successful lesson. Push more and more of the cognitive work out to students as soon as they are ready, with the understanding that the cognitive work must be on-task, focused and productive. p. 93
When teaching, the challenge is to make the students do the intellectual work, not the teacher. It requires teaching strategies that question, but focuses students back on the intellectual task at hand. The notion is that the ratio of student to teacher participation in class discussion should go up with time, so the teacher is leading less and the students are developing skills at gaining knowledge. Effective teachers use a number of strategies. Here are the first six.
- Unbundle. Break questions into smaller parts so that more students can participate. Instead of having one child answer a question, break it into three parts. For the double-digit problem 57 plus 36, ask a student for the sum of the ones first. "Jessica, what is 6 plus 7? 13? Excellent. Jonathon, what do I write under the 6? Right, the three. Mark, where does the one for the ten in 13 go? “In this example three students added and regrouped the ones, not one. 3 to 1, not 1 to 1. The ratio has gone up.
- Half Statement. Provide half of the statement, and have the student finish. In special education this is a verbal prompt. Example: "The minutemen fought at the battle of . . . Melissa, could you finish that? Concord? Great!"
- What's Next? A good way to double the number of students who participate is to have one child answer a question about the next step, and then ask another student describe the process. "Okay, we know how many apples Jonathon has, and how many Robert has. Mary, how will we find out how many in all? That's right, we'll add them. Mark could you add 5 and 9? That's right, 14 in all."
- Feign Ignorance. Turn the tables and pretend you don't know the answer. "So, can I must add my numerators?
- Repeated Examples. Teachers often ask for examples for a term they have explained. The challenge is to get students to give multiple examples. "Melanie, name a mammal that lives in the water. A whale? Very good. Mark, can you name another mammal that lives in the water? A dolphin? Excellent."
- Rephrase or Add On. Second drafts are better than first drafts, so you can ask other students to improve another student's answer. This can be structured so it's not a put down. Teacher: Melissa, can you tell me one way that laws start. Melissa: The guys in congress can like find some other guys to join them to start a law. Teacher: Good start! Can anyone help Melissa name the people who are "starting laws?" Yes, Mark: They're senators or congressmen. Teacher: Great! So Senators or congressmen find other senators or congressmen to start, or sponsor the law."
More strategies to increase student to teacher participation ratio:
· Whys and How’s: Asking why or how instantly pushes students to engage in more rigorous intellectual work, explaining why a process worked, or did not work.
· Supporting Evidence: There's a lot more cognitive work in supporting a position than in taking or holding one. Ask constantly for students to support their answers: i.e. "Rachel, you said that the first generation of American politics was not partisan. Why was that?"
· Batch Processing: This particular strategy encourages more than one student to respond to a particular question or discussion point. This requires a certain level of experience and maturity for students to handle this well. Lemov refers to this as "volleyball" rather than "tennis" or "soccer." In tennis, the ball comes back to the teacher each time a question is asked. This is the most typical method of processing questions. In soccer, each team tries to keep the ball away from the other team. On the teacher’s behalf, that is lecture. On the students' behalf, it becomes meaningless shooting the breeze. By seeking 3 or 4 "players" touch the ball (question,) you increase the amount of cognitive work happening. You might even try teaching the procedure by using a tennis ball or a beanbag that is tossed from student to student. Example: "What are some limitations of a two party political system? You start, John, and pass the question to someone else."
· Discussion Objectives: Increasing ratio might become problematic if no direction is given to students. The teacher needs to begin with a clear objective in mind and redirect discussion to conform. Let's say the discussion objective is for the students to compare and contrast. Perhaps the discussion question is like this: "In Little House in the Big Woods, Ma and Pa have very different ways of solving problems. Let's work together on a Venn Diagram that compares them, by listing common traits in the middle, and contrasting traits in each of the outside circles." "No, Melanie, we want to go back to Ma and Pa and not discuss how Mary responds."
It seems that these are fairly complex strategies: it would be useful to model and practice each of the strategies together as a class.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/08/22/teach-like-a-champion-technique-17-part-one.htm
DVD clip 30
Technique 18: Check for Understanding
This is really an "on your feet" kind of technique although Lemov designates it as "data collection." Special educators do a lot of data collection, but this is meant to be more of a "down and dirty" way of evaluating whether students are "getting it" while you are teaching. Later techniques will focus on daily assessment: I especially like "exit ticket"(technique 20.) You may want to actually use a "check list" to check for understanding.
Keep a class list for each class or class period. They can be attached to the front of a pack of assignments, to check to see who turned in assignments. You can place one on a clip board and carry it with you as you teach: you can circle the names of children who continue to get their answers wrong, put a plus for correct answers and minuses for wrong answers. Glance down, and see if you are getting more pluses than minuses. If not, go back and reteach.
Example: You have asked the class to name causes for the revolutionary war. You find that 3 of 4 answers are way off the mark or incomplete. You decided to review the causes of the American Revolution before you move on to seeking the help of the French.
Even though this is an informal, on your feet method, Lemov suggests that you apply the same standards as you would for collecting data for research:
- Data Sets: If you ask a group of kids’ similar questions, evaluate the group: Did all 5 or 6 answer the question? Do they represent the breadth of abilities in the class? It also avoids the "progression of questioning" which accepts wrong, wrong, wrong, correct as students use your questions to figure out what you're looking for.
- Statistical Sampling: Randomly collecting information is ideal if you have a large sample. Your sample is the 24 to 30 kids in your class, and you need to be sure your data reflects the top, the middle and the bottom of you sample. Be sure to ask a couple questions from each stratus of the class. By accepting answers only from the top third of your class, you are only assuring that one third of your sample can answer the questions.
- Reliability: Be sure to follow up a correct answer with how or why questions to be sure it wasn't just a lucky guess.
- Validity: Make sure that the questions you ask actually reflect the information you want the student to have. If you are talking about character development, be sure you are asking questions that ask students to pull information from the text: "Melissa, you said that Harry Potter was a loyal friend. Please give me an example from the text that shows us that he was a good friend."
DVD clip 5, 12, 13, 16, 20
Technique 19: Up to Bats
- Lemov learned from an experienced baseball coach that the most important thing to help a baseball team is to increase the number of times the players had an opportunity to bat in practice. Increase the "up to bats."
- In the same way, students need to have lots and lots of opportunities to succeed at answering questions.
- In math, one of the most effective ways to do that is to be sure every student is working the problems you are doing on the board. Many districts provide individual white boards for each student. Be sure they are using them.
- In other content areas, lots and lots of opportunities to give evidence of mastery is critical. There will be lots of examples for how to best do this coming up in future techniques, such as "Cold Calls" and "On Your Mark."
Technique 20: Exit Ticket
- An exit ticket is a brief evaluation that a student turns in before he or she goes to his or her next class. It need have only 2 or 3 questions or math problems and show what they retained from the day's class. This is not only a winner for secondary classes, but may also be a way for students in elementary school to earn a preferred activity, line up for gym or lunch: Complete your exit ticket before you can have computer time, go to the library for a new book, have some free reading, or line up for gym.
- An exit ticket should yield some quick data. Maybe you were working on subtracting with regrouping across zeros. Be sure one of the three problems does not have regrouping across zeros, as some students will be so stuck on the procedure they ignore the underlying concept: they will borrow when the subtrahend is bigger than the subtractor or carry a ten when the sum is not bigger than 9.
- An exit ticket may also be a tool for re-teaching. If most students have a problem with the first problem, return the tickets look at the kinds of problems students encountered, and model the way to correct the problem. If everyone confuses Thomas Jefferson with James Madison, (the Federalist Papers) then maybe you need to spend some time looking at pictures and the arc or their political careers.
