File: Pedagogy/
Teaching Techniques
Teach Like a Champion 2.0:
62 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College
By Doug Lemov (Jossey-Bass, 2014)
S.O.S.
(A Summary of the Summary )
The main ideas of the book are:
~ Great teaching can be learned.
~ To help teachers improve their craft, this book categorizes, describes in detail, and names the techniques used
used by top teachers.
Why I chose this book:
Doug Lemov’s first version of this book, Teach Like a Champion, became a bestseller because the book provided just the type of
detailed guidance teachers and schools needed. What made this book stand out was Lemov’s keen observations of top teachers and
his ability to break down what they do into concrete techniques that all teachers can put into practice. Another thing that made this
book exceptional is that rather than relying on theory, it is based on the practice of actual teachers.
Now, several years later, Teach Like a Champion 2.0 is the result of excellent teachers taking the techniques from the first version
of the book and bumping them up a notch. Rather than resting on the laurels of his success with the first book, Lemov has once
again learned from these teachers, and as a result, reorganized the techniques, dropped some, and added new ones.
Like with the first book, this one comes with a DVD of teaching clips to illustrate what these techniques look like – a particularly
useful resource in the teaching profession. At a time when the bar is being raised for teachers throughout the country, this book also
provides a powerful resource to help school leaders in their understanding, observing, and developing of their teachers.
This edition contains 62 techniques in over 450 pages. The summary couldn’t possibly capture the depth and nuance of all of these
techniques. Instead you will find an overview of most of the techniques and a few more details for some of them.
The Scoop (In this summary you will learn…)
√ How to check for student understanding so you can move from “I taught it” to “They learned it”
Rather than circulating randomly, learn to purposefully track student progress with TRACKING, NOT WATCHING,
“Ah, Sarah found her evidence but missed the partial paraphrase to weave it in.”
√ How to maximize the rigor in your classroom
You ask a question and a student shrugs his shoulders and says, “I don’t know.” Rather than moving to the next student
and letting him off the hook, insist on rigorous engagement with NO OPT OUT.
√ How to shift the balance so the students are the ones doing more of the cognitive work in the classroom
Get students writing and discussing more accountably with TURN AND TALK and SHOW CALL.
√ How to get ALL students to follow classroom directions
Typically teachers ask students to be quiet, about three-quarters follow through, and the teacher moves on. Don’t send the
message that it is OK for students not to listen to you, instead try the technique 100 PERCENT.
√ The Main Idea’s simple PD format that can be used to introduce any technique from the book to your teachers.
www.TheMainIdea.net
© The Main Idea 2015. All rights reserved. By Jenn David-Lang
Introduction – The Art of Teaching and Its Tools
Great teaching can be learned. Doug Lemov admits that he himself was no “champion teacher,” but he has studied, through countless
hours of observations, what it is that successful teachers do. He focuses on public schools, primarily those serving the inner city.
Taking a page from the playbook of Jim Collins who studied what separates “good” from “great” companies, Lemov looked for those
teaching techniques that separate the merely good teachers from the great ones. This book is a compilation of those techniques and is
presented as a toolbox for teachers who want to improve their craft. Lemov purposefully presents “techniques” and not “strategies.”
He has memories of going to workshops as a teacher and returning with inspirational and yet vague initiatives to “hold high
expectations” or “teach kids and not content.” Yet it was the more specific suggestions from a peer about what to say and do that
helped him to improve his teaching, “When you want them to follow your directions, stand still.” It is with the goal of providing
teachers with more specific guidance about their teaching craft that Lemov compiled and presented 49 specific teaching techniques in
his first book. Now, in Teach Like a Champion 2.0, he has updated his ideas. In the four years since the first book, he received so
much feedback from teachers who adapted and adjusted the original ideas, that he did a complete revision of the original to add new
techniques and even take out those that have subsequently become obsolete.
What Makes Teaching Good is What Works
At first glance, the techniques introduced may seem uninspired and banal. They may not be intellectually stimulating or follow the
latest educational trends, yet they yield impressive results. Consider one technique for collecting and distributing class materials.
Lemov often shows a video clip of Doug McCurry, the founder of Amistad Academy in New Haven, Connecticut, taking the time to
show students how to pass back papers at the beginning of the school year. He explains the correct way to do this (pass across rows;
start on his command; only the person passing gets out of a seat; etc.) Then McCurry times the students with his stopwatch. “Ten
seconds, pretty good, let’s see if you can do eight.” Skeptics may see this as a demeaning task that treats students like robots and
brainwashes them. However, if teachers collect and distribute materials twenty times a day, and a class usually takes one minute and
twenty seconds to do this compared to McCurry’s twenty seconds, by the end of a typical year, MCurry will have saved an additional
63 hours or almost eight days of instruction to teach the causes of the Civil War or coordinate geometry! And yet no school of
education in the country would be caught dead teaching teachers how to pass out papers despite the fact that this efficient technique
saves a school’s scarcest resource (time!) so students have more time to learn.
While not every champion teacher uses every one of the techniques in the book, these are the tools that have emerged from watching
some of the most successful teachers teach. These techniques are not meant to be formulaic. There is a craft involved in individuals
making insightful decisions about when and how to apply the different techniques. Lemov has given the techniques names (like “No
Opt Out”) not to be gimmicky, but so teachers and administrators can develop a shared vocabulary to talk about these techniques as
they relate to their own teaching. By using the names, they can talk about a clearly defined set of ideas quickly and easily.
Furthermore, a number of the techniques are captured in short video clips in the book’s accompanying DVD. Note that for each
chapter, this summary will provide more detail for some techniques and just a brief overview of the rest due to space restraints. The
book is divided into four parts, each of which deals with one of four core challenges of teaching: (1) check for understanding, (2)
academic ethos, (3) ratio, and (4) classroom culture.
How the Teachers Were Chosen
Lemov studied the teachers who were the most successful at closing the achievement gap. His primary measure of success was state
test scores. Given the abundance of misconceptions about their use, he explains that succeeding on state tests is necessary, but not
sufficient for students to succeed in college. There are many skills students need for college that are not assessed on state tests.
However, there are no students succeeding in college who cannot master the skills required on those tests. Furthermore, the teachers
who successfully teach the skills on these tests are most often the ones who are more effective at teaching the higher-order skills as
well. That said, Lemov looked at schools, such as the Uncommon Schools for which he is a managing director, in which the poverty
rates is over 80 percent and yet the schools score extremely well on state exams. Given there are many good teachers at these schools,
Lemov chose the “best of the best” --those who were often getting 100 percent of their students to reach proficiency.
Part 1 – CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING
Great teachers understand the important difference between “I taught it” and “They learned it.” Like good drivers who check their
mirrors frequently to see how they’re driving, good teachers also assess how their students are doing and make corrections midcourse. This part helps teachers determine how well their students are learning during a lesson, and know what to do if they are not.
Chapter 1: Gathering Data on Student Mastery
What teacher hasn’t said something like the following, “Everyone clear on the difference between plant and animal cells?” And then
moves on when students nod ‘yes.’ This is not an effective method to gather data on student mastery. The techniques presented in this
chapter help teachers gather data through two main methods: questioning and observation. All six of the techniques introduced in this
chapter are new to this edition.
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Technique 1: REJECT SELF-REPORT – Replace rhetorical questions with more objective and effective forms of on-the-spot
student assessment. Like the question about cells above, the common response to questions such as, “Is everyone clear about…?” or
“Everybody got it?” when addressed to a group is a passive ‘yes.’ No one wants to be the one to respond, “Actually, I don’t
understand.” Instead, replace these binary yes-no questions with the techniques in this chapter.
Technique 2: TARGETED QUESTIONING [*Clip 1 & 12] – Ask a series of short, pre-planned, open-ended questions to a strategic
sample set of the class. It is helpful to choose a few key points in the lesson to conduct a general assessment of student understanding
before moving on. Do not ask for volunteers. Cold call on students at varying ability levels, and ask a series of short questions to
probe for understanding, such as the exchange below. Note that for questions to be targeted, they should be written in advance:
OK, let’s make sure we’re clear on the differences between plant and animal cells. Jason, what does the presence of
a cell wall tell me about a cell? … Good, and what else might tell me I’m looking at a plant cell, Charlene?... And
which cells have chloroplasts, Jose? … Yes, and why do they have them, Sasha? … Good, we’re ready to move on.
