Teach Like a Champion:
49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to
College
by Doug Lemov
Learning Support Services
AISD
2013
Technique 1: No Opt Out
• Format 1:You provide the answer; the student
repeats the answer
• Format 2: Another student provides the answer; the
initial student repeats the answer
• Format 3:You provide a cue; your student uses it to
find the answer
• Format 4: Another student provides a cue; the initial
student uses it to find the answer
Setting High Academic Standards
Technique 2: Right is Right
• Set and defend a high standard of correctness in
your classroom
video clip 3 here
Setting High Academic Standards
Technique 3: Stretch It
• The sequence of learning does not end with a right
answer
• Reward right answers with follow-up questions
• Follow up questions:
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How?
Why?
What’s another way to say____?
What’s another way to answer the question?
Setting High Academic Standards
Technique 4: Format Matters
• Both you and students :
▫ use correct grammar
▫ use complete sentence format
▫ do not use “naked numbers” in math or science
Setting High Academic Standards
Technique 5: Without Apology
• Assuming something is boring
• Blaming it
• Making it “accessible”
Setting High Academic Standards
Technique 6: Begin with the End
1. Progress from unit planning to lesson planning
2. Use a well-framed objective to define the goal of
each lesson
3. Determine how you’ll assess your effectiveness in
reaching your goal
4. Decide on your activity
Planning that Ensures Academic Achievement
Technique 7: 4 Ms
• Manageable- an effective objective can be taught in
one lesson
• Measurable- how will you know if students have met
the goal?
• Made First – the standard should be broken down
into strategic daily objectives
• Most Important – what’s most important on the
path to college?
Planning that Ensures Academic Achievement
Technique 8: Post It
• Post you objective in the same place every day
• Can students identify your purpose for teaching?
• Use plain English as much as possible
Planning that Ensures Academic Achievement
Technique 9: Shortest Path
• Use Occam’s Razor as your rule of thumb
• What will get your students to master the objective
best and fastest?
• Use a variety of strategies during a lesson –
discussion, hands-on, group work, independent work,
etc.
Planning that Ensures Academic Achievement
Technique 10: Double Plan
• Good lesson planning requires specificity
▫ Plan your questions
▫ How will you model?
▫ What will student do while you model?
Planning that Ensures Academic Achievement
Technique 11: Draw the Map
• How do you control the physical environment?
• When should students interact?
• Which kinds of interactions support different lesson
objectives?
Planning that Ensures Academic Achievement
Technique 12: The Hook
• A short moment to introduce the lesson
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story
riddle
picture
analogy
prop
media
challenge
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 13: Name the Steps
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Identify the steps
Make them “sticky”
Build the steps
Use two stairways
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 14: Board = Paper
• Students have to learn how to be students
• Scaffold note-taking
• Make sure students have an exact copy of what they
need
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 15: Circulate
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Break the plane
Full access required
Engage when you circulate
Move systematically
Position for power
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 16: Break it Down
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Provide an example
Provide context
Provide a rule
Provide the missing (or first) step
Rollback
Eliminate false choices
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 17: Ratio
• Ratio = the proportion of cognitive work students do in
your classroom
• Ways to up your ratio:
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Unbundle
Half statement
What’s next?
Feign ignorance
Repeated examples
Rephrase or add on
Whys and Hows
Supporting evidence
Batch process
Discussion objectives
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 18:
Check for Understanding
• Types of questions – use open-ended questions
• Observation
▫ standardize what you are looking at
▫ provide clear work spaces
▫ check throughout the lesson
•React quickly to the data you collect during the
lesson
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 19: At Bats
• Go until they can do it on their own
• Use multiple variations and formats
• Grab opportunities for enrichment and
differentiation
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 20: Exit Ticket
• It’s quick – 1-3 questions
• Designed to yield data
• Make great Do Nows (Technique 29)
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 21: Take a Stand
• Can be evaluative (Who agrees the answer is 7?)
• Can be signaled through a signal (Show me on your
hands what you think the remainder is.)
• Ask students to defend their answers or explain
their thinking
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 22: Cold Call
• Call on students regardless of whether they have
they hand raised
• If you regularly call on students without raised hands,
students will come to expect it
• Use appropriate wait time (Technique 25)
Engaging Students in your Lessons
Technique 23: Call and Response
Used for 3 primary goals:
• Academic review and reinforcement
• High-energy fun
• Behavioral reinforcement
5 Types of Call and Response:
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Repeat
Report
Reinforce
Review
Solve
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 24: Pepper
• Fast-paced, group oriented
• Used to reinforce skills, not teach new skills
• This is not the time to stop and discuss answers
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 25: Wait Time
video clip 11
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 26: Everybody Writes
• Allows you to select effective responses to begin
discussion
• Allows you to cold call since you know everyone is
prepared
• All students can be part of the conversation
• Processing through writing improves quality of students’
ideas
• You can steer students in a direction you think is useful
• Students remember twice as much of what they are
learning if they write it down
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 27: Vegas
• Use with care so they do not take students off task
and do more harm than good
• Meets same objective as the lesson
• Like a faucet, you turn it on and turn it off – you are
in control
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
Technique 28: Entry Routine
• More effective for students to pick up materials as
they come in the room then for you to pass them
out
• Combine with Do Now (Technique 29)
Creating a Strong Classroom Culture
Technique 29: Do Now
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Activity students complete as they enter the room
No teacher direction needed
Should take 3-5 minutes
Produces a written product
Previews the day’s lesson
Creating a Strong Classroom Culture
Technique 30: Tight Transitions
• Transitions occur with people or materials are
moving from place to place
• Teach students the routine one step at a time
• If you could cut one minute from each of ten
transitions in a day, how much time more
instructional time would you have in a day? In a
week?