DVD clip 13
Technique 21: "Take a Stand”
This technique asks individual students or the class as a whole to take a stand on material in the lesson:
- Whole Class: "Stand up if you agree with Sheila."
- Individual: "Sheila says that the most important reason for the Civil War was taxes. Do you agree or disagree, Rodney?"
"Take a Stand" helps students process more content and helps a teacher check for understanding. The technique brings the students answers to the forefront.
It's important that when a teacher asks students to "take a stand" that it doesn't become perfunctory, like the technique of asking students to put thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs sideways, and then ignoring the results. If you challenge students "So, Sheila, why did you choose to put your thumb sideways?" You get better quality answers and you hold everyone accountable.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/09/26/teach-like-a-champion-technique-21.htm
DVD clip 4
Technique 22 is one of the most important: Cold Calls.
Cold calling in business means making a sales call to someone who does not expect you, perhaps even someone who doesn't even know you. It's tough, and makes or breaks you. In the classroom, cold calling means calling on students whether they have their hands up or not.
You know how the drama usually goes. You ask a question. Eager Beaver Billy and Kiss Up Katie are almost out of their seats, arms extended, wanting you to call on them. You wait for another hand. None appears. You call on Billy or Katie. The rest of the class has won: you haven't asked anyone to do anything.
In cold calling you let your class know you will call on them and expect an answer. You will not accept "I don't know." You stick with them, using earlier techniques until you get an answer. Sooner or later, everyone is prepared for the question, not just Billy and Katie.
Cold Calling has three advantages:
- It allows you to effectively and systematically check for understanding. You don't just want to check the students who volunteer. You also want to know how the other students are doing.
- Cold calling increases the speed both in terms of the perceived speed (the illusion of speed) and the actual speed with which you cover new material. You don't ask, "Who can tell me one cause of World War One?" and then scan the room for hands. You no longer dangle hints to get participation.
- Cold calling distributes work (engagement) more broadly across the classroom. It actually encourages those students who would not volunteer, but know the answer, to participate. It can also let them know you value their opinion, when an opinion is important.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PARfIwF215k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoB_0oTrv9A
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/10/10/teach-like-a-champion-technique-22.htm
DVD clip 16
Technique 23: Call and Response.
You may be most familiar with this as the method by which singing was lead for many, many years in African American congregations. The preacher would sing a line and the congregation would respond. In the same way, "Call and Response" as a teaching technique is a method by which the whole class participates in questioning. Call and Response has three primary goals:
- Academic Review and Reinforcement: Having the whole class respond as a group ensures that everyone gets to give the answer. Everyone one swings, so you have 30 to 35 at bats at the same time. When an individual gives a strong question, have the group repeat the answer: "Class, who did James correctly say was the commander at the Normandy Invasion?" Class: "Dwight Eisenhower."
- High Energy Fun: Call and response is energetic, active and spirited. It's like being part of a cheering crowd or an exercise class.
- Behavioral reinforcement: Everyone sees everyone else calling out the answers, and reinforces the answering behavior. Once a child has participated in the group call and response, it's going to be easier for him or her to put up his or her hand with a correct answer.
- Repeat: The class repeats what the teacher said, therefore reviewing the concept or reinforcing the answering behavior: i.e. "George Washington was the first president of the United States. Class, who was the first president of the United States?" Class: "George Washington."
- Report: The class responds with the answer to the work they have already completed. i.e. "Class, what is 47 plus 29?" Class: "76!"
- Reinforce: You reinforce new information or a strong answer by asking the class to repeat it. "Jonathon, please tell us what this part of the expression is called." Jonathon: "Exponent." Teacher: "Excellent. Class, what is this part of the expression called?" "Exponent."
- Review: Call and response can be used to review material covered earlier. I.E.: Yesterday, class, we talked about exponents. What did we talk about yesterday?" Class "Exponents."
- Solve: This is the hardest to do: the teacher asks the class to solve a problem and call out the answer in unison." If the length of our rectangle is ten inches, and the width is twelve inches, what is the area of the rectangle? “Class: "120 square inches." "How many?" "120 inches!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38-5jddiP1Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhxN9VxUE8
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/10/18/teach-like-a-champion-technique-23.htm
DVD clip 18, 23
Technique 24: Pepper
Pepper is a "game" and a form of practice used in baseball. One person is the batter, while a group of players stands in a semicircle around him. The players lob balls at the batter, who hits them back out the players, who catch them and throw/lob the balls back. It's fast paced and gives all the players practice at fielding as well as one player practice at bat.
Pepper is fast paced questioning done to review with the class. It can also be "cold calling" where the teacher calls the name. It is meant for review and can be for more than the last lesson. Say, in geometry review, you may pepper students with polygons:
- "Regular three sided: John? Yes, triangle."
- "Regular five sided: Sue? Yes, pentagon! Etc."
Pickup sticks: A final suggestion for pepper is an old technique that is great for calling on students in any educational environment: the good old popsicle sticks (okay, tongue depressors for you big printers,) put a popsicle stick with each student's name on it in a cup or jar. Grab a stick as you go around the room with questions, and ask the student on the stick. It needs to be fast paced to be fun, so read and throw or drop, and keep it rockin' and rollin'!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DveAnbzwZLo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZysOf-GOgSw
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/10/31/teach-like-a-champion-technique-24.htm
Technique 25: Wait Time.
Teachers, like many other people, are uncomfortable with silence. Lordy, I've been to lovely town center style shopping centers both here in Las Vegas and in Scottsdale, Arizona; where there is music blasting from ”speaker rocks" all around the lovely, beautifully landscaped parking lots. So, teachers jump in with a prompt or grab the first hand that goes up after, research shows, between one and one and a half seconds. By merely doubling that time, several things happen:
- The length and correctness of students' responses are likely to increase.
- The number of failures to respond ("I don't know") is likely to decrease.
- The number of students who volunteer to answer is likely to increase.
- The use of evidence in answers is likely to increase.
- "I'm waiting for more hands before I take an answer."
- "I'm waiting for someone who can connect this scene to another play, ideally Macbeth."
- "I like all the people I see checking their notes for help with a good answer."
- "I see some of you are thinking and jotting down notes before you answer. Outstanding."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnuSUL0ymM
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/11/07/teach-like-a-champion-technique-25.htm
DVD clip 19, 20, 21
Technique 26 -- Everybody writes.
This is in some ways just like technique 26, Wait Time. The difference is that in "Everybody Writes" the teacher directs the class to jot down their thoughts. When the teacher delivers a question that requires some thought, she (or he) recommends that students take out their notebook or journal and record their thoughts on the question. It mean that when the teacher cold calls she can do it confident that everyone should have something to share. So make 'em accountable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq406j8qDZw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_cuE8fmZK0
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/11/15/teach-like-a-champion-technique-27.htm
Technique 27: Vegas
If you've been following my blog, you know I now teach in Las Vegas. In fact, after short trips to California, Phoenix and the Grand Canyon, I decided to stay close to home this weekend and just took a walk on the strip. Vegas means adding a bit of glitz, some sparkle, and some showmanship. Here, it's entertainment that promotes gambling. In the classroom, it should support your objectives and you lessons. This can happen in several ways:
"Vegas," the technique, comes from Dave Levin, founder of the KIPP schools, a group of charter schools across the county, which have been successful in helping inner city kids, achieve. It could be a class doing the "action verb shimmy," or sing the "long division song." Here are some guidelines:
- Production Values: Add some pizzazz to your presentations. Add some props; add a funny hat or a costume. Use your voice and your presentation style to engage your students. Say, your class has read a story and you are focusing on the "rising action" of the plot, you might retell the story dramatically. How about climbing on the desks as the action rises?