Technique 3: STANDARDIZE THE FORMAT [* Clip 2] – Streamline observations by designing materials so you are looking in
the same, consistent place every time for the data you need. The second way to gather data on the spot is through observation. Done
well, you should be able to check almost every student in the class quickly. However, if you simply assign independent work and start
circulating, you can lose a lot of time simply looking for the thesis statement or the answer on each student’s paper. Instead, ask all
students to put their work in the same place consistently – on the left side of a T chart, in the margins, on a specific page of their
books, etc. This helps you find the part of the student work you are looking for instantly.
Technique 4: TRACKING, NOT WATCHING -- Intentionally scan your classroom by deciding specifically what you are looking
for. Most teachers know to circulate when students are doing independent work and many think they do it well. However, it’s hard to
be aware of what you don’t notice. Most internal narratives go like this, “Good, Brandon is working hard. So is Sarah. However, Wes
seems a bit stuck.” When teachers make these types of observations, their feedback may be random or miss the most important student
errors all together. Instead, if you can be more intentional about what you want to track, your internal narrative might be more like
this, “OK, Sarah found her evidence, but she dropped in a full quotation without the partial paraphrase needed to weave it in, whereas
Travis wove in his quotation seamlessly.” Walter didn’t even include quotation marks – red flag.” In order to plan for reteaching, you
will need to quantify or record what you track. For example, you might carry a class list and put a hash tag by the name of everyone
who, in citing textual evidence, is lifting that evidence in full sentences or chunks rather than using partial paraphrasing. In order to
decide what to track, you will need to think through your students’ most likely mistakes. Another way to record the data might be to
write down the number of the math problems students are getting wrong when you circulate during a Do Now. Then you’ll know
which ones to review and which students still need help with mastery.
Technique 5: SHOW ME [* Clip 3, 22, & 56] – Have students actively show evidence of their understanding through hand signals,
slates, or clickers. Rather than the teacher actively circulating, with SHOW ME, students show the teacher their work. One method is
for students to use hand signals to provide an answer (one finger for answer choice A, two for B, and so on.) Another method is to use
individual dry erase boards and have students hold up their work – such as a graph or a sentence defining verisimilitude – so the
teacher can quickly scan for correctness. A more high-tech version of this is to use “clickers” – handheld devices students use to enter
their responses and which reveal student responses in seconds. All methods serve the same purpose – to show the teacher student
work, in unison, in a way that can be scanned quickly to gauge student understanding.
Technique 6: AFFIRMATIVE CHECKING [* Clip 5 & 6] – Insert specific points in the lesson when students must receive
confirmation their work is on track before moving to the next stage. To make sure students do not complete an entire page of math
problems incorrectly, teachers can use affirmative checking. For example, for tricky math problems you might have students check
with you before moving to the next problem. This helps students know if they are on track and lets the teacher know if concepts need
reteaching. To prevent a glut of students waiting for your attention, make sure you have answers or a rubric readily accessible so you
can check quickly. Furthermore, make sure the work is challenging enough that students will finish at different times. Finally,
consider appointing students to serve as checkers or prepare an answer key that allows students to self-check at certain points.
Reflection and Practice
• Write 4 or 5 targeted questions to check for understanding in a lesson you currently teach, then practice delivering them quickly.
• How might you STANDARDIZE THE FORMAT of written work to improve your efficiency in assessing student mastery?
Chapter 2: Acting on the Data and the Culture of Error
This may be obvious, but it’s a critical point: data gathering won’t improve student achievement unless the teacher responds to the
data. For example, if the teacher becomes clear that students are not understanding the word disposition, the key is for her to quickly
adjust her teaching to address this misconception before moving on. The techniques in this chapter help teachers learn how to act on
the data, starting with the planning process.
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Technique 7: PLAN FOR ERROR – Increase the chance you will recognize and address errors by anticipating errors in advance. It’s
almost inevitable that students will make errors. But if you don’t anticipate them, chances are, with only ten minutes left in the lesson,
you will ignore them and plow through the rest of your lesson plan. One way to avoid being blindsided by these mistakes is to
anticipate and plan for them. For example, one math teacher prepares a packet with far more problems than his students could possibly
complete. The packet starts with easy problems and ends with more challenging ones. This way, if one of his classes is excelling, he
can simply jump ahead in the packet. If another class is struggling to grasp the concepts, he has plenty of additional basic problems for
them to have more practice. In either case, he has planned for his students’ mistakes ahead of time by providing a considerable range
of math problems. To PLAN FOR ERROR, here are two useful tips. First, plan for specific errors. Develop the habit of writing two
to three specific errors your students might make when you are crafting a lesson plan. This will remove the surprise when students
actually make those errors during your lesson. Second, plan for reteaching time. You may not set aside additional time for each lesson,
but it will help relieve the pressure you feel to “cover” your entire lesson plan if you anticipate student errors and have designated time
planned into the lesson for addressing confusions.
Technique 8: CULTURE OF ERROR [* Clip 42, 7, 66, 8, 4, & 5] – Create an environment where making errors is acceptable. Even
more than accepting error, champion teachers create a culture that embraces errors and deems them a necessary part of the learning
process. Once it’s safe to make errors, students stop being defensive and even secretive about the errors they make. It then becomes
easier to address errors if students are more willing to share them. To do this, use a calm, steady, and nonjudgmental tone that conveys
the sense that “it’s normal to be struggling with this” when a student makes a mistake. “This is a tough question. If you’re struggling
with it, that’s a good sign.” In fact, show that making mistakes is beneficial to the learning process, “I’m so glad you made that
mistake. It’s going to help me help you.” It’s also important to value risk taking over getting the right answer, “People have debated
this question for centuries. Who knows if there’s a right answer? What’s important is that you’re really grappling with it.” Praise
students who are brave enough to ask questions or answer challenging questions. And finally, when students struggle, emphasize the
importance of peers helping out so they view their class as a team working toward a common goal of mastery, “Who can help her
out?” Make it clear that you expect students to show respect and help out when peers are struggling.
Technique 9: EXCAVATE ERROR – Explore wrong answers and why students made them. It is valuable to study student error. Not
just who got it right and wrong, but what they misunderstood, and why. Answering these questions helps you decide what to reteach
and how to do it. However, not all errors are alike. There are three levels of error. First, if just a few students get something wrong, it
doesn’t make sense to reteach it to the whole class. Instead, make a note to go over the mistake with those select few during an
independent work time. Second, if several students have made the same error or just one student made an error but it’s worth
addressing with the whole class, then review it with the entire class. Finally, you may want to spend significantly more time when
there is a major misunderstanding of a concept.
Technique 10: OWN AND TRACK – Have students correct and revise their own work, becoming accountable for the correct answer.
When students make errors, have them go through their work, label what they got wrong and why, and make corrections.
Reflection and Practice
• Brainstorm a list of phrases you could use when a student makes an error to build a CULTURE OF ERROR.
• Pick a question in your lesson for which you anticipate confusions. List possible wrong answers, why students might make them, and
what correct thinking might lead to these answers.
Part 2 – Academic Ethos
Champion teachers teach for maximum rigor. Rigor is determined by what you teach (content) as well as how you teach it (pedagogy).
This section assumes that your content is rigorous, and focuses on the concrete, actionable steps you can take to boost rigor.
Chapter 3: Setting High Academic Expectations
Research consistently shows that holding high expectations improves student achievement. However, the problem is that the definition
of high expectations varies widely. Below are five concrete techniques for holding high expectations that top teachers use.
Technique 11: NO OPT OUT [* Clip 9, 10, 11, & 12] – Ensure that students who won’t try or can’t answer, practice getting it right.
Often, when students don’t know an answer, or don’t want to try, they quickly learn the teacher will leave them alone if they respond
to a question with “I don’t know” or shrugging their shoulders. The teacher then moves on to another student. Instead, NO OPT OUT
is a useful tool to get all students to the right answer, as often as possible, even if only to repeat the correct answer.
