Highlights from

Teach Like a Champion

49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to
College
Doug Lemov

Introduction: This book is about the tools of the teaching craft that prepares
students for success. It describes what it takes to get from good teaching to great
teaching. Based on observation of highly effective teachers, the author describes
49 techniques in a concrete, specific, and actionable way that allows teachers to
begin using them in their classroom immediately. Do not focus only on whats
wrong within in your classroom instruction, but also on maximizing and leveraging
strengths.
Great teaching is an art. Lemov says, Ive tried to write this book to help artisans
be artists, not because I think the work of teaching can be mechanized or made
formulaic.

What makes classrooms good?

Teach Assess Standards - Great teachers plan objectives, then assessments,

then activities. The teacher focuses on the goal What exactly does she want
her students to be able to do when the lesson is over?
Use Data - Great teachers not only examine the data to tell them who got
what right and what wrong, but WHY. They have a process for turning results
into reteaching.
Plan Higher-Level lessons Not only do the most effective teachers plan their
activities, often minute by minute, but they script their questions in advance
and anticipate the wrong answers she will likely get and the follow-up
questions shell ask.
Content and Rigor using the content you teach to take all kids outside their
own narrow band of experience is critical. This means challenging them with
ideas outside their experience.

The Essential Techniques

Chapter 1
Setting High Academic Expectations: high expectations are the most reliable
drive of high student achievement, even in students who do not have a history of
successful achievement.

Technique 1 NO OPT OUT a sequence that begins with a student

unable (or unwilling) to answer a question should end with the
student answering that question as often as possible.
It establishes a tone of student accountability, and it honors and validates
students who do know the answer by allowing them to help their peers in a
positive and public way. It empowers you to cause all students to take the first
step, no matter how small. It reminds them that you believe in their ability to
Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 1
 answer, and it results in students hearing themselves succeed and get
answers right.
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.
(Three cues that are particularly useful: The place where the answer can be
found; The step in the process thats required at the moment; Another name
for the term thats a problem.)
Technique 2 RIGHT IS RIGHT Set and defend a high standard of
correctness in your classroom.
Many teachers respond to almost-correct answers their students give in class
by rounding up. That is theyll affirm the students answer and repeat, adding
some detail of their own to make it fully correct even though the student
didnt provide and may not recognize the differentiating factor.
When answers are almost correct, its important to tell students that they are
almost there, that you like what theyve done so far, that there closing in on
the right answer, that theyve done some good work or made a great start.
In holding out for right, you set the expectation that the questions you ask
and their answers truly matter. You show that you believe your students are
capable of getting answers as right as students anywhere else.
-Hold out for all the way. Great teachers praise students for their
effort but never confuse effort with mastery.
-Answer the question. Do not allow students to stray away from the
initial question by starting a conversion geared to another interesting
thought/observation about the task at hand.
-Right answer, right time. Protect the integrity of your lesson by not
jumping ahead to engage an exciting right answer at the wrong time.
-Use technical vocabulary. Good teachers get students to develop
effective right answers using terms they are already comfortable with.
But GREAT teachers get them to use precise technical vocabulary.

Technique 3 STRETCH IT The sequence of learning does not end

with a right answer; reward right answers with follow-up questions
that extend knowledge and test for reliability. This technique is
especially important for differentiating instruction.
By using Stretch It to check for replicable understanding, you avoid falsely
concluding that reliable mastery of material has been achieved. Also, when
students have indeed mastered parts of an idea, using Stretch It lets you give
them exciting ways to push ahead, applying their knowledge in new settings,
thinking on their feet, and tackling harder questions. Asking frequent,
targeted, rigorous questions of students as they demonstrate mastery is a
powerful and much simpler tool for differentiating. Stretch It asks students to
be on their toes: to explain their thinking or apply knowledge in new ways.
Types of Stretch It questions:
Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 2
 -Ask how or why.
-Ask for another way to answer.
-Ask for a better word.
-Ask for evidence.
-Ask students to integrate a related skill
-Ask students to apply the same skill in a new setting.