- Like a faucet: You might add a little routine to a drill. Say, the class does happy hands (clapping in American Sign Language) to recognize a correct answer. Be sure as the teacher, you can turn it on and turn it off like a faucet. Have a well-known and practiced cue to begin and to stop.
- Same objective: Vegas always needs to have a specific objective, and you need to be sure that it's the same objective as the lesson.
- Chorus line: In the real Vegas (my new home town) the chorus line is doing the same step at the same time. If you use a multiplication song to review a set of facts, be sure everyone knows the song. If you're doing a multiplication showdown, be sure each participant knows when to stand, how to play, what to do if they lose.
- On point: In any group activities, participants can subtly undermine the activity by singing off tune, by clowning around, by overdoing the dance. The effective teacher keeps it all under his or her thumb. Then it's time to use one of the behavior management techniques coming up.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/11/21/teach-like-a-champion-technique-27-2.htm
DVD clip 18, 22
Technique 28; Entry Routine.
I have often sung praise for routines to build effective and efficient classroom management. I'm a big fan of Harry Wong's The First Day of School, which lays out classroom routines as the foundation of good classroom management that supports instruction.
Making expectations for entering a classroom explicit helps get students into their seats and prepared to begin instruction quickly and effectively.
- Materials for the class should be placed on a table where students entering the room will pick them up (especially high school and middle school classrooms.) Expectations should include picking those things up, especially if a list of materials for class is posted on the front board, or a board close to the table.
- Students should know where to sit. Seats should be assigned, and assigned in a manner that makes effective participation and interaction.
- Homework should be handled the same way every day. A technique I have used and like is that there is a box is placed near the door with a clothespin on the edge with each child's name. Each child takes their clothespin, clips their homework together and places it in the bin. You can make a quick check of who hasn't turned in their homework. You need to have a consequence for the kid who figures they can just put their clothespin in the bin or box.
- Have a Do Now (Technique 29, coming next week) on the board, or in each child's packet that they picked up.
Technique 29: Do Now
A "Do Now" is part of the entry routine. It's what Harry Wong, and many elementary teachers call "bell work." It is an assignment that students engage in as soon as they enter the room. It needs to be short; support instruction and students should be held accountable for its completion. Lemov lists four criteria:
- Students should be able to do the "do now" without any direction from the teacher. Many teachers use "daily math" or "daily edits" as part of the entry routine.
- The activity should take 3 to 5 minutes to complete.
- The activity should require putting a pencil to paper: there should be a product.
- The activity should preview the day's lesson or review material from the day before.
When I taught in inner city Philadelphia, I had a journal prompt on the board, to which students knew they were expected to respond. I greeted everyone, but otherwise I circulated and handed out white poker chips (see Token System.) When we were ready to start everyone was in his or her seat, quiet and ready. Kids liked to come to the resource room because it was one place that they knew would be calm, where no one would bully them (peers) or yell at them (teachers.)
Here are some examples:
- Reading: Write a short letter to Palmer (Wringer by Jerry Spinelli) about a time you had a secret you kept from your friends. Be sure to use personal letter writing conventions.
- Math: Solve to find the width of a rectangle with an area of 104 square centimeters and a length of 13 centimeters. Show your work.
- Social Studies: Write about something you would like to see in France and why. At least three sentences.
Technique 30: Tight Transitions.
Transitions are the time between different academic settings and activities. Transitions in high schools and middle schools will be different because many transitions occur between classes (and out of a teacher's control.) Still, keeping transitions tight, and controlled, will both create more time and avoid the kind of highjink or downright low down harassment that can occur in some classrooms, especially inner city classrooms.
As a teacher, you need to invest time early in the year in being sure that the procedure for transitions is clearly understood and crisply executed. The term "procedure" is carefully chosen: it's part of the "routines" approach advocated by Harry Wong in The First Day of School. Procedures, rather than rules, are values neutral but do effectively create an efficient classroom. Be sure that you teach and rehearse the transition procedures. Map out the path for your students. i.e. "Those in the first row line up first, those in the second row, line up second, across the front of the room,” etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uuk9anq4c8
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/12/13/teach-like-a-champion-technique-29.htm
Lemov has other suggestions:
- Number the steps: Break down transitions into steps, such as "When I say one, stand up behind your seat and pick up your resources. One." "When I say two, those in the Blue Reading Group walk to your assigned seat at the reading table. Two." "When I say three, the students going to Mrs. Miller for reading will line up at the door. Three." Etc. When the routine is well taught, you need only call out the numbers.
- Point-to-Point: When a transition occurs in the halls, on the way to lunch or specials, you indicate the point at which the class stops. "Jonathan, lead the class to the awards case." "Jonathon, lead the class to the spot under The Cat in the Hat by the door to the lunchroom," etc. It will help you monitor each leg of the trip. If the class is noisy or you see a problem with keeping hands and feet to themselves, you can have the class return to the previous point and attempt to do it correctly. Be sure to be explicit as to why you are repeating a procedure. Accepting performance that does not meet your standard will show performance that continues to deteriorate.
- No talk transitions: As you control where you students move, you should also control what they say. Silent transitions avoid snarky comments or putdowns between students on the way to their next academic activity.
Have a required format for organizing papers within the binder so everyone is using the same system and you can check to make sure everyone has and can find what they need. You might, for example, assign a number to all materials you expect students to keep in their binders and have them enter then into a table, for example, 37: notes on subject-verb agreement: 38: subject-verb agreement worksheet, 39: subject-verb agreement homework, and 40: worksheet for subject-verb agreement with compound subject.
To ensure that students follow through, take the time to have the students put their materials away during class. “Please add number 37, notes on… to your table of contents, and file these notes away on my signal. I want to hear your binders popping on… three.”
http://specialed.about.com/b/2010/12/26/teach-like-a-champion-technique-31.htm
Technique 32: SLANT
It's an acronym for the "procedure" for efficient attention behavior, or the behavior a student uses to best benefit from instruction. We teach and drill students on how to line up for fire drills, but we seldom spend specific attention to what good "attention" or on task and attending behavior, look like. The Acronym SLANT should help:
- Sit up
- Listen
- Ask and Answer Questions.
- Nod your head.
- Track the speaker.
One of the best things about the acronym is that it serves as shorthand for appropriate behavior, so you don't have to use class time to remind students what they should be doing. It should be posted on the wall, and once it is imbedded in classroom behavior, the teacher need only say, "Must have been a rough night. I'm not seeing SLANT today. Hey! I see Natalia is sitting up! Great Job! And so is Jamal!
A teacher might also chose to introduce hand signals to remind students of the components of slant, say folding his hands in front of him to remind them to sit up, or using the ASL sign for look or see to remind them to track the speaker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cItKLgeM0QU
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/01/01/teach-like-a-champion-technique-32.htm
DVD clip 4, 8, 26
Technique 33 - On Your Mark
No coach would let a player walk on the field or the court without being prepared to begin to play: a football player needs his helmet, a basketball player needs to have his shoes tied and a tennis player will have her racket in hand. In just the same way, a student needs to have his or her tools out and ready.
How to Ensure your Class is On Its Mark When the Class Starts:
- Be explicit about what students need to have to start class. Make it a short list: 5 or fewer items, and doesn't change:
- Paper out.
- Desk clear (of everything but that required for the lesson.)
