Teach Like a Champion Online

Building Strong Classroom Culture

What To Do

What To Do directions communicate what students SHOULD be doing, not what they SHOULDN'T be doing. Almost all other techniques rely on a foundation of clear directions. Start here if you're not sure where to begin.

Planning and Delivering Directions

Set students up for success with directions that tell them clearly and simply what to do.

Radar

Radar is your ability to see what happens in your classroom.

Building Radar

Set the stage for success by giving observable directions and scanning the room.

Be Seen Looking

Communicate to students that you're a careful observer.

Least Invasive Intervention

The goal of Least Invasive Intervention is to make your redirections nearly invisible so that you can keep teaching and students can keep learning.

Strong Voice

Strong Voice is a technique for adjusting your speech and body language to ensure students listen carefully to what you say.

Establish Formal Register

Adjust your speech and body language to signal that what you are saying is important.

Do Not Talk Over

If what is being said is worthy of attention, ensure every listener can hear it.

Economy of Language & Quiet Power

Emphasize the importance of your words by paying attention to what you say and how you say it.

Positive Framing

Give directions and redirections that motivate and inspire students to do their best work.

Frame Redirections Positively

Motivate students to elevate their effort by redirecting them in ways that communicate trust and maintain privacy.

Motivate Effort and Excellence

Inspire students to do their best by challenging them and by reminding them about who they are striving to become.

Systems and Routines

Well-planned systems are key to productive and joyful classrooms.

Designing Classroom Systems

Create a vision for the systems in your classroom so academic learning can thrive.

Install Your System, Part 1: Roll-Out

Invest students in your system with a brief, positively-framed introduction that shares the purpose for the system.

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Install Your System, Part 2: Deliberate Practice

Design thoughtful practice to make sure your students are prepared to successfully bring classroom systems to life.

Transfer Ownership: Remove Scaffolding

Empower students to own classroom systems by limiting teacher talk to planned System Cues.

Do It Again

Insist on excellence by giving students more practice when they don't show their very best.

Remote Teaching: Building Culture

These modules help you build a positive, productive culture in a remote setting.

Remote Teaching: What to Do Directions Online

Support student success in a remote classroom by providing clear directions verbally and visually.

Remote Teaching: Narrate the Positive Online

Narrate the Positive to build an active and engaged remote learning community.

Engaging Academics

Cold Call

When you Cold Call students, you call on them regardless of whether they have raised their hands or not. Teach and develop the habit of attentiveness with Cold Call.

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Introducing Cold Call

Invest students in Cold Call with a brief, positively-framed introduction to the technique.

Positive Cold Call Culture

Invest students in Cold Call by ensuring that it is warm, regular, and universal.

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Time The Name

Maximize participation by asking your question before Cold Calling a student to answer.

Unbundle & Follow On

Call on students in a way that increases participation and encourages careful listening.

Slow Call

Slow down your Cold Call to encourage students to think more deeply.

Show Call

Show Call is a variation on Cold Call. When you Show Call, you use student work to prompt further learning, analysis, and revision.

Show Call with Purpose

Be strategic about the student work you show and when you show it.

Positive Show Call Culture

Build a culture in which students want to have their work shown.

Analysis & Application

Help students to analyze each other's work and to apply what they've learned.

Double Plan

Double Planning is the process of planning what both you and your students will do at each point in the lesson.

Lesson and Materials

Plan what you and your students will be doing at each point in the lesson.

Plan For Error

Plan for Error is the process of anticipating student misunderstandings and determining how you will respond to them in the moment.

Anticipate Student Error

Do the intellectual work of anticipating student error when planning your lessons.

Break It Down

Respond to incorrect answers in a way that helps students get to "right."

Art of the Sentence

When you use Art of the Sentence, you ask students to synthesize a conclusion, describe an insight, or summarize a complex idea in a single, well-crafted sentence.

Three Types of Prompts

Use the discipline of writing a single sentence to help students think and write with greater precision.

Exit Tickets

An Exit Ticket is a short, formative assessment that you can use to evaluate your students' success with the lesson objective. Use Exit Tickets to understand students' academic performance and plan how you will respond.