Technique 4 FORMAT MATTERS Its not just what students say that
matters but how they communicate it. To succeed, students must
take their knowledge and express it in the language of opportunity.
The complete sentence is the battering ram that knocks down the door to
college.
- Grammatical Format making the determination to prepare students to
compete for jobs and seats in college by asking them to self-correct in class is
one of the fastest ways to help them. Two methods: 1) Identify the error
or 2) begin the correction.
-Complete Sentence Format strive to give students the maximum
amount of practice building complete sentences on the spur of the moment.
Several methods include:
*You can provide the first words of a complete sentence to show
students how to begin sentences.
*Another method is to remind students before they start to
answer.
*And a third is to remind students afterward with a quick and
simple prompt using the lowest possible disruption.
-Audible Format If it matters enough to say in class, then it matters that
everyone can hear it. Saying voice to students is more efficient and than a
five-second disruption.
-Unit Format Replace naked numbers (those without units) with ones that
are dressed.

Technique 5 WITHOUT APOLOGY Sometimes the way we talk about

expectations inadvertently lowers them. If were not on guard, we
can unwittingly apologize for teaching worthy content and even for
the students themselves.
There is no such thing as boring content. In the hands of a great teacher who
can find the way in, the material students need to master to succeed and
grow is exciting, interesting, and inspiring, even if as teachers we sometimes
doubt that we can make it so.
Assuming something is too hard or technical for some students is a dangerous
trap. Theres a special pleasure in exploding expectations. Kids respond to
challenges.
The skill of not apologizing for students is critical not only in the introduction
and framing of material but in reacting to responses to it.
Four ways we are at risk of apologizing for what we teach:
- Assuming something will be boring.

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 3
 - Blaming it. It being the administration, state officials, or some
they.
- Making it accessible. Finding a way to connect kids to rigorous
college prep content is appropriate as long as the way in doesnt
dilute the content or standard.

Chapter 2
Planning That Ensures Academic Achievement: The five planning techniques in
this chapter are designed to be implemented before you walk in the door of your
classroom. These five specific types of planning are critical to effective teaching.

Technique 6 BEGIN WITH THE END Many times teachers begin

planning by saying, What am I going to do tomorrow? Its far
better to start the other way and begin with the end, the objective.
By framing an objective first, you substitute, What will my students
UNDERSTAND today? for, What will my students do today? The first of
these questions is measurable. The second is not. Also, lessons should be
thought of as parts of a larger unit that develops ideas intentionally and
incrementally toward mastery of larger concepts. Using the lesson planning
sequence objective, assessment, activity disciplines your planning.

Technique 7 4MS Four criteria for effective objectives

Manageable, Measureable, Made First, and Most Important.
*Manageable an effective objective should be of a size and scope that can
be taught in a single lesson. Conceptualize in your own mind the steps
necessary to achieve mastery.
*Measureable an effective objective should be written so that your success
in achieving it can be measured, ideally by the end of the class. Most
measure every lesson with an exit slip. Even if you dont use exit slips, setting
an explicit measurable goal beforehand helps you hold yourself accountable.

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 4
 *Made First an effective objective should be designed to guide the activity,
not to justify how a chosen activity meets one of several viable purposes. The
objective comes first.
*Most Important an effective objective should focus on whats most
important on the path to college, and nothing else.

The following objectives fail to meet at least one of the 4M criteria:

Students will be able to add and subtract fractions with like and unlike
denominators. This objective isnt manageable. It contains at least 4
different objectives for four different days. Realistically, this objective is
a standard, a huge one, and the topic of a unit plan.
Students will be able to appreciate various forms of poetry, including
sonnets and lyric poetry. What is appreciation? How will you know
whether it happened? This objective isnt measureable. Its probably
not manageable either.
Students will view scenes from the film version of The Crucible. This
objective is an activity, not an objective. Therefore its not made first.
Students will construct a poster to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
This objective isnt most important. Skill at making posters wont help
put students in a position to succeed through the content of their
character.

Technique 8 POST IT Once your objective is complete, Post It in a

visible location in your room the same location every day so
everyone who walks into your room can identify your purpose for
teaching that day in as plain English as possible.
In the case of students, posting your objective is important because they
should know what theyre trying to do. You might even make a habit of asking
your students to be able to put the objective in context, to say why it matters,
to connect it to what happened yesterday, and so on.
Visitors give you feedback, and feedback is more useful when the person
giving it knows what youre trying to do.

Technique 9 SHORTEST PATH when you can think of more than one
possible activity to achieve an objective, opt for the most direct
route from point A to point B, the Shortest Path to the goal. Avoid
the complex if something less clever, less cutting-edge, less artfully
constructed will yield a better result.