For example, on day 1 to review you ask Charlie, “What is 3 times 8?” He mutters, “I don’t know” and looks away. Many teachers
don’t know how to respond, and students come to use “I don’t know” to avoid work all year long. Instead, at a minimum, you can turn
to another student, ask the same question, and if you get the correct answer, turn back to Charlie, “Now you tell me what is 3 times 8.”
Charlie, and all of the students, have just learned that they can’t get off the hook and must do the work in your class.
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In a more rigorous form of NO OPT OUT, you or another student can provide a cue. For example, if a student is unable to identify
the subject of the sentence, “My mother was not happy” the teacher can ask another student, “When I am asking you for the subject,
what am I asking for?” He responds, “You are asking for who or what the sentence is about.” Then the teacher turns to the first
student, “When I ask for the subject, I am asking for who or what the sentence is about. What’s the subject?” This time the student
responds correctly, “Mother.” The sequence begins with the student unable to answer and ends up with him giving a correct answer.
Technique 12: RIGHT IS RIGHT [* Clip 13, 14, &15] – Hold out for answers that are completely right. Students often stop striving
when they hear that their answer is “right.” However, teachers regularly accept answers that are only partially correct. They affirm
these answers by repeating them and then adding information to make the answer completely correct. For example, when asked how
the families in Romeo and Juliet get along a student says, “They don’t like each other.” You would hope that the teacher would ask for
more elaboration, but instead, she might say, “Correct, they don’t like each other and have been feuding for generations.” By
responding in this way, the teacher thinks she is encouraging the student who rarely raises his hand, but is actually setting a low
standard for correctness. The key idea behind RIGHT IS RIGHT is to set and defend a high standard of correctness by only naming
“right” those answers which are truly and completely right. There are four ways to use the RIGHT IS RIGHT technique:
1. Hold out for all the way. When students are close to the answer, tell them they’re almost there. Use simple, positive language,
but hold them to the expectation that they still have more to do, “I like what you’ve done. Can you get us the rest of the way?”
2. Answer the question. Students learn if they don’t know an answer they can answer a different question, particularly if they
relate it to their own lives. A student who doesn’t know the answer might start with, “That reminds me of something in my
neighborhood…” Or, you ask for a definition and a student gives you an example, “Eyeball is a compound word.” Instead, direct
the student back to the question at hand, “Kim, that’s an example, I want the definition.”
3. Right answer, right time. Sometimes students get ahead of you and provide the answer when you are asking for the steps to
the problem. While it may be tempting to accept this answer, if you were teaching the steps, then it is important to make sure
students have mastered those steps, “My question wasn’t about the solution. It was, what do we do next?”
4. Use technical vocabulary. Good teachers accept words students are already familiar with as right answers, “Volume is the
amount of space something takes up.” Great teachers push for precise technical vocabulary, “Volume is the cubic units of space
an object occupies.” This approach strengthens a student’s vocabulary and better prepares her for college.
Technique 13: STRETCH IT [* Clip 16] – Reward “right” answers with harder questions. Rather than stopping after a student gives
you the correct answer, follow up with questions that extend knowledge and check for full understanding. Champion teachers ask
students how they got the answer, what is another way to get the answer, what is the evidence, how to apply the same skill in a new
situation, and what more specific vocabulary words they can use. This challenges students to extend their thinking.
Technique 14: FORMAT MATTERS [* Clip 17 & 18] – Have students communicate using a collegiate format. It’s not just what
students say when they respond that matters, but how they say it. If we want our students to be prepared for college we need to make
sure they respond in complete (not one word) answers, answer in a loud enough voice, and use correct grammar. For inaudible
answers you can simply and swiftly say, “Voice” to remind them to speak up. For grammatical errors, try repeating the sentence and
emphasizing the incorrect words, “We was walking down the street?”
Technique 15: WITHOUT APOLOGY – Embrace rigorous content, don’t apologize for it. In the hands of a great teacher, no content
is boring. Don’t lower your expectations inadvertently with comments such as, “I know this is kind of dull,” or “This material is on the
test so we have to learn it.” It also lowers expectations to assume that these students won’t connect to college prep material and
replace sonnets, for instance, with contemporary songs. Instead, show your belief in your students with comments like, “This material
is great because it’s really challenging!” or “Lots of students don’t understand this until college, but you’ll know it now. Cool.”
Reflection and Practice
• This chapter introduces 5 techniques to raise expectations. Which are the most intuitive and which will be toughest for you to use?
• Write 10 STRETCH IT questions that are aligned to an objective in the subject you teach.
Chapter 4: Planning for Success
The four techniques below are implemented before you walk through the classroom door because they focus on planning. Without
thoughtful and focused planning, it is almost impossible to consistently teach at the highest levels.
Technique 16: BEGIN WITH THE END – Start with unit planning and then progress to lesson planning by first defining the
objective and deciding how you’ll assess and only then choose appropriate lesson activities. When Lemov started teaching he admits
that he frequently spent the night before a lesson asking, “What am I going to do tomorrow?” This was a flawed approach. First, he
focused on the lesson activities, not the objective. In addition, he found himself planning each lesson individually rather than seeing
the lessons as part of a carefully planned unit that drove students, a day at a time, toward mastery of larger concepts. Great teachers:
1. Progress from unit planning to lesson planning.
2. Refine and perfect the lesson objective based on the degree of mastery from the day before.
3. Plan a short daily assessment to determine whether the objective was mastered.
4. Plan the sequence of activities that lead to mastery of the objective.
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Technique 17: 4 Ms – Use four criteria for an effective objective: make it manageable, measurable, made first, and most important. It
is vital to design effective objectives. To do so, use the criteria below to determine if your objective is effective:
1. Manageable: An objective can’t be effective if you can’t teach it in a single lesson. Of course you want your students to
master larger skills, but this can take weeks so you need to break them into steps your students can master in one period.
2. Measureable: Effective objectives can be measured. This is often done at the end of the period with an exit ticket.
3. Made first: An objective should guide the activities you use in the lesson and not simply be an afterthought.
4. Most important: Choose an objective based on what is most important for students to learn on the path to college.
Technique 18: POST IT – Display your lesson objective where everyone can see it and know your purpose. Because the objective is
so important and drives instruction, you should post it. Use language that students understand so they know what they’re trying to do.
Posting it also helps visitors and administrators give more effective and tailored feedback.
Technique 19: DOUBLE PLAN –As you plan a lesson, plan what students will be doing at each point. Most lessons focus on what
you, the teacher, will be doing – what you will say, do, collect, and assign. Teachers often forget to plan what the students will be
doing. What will students do while you review the causes of the Civil War? Will they take notes on a graphic organizer? Will they
review those notes in a one-sentence summary? To help you see the lesson through the students’ eyes, try creating a T-chart listing
what you will do on one side and what the students will do on the other. Another idea is to create a carefully designed set of student
handouts that is called a lesson packet. While students work directly in the packets, the teacher has additional notes in the margins of
her copy. This packet reduces time in handing out more papers during the lesson, provides constant written accountability from
student responses in the packet throughout the lesson, it STANDARDIZES THE FORMAT so teachers can easily check for
understanding, and allows a teacher to skip ahead when students quickly master the material or go back if students need more help.
Reflection and Practice
• Make a tour of your building and write down all of the aims you see. If any don’t meet the 4 Ms criteria, write them so they do.
• For a recent lesson you wrote, write down the actions students were doing in class (eg., listened, wrote, etc.)
Chapter 5: Lesson Structure
Often, the lesson structure of the teachers who informed this book, fell into a pattern of what has been described as “I/We/You”
activities or direct instruction, guided practice, and independent practice. The five techniques introduced in this chapter help the
progression of your to lesson run more smoothly.
Technique 20: DO NOW -- A short activity on the board or waiting at students’ desks gets students to be productive right away if it is
quick, can be done independently, includes writing to hold students accountable, and previews the lesson or reviews a recent lesson.
Technique 21: NAME THE STEPS [* Clip 5] – Break down tasks into steps that show students the path toward mastery. Champion
teachers help their students learn complex skills by breaking them down into steps and often naming those steps. Giving the steps a
name helps students recall those steps. For example, to help younger students remember the elements of a story, one school uses the
acronym STORY (S – the setting is where the story takes place, T – talking characters are who the story revolves around, O – Oops,
there’s a problem in the story, R – the characters’ attempts to resolve the problem, and Y – Yes! A solution!
