• Welcome
  • Welcome
• Background
  • Why Teaching?
  • Teaching Philosophy: College Not a Goal but a Fact
  • Professional and Educational Background
• Experiences in Education
  • Introduction
  • Breakthrough Collaborative Sacramento
  • A Better Chance Program
  • Boston Collegiate Charter School
• Academic Work at Hamilton College
  • Introduction
  • Mathematics Major
  • Hispanic Studies Minor
• Educations Studies at Hamilton College
  • Introduction
  • Issues in Education
  • Curriculum and Decision Making
  • Ethnography and the Learning Enviornment
  • Education Practicum
• Resources
  • Inspriring Instruction and Pedagogical Techniques
  • Bibliography

Inspiring Instructional and Pedagogical Techniques

Teach Like a Champion

This text by Doug Lemov is used in many professional development seminars for teachers across the country. I have come across this text both in many of my academic settings as well as in my student-teaching seminars. In this text he explains 49 different techniques that he believes will put students on the road to higher education. Many of these techniques are disciplinary in order to keep students on task without stopping the class to discipline a student. He focuses on keeping all students engaged without losing any instructional time. A few examples of techniques he uses are:

• Technique #1: No Opt Out. How to move students from the blank stare or stubborn shrug to giving the right answer every time.
• Technique #35: Do It Again. When students fail to successfully complete a basic task—from entering the classroom quietly to passing papers around—doing it again, doing it right, and doing it perfectly, results in the best consequences.
• Technique #38: No Warnings. If you're angry with your students, it usually means you should be angry with yourself. This technique shows how to effectively address misbehaviors in your classroom.

I have found these techniques along with many others throughout his text to be very helpful in the classroom. Keeping students on task, helps keep them engaged in the lesson being taught. However, sometimes these techniques could be overly rigid or strict in appearance. Thus, I think there needs to be a focus on the balance of strictness and warmth in a classroom to make it effective.

Below is a link to the book and information about the book, including videos. I lead a class about this text and I have also attached the handout, "My Lead", that my peers were given in order to prepare for the class.

Say, See, Do Teaching

Fred Jones in 2007 came out with a theory of instruction called "Say, See, Do" instruction, which focuses on cementing topics in student's memory. He believes that his type of instruction leads to less time when the student has "tuned out" the teacher. This model is more of an "input, output, input, output, etc." then a traditional teaching setting, "input, input, input, input, output." This new model helps chunk the material and continually demonstrate understanding. Say, See, Do are defined below:

• Say: Explanation by the teacher, which must be clear and concise
• See: After teaching a concept, the teacher must model it for the student
• Do: Students practice that concept

For students to have the ability to retain more information while staying off task and engaged is a model worth looking into. I have used it throughout my student-teaching experiences and have found that it worked well for my students, especially with math topics. I was able to break each new topic down into six or more steps, which will help find where students are struggling or where they are getting lost. This makes it easier to re-teach certain steps instead of entire lessons. Also, putting this Say, See, Do method together with many hands-on learning activities to check for understanding, makes for an interactive learning environment where students are actively participating. 

• • Information about Teach Like a Champion

• • My Lead

• • Say, See, Do Teaching-Fred Jones