- Pencil sharp and ready ("in the pencil tray.")
- Homework out.
- Set a time limit. Have a small and appropriate consequence for failure to have materials in place by the stated time-say five minutes after the bell. This avoids all the arguments like "I was just about to do it," or "I'm doing it now!"
- Use a standard consequence. Have a small and appropriate consequence that you can administer immediately, like losing points in a token economy, having to sharpen all the pencils in the pencil tray at lunchtime, or attending a "homework club" before school to prove they are prepared for the day.
- Provide tools without a consequence. There's a difference between not being ready before class and finding out you don't have a point on your pencil just before class begins. Tools should be readily accessible, such as tray of lined notepaper on the teacher's desk, or a jar of sharpened pencils where a student can swap out his or her pencil.
- Include homework. Homework is the most important thing most students will do all day that isn't supervised by a teacher. Be sure turning it in is part of the routine of getting "on your mark."
Technique 34 - Seat Signals
Two necessary (somewhat) interruptions during the day are use of the bathroom and sharpening a pencil. In some settings, especially inner city settings, some students have created elaborate Kabuki performances surrounding these activities. The procedures for using the school bathroom can border on quelling a prison uprising at San Quentin. “Hand Signals” is a technique to accomplish those little distractions quickly and without a lot of time destroying fuss.
Firstly, the technique implies a classroom rule: always remain in your seat. This may seem harsh for folks in the suburbs, though for you I would recommend the procedure in my article on the Color Wheel, that helps students know when they may get up and sharpen their pencil, and when it is inappropriate. In most inner city schools you are inviting way too many cats out of the bag without the "always remain in your seat" rule. Wandering bullies pinch and hit other students when you're not looking. You may turn to the board and turn back to find your students have soundlessly had a Chinese fire drill. In these environments, the "Always remain in your seat" rule is golden. When a student needs a sharp pencil, to use the restroom, or to pick up something that has fallen on the floor, they need a hand signal that:
- Can be signaled by the student from their seat.
- Can be signaled silently.
- Should be specific and unambiguous.
- Is subtle enough that it does not draw attention to them or their request.
These signals were suggested:
- "I need to use the bathroom": Hand up, two fingers crossed. The ASL sign for bathroom, a fist with the thumb inserted between the middle fingers, is also simple, explicit and pretty universally known.
- "I need a sharp pencil." Hold pencil up, wait for exchange. Having pre-sharpened pencils ready to deliver at hand avoids the whole drama of "You have a point." "It's not sharp enough, Mister." You also avoid the whole drama of the child marching to the pencil sharpener. I had a pencil sharpener burned out each year in Philadelphia: If I only knew then . . .
- "I need a tissue:” Left hand-pinching nose.
- "I need to get out of my seat (to pick something up off the floor.)" Finger circling.
I did a long-term sub about 15 years ago in a second grade in an elementary school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The children were the children of physicians and professors at the University of Michigan. One boy's parents were both professors in the geology department. They were a scanty group and since we had a bathroom in the classroom, some of them spent a good part of the day in there. I soon decided I had to get it under control. I had used paper money as a re-enforcer when I taught second grade (before seminary) quite successfully. I gave each child 50 cents in paper money every day. There were four free times for the bathroom: right after they arrived, 10 minutes before morning recess, 10 minutes after they returned from lunch recess, and the last 15 minutes of the day. Otherwise, they paid me ten cents. Worked like a dream. One of my parents, an anesthetist at the University of Michigan Hospital, complained, but other parents offered to write me recommendations for a teaching job. At the end of my six-week stay, I had an auction and the children used the money they had accumulated over the time I was there to bid for items.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/01/16/teach-like-a-champion-technique-34.htm
Technique 35 - Props
You may think of props as funny hats or “show and tell” (which can be good ways to support instruction,) but this has a different, specific meaning.
Props are routines that effectively harness and use peer praise. A vernacular title might be "a shout out." It might be having the whole class "Give two claps for Ernie," when Ernie gets an answer right, or Ernie does a truly effective job of explaining a tough concept. Who doesn't like praise from their peers? By teaching praise routines that engage the whole class and happen quickly, you can provide powerful reinforcement while not disrupting the class or taking away from instruction. Here are some necessary criteria for successful "props."
- Quick. You should be able to cue a prop in one second. If you say "Two claps for Jamal," and the response is slower than that, it's worth taking the time to be sure it happens on time and with the whole class participating. Keeping it short also keeps the energy up.
- Visceral. Teachers sometimes believe Props should involve words. Props that depend on sound or rhythm and sound, tend to be the most effective. The shorter, the better. Longer responses have shorter shelve lives: "On the way to college!" may wear thing quickly, where as a rhythmic, "Uh Huh, Uh Huh" may work for a long time. Students love rhythm, and may use anything as a drum. Use it.
- Universal: When you announce a Prop, everyone needs to be involved. Teach them and enforce participation.
- Enthusiasm. Props need to be fun but short breaks from hard work. Don't give in to the temptation to make them "grown up" or to narrate values. They should be the punctuation, not the sentence. Giving students opportunities to choose the Props from among those they know keeps them fun.
- Evolving. Involve you students in the creation of Props, and they will never grow weary of using them. When they spring from student's own ideas, they will be valued even more.
- The Homerun: You say, "Let's give Ramona a homerun!" Students toss up an imaginary ball and swing at it with an imaginary bat. They watch it soar out of sight, and then participate in the crowd noise for a second or two.
- The Lawn Mower: You say, "Let's give Jason a lawn mower." The Students give two pulls on the imaginary starter cord, make the "vroom, vroom" of starting and about a second of steering and cutting.
- The Roller Coaster: You say, "Man, that answer deserves a roller coaster." Students raise their hands at 45 degrees, and chug three times - "chug, chug, chug" as if going to the top of the roller coasters, and then shout "Woo, Woo, Woo," as they go over three humps."
- Two Hands: You say, "Johnny, lead us in a No Hands." Johnny calls out "Two hands” and the class snaps fingers on both hands and chants "Ay, Ay." Johnny calls our "One hand" and the class snaps fingers on one hand and changes "Ay, Ay." Johnny calls out "No hands," and the class does a funky dance while seated for exactly one second.
- Hot Pepper;" You say "An answer like that deserves a Hot Pepper." Your kids hold up an imaginary hot pepper, dangling it about their mouths. They take a bite and make a sizzle sound "Tssssss," for exactly one second.
- Two Snaps, Two Stomps. You say "Two snaps, two stomps for Angela B." Your students deliver two snaps and two thundering stomps that end perfectly on cue.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/01/22/teach-like-a-champion-technique-35-2.htm
Technique 36: 100 percent.
Lemov spends a lot of time discussing the potential pitfalls, for good reason. 100 percent means that a teacher expects 100 percent compliance. The trick is to be sure that your expectations are reasonable and that asking for 100 percent compliance does not become a power struggle.
He uses, as an example, a teacher who asks her class to be quiet by having the class raise their hands when she raises hers. Often teachers will accept the performance of a class if they are quiet, although only 60 percent of the class raises their hands. It gives the class the message that less than 100 percent is acceptable, and that message may become a real problem, when things continue to slip down the slippery slope. What would be a better result? Asking that when the teacher’s hand goes up, the class is quiet, hands are on top of desks and feet are flat on the floor. That leads to an automatic and smooth transition to instruction.
Enforcement needs to be steady, considerate and unemotional. If students know that compliance is not negotiable, they will follow through.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC0ltKOwF_A
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/01/31/teach-like-a-champion-technique-36.htm
Technique 37: What to do.