Technique 10 DOUBLE PLAN its as important to plan for what

students will be doing during each phase of your lesson as it is to
plan for what youll be doing and saying.
Thinking about and planning for what students will do is critical. It helps you
see the lesson through their eyes and keeps them productively engaged. It
helps remind you that its important to change pace occasionally during your
lesson and for students to change pace, to get to do a variety of things during

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 5
 a lesson write, reflect, discuss. One way to start yourself thinking this way is
to make a double plan: plan your lessons using a T-chart with you on one
side and them on the other.

Technique 11 DRAW THE MAP Planning and controlling of the

physical environment, which should support the specific lesson goals
for the day. This includes arrangement of the desks as well as where
the aisles and alleys are. Planning walls is important too; they
should avoid clutter and overstimulation.

Chapter 3
Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons: There is a consistent progression to
the lessons of champion teachers I/We/You. It begins with I by delivering key
information or modeling the process you want your students to learn as directly as
possible. In the We step, you first ask for help from students and then gradually
allow them to complete examples with less and less assistance. Finally, in the You
step, you provide students the opportunity to practice doing the work on their own,
giving them multiple opportunities to practice.
Too often students are release to independent work before they are ready to do so
effectively. The key factors in designing an effective I/We/You lesson are not only
the manner and sequence in which the cognitive work is released to students, but
also the rate at which the cognitive work is released.

I Techniques

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 6
Technique 12 The Hook When necessary, use a short, engaging
introduction to excite students about learning.
You may not need The Hook for every lesson, and you shouldnt confuse length in
time with effectiveness: a ten-second hook can suffice as well or better than a
three-minute hook. A few possible sample hooks are: a story, analogy, prop, media,
status, challenge, etc. (Also, a hook should enhance and support your objective not
distract from it.)

Technique 13 Name the Steps: When possible, give students solution

tools specific steps by which to work or solve problems of the type youre
presenting. This often involves breaking down a complex task into specific
steps.
Champion teachers help their students learn complex skills by breaking them down
into manageable steps and, often, giving each step a name so that it can be easily
recalled. Here are 4 key components:

1. Identify the Steps (be careful to keep to a limited number hard to

remember more than 7 items in a sequence)
2. Make them Sticky once you have identified the steps, name them. Make
them memorable and therefore stick in your students minds.
3. Build the Steps designing steps can be a key part of teaching too. A
memorable lesson can be to derive the rules with students from one or
several example problems through structured inquiry.
4. Use to Stairways Once students know the steps, classrooms can have two
parallel conversations going at once: how to get an answer to the current
problem AND how to answer any problem like this. Students narrate the
process or the problem, and the teacher switches back and forth.

Technique 14 Board = Paper Model for students how to track the

information they need to retain from your lessons; ensure that they have
an exact copy of what they need.

Technique 15 Circulate Strategically move around the classroom to

engage and hold students accountable.

Break the plane move beyond the imaginary line that runs the length of
the room, parallel to and about five feet in front of the board break this
plane before a behavioral correction requires you to. This will show that you
move where you want as a product of your decisions about teaching rather
than as a product of student behavior.
Full access required Not only must you be able t break the plane, but you
must have full access to the entire room. You must be able to simply and
naturally stand next to any student I your room at any time and be able t get
anywhere in your room easily and simply without interrupting your teaching.
Engage when you circulate Its not enough to just stand there, you have
to work the room. Make frequent verbal and nonverbal interventions, offer
positive reinforcement as you circulate, read, assess, and respond to student
work as it is happening.
Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 7
 Move systematically look for opportunities to circulate systematically
that is, universally and impersonally but unpredictably. Avoid using the same
pattern every time.
Position for power your goal should be to remain facing as much of the
class as possible and leverage student blind spots.

Additional thoughts about good I

Include both modeling (showing how to do something) and explanation (telling

how to do something).

-Include student interaction even though youre driving. (You can still ask questions
and engage in dialogue with students during I.)

-Anticipate during the planning process always include a what could go wrong
conversation with yourself.