Technique 22: BOARD = PAPER – Model and show students how to take notes. In addition to teaching content and skills, teachers
need to teach how to be a student. In this technique, the teacher models on the board how students should take notes. Start by making
the board a mirror image of their papers, and then as students grow, they learn to make decisions about how to take notes.
Technique 23: CONTROL THE GAME [* Clip 19, 20] – Manage frequent read alouds in a way that ensures expressiveness,
accountability, and engagement. No matter what subject they teach, champion teachers include tons of reading in their teaching. How
do they do that in a way that is productive and accountable? It’s not enough to simply increase the number of minutes of “reading
time” in your class. For example, the commonly used DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) program is a good idea to increase reading
time in theory, but in practice, many students reinforce poor reading skills during this time or let their minds drift off. Instead, we need
to ensure that reading is a high-value activity, that is, it is meaningful reading. Meaningful reading is accountable, moderately
expressive, and highly leveraged. Accountable here means that teachers can assess students are actually reading (not looking out the
window). Moderately expressive means that students read with an inflection that shows they comprehend rather than robotic reading.
Many people question the value of one student reading aloud at a time because what would the other students be doing? This is where
leverage comes in. If only one student is reading and the others are passive, this would be a low-leverage reading activity. However,
by getting 25 other students to read silently but accountably, reading aloud becomes a high- leverage activity.
In CONTROL THE GAME, one student reads aloud at a time, but the rest of the students follow along reading silently. The way to
achieve this is to keep everyone on their toes about when it is their turn to read by keeping reading durations unpredictable. Rather
than saying, “James, read the next paragraph,” which signals that everyone can tune out until the end of the paragraph, say, “Start
reading for me please, James.” This gets everyone to read along because they don’t know when they’ll be asked to pick up. Keep
reading durations short to keep the pace lively, and don’t reveal the identity of the next reader. To maximize time, keep transactions
short. Rather than, “Thank you, Stephen. Nicely read. Susan will you begin reading, please?” try, “Susan pick up.” This not only saves
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time, but it keeps the continuity of the reading so students will better comprehend. Another suggestion is to use bridging in which the
teacher reads a few sentences in between student readings to model expressive reading and increase comprehension.
Technique 24: CIRCULATE [* Clip 21] – Move around the classroom to both engage students and hold them accountable. Don’t
expect proximity to be enough. It is important to move strategically throughout the entire classroom, continue to face the class as
much as possible, and to engage when you circulate. Assess and respond to student work as well as check for understanding.
Technique 25: AT BATS -- In baseball, to perfect your swing, you need as many “at bats” -- or practice sessions batting – as possible.
In the same way, students need lots and lots of practice to master a new skill entirely on their own. Also make sure students can solve
questions in various formats. Because some students reach mastery more quickly, have bonus problems to push those students further.
Technique 26: EXIT TICKET -- By collecting answers to one or a few questions at the end of class, you can gather important
information about student understanding. What percentage of your students got it right? What mistakes were made? What in your
lesson might have led to the confusion? This short assessment provides critical insight and helps in designing the next day’s lesson
Reflection and Practice
• Practice creating an “I/We/You” lesson plan for this practice objective: SWBAT make a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich.
• Design an EXIT TICKET that will allow you to accurately assess student mastery of your objective at the end of the lesson.
Chapter 6: Pacing
Pacing has to do with student perception of how you move through the lesson. If there’s the perception of rapid progress, this
maximizes engagement and focus.
Technique 27: CHANGE THE PACE [* Clip 22 & 23] – Create “fast” or “slow” moments by shifting activity types. Doing too
much of the same thing wears on anyone’s patience. By creating a balance of different class activities, you will be better able to keep
your students’ attention. You certainly don’t need every activity type in every lesson, but try to switch among the following types of
activities: presenting students with new information (through listening, reading, or taking notes); engaging students in guided practice;
having students do independent practice; having students reflect on an idea; and conducting a discussion. While it may seem that the
best way to shake up your class is to introduce a new activity, the truth is that it takes a lot of time to explain all the new details
involved. Instead, it can actually be more energizing to stick to familiar activities, just alternate among them to keep class lively.
Technique 28: BRIGHTEN LINES [* Clip 24] – Make beginnings and endings of activities visible and crisp. By providing mileposts
for your students that an activity is changing, they will have the perception that class is proceeding rapidly. One way to do this is
through cues. To start a new activity, it will feel special – like a footrace – if everyone starts at the same time. Plus, students will see
their peers jump into the activity and this will prevent lingering. Try a simple cue like, “You have three minutes to write a response to
this question. Ready? Go!” The same is true for ending an activity clearly and crisply on time so your lesson doesn’t run over, “I’ll
need pencils down in twenty seconds. Try to finish that last thought.” Furthermore, it is helpful to involve students in marking the
transition between activities. After saying, “Three, two, one…” students respond, “Done!”
Technique 29: ALL HANDS [* Clip 25] – Manage student hand raising. When students are waving their hands in the air waiting to
speak, it’s very hard for them to listen to peers. Teach your students to lower their hands when others speak, not only out of respect,
but also to foster genuine discussion among students. Otherwise a raised hand when a student is speaking signals, “What you’re saying
doesn’t matter to me; it won’t change what I want to say.” Explicitly teach and reinforce the idea that hands go down when others
speak. Then, to maximize chances to let students speak, break down larger questions (“What are the causes of the Civil War?”) into
smaller ones so more students can answer (“Who can tell me one cause of the Civil War?... And another?”)
Technique 30: WORK THE CLOCK [* Clip 26] – Measure time intentionally, strategically, and often visibly. Time is a teacher’s
greatest resource, so it’s vital to manage your use of time. Visibly showing your students the time – an LCD clock projected on an
overhead – helps them and you pace yourselves and better manage time. Projecting a clock as it counts down the remaining two
minutes left in an activity helps you stick to your lesson plan and teaches students to monitor their use of time as well. You can also
use the clock to involve students in setting and achieving goals (“Let’s try for high-quality first drafts in twenty minutes.”)
Technique 31: EVERY MINUTE MATTERS [* Clip 27] – Respect students’ time by spending every minute productively. Although
time is our most valued resource, we squander it inadvertently, “We don’t have time to start anything new” or “We worked hard, I’ll
give you time to relax.” By the end of the year, we’ve lost hours of instruction. Instead, expect you will have unexpected downtime
(an activity finishes early, the bus hasn’t arrived, etc.) and plan some “back-pocket” activities in advance. These are activities students
can do anywhere when you have a few minutes – a quick review, a challenge problem, a read-aloud, mental math. You can keep these
ideas in your head or have them written on a notecard, but plan them ahead of time so you are prepared whenever downtime strikes!
Reflection and Practice
• Go through a lesson plan you plan to use next week and clarify the beginnings and endings of activities using BRIGHTEN LINES.
• Take the longest activity in your lesson and break it into two or three activities with different formats using CHANGE THE PACE.
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Part 3 – Ratio
This section is about shifting the balance of who is doing the cognitive work in the classroom from the teacher to the students. Lemov
included ratio as a single technique in his first book, until he spent a year studying it and realized how important it was. Now ratio
encompasses fifteen techniques in this version of the book. Furthermore, ratio involves more than the frequency with which students
participate in class, it also involves increasing the level of rigor of that engagement. The next three chapters outline three main ways to
increase ratio: through questioning, writing, and discussion.
Chapter 7: Building Ratio Through Questioning
Technique 32: WAIT TIME [* Clip 29, 30, 31] – Allow students time to think before answering. In this technique you wait a few
seconds before calling on students to answer. Typically, teachers wait only about a second after asking a question – a method unlikely
to lead to the most thoughtful answer. By waiting longer, you are more likely to improve the quality of answers and the number of
students who volunteer to answer. You can do this by narrating hands (“One hand. Two hands, now three.”), providing prompts to use
the wait time well (“I’m seeing people go back to the chapter to see if they can find the scene.”), and also by simply stopping talking!