We often assume that students who don't follow directions or don't comply are being defiant, or we punish them or put them down when they don't follow directions or comply. We may have missed a simple point: the student may not know what we want them to do.
We need to avoid telling them what we don't want them to do. We too often say things to students like "Don't lose your focus." "Don't fidget." Instead we need to be very clear about what the behavior we want should look like. In order to be effective directions need to be:
- Specific: Effective directions are specific. They focus on manageable and precisely described actions the student can take. Instead of saying "Pay attention," say, "John, your eyes need to be on me and your pencil needs to be on your desk. Thank you."
- Concrete: Effective directions are not just specific but also concrete. They involve when possible, clear actionable tasks. If you say, "pay attention" the student may not know what actions are required to "pay attention." If the student still doesn't seem to know what you mean when you say "eyes on pencil and me on your desk," you can further refine it. "John, you are paying attention when both of your knees are under your desk, when you hands are flat on the top, and your mouth is quiet so your ears can listen."
- Sequential: Since a complex skill like paying attention is rarely a single action, effective directions should describe a sequence of specific, concrete actions. If you expect students to take notes, you will need to say, "John, after I write on the board you need to pick up your pencil and write it in your notebook."
- Observable: You need to be sure that the behaviors you ask from a student are observable. If you say, "pay attention," how will you know? John might say "But I was paying attention." Students, often subconsciously, will exploit the lack of accountability left by unclear non-observable directions.
What to Do, Version 2
If you know that the reason for failure to comply is incompetence, giving directions again with more explicit details can help the child succeed. Lemov also discovered this can work in a crisis situation. When asking a child to get up and go with him, as the principal of a building, the student shut down. He found that if he broke it down into a sequence, he had success. The student (we'll call her Sheila) put her head on the desk when she was told to go to the office. Mr. Lemov kneeled down next to her desk and firmly but quietly said, "Sheila, stand next to the desk." She did. "Sheila, please come with me." She did. The specificity helps her overcome her reluctance.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/02/05/teach-like-a-champion-technique-37.htm
Technique 38: Strong Voice
You've seen those teachers (you may be one yourself,) you know the ones, who when they walk into a room everyone sits up straight and is ready to start. It's not just an aura you're born with, it's a set of skills acquired over time. Lemov can't tell you how you become that teacher, but he does lay out 5 principals of strong voice, a technique that establishes your authority as the teacher in a classroom:
- Economy of Language
- Do Not Talk Over
- Do Not Engage
- Square Up/ Stand Still
- Quiet Power.
Economy of Language: Fewer words are stronger than more. Speaking briefly and to the point when giving directions. It shows you are prepared, and doesn't expect students to figure out what you want.
Do Not Talk Over: If what you are saying is important and worth attention, then students have a right and responsibility to hear it. You have a clear cue for attention and then wait until you have everyone's (remember 100 Percent) attention. By never competing for attention, you make it clear to students that you are in charge and what you are saying is important.
Do Not Engage: Students quickly learn to get you off task once they find they can engage you. You say: "Jonathon, please take your foot off Shaquanna's seat." Jonathon says "But she called me nappy headed!" If you say, "Shaquanna, is that true?" you've given Jonathon what he wants. He's shifted your attention from his behavior to Shaquanna's and also off the academic task of the moment. He's won, because you've changed the subject, he's created drama and a teacher inquisition, and taken the class's attention off of what you are teaching. No, strong voice repeats ”John, just take your foot down." Thank you (when he complies.)"
Square Up/Stand Still. Your physical presence speaks a thousand words. Body language is important, often more important than what you say. Be sure both shoulders are directed at the person to whom you are speaking. Be sure eye contact is direct. Stand straight or lean in close. If the student is several feet away, move closer, into his or her space is best. Stop moving when you are giving important directions.
Quiet Power: When teachers are nervous or worried that their students won't follow directions, they tend to speak faster and more loudly. Kids pick that up. They get the message that they are in control. When you feel anxious, you need to lower your voice. When I taught second grade and things were getting off the hook, I turned off the lights, and lowered my voice. They hated it. "Why did you yell at us?" they would say later. I of course would laugh and say, "I never yell. But you knew I was serious, didn't you?"
Strong voice is so important that I will be continuing next week with part two, to help you, readers, to get fully understand.
Part two is an essential part of "Strong Voice," which Doug identifies as "Formal Pose."
Research has shown that body language conveys often more than the specific spoken words used in interactions. Nowhere is that truer than in the classroom.
How will Susan stand if you meet her at the counter at the neighborhood coffee shop? Will she have her hand on one hip, weight on one foot, and her head cocked to one side, inviting informal comment? Will she flip her hair in a sort of friendly, coquettish sort of way, to imply she is happy to see you? Plop Susan into a classroom at that moment, and that posture will invite intimacy she probably doesn't care to share with 28 13 year olds. Her posture suggests that what she has to share is not really all that important, merely incidental to the social relationship she is acknowledging.
She certainly isn't inviting compliance. For that she needs to find what Lemov calls "Formal Pose," or "Formal Register." In formal pose, a teacher squares up his or her shoulders, places equal weight on each of his or her feet, and faces the student/s he or she is addressing directly. Lemov adds putting hands behind the back. This pose clearly communicates that information being shared is important. Eyes are steady and direct, not darting around. The Champion teacher uses formal pose in most statements where control is needed. Formal pose is the wrapping in which Strong Voice will come.
How about urgency? What if the building is on fire? In those situations you would expect a person to move in close, perhaps touch your shoulder. They may lower their voice and separate the words. "You need to come with me, immediately." Eyes are locked rather than focused.
Is urgency an effective tone to use to gain compliance? Well . . . if the building is figuratively burning. This loses its effectiveness if it is used to often. Like crying, "wolf" after a while students will disregard it. So use formal pose in those situations where you need strong voice to redirect your students, to assert control of the situation, and to transition to new activities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s_WwYIKoOk
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/02/13/teach-like-a-champion-technique-38-part-one.htm
Technique 39: Do It Again
How many times have you asked the class to line up again? We know it works. It gives students an opportunity to practice a routine the way we expect it to be done. It is also one of the few negative reinforcers that work. Negative reinforcement is the thing which when removed, is most likely to make a behavior reappear. The next time you ask the class to line up, they are more likely to do it to your standards.
This technique is effective for 7 reasons:
- It shortens the feedback loop. Behavioral research has shown that the shorter the time between the behavior and the response, the more likely the behavior change will be. Other consequences, like practicing at recess, are less likely to be successful.
- It sets a standard of excellence, not just compliance. This technique is not just for non-compliance, or failure to comply as expected, but also for those times when it doesn't meet the teacher's standard. The last person drags his way to the end of the line? Let he and the class know they need to work as a team.
- There is no administrative follow up. This is a consequence that doesn't require a phone call or paper work, any progressive discipline records or notice to the dean.
- There is group accountability. Although "Do It Again" can be used with individual students, it is most effective when students become accountable not only to their teacher, but also their peers. If everyone in the previous example is expected to sit down and "do it again," they will be sure the slacker knows about their displeasure.
- It ends with success. The last thing we do will be what we remember. If the last time the class lines up is done quickly, quietly and with eyes forward, that's how the class will remember to do it the next time.
- There are logical consequences. Ideal consequences are logically related to the behavior that precedes it. Do it again reminds students what they are expected to do so they can do it better. The consequence of lining up again, and doing it properly, is more logically related to lining up correctly than staying in at recess.
- It is reusable. You can "Do It Again," and then do it yet another time. Within reason, it doesn't lose its legs.
