Before I spend time on technique 18, I need to respond to a question I got from a friend: Why am I putting up "Teach Like a Champion" since it seems to be geared toward a general education middle or high school setting? The answer is "inclusion." Most children receiving services are learning disabled, and in most schools they are spending most of their day with typically developing students. Many special education teachers are now "co-teaching" with a subject area general education teacher. These techniques are invaluable for engaging students, maintaining attention and keeping kids, especially special education kids, on track.
So, back to Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov: 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: Read more...
Last week I started Technique 17, but had way too many methods for Ratio, Technique 17 from Doug Lemov's excellent resource, Teach Like a Champion.
Ratio is the means by which the teacher increases the amount of intellectual work the students do during instruction. It involves different questioning strategies. Last week I covered strategies 1 through 6. This week I will finish up.
More strategies to increase student to teacher participation ratio:
- Whys and Hows: Asking why or how instantly pushes students to engage in more rigorous intellectual work, explaining why a process worked, or did not work. Read more...
I was taken by an article in the Los Angeles Times that caught my eye: evaluating schools by "value added" rather than on the basis of aggregate test scores. They noted that Wilbur Elementary, an elementary school that attracts a line when enrollment is opened is actually a less effective school than many schools in low income neighborhoods. Children from this affluent neighborhood have actually had declining score in reading and math, whereas children from low income schools have seen consistent gains. How do they know? Compare children's year over year progress, rather than the schools' aggregate scores. That way, you are measuring the year over year progress than comparing year to year aggregate performance. Read more...
Technique 17 from Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov is one of the more challenging in the chapter on structuring instruction. I'll let Doug explain:
Technique 17 -- Ratio
A successful lesson is rarely marked by a teacher's getting a good intellectual workout at the front of the room. 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 questions, 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. Read more...