We Techniques

Technique 16 Break It Down One of the best ways to present material

again is to respond to a lack of clear student understanding by breaking a
problematic idea down into component parts.
Prepare for the possibility that students will not understand a concept. Identify
potential trouble spots and draft both anticipated wrong answers and possible cues
that can be used to help students be successful. Ways to follow up on the lack of
clear student understanding:

Provide an example
Provide context
Provide a rule
Provide the missing (or first) step
Rollback sometimes it is sufficient to repeat a students answer back to her.
Many times wel recognize our errors when theyre played back for us.
Eliminate the false choice

Technique 17 Ratio The goal of we is to push more and more of the

cognitive work out to students. Feigned ignorance Did I get that right,
you guys? Wait a minute, I cant remember whats next! and
unbundling breaking one question up into several can be especially
useful.

Technique 18 Check for Understanding (and do something about it right

away) used to determine when and whether students are ready for more
responsibility and when they need material presented again.
Step 1 - Gather data for student understanding through Questioning and
Observation:
Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 8
 Questioning Ask more than 1 student similar questions or different
questions on a similar topic. Whats the hit rate (percentage correct)?
-Pick a sample of students typically 2 low-performing, 2 middle, and 1 high
-Could it be a lucky correct guess? Follow up with why and how questions to
ensure understanding.
-carefully align the questions you ask to check for understanding on the rigor
and style of questions your students will ultimately be accountable for.
-dont forget to take in account that students can often answer correctly
verbally but not in writing.

Observation observation allows you to written answers

-involves circulating when students are doing independent work to observe
mastery
-requires more time but allows you to see more data points more rapidly
-specifically look/listen for the number and type of errors they are making,
track them on a short response so you can organize and refer back to
-to increase capacity use dry-erase boards or scrap paper for students to write
answers on which allows students to show answers quickly
-observe all students answers

Step 2 - Responding to data All the recognition in the world wont help
if it does not result in action. Not only act but act quickly The shorter the
delay between recognizing a gap in mastery and taking action to fix it, the more
likely the intervention is to be effective. Possible actions to take:

Reteach using a different approach

Reteach by identifying and reteaching the problem step
Reteach by identifying and explaining difficult terms
Reteach at a slower pace
Reteach using a different order
Reteach identifying students of concern
Reteach using more repetitions

You Techniques

Technique 19 At Bats Its repetition. Students need lots and lots of

practice: ten or twenty repetions instead of two or three. This is especially
important to remember because in a busy day, sufficient repetition is the first thing
to go.
Key points to remember:
-Go until they can do it on their own.
-Use multiple variations and formats.
-Grab opportunities for enrichment and differentiation.

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 9
Technique 20 Exit Ticket end your lesson with a final At Bat with a short
sequence of problems to solve at the close of class. This will ensure that
you always check for understanding in a way that provides you with strong
data.

Questions to think about as you observe student work:

What percentage of your students got it right?
What mistake did those who got it wrong make?
Why, in looking at their errors, did they make that mistake?
What about your lesson might have led to the confusion?
These questions will not only help you to refine your next lesson but you will also
know how effective your lesson was, as measured by how well they learned it, and
not how will you thought you taught it.
Effective Exit Tickets:
-Theyre quick: one to three questions.
-Theyre designed to yield data. This means the questions are fairly simple and
focus on one key part of the objective. That way if students get them wrong youll
know why. They also tend to vary formats one multiple choice and one open
response.
-They make great Do Nows after looking at the data, let your students do the
same. Start the next days lesson by analyzing and re-teaching the Exit Ticket when
students struggle.

Technique 21 Take a Stand involves pushing students to actively

engage in the ideas around them by making judgments about the answers
their peers provide.
Explicitly asking one student to evaluate anothers answer. Techniques can be whole
class (two snaps if you agree, two stomps if you dont). The key to maximum effect
is not so much asking whether students agree but following up on their answers
to inform your teaching and make students accountable for mentally engaged
judgments rather than empty and obligatory participation. Ask students to
defend or explain their positions. The key is to make sure that students are
truly doing cognitive work. Its also important to remember to have students
take a stand both when the original answer is right and when its wrong
and to avoid letting the method you use tip students off. Finally, make sure
your students are comfortable exposing and discussing their own errors.

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 10
Chapter 4
Engaging Students in Your Lessons: These techniques are designed to
consistently draw students into the work of class and keep them focused on
learning.