- A class transitioning from math to lunch. A class transitioning from writing in their journals to reading aloud.
- A class that needs to track the speaker (eyes and heads toward the speaker.)
- A class that gives a half-hearted Call and Response.
- A class moving from their desks to a small group reading area.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVerVPPTTrA
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/02/27/teach-like-a-champion-technique-39.htm
DVD clip 4, 15, 25, 26
Technique 40: Sweat the Details
It's way too easy, when you're dealing with individualizing or differentiating instruction, to let those "little things" slide. But Lemov uses the "Broken Window Theory of Policing" as a metaphor to make his point. New York found that when police enforced the little things, no graffiti, no jay walking, fixing the broken windows, people in neighborhoods perceived that their environment was one that was worth preserving. They acted in ways to protect that environment. Crime dropped.
The same is true in classrooms. When students accept the values of an orderly, well run classroom, they will put their hearts into performing as well as possible. The key to “Sweat the Details” is preparation. Make some decisions about what you want in your classroom and design procedures to be sure students know what is expected:
- Want you student’s desks in neat rows? (You should, actually.) Put tape down so your students know where their desks should go. (See Seating Plans for more.)
- Want your students to do neat and tidy homework? Give students a standards rubric and check student's work against it. You may even have students put their homework on the desk and go around during independent work and critique it. I have found that telling one of my students "Quality work," is enough to remind him he needs to put his name and the date on the top of every paper for it to be "Quality Work." He does.
- Want your students to keep their materials neatly in their binders? Teach students how to put their papers in their binders 50 times, teaching the students how you want them to organize it. (See Technique 31, Binder Control.)
- Want your students to work quietly on their seatwork? Circulate as they work, offering comments and support as you go: "Check your spelling on that, Nicole." "I see you remembered to write on the lines neatly, Eddie. Thanks for a good job."
- Want your students to raise their hands quietly and crisply to participate? Teach them to raise their hands, through modeling and repetition, and keep reminding them "How we raise our hands."
Technique 41 - Threshold
The threshold in this technique is the one at the door. It's the place where a class starts and expectations are set. In an earlier technique, we saw a teacher drill her students in what she wanted to see in the hallway before they were admitted. Meeting the students at the door helps set the standard, start everyone off on the right foot, and establish a warm, friendly environment.
Ideally, the students line up outside the door, and the teacher stands at the threshold, in the doorway. The teacher greets each student with a pre-established handshake and a greeting. Make it clear that no matter what is expected elsewhere, you always expect their very best. It is an opportunity to establish rapport, as well, by individualizing your greeting: "Great game yesterday, Andre." "Love the ribbons, Aisha." or "Loved your response on the exit ticket, Rodney."
The teacher should also use the threshold to correct unacceptable behavior by controlling access to the room: get shirts tucked in, get rid of chewing gum, remind students to hand in homework. It's another reason to shake hands. If students don't give a strong handshake, or perhaps mumbles their greeting, you have their hand. You can gently steer them to the back of the line to do it again, right.
Threshold will match a teacher's style. It might be warm and friendly, or it might be crisp and businesslike. Either is good, because you start the class with a shared baseline, and students have an understanding of what to expect from your instructional style, as well.
Sometimes teachers may not be able to line up students outside their door because of school policy. Then you may want to establish another entry routine. Still, you can stand at the door, greet each student as they arrive and make it clear that they need to start the bell work or "to do" on their desk or on the front table. It may require some extra preparation before the day begins, having each class's set of assignments or "to dos" assembled and ready for pick up at the front of the room. It would be an investment whose pay off would be a well-organized class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAYsCyxj7u4
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/03/13/teach-like-a-champion-technique-41.htm
DVD clip 27
Technique 42: No Warnings.
Using small consequences or re-teaching rather than trusting your charm or your relationship to the students will help you avoid getting emotional, losing your students and control of the situation. The goal should be to take action rather than to get angry.
Act Early. Remember, by acting quickly and administering a minor consequence you save the student from a major consequence.
Act reliably. Be predictably consistent to eliminate the variable of how you will react and focus on the behavior you need to change.
Act proportionately. Start small when the misbehavior is small. "Don't go nuclear unless the situation is nuclear."
Often the behavior that gets in the way of taking action is the warning. A warning is not taking action, but rather threatening action. You give the student the understanding that they have one or more free misbehaviors.
First, as in Technique 37 "What to Do," be sure that the student’s failure is not due to the fact they don't know exactly what is expected. In those situations, where "incompetence" rather than disobedience or noncompliance are the issues, the consequence will be re-teaching or modeling the behavior. It should be quick and done. The important thing is to have consequences that are proportional in place for misbehavior. You don't suspend a student for failure to spit their gum out. You might keep the child behind to clean the desks ("The reason we don't permit gum in school is it messes up our desks. I would like you to be sure our desks are clean for your peers' good quality work.") Also, be sure that the issue is not stamina rather than noncompliance: if a student's head is beginning to sink, they might need a little encouragement rather than a consequence.
Lemov recommends that you have your responses prepared so you can be consistent and proportional. It also avoids using the biggest consequence first: not only will it be less effective the next time you use it, it will also get your students' backs up. All students have "fair" -o-meters, and even your most compliant students will be offended if you go nuclear for small infractions. Doug also recommends that as consequences you take small, incremental parts of privileges: 5 minutes of recess, 5 minutes of the end of class. Consequences should be delivered following three criteria:
- Be calm, poised and impersonal when delivering a consequence, not angry or vindictive. Focus on the now, not the past.
- Be incremental. When possible, take away parts of privileges.
- Be private when you can and public when you must. If a student's behavior is pitched to the whole class, your correction needs to be clear to the whole class. Otherwise, it is best to lean over a talk quietly to a child.
DVD clip 11
Technique 43 - Positive Framing
People respond much better to positive than the negative. When you correct or redirect children, putting your intervention in a positive rather than a negative way will help the lesson go home and stay home. Of course, positive reinforcement for acceptable behavior is always preferable, but when a child needs to be redirected, putting that correction in the best light will help other lessons to be learned. This is may be a challenging technique: It will take two blogs to do the technique credit. Components of successful Positive Framing, include:
- Live in the now. Avoid harping on what students can no longer fix. Talk about what should or even must happen next. Say "Charlotte, eyes on the board, please," and not "Charlotte, stop looking back at Francis!"
- Assume the best. Don't assign evil motives to a child's failure to follow directions. Assume that it is a lock of understanding, practice or possibly distraction. Unless you discover that a behavior or lack of action is intentional, your discussion of that behavior or lack of action should be framed positively. Instead of "Class, I asked the class to push their chairs in and I see some of you decided not to follow directions," you would reframe it as "Class, we always push our chairs in. If some of you forgot to do that, could you please go back and take care of it? Thank you." Assuming the worst can also make you appear weak. If you show that you assume your students are always trying to comply, you are also demonstrating your assumption that you are in charge.
- Allow Plausible Anonymity. Allowing your students to meet expectations in plausible anonymity assumes they are making a good faith effort, so begin correcting them without naming names. Address the whole class, instead. "Oops. I don't see everyone in our class has their tools on top of their desks. Let's see if we can get that done by the count of five." You can "Do it Again" (Technique 39) without naming names. "Okay, class, you didn't come in as quietly as we usually do. Let's return to the hall and do it correctly. Thank you."
Teacher one: (Stopping to be sure students are ready before giving directions.) I need three people. Make sure you fix it if that's you! Now I need two. We're almost there. Ah, thank you. We're ready to rock and roll.
