Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Teach Like a Champion - Doug Lemov Chapter Four



Chapter Four:  Engaging Students in Your Lessons

Drawing students into the work of class and keeping them focused on the learning,
Notes:
22.     Cold Call – In order to make engaged participation the expectation, call on students regardless of whether they have raised their hands. (Pg 112)
·      Allows teacher to check for understanding effectively and systematically
·      Increases speed in terms of pacing and rate of covering material
·      Allows teacher to distribute work broadly around the room and that all are likely to be called upon
·      Allows teacher to distribute work around the room more authoritatively as it establishes that the room belongs to you.
·      Cold Call is:
o   Predictable – students react by being prepared for the obvious
o   Systematic – they come without fail, to everyone
o   Positive – goal is for students to get the answer right, not learn a lesson by getting the answer wrong
o   Scaffolded – questions involve a careful progression of difficulty
Cold call brings a level of accountability to a classroom that I like.  It creates an atmosphere of learning where dialogue is the expectation.

23.     Call and Response – Use group choral response – you ask; they answer in unison – to build a culture of energetic, positive engagement. (Pg 125)
·      Accomplishes 3 Goals
1.     Academic Review and Reinforcement
2.     High Energy Fun
3.     Behavioral Reinforcement
·      Five Types of Levels
1.     Repeat
2.     Report
3.     Reinforce
4.     Review
5.     Solve
All students respond to teacher signal (verbal and nonverbal)
This technique seems a bit elementary to me.  I can see how it would increase the energy in a classroom but ….  I haven’t watched the dvd yet, maybe seeing the technique in action will change my opinion.?

24.     Pepper  - Use of fast-paced, group-oriented activities to review familiar information and foundational skills. (Pg 131)
·      Great warm-up activity
·      Game atmosphere

25.     Wait Time – Delaying a few strategic seconds after a teacher asks a questi0n and before you ask a student to begin answering it. (Pg 134)
·      Answers are more reflective (use of evidence likely to increase)
·      Length of correctness of student response increase
·      Number of failured responses decrease (less “I don’t knows”)
·      Number of students to volunteer increases
Wait time is always a good thing in the classroom and I work hard to incorporate it into my questioning.  Still, that extra second ticks by ever so slowly. 

26.     Everybody Writes – Set your students up for rigorous engagement by giving them the opportunity to reflect first in writing before discussing.  “I know what I write.”  (Pg 137)
·      Increase the quality of the ideas discussed in class
·      Expand the number of students likely to participate
·      Increases the ration since it causes everyone to answer
I love this technique and use it frequently in the classroom, though now that I teach tech the kids are writing on their blogs instead of in their notebooks.  Writing provides students the opportunity to express ideas freely without judgment. 

27.     Vegas – The moment during class when you might observe some production values:  music, lights, and rhythm, dancing.  It’s the commercial break in the lesson. (Pg 141)
·      Reinforces not just academics but also one of the day’s learning objectives
·      Upbeat
·      Short
·      On the point
·      Once it’s done, it’s done
If there were a technique I could embrace and be good at it would be Vegas.  I think kids like these little interjections that remind them of the lesson’s objective.

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