Technique 22 Cold Call In order to make engaged participation the

expectation, call on students regardless of whether they have raised their
hands. Lemov states that Cold Call is the single most powerful technique
in his book.
If students see you frequently and reliably calling on classmates who dont have
their hand raised, they will come to expect it and prepare for it. Cold call allows you
to check for understanding effectively and systematically; increases speed in both
the terms of your pacing and the rate at which you can cover material; and allows
you to distribute work more broadly around the room and signal to students that
you want to know what they have to say. It holds the student accountable. Cold Call
questions can and should be rigorous and demanding. Part of the power lies in
having students feel the pride of answering demanding questions at the spur of the
moment. Be prepared by planning exact questions in advance. Cold call is

Predictable it is an engagement strategy, not a discipline or caught you

strategy
Systematic teachers who use Cold Call signal that these calls are about
their expectation, not about individuals.
Positive the purpose of Cold Call is to foster positive engagement in the
work of your class.
Scaffolded start with simple questions and progress to harder ones,
emphasizing what they already know and pushing for greater rigor and
challenge.

Technique 23 Call and Response Use group choral response you ask;
they answer in unison to build a culture of energetic, positive
engagement. Three primary goals: academic review and reinforcement; high-
energy fun; behavioral reinforcement. Although it is straightforward, it can be easily
underestimated. There are 5 levels of sequence to increase rigor (in order form least
to greatest): 1. Repeat, 2. Report, 3. Reinforce, 4, Review, 5. Solve being the most
challenging. To be effective Call and Response should be universal, all students
should respond. Use a specific signal (in-cues) that makes it clear when you are
asking students to respond as a group such as:
Count-based (Ready, set,.; or One, two, ready, you) Effective teachers may start with a
longer count-based cue and gradually truncate it as students become familiar with it to save
time.

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 11
 Group prompt (Everybody! or Class!) Champion teachers are often strategic about whether
they put the prompt before the question or after.
Nonverbal gesture (a point, a hand dropped from shoulder height, a looping motion with the
finger)
A shift in tone and volume this is by far the trickiest and most prone to error.
Specialized a specific response to students

Technique 24 Pepper A teacher tosses questions to a group of students

quickly, and they answer back. The teacher does not slow down to engage
or discuss an answer. (if answer is wrong, teacher asks the same question
to another student) Pepper is easily confused with Cold Call; differences are: you
can call on volunteers if you prefer, almost always asks quick fundamental
questions, is a game;

Great warm-up activity

Energetic part of a review
Perfect for filling in a stray ten minutes

Technique 25 Wait Time delaying a few strategic seconds after you

finish asking a question and before you ask a student to begin answering
it.
Challenges of NOT giving wait time after a question:

Answers are unlikely to be the rich, reflective, or developed

Encourages students to raise their hand with the first answer rather than the best one
More likely to waste time processing a poor answer before you get to discuss a good one

Waiting and ensuring that you spend your time on higher-quality initial answers may actually
save you time.

Benefits of giving students just 3 to 5 seconds of wait time:

Length and correctness of student responses are likely to increase

Number of failures to respond (I dont know) is likely to decrease
Number of students who volunteer to answer is likely to increase
Use of evidence in answers is likely to increase

Ways to enhance your wait time narrate it use your wait time to incent and reinforce specific
behaviors that will be most productive to your students. For example:

Im waiting for more hands.

Im waiting for someone who can connect this scene to another play, ideally Macbeth.
Im going to give everyone lots of time because this question is tricky. Your first answer may
not be the best.
Im seeing people thinking deeply and jotting down thoughts. Ill give everyone a few more
seconds to do that.
Ill start taking answers in ten seconds.

Technique 26 Everybody Writes set your students up for rigorous

engagement by giving them the opportunity to reflect first in writing

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 12
before discussing. As author Joan Didion says, I write to know what I
think.
Benefits

Allows you to select effective responses to begin discussion

Allows you to cold call students simply and naturally since you know everyone is prepared
Allows you to give every student a chance to be part of the conversation
Processing thoughts in writing refines them, a process that challenges students intellectually,
engages them, and improves the quality of their ideas and their writing.
Sets standards in a direction you think especially fruitful
Students remember TWICE as much of what they are learning if they write it down.

Technique 27 Vegas the sparkle, the moment during class when you
might observe some production values: music, lights, rhythm, dancing.
Vegas draws students into a little bit of magic. However, it must reinforce
not just academics generally but one of the days learning objective. Its
upbeat but often short, sweet and on point. And once its done, its done.
If not, the learning will be lost.