Teacher two: (Same circumstance.) I need three people. Oh, one more person doesn't seem to understand the directions, so that makes four. Some people don't appear to be listening. I'm a waiting, gentleman. If I need to give out detentions, I will.
Teacher one is narrating the behavior he wants in a positive, forward motion. He is calling his students attention to the correct behavior, normalizing it. Teacher two is telling a story no one wants to hear. Students can smell the fear: otherwise, why does the teacher need to make the threat? No Big Mo in classroom two.
With positive framing, perception can quickly become reality. Narrating your weaknesses normalize them. Draw attention instead to what is good and getting better, and raise your students' expectations
Rule 5: Challenge. Kids love to be challenged to prove they can do anything, to compete and to win. Create situations where students can prove what they can do. Challenge them to compete against one another, as individuals or in groups. Let them compete
- Against other groups within the class.
- Against other groups (in content area classes, the other periods.)
- Against an impersonal foe: the clock, the test, to prove that their better than it, their age (That was acceptable 6th grade work. Who thinks they can give me 7th grade work?)
- Against an abstract standard. (Who can show me they're on their way to Harvard?)
A variation of this has been very successful with my students. Working with boys with autism, I know that behavioral challenges have often prevented them from performing as highly as they could. Some teachers of students with autism are not as well grounded in the curriculum, and students are behind. I know I have challenged students to take on lots of new material with the proviso: "We're getting you ready for college." One of my boys found out what my first name was. I informed him he was free to come back and call me by my first name when he finishes college. He's talking about college now.
A couple things Lemov advises to avoid in order to stay positive.
Rhetorical questions: Don't ask questions you don't want an answer to. Don't pretend to ask a question when you are not. Avoid saying things like "Would you like to join us, David?" as if it were an option. Instead say "Thank you for joining us on the rug, David."
Contingencies: Don't say, "I'll wait," unless you will. The point is, you won't and you make your actions contingent on your students. "We need you to be with us" is much more productive, positive and strong.
http://teachlikeachampion.com/blog/teaching-and-schools/how-positive-framing-and-precise-praise-fit-together/
https://www.inkling.com/read/teach-like-a-champion-doug-lemov-1st/chapter-7/technique-43-positive-framing
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/04/02/teach-like-a-champion-technique-43-part-two.htm
Technique 44 - Precise Praise.
I have written over and over again how important positive reinforcement is. I have also written over and over again how you must be your strongest reinforcer. I also don't think you can do praise justice unless you focus on the quality and purpose of the praise.
From the 70's onward we were on a "self esteem" crusade, believing that all academic, societal and international problems. Praise was ladled out in huge portions, although research has shown that high self-esteem does not really guarantee success. Some students with high self-esteem will go off to college and fail miserably, because they don't realize they lack the skills to succeed in a rigorous academic environment. Some individuals with overly high self-esteem can create a danger to themselves and others, if their inflated opinion of their own abilities leads them to take risks that might endanger them.
Kids know whether praise is authentic and whether it is deserved. It is true that an effective way to build a baseline for positive behavior is "catch them begin good,” as it is also a good way to explicitly teach your students your expectations. But ladling praise out indiscriminately is more likely to earn you the disrespect of your students than their compliance. Lemov suggests several criteria for "Precise Praise."
Differentiate Acknowledgment and Praise. Acknowledge when students are doing a good job of following classroom routines. Also, when they have improved their follow through, it's good to acknowledge it. I have found that one of the best ways to get classroom compliance is to thank and acknowledge the students who are already complying. "Thanks, John, for having your book out and showing me your ready to start." " I see Emily is also ready. Thank you." Save praise for those times students exceed you expectations.
Praise (and Acknowledge) Loudly, Fix Softly. When you have good news to share, be sure everyone knows about it. When you need to correct a child, do it in a whisper, or even using a hand signal. It not only avoids embarrassing the child, if the child's purpose was to disrupt the class or draw attention to him or herself, you have avoided that.
Praise Must Be Genuine. Early on, children listen for insincere praise: they read it as a sign that they are doing badly, according to Carol Dweck, in her book Mindset: the New Psychology of Success. That implies that students are receiving waves of insincere praise that are undermining their independence and their ability to fairly appraise their own work. Don't say, "Oh, Julie, you're so creative!" Say instead something explicit, like "I really enjoyed the dialog in your story." I would also add some constructive direction, like "I wish I knew more about your characters, Julie. Can you fill them out either by telling your readers what they are thinking, or showing them doing something that lets us know?" When your praise is explicit, it helps students know that you really do value their effort. With my students, when they really bat one over the fence, get extra praise: "Boy, Jordan, you really made this so much neater than your last story. You really took my direction to heart and did a super job." In instances like that I also make a point of posting it on the board: I like to keep some board space just for student work.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/04/16/teach-like-a-champion-technique-44.htm
DVD clip 11
Technique 45 - Warm/Strict
It may seem like an oxymoron: How can you be both warm and strict? Lemov points out that it is in fact a false dichotomy. Strictness and warm are not opposites; in fact they may not even be related.
To use this technique effectively, you need to be both strict and warm. While you are being friendly, kind, good-humored, you also need to be strict: you expect everyone to live up to expectations. It's not "I care about you, but you still have to do the consequence for not turning your work in," instead it's "Because I care about you, you will do the consequence for not turning your work in."
When you are consistent, firm and unrelenting but at the same time positive, thoughtful, and enthusiastic you send the message to students that having high expectations is part of being a caring person.
Make your Warm/Strict technique work by:
- Explain to students why you are doing what you are doing (you'll find out more with Technique 48, Explain Everything.) Especially, how it will affect them. "John, I'm asking you to do this over because this is not up to your usual standard. I expect the best of you, because you are a conscientious student."
- Demonstrate that consequences are temporary. Once a student fulfills the consequence, be sure to welcome him or her back. "Thanks for giving me five. I'm happy to have you back in the group."
- Use warm, non-verbal communication. Put your arm around a student and thank him for fixing his work. Get down to a third grader's eye level and speak calmly: explain that her talking is making it hard for her peers to complete their work.
DVD clip 5, 11
Technique 46 - The J Factor
The J in this technique stands for joy. Certainly, a teacher who brings joy to teaching and brings joy to his or her students' learning will have not only a happy classroom, but also a successful classroom. Lemov describes 5 categories of J factor activities that champion teachers employ in their classrooms:
- Fun and Games. These activities draw on kid's love for challenges, competition and play. Have children compete to see who can "roll their numbers (do repeated addition) the fastest or who can put the Midwestern states in alphabetical order by last letter the fastest. Spelling, geography or math bees as well as content based "around the worlds," relax races and jeopardy games are great ways to review content and build the joy.
- Us (and Them) Kids, like everybody else, take pleasure in belonging to things. A key function of cultures is to make people feel that belong to an "us," a group that fives them value. Through names, rituals, traditions and the same cultures create that "us"-ness. In the same way, the more inscrutable the rituals are to outsiders, the stronger the "us"-ness. Nicknames can do that (as long as they are not intended to derisive, but affectionate.) as can class theme songs. One year I had "Mr. Jerry's Summer Camp" for our six weeks of ESY, including t-shirts. My kids were so proud of them; they wore them every time they came back from the laundry clean (we were residential.) The student who designed them was proudest of all.
- Drama, song and dance. Music, dramatic play and movement raise spirits and also establish collective identity. Songs are good ways to teach repeated materials. Drama is an effective and fun tool to display mastery. When I taught second grade I once did a play from the Minnesota Dental Council or some such organization, just because I knew that doing a play would not only support reading but also be an exciting thing they would never forget.