Technique 33: COLD CALL [* Clip 32, 33, & 34] – Call on students regardless of whether they’ve got their hands raised. Ask a
question, pause, and then call on a student, “Tell us one cause of WW I, please, [slight pause here] Darren.” While this sounds simple,
if done correctly, Lemov believes it is the single most powerful technique to improve rigor, ratio, and expectations. First, it lets you
check for understanding because you choose the student you want to check for mastery. Second, you don’t waste time waiting and
cajoling students to answer questions. Third, it allows you to include more students, not just those raising their hands. People often
mistakenly assume that this is a stressful technique for students, but teachers who use it consistently, normalize it so it becomes a
regular part of class. Also, it is a powerful way to reach students who want to speak but aren’t hand raisers. Finally, it increases
engagement because students don’t know when they will be called on, so they do the work to be prepared for every question.
While it seems simple, you can do it wrong. Make sure you use it preventatively to keep students from drifting off. It is not a
discipline strategy for once they are already off task. Cold calling should become a predictable part of every day so students know to
pay attention. Cold calling is also systematic – the questions should be for everyone, not for singling out students not paying attention.
It is simply how we do business here. Furthermore, cold calling is positive because it engages students in rigorous work. Students will
surprise themselves with what they know and can do if we give them the chance to answer. Finally, cold calling is particularly
effective when it is scaffolded, that is, when you start with simple questions and progress to harder ones. In the new version of the
book, there is a variation called Cold Call 2.0 or Slow Call. COLD CALL does not need to be a set of rapid-fire questions. Instead,
teachers can combine it with WAIT TIME as a way for students have time for deeper thinking, “Think of one way an intended utopia
[such as in The Giver], turned out to be dystopian. I will give you think time then Cold Call a few of you to share your thinking.”
Technique 34: CALL AND RESPONSE [* Clip 35 & 36] – Ask your class to answer questions in unison from time to time. In this
technique you ask a question and the whole class calls out the response in unison. It sounds simple, but it can be an effective way to
engage students. Rather than one student responding, everyone responds. It’s also a lively and spirited way to energize your students.
It can be used to simply report an answer to a completed problem (“On three, tell me your answer to number four.”) or it can be used
to have students solve a more rigorous problem (“Class, see if you can find 40 percent of eighty. Take five seconds to get it in your
head. One, two! (Twenty-four!).” As long as all students know that they are to respond, and they all know when to respond based on
your cue (“Class?” “One, two, three!“), it will be effective. You can use several types of cues: the countdown, the group prompt
(“Everybody” or “Class”), a shift in tone, or a nonverbal gesture (using a hand or a finger).
Technique 35: BREAK IT DOWN – When students don’t understand, break down the material into its parts to focus on the
problematic area. Champion teachers don’t simply repeat the question, they think about the part of the material that most likely caused
the confusion and ask smaller, simpler questions about this part. The goal is to provide the smallest hint possible and do it quickly.
However, you need to be aware of rigor collapse – breaking down the answer so much that the question is no longer rigorous. For this
reason, this is a challenging technique. It is best to prepare for it during planning by considering possible wrong answers and cues to
use for those errors. There are many ways to break down the material, such as the suggestions below:
• Provide an example. If asking for the definition of a prime number, provide an example, “7 is one, but 8 is not.”
• Provide context. To help a student who does not understand ancient, “I hope nobody ever calls me ancient.”
• Provide a rule. If a student incorrectly categorized indiscriminate as a verb, you could give the student the rule, or
definition of what a verb is, “A verb is an action or a state of being. Is indiscriminate an action?”
Provide the missing (or first) step. “What do we always do when the numerator is larger than the denominator?”
• Roll back. Sometimes we instantly recognize our mistakes when we hear them again. Simply restate the student’s error,
perhaps with an emphasis on the error, “So you said to multiply six and fifteen?”
• Eliminate false choices. “If it were a verb, it would be an action. Is owner an action?”
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Technique 36: PEPPER [* Clip 37] – Pepper is a fast-paced game to reinforce and review skills. The teacher tosses a question out to
a student and if the student gets it right, the teacher moves to the next question. If the student is wrong, the teacher calls on someone
else to answer. There is no discussion of an answer because it’s a fast-paced review. Students can stand to play the game.
Reflection and Practice
• Take a lesson you plan to teach and script questions you might use for COLD CALL. Note which students you plan to call on.
• Make a short list of what you want your students to do or think about when you use WAIT TIME.
Chapter 8: Building Ratio Through Writing
Writing is one of the most valuable skills students learn in school. These techniques help you increase the amount of writing –
especially high-quality writing – students will do in your class.
Technique 37: EVERYBODY WRITES – Students engage more rigorously by reflecting in writing before they discuss. Writing
gives all students a chance to reflect on and clarify their thinking to prepare for more rigorous thinking and discussion. Writing not
only engages students, but it helps them to process and refine their thinking. Consider the difference between the answer from a
student who shoots her hand up immediately and the student who first writes and clarifies her ideas. Furthermore, students remember
more of what they are learning if they write it down.
Technique 38: ART OF THE SENTENCE [* Clip 39] – Students synthesize a complex idea in a single, well-crafted sentence. In
teaching students to write, we often spend more time on paragraph formation than on crafting effective sentences. By helping students
develop more complex, subtle, and nuanced sentences, we help them further develop and refine their ideas. Furthermore, asking
students to summarize a reading or a discussion in one single, well-crafted sentence, forces them to clarify their understanding of the
topic. This is no easy task. To help them, we can provide sentence starters (e.g., “The relationship between…” “In the long run…”
“Over time…”) Another approach is to provide sentence parameters (e.g., “Explain in one well-crafted sentence what Swift says we
should do with children and how you know he is being satiric.”) An ideal place to use this technique is at the end of the lesson
(perhaps as an EXIT TICKET) to summarize and synthesize what students have learned.
Technique 39: SHOW CALL [* Clip 41 & 42] – Like COLD CALL, but with student writing, choose student writing to display and
revise on the spot. There are two potential problems with increasing the amount of writing in the classroom. First, there is too much
for teachers to grade every piece. Second, if students know this, there is less incentive for them to produce high-quality writing.
SHOW CALL addresses both concerns. After students write, walk to a student’s desk, take his paper, and using a document camera,
project it for everyone. By doing this regularly, and making it positive, students know they will be held accountable and have an
incentive to do their best writing. Then, since you don’t have time to read every piece of writing, you can use SHOW CALL to model
quality work or share a common error. “Let’s see your ideas and how we can make them better.” You might conduct a discussion
about what is effective in the student’s thesis statement. “I like Martina’s thesis statement, but it would be even better if she put it in
the active voice. Who can show us how to do that?” Then the class makes the correction. “Great, now everyone go through your own
sentences, note the ones in the active voice, and revise any in the passive voice.” After this, students get to work editing their
paragraphs and have a clear model of how. To keep this technique positive, either use an unemotional approach when taking a
student’s writing or ask, “Do you mind if I share your work so we can revise it a little bit?” You could also keep the student
anonymous. If you don’t have a document camera, copy a student’s writing and distribute it the next day.
Technique 40: BUILD STAMINA [* Clip 40] – Gradually increase writing time to help students develop the habit of writing for
sustained periods. Student writing improves when students can write for longer periods of time. To help students accomplish this goal,
start small (write for a minute the first time, and a minute and a half the next), ensure students keep their pencils moving, make sure
they have enough ideas to write about before they start, and valorize student writing by reading it aloud publicly afterward.
Technique 41: FRONT THE WRITING [* Clip 38] – Put writing earlier in your lesson plan to ensure writing is the result of
rigorous student thinking. Teachers often use writing as a culminating activity. Common lesson sequences are RDW (read-discusswrite) or ADW (activity-discuss-write). The problem with these approaches is that students often write their own papers based on the
ideas other students have generated during class discussions. To more accurately assess our students’ ability to generate and reflect on
ideas independently, writing needs to comes earlier in the sequence. This will help students learn to make sense of a text on their own.
The simplest way to up the rigor of student writing is to change the lesson order to RWD or AWD (read/activity-write-discuss).