Chapter 5

Creating A Strong Classroom Culture: The techniques in this chapter focus on

making your classroom a place where students work had, behave, model strong
character, and do their best. These techniques rely on all five principles of
classroom culture.

The Five Principles of Classroom Culture These 5 principles are often

confused and conflated. Many teachers fail to consider the difference between
them; others use them interchangeably.

Discipline usually referred to as the process of administering consequences

and punishments (verb). However, champion teachers refer to the process as
one that teaches someone the right way t do something or to the state of
being able to do something the right way (noun). All too often teachers have
not taken the time to teach their students, step by step, what successful
learning behavior looks like, assuming instead that students have inferred it in
previous classrooms or doubting the value of having a right way to do things.
Management the process of reinforcing behavior by consequences and
rewards. Typically what is called disciplining is often really management.
Management cannot sustain itself without the other 4 elements. The more
you isolate it, the less effective it is.
Teach students how to do things right (discipline), dont just establish
consequences for doing them wrong. To truly succeed you must be able to

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 13
 control students, meaning to get them to do things regardless of
consequence, and to inspire and engage them in positive work. You are also
building relationships with students that dont involve rewards and
consequences, and demonstrate that you care enough to know your students
as individuals (influence).
Control your capacity to cause someone to choose to do what you ask,
regardless of consequences. Controlling merely involves asking in a way that
makes them more likely to agree. Teachers who have strong control succeed
because they understand the power of language and relationships: they ask
respectfully, firmly, and confidently but also with civility, and often kindly.
They express their faith in students.
Influence inspiring students to believe, want to succeed, and want to work
for it for intrinsic reasons. Control gets them to do things you suggest;
influence gets them to want to internalize the things you suggest. Influence is
the BIGGEST driver of achievement and success because it happens when
kids want it for themselves and when it is real.
Engagement giving students plenty to say yes to, plenty to get involved in,
plenty to lose themselves in. They get students busily engaged in productive,
positive work. This gives them little time to think about how to act
counterproductively. Champion teachers keep their students positively
engaged not just so that they are too busy to see opportunities to be off task
but because after a while, they start to think of themselves as positively
engaged people. This is why engagement matters.

Technique 28 Entry Routine making a habit out of whats efficient,

productive, and scholarly after the greeting and as students take their
seats and class begins.

Technique 29 Do Now being clear with students about what to be

working on and eliminating the excuses that lead to distraction are the
rationale behind this technique. Students should never have to ask themselves,
What am I supposed to be doing? when they enter your classroom, nor should
they be able to claim not to know what they should be doing.

An effective Do Now:

Students should be able to complete without any direction or discussion.

The activity should take 3-5 minutes to complete.
The activity should require putting a pencil to paper.
The activity should preview the days lesson or review a recent lesson.

Technique 30 Tight Transitions Quick and routine transitions that

students can execute without extensive narration by the teacher. Students

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 14
spend a lot of time in transition by necessity and when in transition they are not
learning. Losing the last three minutes of a lesson undercuts the whole lesson.
Messy transitions are also an invitation to disruptions and conflicts that continue to
undercut the classroom environment even after class has started.

Effective transitions (this takes several weeks to instill completely):

Start by mapping the route

Practice, practice, practice under your watchful eye
Scaffold the steps in the transition (number the steps)
Use point-to-point movement/walking
Practice transitions against the clock transitions take less than 30 seconds,
and often far less
If transitions are fast enough, theres no reason your students cant be quiet.

Technique 31 Binder Control have a required place for them to take

notes and store materials; have a required format for organizing papers.
Care enough about and demonstrate the importance of what you teach to build a
system for the storage, organization, and recall of what your students have learned.

Technique 32 SLANT Sit up, Listen, Ask and answer questions, Nod
your head, Track the speaker. Teachers often practice lining up for fire drills and
finding the right bus, but rarely do we think about teaching behaviors and skills
that help students concentrate, focus, and learn.

Other variations: STAR sit, track the speaker, ask and answer questions, respect
those around you
S-SLANT which adds smile

Technique 33 On Your Mark every student must start class with books
and paper out and pen or pencil in hand. A coach doesnt start practice by
telling kids to get their shoes on; kids show up with their shoes on. So, dont ask
your students to get ready as class begins.