- Humor. Laughter is an essential part of happiness, so it is also a powerful tool to building a happy and fulfilled students and teachers. Laughter needs to be part of shared jokes, or even jokes at your (the teacher's) expense. Laughter should never be at the expense of another.
- Suspense and surprise. Routines can be powerful drivers of efficiency and predictability. Sometimes they can contain the elements of fun, surprise and inspiration. One teacher used by Lemov as an example, would place examples for a lesson inside a decorated box and reveal its contents slowly, almost teasingly. Another teacher cited, a third grade teacher, would place vocabulary words in sealed envelopes, and hand them to different students, asking them to wait until they open the new words and reveal them to the class. As you can imagine, students are excited to discover what is hidden in their envelopes.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/04/24/teach-like-a-champion-technique-46.htm
DVD clip 28, 29
Technique 47: Emotional Constancy.
This can be a tough one. One of the things that kids learn, especially children in low socio-economic and minority communities, is how to push your emotional buttons. I just read a Facebook post from a friend who taught with me at Woods Services who took a job this year in Philadelphia. She was ready to quit: I understand, having seen kids work their evil magic at getting under my skin.
Lemov recommends that "Emotional Constancy" needs two parts.
- Modulate your emotions. Don't get worked up, but model appropriate self-control and restraint. That way you'll show them you truly are in charge. Kids will get worked up, but you need to convince them that you are ready for anything and have a plan to deal with it. Besides, if you are working with young teens, inflated emotion is part of growing up. Respond calmly.
- Tie your emotions to student performance. When students are doing excellent work, show them how pleased and excited you are. At the same time, avoid making it all about being "disappointed." Once again, you are making your mood dependent on your students. Tell students you expect better. Tell students "In this class, we do our best." This way, you remove the teacher's emotion from the equation and make it instead about what the student did or did not do.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/05/14/teach-like-a-champion-technique-37-2.htm
Technique 48 - Explain Everything.
You need to be sure that explain everything doesn't become "excuse everything." As you are teaching and correcting or redirecting behavior it's important to explain what your expectations are and the purpose of your interventions. If students are reminded of your expectations and have a clear picture of what success is, they are more likely to pursue it. If a teacher couches language in a way that explains the purpose of the expectations it is more likely that the next time the student faces a similar situation, he or she will make an appropriate decision on his or her own.
If a third grader asks to go to the nurse, you explain that he not only will be missing class time, he won't be able to go to recess with the others: too sick for class, too sick for recess. It may help him change his mind and make him less likely to use the nurse's office as an escape.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/05/02/teach-like-a-champion-technique-48.htm
DVD clip 4
Technique 49: Normalize Error.
Too often children won't answer a question because they are afraid of being wrong. Where did they learn that? Most of us learn that making mistakes is a part of learning, and the more risk you take, the more likely you will succeed. So, this technique has two parts: part for the wrong answer and part for the right answer.
The Wrong Answer: Don't Chasten, Don't Excuse
http://specialed.about.com/od/managementstrategies/a/The-49-Techniques-From-Teach-Like-A-Champion.htm
Avoid chastening wrong answers: i.e. "We went over that last week. I can't believe you don't know that." You don't also don't want to excuse the mistake either, i.e. "That's okay Lucy. You'll probably get it right next time."
You want students to know that it is normal to get an answer wrong: as it is to find the right answer. In fact, if errors are a normal, healthy part of learning, then they don't need any narration.
Spend less time naming "the wrong" than moving on to getting the right answer. You might just respond "not quite," and go back. "What's the first thing we need to do to find out how many each person took home? That's right, find the total." If you leave the response ambiguous, students will stick it out until they find out what the "real" answer is.
Right Answers: Don't Flatter; Don't Fuss.
Praising right answers can have two unexpected effects on students: if you make too much of a fuss, you convince students you're surprised that they got the answer right. It also has the perverse function of making students less likely to risk wrong answers: they are afraid getting a wrong answer will make them look stupid. Praising students for hard work will encourage them to take risks.
By all means, give students credit, but move on. Then students will know that making mistakes and getting correct answers are both a normal part of education.
http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/05/09/teach-like-a-champion-technique-49.htm
DVD clip 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdhUeONAz_c
Teach Like a Champion Technique Mapping
The following techniques relate to other techniques and are great when used in conjunction with others. The following is a technique mapping listing to show which techniques works well with the stated technique.
Technique: Like Techniques(s):
1. No Opt Out: 2, 3, 4, 6, 22, 25, 36, 38, 42, 43, 47, 48, and 49.
2. Right is Right: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 32, 36, 43, 44, 47,
3. Stretch It: 1, 2, 22, 35, 43, and 44
4. Format Matters: 7, 43, 45, and 48
5. Without Apology: 6, 7, and12
6. Begin with the End: 7, 8, 9, 10, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 26, 29, and 43.
7. 4 M’s: 6, 8, 18, and 20
8. Post It: 6, 7
9. Shortest Path: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 18.
10: Double Plan: 6, 14, and 28
11. Draw the Map: 15, 30, and 32
12. The Hook: 5, 6, 9, and 11
13. Name the Steps: 3, 14, 16, 24, 36, and 39
14. Board = Paper: 3, 15, 18, and 48
15. Circulate: 11, 18, 29, 36, 37, 38, 43, and 44
16. Break it Down: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 17
17. The Ratio: 3, 5, 14, 21, 25, 26, and 32
18. Check for Understanding: 3, 11, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 49
19. At Bats: 4, 15, 18, 20, 22, 23, and 24
20. Exit Ticket: 3, 6, 18, 19, and 29
21. Take a Stand: 3, 9, 17, 18, 22, 36, 39, 42, and 49
22. Cold Call: 1, 6, 16, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26, 32, 38, 42, 45, and 46
23. Call and Response: 18, 19, 22, 26, 36, and 39
24. Pepper: 22, 46
25. Wait Time: 3, 6, 7, 9, 15, 18, and 43
26. Everybody writes: 6, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, and 31
27. Vegas: 6, 12, 36, 37, 38, 39, 43, and 46
28. Entry Routine: 10, 11, 26, 29, 32, 41, 43, 44, and 46
29. Do Now: 6, 28
30. Tight Transitions: 10, 11, 23, 27, 28, 31, 32, 39, 43, 44, and 46
31. Binder Control: 1, 10, 11, 14, 28, and 30
32. Slant: 11, 36, 39, 42, 43
33. On Your Mark: 11, 13, 28, 29, 31, 41, and 42
34. Seat Signals: None
35. Props: 36
36. 100%: 6, 10, 11, 15, 23, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 42, 43, 48, 49
37. What to Do: 30, 36, 38, 39, and 42
38. Strong Voice: 15, 37, and 48
39. Do it Again: 2, 5, 19, 23, 28, 30, 36, 7, 38, 39, 43, 46, 48, and 49
40. Sweat the Details: 4, 15, 30, 31, and 39
41. Threshold: 20, 28, 39, 43, 45
42. No Warnings: 11, 34, 36, 38, 39, 43, and 47
43. Positive Framing: 16, 37, 38, 39, 42, 44, 45, and 47
44. Precise Praise: 3, 43, 44, and 47
45. Warm/Strict: 5, 21, 29, 44, 47, and 48
46. Joy Factor: 6, 18, 19, 23, 27, 30, 32, 41, 42, and 48
47. Emotional Constancy: 15, 28, 41, and 48
48. Explain Everything: 5, 13, 18, 36, 37, 38, 42, 44, and 47
49. Normalize Error: 1, 2, 4, 16, 18, 27, 39, 43, 44, and 47