Reflection and Practice
• Take a lesson you plan to teach and mark where students will write an answer to a question before you have a discussion.
• Plan a SHOW CALL, including the type of work to showcase (common mistake? exemplar?) and how students will analyze it.
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Chapter 9: Build Ratio Through Discussion
Lemov purposefully includes discussion as the last method to build ratio for a reason. When teachers think about increasing student
involvement, they often think of discussion first. However, discussions are not always implemented in ways that ensure student
participation is rigorous. To implement them in a much more rigorous way, it helps to know what an effective discussion is. It is not a
series of student comments that have little to no connection to what was previously said. It is, “a mutual endeavor by a group of people
to develop, refine, or contextualize and idea or a set of ideas.” This involves responding to and building on the ideas of others.
Because this does not necessarily come naturally to students, the techniques below help to build effective discussion skills.
Technique 42: HABITS OF DISCUSSION [* Clip 43] – Normalize a set of ground rules or “habits” to make discussions more
efficient, cohesive, and connected. People who converse effectively not only listen carefully, but they make a point to show that they
are listening and connect the point they are making with what someone else said, “Yeah, Susan, that’s interesting, but…” To do this,
we need to teach students some discussion fundamentals: speak loud enough to be heard, look at people, and use people’s names.
Next, students need to connect their ideas to the ideas of others. The teacher can use a directive prompt, “Skylar, do you agree with
Markus?” or a nondirective one, “Add on, Carlton.” Teachers can also introduce and post a set of sentence starters to help students
connect their comments, “I understand why you’d say that, but…” “I want to build on what you said…” “I’d like to build on ____’s
idea…” It’s the teacher’s job not only to shape the content of the conversation, but the structure of it, that is, how to participate
productively (or “manage the meta”). For example, when a student makes an unrelated comment, the teacher might get the
conversation back on track, “That’s interesting, but I’d like to hear someone respond to Sara’s comment before we move on.”
Technique 43: TURN AND TALK [* Clip 44, 45, & 46] – Have students better formulate their thoughts with short discussions in
pairs. While teachers in thousands of classrooms use the TURN AND TALK discussion technique, not all result in discussions that
are efficient, accountable, and rigorous. Here are some suggestions to improve this technique. First, to avoid wasting time, prearrange
who should partner with whom, and make sure students know. Next, have a cue so students start discussing right away, “Turn and talk
to your partner. Go!” To make it even more explicit, you can let them know who speaks first, “Window to wall” means the student
closer to the window goes first. And then to bring the group together, use another clear cue, “Bring it back in three, in two, in one.” To
keep the momentum, don’t allow discussions to continue for too long. In fact, provide precise time limits so students know how to
pace themselves, “Turn and talk to your neighbor for the next two and a half minutes.” You can even insert a cue midpoint to manage
the transition, “Switch!” Then, to hold students accountable and to make sure they listen, you can let them know you will COLD
CALL a few people to share afterwards or ask students to write a summary of their partner’s key points. Finally, because teachers
never fully know what their students are saying during TURN AND TALK, it should never be a culminating activity. Instead, plan a
whole-class activity (analysis, discussion, note taking, writing) for after the TURN AND TALK to add rigor and accountability.
Technique 44: BATCH PROCESS – Plan a discussion without teacher mediation for increased student ownership and autonomy.
This type of discussion looks more like volleyball than tennis. Some call this a Socratic discussion or seminar. Done well, it is an
important practice students will need for college – to independently respond to and build on one another’s ideas without a teacher
prompting. Unfortunately, peer-to-peer conversations can easily become unproductive. For this reason, it is best done infrequently – as
a capstone for a month-long unit on the Civil War – or, just a few minutes a day. One champion teacher sets his clock to conduct
BATCH PROCESS for just two minutes a day and reports that it’s plenty of time for discussion.
Reflection and Practice
• What are some of the successes and challenges you’ve had with TURN AND TALK? How can you improve it?
• Choose a question from your lesson to use for TURN AND TALK. Plan how you will extend student thinking after it.
Part 4 – Five Principles of Classroom Culture
This section introduces techniques to help you build a healthy and productive culture in your classroom. To promote this type of
culture, it helps to understand the five principles behind them. The first is discipline – the importance of teaching students the right
and successful way to do things. Not to be confused with the way people often use the word – commonly as a verb – as in, “I had to
discipline that student.” More often than not, students want to do the right thing, they just need to be taught how. Second,
management, involves reinforcing behavior through rewards and consequences. However, many teachers rely on consequences and
rewards alone, without first teaching students the right way to do things. Third, control, may seem to be a dirty word, but when
teachers have good control, they know how to use language and relationships positively and reliably to get students to do what they
need to do to succeed. Teachers with good control need fewer consequences. The fourth is influence – when teachers know how to
connect to and inspire their students to want to succeed for intrinsic reasons, this greatly contributes to a healthy classroom culture.
And finally, engagement. The biggest culprit of poor classroom culture is a lesson that is neither challenging nor interesting. Thinking
about these five principles can help you develop the type of positive and healthy culture you want in your classroom.
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Chapter 10: Systems and Routines
It’s hard to fully underscore the importance of developing procedures – how to complete recurring classroom tasks like handing in
homework or transitioning between activities – so class time will run more smoothly and teachers can focus the lion’s share of their
time on academics instead. When teachers invest in carefully planning, introducing, and rehearsing these procedures at the beginning
of the year, then they become routine, and ironically, students end up having more freedom and autonomy as a result.
Technique 45: THRESHOLD – Set expectations by meeting your students at the door before they enter the classroom. The most
important moment for setting expectations is when students enter your class. By greeting students at the physical threshold of your
classroom you can: (1) establish a personal connection and (2) reinforce your classroom expectations. Students shake your hand, look
you in the eye, and offer a civil greeting and you respond in a way to build relationships, “Loved your homework, David!” or “Nice
game last night, Shayna.” It is important to correct weak handshakes or lack of eye contact in order to maintain high expectations.
Simply send students to the back of the line to enter and greet you again. The tone is warm, but also industrious.
Technique 46: STRONG START – Design an efficient routine for students to enter the classroom and begin class. Top teachers
waste no time in beginning class as soon as students enter the door. If you get a slow start, it’s hard to rebuild momentum. Start by
thinking through what will happen: door to DO NOW, during the DO NOW, and when reviewing the DO NOW. Make sure students
know where to sit and where to look for the DO NOW (always keep it in the same place, and if it’s a packet, set them out on a table,
don’t hand them out). Then after students complete the DO NOW, transition them out quickly (“Three…two…one!”) and engage
them in accountable review (try COLD CALL, SHOW CALL, or SHOW ME) so you can get an accurate sense of student mastery.
Technique 47: STAR/SLANT – Teach students baseline behaviors for learning like sitting up and tracking the speaker. If students are
not sitting up, alert, and actively listening, it doesn’t matter how wonderful the lesson is. To help students remember those behaviors
that will help them learn, you can use a sticky acronym like STAR or SLANT. STAR = Sit up, Track the speaker, Ask and answer
questions like a scholar, and Respect those around you. SLANT = Sit up, Listen, Ask and answer questions, Nod your head, and
Track the speaker. The benefit of using an acronym is that once you’ve taught the behaviors, you can easily remind students, “Show
me STAR/SLANT” or “Back in STAR/SLANT.” It also helps to use nonverbal signals (pointing to your eyes with your two fingers to
remind a student to track) to avoid interrupting your instruction.
Technique 48: ENGINEER EFFICIENCY – Teach the simplest procedure, then practice it until it becomes a routine. When
procedures are taught well, teachers are freed up to talk about other things. To design effective procedures, remember to keep them
simple, quick, in need of little narration, and planned in detail. Planning is key here. What will the students and the teacher do at every
step? What key phrases will you use when you practice them so you are clear with your language?
Technique 49: STRATEGIC INVESTMENT: FROM PROCEDURE TO ROUTINE [* Clip 47, 48, 49, & 50] – Rehearse and
reinforce procedures until they become habitual. There are four key steps to help students internalize procedures. First, break down the
procedure and number the steps, “When I say ‘one,’ please stand and push in your chairs. When I say ‘two,’ please…” Next, you need
to both describe the steps in words and show students by modeling to provide them with a visual road map. Third, students need lots
of practice and feedback. Finally, when students have learned the right way, transfer ownership to them. When students know what to
do with their pencils when they hear the beep, you no longer need to narrate or use a countdown – a faster and more mature approach.