Ensuring students are On Their Marks:

Be explicit about what students need to have to start class. Make it a small
and finite list that doesnt change.
Set a time limit. Be specific about when students need to have everything
ready.
Use a standard consequence. Have a small and appropriate consequence that
you can administer without hesitation.
Provide tools without consequence to those who recognize the need before
class. Part of preparation is recognizing in advance that you need something.
Include homework. Make turning it in part of the routine students follow to be
ready. There should be a separate consequence for not doing it.

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 15
Technique 34 Seat Signals signals for common needs, especially those
that require or allow students to get out of their seats. Managing requests
for bathroom and the like can become a distraction from teaching, not to mention
that these usually come at inept times.

Criteria for seat signals:

Students must be able to signal their request from their seats.

Students must be able to signal requests nonverbally.
Signals should be specific and unambiguous but subtle enough to prevent
distractions
You should be able to manage both their requests and your response without
interrupting instruction.
You should be explicit and consistent about the signals you expect students to
use, posting them on the wall and disciplining yourself to require them by
responding only when used.
Make clear rules about when student can ask for certain freedoms that require
seat signals.

Examples:

Can I use the bathroom, please? Hand up; two fingers crossed.
I need a new pencil Hold pencil up, wait for exchange from teacher.
I need a tissue. Left hand pinching nose.
I need to get out of my seat. (to get something that dropped on the
floor) One finger held up rotated in a circular motion.

Technique 35 Props also called shout-outs and ups are public

praise for students who demonstrate excellence or exemplify virtues. If
you can consistently enable classmates to deliver resounding praise to their peers in
two seconds flat, you can build a culture that valorizes achievement and effort
without sacrificing order or time on task. The key is investing the time to give props
the right way: crisply, quickly, and enthusiastically. Example: Two Snaps, Two
Stomps

Props should be:

Quick be short so energy level stays high the routine should take less than 5 seconds
transition back to the task immediate
Visceral props are usually better when they rely on movement and sound, especially
percussive sound. Students like noise and rhythm.
Universal everybody joins in
Enthusiastic tone is fun and lively. It should be a break, brief and fun, from hard work. Props
are the exclamation point, not the sentence.
Evolving let students suggest and develop ideas for Props. If they are thinking of new ones,
props will never get boring.

Chapter 6

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 16
Setting and Maintaining High Behavioral Expectations: The techniques in
chapters 1-5 wont serve their purpose if the teacher doesnt establish high
behavioral expectations. In this chapter, you will notice the non-negotiable aspects
of a strong behavioral classroom.

Technique 36 100 Percent Theres one acceptable percentage of

students following a direction: 100%. Less, and your authority is subject to
interpretation, situation, and motivation. Many teachers who fail to approach
the 100% standard stop noticing whether they are achieving full compliance. You
must be keenly aware of how students respond to your directions. The danger of
moving on without compliance causes students to see noncompliance as an option.
When a teacher makes minor requests discretionary, getting everyone to oblige her
when she needs it most will require her to risk either an authority-weakening bout of
pleading or a pitched and public showdown with some of her students Tolerating
marginal compliance will also have a corrosive effect. If you ask, they should do it.
Excellence is the habit: what you do, you should do well, and the easiest way to do
it well is to do it well every time.

The assertion that the standard is 100% compliance is reached with:

A warm and positive tone
Teachers being crisp and orderly
Students doing as theyre asked without ever seeming to think about it
The culture of compliance being positive and invisible

Three principles to ensuring consistent follow-through and compliance:

Use the least invasive form of intervention the intervention should

be fast and invisible
Nonverbal intervention
Positive group correction
Anonymous individual correction
Private individual correction
Lightning-quick public correction
Consequence

-These six levels are not a process or formula nor is there a progression based
on levels.
-Ignoring misbehavior is the most invasive form of intervention because it
becomes more likely that the behavior will persist and expand. Address
behavior quickly the first time it appears and while its manifestation is still
minimal and the required response still small.

Rely on firm, calm finesse

Students need to follow directions quickly and completely for having the
best chance of success
I need your eyes on me so you can learn NOT I asked for your eyes
on me because when I ask you to do something, I expect you to do it.