Creating a Strong Classroom Culture
Technique 31: Binder Control
• Have a required place where students take notes and
keep handouts
• Have a required format for organizing papers in the
binder
Creating a Strong Classroom Culture
Technique 32: SLANT
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Sit up
Listen
Ask and answer questions
Nod your head
Track the speaker
Creating a Strong Classroom Culture
Technique 33: On Your Mark
• Students must be prepared with all materials at the
beginning of class
• Strategies to help students make the mark:
1. Be explicit about what students need to start class
(list of no more than 5 things)
2. Set a time limit
3. Use a standard consequence
4. Provide tools without consequence (pencil, paper,
etc)
5. Include homework
Creating a Strong Classroom Culture
Technique 34: Seat Signals
• Managing requests to use the restroom can interrupt
learning
• You should only respond to a request when a
student uses the appropriate signal
• Consider clear rules for when students may use the
restroom during a lesson
Creating a Strong Classroom Culture
Technique 35: Props
• Public praise for a student who demonstrates
excellence or exemplifies expectations
• Props should be:
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Quick
Universal
Enthusiastic
Evolving
Creating a Strong Classroom Culture
Technique 36: 100 Percent
• If less than 100% of students are complying with
your request, your authority is subject to
interpretation, situation, and motivation
Video clip 15
Setting and Maintaining High
Behavioral Expectations
Technique 37: What to Do
• Directions should be:
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Specific
Concrete
Sequential
Observable
Setting and Maintaining High
Behavioral Expectations
Technique 38: Strong Voice
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Economy of language
Do not talk over
Do not engage
Square up/Stand still
Quiet power
Setting and Maintaining High
Behavioral Expectations
Technique 39: Do It Again
Is effective for seven reasons:
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Shortens feedback loop
Sets a standard of excellence, not just compliance
No administrative follow-up
Group accountability
It ends with success
Logical consequences
It is reusable
Setting and Maintaining High
Behavioral Expectations
Technique 40: Sweat the Details
When people perceive their environment as orderly
and safe, they work to preserve it
• Clean up clutter
• Keep desk rows tidy
• Have your materials ready to go
Setting and Maintaining High
Behavioral Expectations
Technique 41: Threshold
• Greet students as they enter the room by name
• Allow your personality to come out
Setting and Maintaining High
Behavioral Expectations
Technique 42: No Warnings
• Often, if you are angry with students, you have
waited too long to address issues
• Giving a warning is not taking an action, it is a threat
that you might take an action
• Warnings tell students that a certain amount of
disobedience is acceptable
• A consequence is not necessary every time you
address a negative behavior
Setting and Maintaining High
Behavioral Expectations
Technique 43: Positive Framing
• Make corrections consistently and positively
• Narrate the world you want students to see while
you’re improving it
• This is not avoiding negative behaviors, but
addressing them in a positive way
Building Character and Trust
Technique 44: Precise Praise
• Differentiate acknowledgment and praise
• Praise & acknowledge loud, fix soft
• Praise must be genuine
Building Character and Trust
Technique 45: Warm/Strict
• Explain to students why you’re doing what you’re
doing
• Distinguish between behavior and people
• Demonstrate the consequences are temporary
• Use warm, nonverbal behavior
Building Character and Trust
Technique 46: The J-Factor
• Bring joy to the classroom through activities such as:
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Fun and games
Us (and them)
Drama, song, and dance
Humor
Suspense and surprise
Building Character and Trust
Technique 47:
Emotional Consistency
• Modulate your emotions at school
• Tie your emotions to student achievement, not your
own moods
Building Character and Trust
Technique 48: Explain Everything
• Explain your logic behind your decisions
• Clear, logical, rational expectations
• Justify why students have to complete a task
Building Character and Trust
Technique 49: Normalize Error
• Wrong answers: Don’t chasten, don’t excuse
• Right answers: Don’t flatter, don’t fuss
Building Character and Trust
Now What?
• Do not try to implement all 49 Techniques at once
• Choose 2 or 3 Techniques to start with
• Add a few Techniques at a time, building your
capacity and your success rate
Evaluation
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