Technique 50: DO IT AGAIN [* Clip 51] – When students fail to successfully complete a task, ask them to do it again, this time
correctly. In many ways, giving students more practice is the perfect response when they fail to meet an expectation. This technique is
effective because it gives students immediate and logical feedback, sets a standard of excellence, ends with showing the students what
success looks like, does not give the teacher administrative work, and holds the whole class accountable. Plus, you can use this
technique repeatedly. However, it is important to execute this technique positively whenever possible, “Ooh, let’s line up again and
prove why we’re the best reading group in the school.”
Reflection and Practice
• Script the steps and expectations for the five most critical routines in your classroom.
• Make a poster outlining what your students need to be ready at the beginning of class and post it on your wall.
Chapter 11: High Behavioral Expectations
No one becomes a teacher because she wants to tell students to stop calling out or to pay attention. But rigorous learning can not occur
without a strong foundation of clear and high behavioral expectations. 100 PERCENT – a technique from the first version of the book
– helps teachers ensure they have 100 percent of the students with them for teaching and learning, 100 percent of the time, 100 percent
of the way. In this edition, 100 PERCENT is broken into five techniques, each of which shows what truly distinguishes great
classroom managers – they address disruptions earlier and fix them noninvasively without interrupting the flow of the lesson.
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Technique 51: RADAR/BE SEEN LOOKING (100%, Part 1) [* Clip 53, 54, & 55] – Prevent nonproductive behavior by first
seeing it, then reminding students you are looking. Remember those teachers known for having “eyes in the back of their head”? To
become one of those teachers, you need to perfect the swivel: after giving a key direction and periodically throughout the lesson, take
one to two seconds to scan your classroom for nonproductive behavior. Then, BE SEEN LOOKING by nodding or tilting your head,
“I see the rubber band, and you will put it back in your desk now.” The opposite – not looking for implementation when we give a
direction – suggests that we don’t notice or don’t care if students follow through.
Technique 52: MAKE COMPLIANCE VISIBLE (100%, Part 2) [* Clip 56 & 57] – Emphasize compliance you can see by making
specific requests that are visible. Asking for pencils down is better than asking for attention because you can see if it has been done.
By asking students to do something you can see, you can actually monitor it.
Technique 53: LEAST INVASIVE INTERVENTION (100%, Part 3) [* Clip 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, & 63] – Maximize teaching time
by choosing the least invasive tactic to correct off-task students. Constantly intervening to correct student behavior makes it
impossible to teach. You want everyone to follow your directions in the quickest and least disruptive way, so choose an intervention
that is as close to the top of the list below as possible.
a. Nonverbal intervention – Use eye contact, a hand gesture, or modeling with off-task students while continuing instruction.
b. Positive group correction – Quick verbal reminder to all, “I need to see everyone writing.” This is better than saying one
student’s name and having everyone look at that person.
c. Anonymous individual correction – Sends the message that there are individuals not following, but keeps those students
anonymous, “I need two more sets of eyes.”
d. Private individual correction – Correct individuals privately and quietly by giving the class a quick task, “Check in with
your partner about…” and leaning down next to the student needing a correction. In a quiet voice, tell the student what she
should do, “This is important for you to learn. I need to see you with your head up.”
e. Private individual precise praise – Walk to a student and whisper positive praise, “I thought that answer was outstanding”
so students don’t assume all private interventions are corrective.
f. Lightening-quick public correction – When you need to correct an individual publicly, make sure to minimize his time
“onstage.” Something like, “Quentin, I need your pencil moving,” tells the student what to do and is efficient and effective.
Technique 54: FIRM CALM FINESSE (100%, Part 4) [* Clip 64] – Get compliance without conflict by maintaining your poise.
Remember that 100 PERCENT compliance is not about power, but about achieving an important purpose – helping students succeed.
Take yourself out of the equation and focus on the goal. Great classroom managers are calm and composed. To do this: Catch it early
(If you’re angry, then you’ve waited too long), say “Thank you” after a student complies, use language that shows students these are
universal not personal expectations (“We you need with us” is better than “I need you with me”), stay positive, and don’t let students
get a rise out of you. Sometimes students just need a bit of space to pull it together, so walk or look away before glancing back.
Technique 55: ART OF THE CONSEQUENCE (100%, Part 5) [* Clip 51, 65, 66] – When needed, make consequences quick,
incremental, consistent, and depersonalized. When consequences are used properly, they are not punishments, but rather serve to teach
students to learn from their mistakes. To make them effective, enact them as soon as possible (even immediately, like with DO IT
AGAIN). Assign them incrementally, rather than all at once. For example, if you are using color charts for younger students, rather
than immediately changing a student’s color, wait until the student has four checks on the board. Also, be predictable so students
know what will happen and you won’t have to invent a consequence each time. One approach is to name the student, identify the
behavior, then deliver the consequence, “Michael. Talking. Two dollars.” Not only is this a consistent approach, but it also limits the
verbiage. It is also helpful to deliver consequences with a neutral tone in as private a way as possible, and then return to teaching with
warmth and enthusiasm. Finally, to prevent a student from shutting down after hearing a consequence, give the student a bounce-back
statement to show students that success is still within reach, “Pick up your pencil and get back to writing like I know you can.”
Technique 56: STRONG VOICE [* Clip 67, 68, & 69] – Through intentional verbal and nonverbal habits, affirm your authority
when you need control. Some teachers have “it” – the ability to walk into a classroom and be in command. They know how to earn
respect and credibility, and exude confidence and poise. While this may seem impossible to replicate, there are six basic principles
that STRONG VOICE teachers do when interacting with students that can help you get close to “it”:
1. Use a Formal Register – Stand up straight, choose words carefully, hold your eyes steady, and control your hand gestures.
It would undermine your words if you were casually leaning against a wall when telling a student “I need you to sit up.”
2. Square Up/Stand Still – When giving directions, stop moving and doing other tasks. Otherwise, if you pass out papers
while you are giving directions, you are suggesting that the directions aren’t that important.
3. Exude Quiet Power – When you feel you are losing control, your instincts may be to speak louder and faster. Fight those
instincts and get slower and quieter to maintain control. Exude calm and drop your voice so students strain to listen.
4. Use Economy of Language – It’s stronger to use fewer words. When teachers become chatty this signals nervousness.
Focus on what is important and make just one point.
5. Do Not Talk Over – When you need students to listen, your words are the most important and should not compete for
attention. Wait until there is no talking or rustling. One technique is to cut off your instructions and wait, completely still,
“Sixth grade, I need y--…” Nothing continues until you have everyone’s attention.
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6. Do Not Engage – Do not let students distract you from the topic at hand. For example, if you say, “James, you are talking.
Please move your card to yellow.” James might say, “It wasn’t me!” Don’t fall into the trap of engaging James. Instead say,
“Please move your card to yellow.” Even if he continues, “Shanice was talking! Not me!” continue with, “I asked you to
move your card. Please get up and move your card to yellow.”
Technique 57: WHAT TO DO – Use specific, concrete, sequential, and observable directions rather than tell students what not to do.
Sometimes noncompliance is not due to defiance, but because students do not understand or know how to follow a direction. To
remedy this, teachers must give clear and useful directions. It is not helpful to tell students, “Don’t get distracted” or “Pay attention.”
Has anyone ever taught them what the specific expectations are (eyes on the speaker, pencil down, for example)? Directions are most
useful if they are specific, give students something to do (“Put your feet under the desk”), are sequential (“John, put your feet under
your desk, put your pencil down, then put your eyes on me”), and observable (to assess it).
Reflection and Practice
• Choose five positive student behaviors you could reinforce with nonverbal interventions and plan a signal for each.
• Revise statements that tell students what not to do with what to do using the four criteria in WHAT TO DO: “Tyson, stop fooling
around!” “Don’t get distracted, Avery.” “I’d like to get started, please, class.”
Chapter 12: Building Character and Trust
Schools are complex places, and it can be challenging to communicate effectively. Below are some techniques to help.
Technique 58: POSITIVE FRAMING [* Clip 70] – Motivate students with a positive tone when delivering feedback. Your
interventions will be more effective if they are framed positively. Correcting students in a positive way does not mean avoiding
interventions. Some teachers will praise a circle of students near David for being on task as a way to deal with David being off task,
but this is not sufficient. David needs to be corrected, but in a positive way. Below are six rules.
1. Live in the now. Don’t harp on the past. Instead of, “Keana, stop looking back,” say, “Keana, I need your eyes forward.”
2. Assume the best. Until you know a student has a bad intention, remain positive. If you say, “Some people seem to think
they don’t have to push in their chairs when we line up,” this assumes disrespect, laziness, or selfishness. Instead try, “Just a
minute, class. Some people seem to have forgotten to push in their chairs.”
3. Allow plausible anonymity. When possible, correct students without using their names. “Class, check yourself to make
sure you’ve done what I’ve asked.”
4. Narrative the positive and build momentum. Don’t narrate it when students do not follow directions. Avoid, “I’m still
waiting on some of you,” and try, “I’ve got almost everybody now!”
5. Challenge! Kids love a challenge so frame a direction as one, “Let’s see if we can get these papers in 12 seconds!”
6. Talk expectations and aspirations. Ask students to do something by becoming the people they wish to be: to write as
though “they’re in college already” or “really use the words of a scientist [or a historian, and so on] this time around.”
Technique 59: PRECISE PRAISE [* Clip 71, 72, & 73] – Strategically praise students. Positive reinforcement is one of the most
powerful tools a teacher has, but it has to be implemented well. First, praise students for their actions, not their traits. Also, don’t
praise students for what is expected, “John, great job bringing a pencil to class!” Simply thank them for being ready for class. Instead,
save it for something exceptional, otherwise it cheapens praise. Also, be specific about what you are praising. Finally, modulate your
delivery. At times make praise public, and at other times whisper it quietly, “I graded the exams last night and yours was exceptional.”
Technique 60: WARM/STRICT – Be both warm and strict at the same time to convey high expectations, caring, and respect. We’re
socialized to think that being strict and being warm are opposites. In fact, as a teacher you must be both, “Because I care about you,
you must serve the consequence for being late.” High expectations show caring for someone.
Technique 61: EMOTIONAL CONSTANCY – Manage your own emotions to promote student learning. Students will get upset at
times, but the teacher must remain calm and under control.
Technique 62: JOY FACTOR [* Clip 74 & 75] – Celebrate the work of learning as you go. Including joy in the work of learning is
part of a high-achieving classroom. This can include anything from games (jeopardy), to making students feel they belong (make up
funny nicknames for students), to humor, to suspense (set out a box wrapped as a present and build anticipation about what’s inside).
Reflection and Practice
• Reframe negatively phrased statements such as, “No one is giving you their full attention except Noah and Beth,” “I need the tapping
to stop,” and “I’ve already asked you twice, Jasmine!”
• Brainstorm several ways to bring more JOY FACTOR into your classroom.
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The Main Idea’s Professional Development Suggestions: Introducing the Techniques to Your Teachers
BOOK GROUP – This book lends itself easily to book group material for educators. At the end of each chapter are excellent questions
teachers can use to guide their discussions. For leaders, read each chapter and then come together to discuss how you would introduce
the chapter’s concepts and techniques to teachers at your school, possibly using the IPPA format listed below.
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Below is a way school leaders can bring the ideas from the book to their teachers. I’ve created an approach that can be used with a
number of the different techniques from the book. I’m using the acronym IPPA for this approach (inspired by Lemov’s penchant for
naming steps and techniques!) and it involves the 4 steps: (1) INTRODUCE (2) PRACTICE (3) PLAN/PUT INTO PRACTICE and
(4) ASSESS. I will provide an example of training your teachers using IPPA with one of the book’s techniques, and you can map out
similar PD sessions for your teachers using any of the other techniques you want to introduce.
An Overview of IPPA – An Approach to Introduce One Technique from Teach Like a Champion 2.0
1. INTRODUCE – Help teachers understand the rationale behind the technique, especially since many of these ideas seem to contradict the
latest educational theories. You can refer to the rationale for the technique described in the book, show a video clip if there is one for the
technique you are introducing, or have teachers examine the ways they might already be using this technique in their classrooms.
2. PRACTICE – Before trying the technique in the classroom, have teachers practice it. This can be in the form of a role-play as teacher and
student(s) or it might involve practicing writing a powerful lesson aim with 4Ms or writing STRETCH IT questions.
3. PLAN/PUT INTO PRACTICE – If the technique is conducted spontaneously in class (like responding to a student) then the teacher
should plan to implement it for an entire week, perhaps asking a colleague to observe for it. If the technique is something that needs to be
planned ahead of time into a lesson (like what the students should be doing in DOUBLE PLAN), the teacher should incorporate it into a
lesson plan to be implemented within the next week.
4. ASSESS – Teachers will more rapidly progress in their command of these techniques if they get feedback on their implementation. In
addition to their own self-reflection (which can happen at a future staff meeting), teachers should invite visitors to observe and give feedback
on the technique, or even better, consider video taping themselves so they and others can watch multiple times to give feedback. Then, any
feedback should be used by the teacher to improve her practice next time.
Introducing the technique NO OPT OUT using IPPA to a group of teachers
1. INTRODUCE
* SELF-ASSESS -- Have teachers stand on an imaginary (or use tape) line in the middle of the room. The wall to their right represents ‘10’
(always/all) on a continuum and the wall to the left represents a ‘1’ (never/none). Ask teachers, “About how many students in your class
regularly answer, ‘I don’t know’ or shrug their shoulders when you ask a question? Please stand on the continuum from 1 to 10.” Then ask,
“How often do you continue with students until they get the answer right? Again, stand on the continuum from 1 to 10.” “How often, when a
student answers a question incorrectly, do you move to another student to provide the correct answer? Please move on the continuum.” “How
often, when a student answers incorrectly, do you stay with that student until s/he gets it right?”
* READ AND DISCUSS -- Then use these responses as a starting point for discussing the rationale behind NO OPT OUT – that it’s not OK
for students not to try, and that all students, with effort, can answer questions correctly. You can copy pages 90-100 in the book for them to
read (and learn the different formats NO OPT OUT can take) and show video clips 9, 10, 11 or 12 of NO OPT OUT.
2. PRACTICE
* FISHBOWL – Have 2 teachers role-play teacher and student to model NO OPT OUT in the middle of the room. You may want to provide
a script. (Sample scripts are on pp. 94-98.) Or provide guidelines. Tell the ‘teacher’ to give a simple multiplication problem and tell the
‘student’ to get it wrong. Then the ‘teacher’ will have to demonstrate how, thinking on her feet, she uses cues to get the student to the right
answer (or ultimately gives the answer herself and has the student repeat it if she can’t.) Have teachers and participants discuss and reflect.
* PRACTICE IN PAIRS – Have everyone pair up and do their own student-teacher role play. You can pass out cards with scenarios (the
teacher asks a grammar question, the student always gets it wrong). Make sure they practice with the different NO OPT OUT formats.
3. PLAN/PUT INTO PRACTICE
* MAKE A PLAN FOR THE NEXT WEEK – Give teachers time to map out a plan like this: Monday observe how many and which
students are responding with “I don’t know” or incorrect answers. On Tuesday, practice with the simpler version of having students repeat
the correct answer from another student or from me. On Wednesday and Thursday practice helping students self correct with cues.
4. ASSESS
* GET FEEDBACK -- Invite a visitor in on Friday and ask: 1) How often, when a student does not know an answer or gets it wrong, do I
get her to eventually say the right answer? 2) In doing this, how would you categorize my tone (helpful? punitive? encouraging?) 3) Please
write down the questions I ask to cue my students during class. Are there ways I could improve these cues to get the students to self correct
more quickly or more accurately? THEN, invite the visitor for next week to see if you have improved your NO OPT OUT technique!
School Leaders – Now it’s your turn to write out, in IPPA format, how you would introduce another technique to your teachers.
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