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 17
 100% teachers stress the universality of expectations I need
everyones eyes.
100% teachers are strategically impersonal
100% teacher catch it early, before the rest of the class, and sometimes
even the students in question, know its an it.
Emphasize compliance you can see
Find ways to make it easier to see whos followed your directions by
asking students to do things you can see. Students recognize that it is
far harder not to comply when you can see compliance.
Be seen looking when you ask for compliance, look for it consistently
and be seen looking for it.
Avoid marginal compliance Its not just whether your students do
what youve asked but whether they do it right.
Leverage the power of unacknowledged behavioral
opportunities Students can gain valuable practice behaving in a
constructive and positive manner without even being aware that they
are doing so.

Technique 37 What to Do giving directions to students in a way that

provides clear and useful guidance enough of it to allow any student who
wanted to do as asked to do so easily. Some portion of student noncompliance
is caused not by defiance but by incompetence: by students misunderstanding a
direction, not knowing how to follow it, or tuning out. Therefore, a critical guiding
principle is to differentiate between defiance and incompetence. If the issue is
incompetence, my obligation is to teach. If the issue is defiance, then my obligation
is to provide a consequence.

-Tell students what to do NOT telling them what NOT to do. We spend a lot of time
defining the behavior we want by the negative. To be effective, directions
should be specific, concrete, sequential, and observable.

Specific focus on manageable and precisely described actions that students

can take
Concrete they involve clear, actionable tasks that any student knows how
to do. Asking a student to Pay attention is vague, but asking Turn your body
to face me and put your legs under your desk is concrete.
Sequential effective directions should describe a sequence of concrete
specific actions
Observable observable actions that I can plainly see happen leaving little
wiggle room for a student not to be accountable.

Technique 38 Strong Voice some teacher have it they enter a room

and are instantly in command. There are 5 concrete things that it
teachers consistently use to signal their authority. These are 5 techniques
anyone at any level can use: Economy of Language, Do Not Talk Over, Do
Not Engage, Square Up/Stand Still, and Quiet Power. They also have a
default register a tone and demeanor they employ in their interactions.

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 18
Economy of Language Fewer words are stronger than more. Demonstrating
economy of language shows that you are prepared and know your purpose in
speaking. When you need your directions followed, use the words that best focus
students on what is most important and no more.

Do Not Talk Over if what youre saying is truly worth attention then every
student has the right and the responsibility to hear it.

Do Not Engage Once you have set the topic of conversation, avoid engaging in
other topics until you have satisfactorily resolved the topic you initiated; especially
when the topic is behavioral follow-through AND when students call out answers.

Square Up/Stand Still when you want to express the seriousness of your
directions, turn, with two feet and two shoulders, to face the object of your words
directly. Make sure your eye contact is direct. Stand up straight or lean in close.
When giving directions that you want followed, stop moving and dont engage in
other tasks at the same time.

Quiet Power when you get loud and talk fast, you show that you are nervous
scared, out of control. Get slower and quieter when you want control. Drop your
voice and make students strain to listen. Exude poise and calm.

Default Register of Strong Voice Formal Pose vs Casual your register

should communicate importance, focus, and calm authority.

Technique 39 Do It Again Doing it again and doing it right, or better, or

perfect is the best consequence. Should be positive with a keen focus on
getting better and informed by a constant narrative of good, better,
best. The goal is not mere compliance but excellence, even in the little things.
You do not need to wait until an entire routine or activity is done before asking to try
it again. You should have students go back and try it again as soon as you know the
level of execution will NOT met the standard you have set.

Do it Again is especially effective for seven reasons:

-it shortens the feedback loop

-it sets a standard of excellence, not just compliance
-there is no administrative follow-up
-there is group accountability
-it ends with success
-there are logical consequences
-it is reusable

Technique 40 Sweat the Details clean up clutter, keep desk rows tidy, make
sure shirts are tucked in and hats are off, and you will decrease the likelihood
that you will have to deal with more serious issues b/c you will decrease your
students perception that those things might be permissible. The key is
preparation.

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 19
Technique 41 Threshold the most important moment to set expectations in
your classroom is the minute when your classroom students enter. Its the critical
time to establish rapport, set the tone, and reinforce the first steps in a routine
that makes excellence habitual. Threshold should accomplish two things:
establish a personal connection between you and your students and reinforce
your classrooms expectations.

Technique 42 No Warnings Students are not supposed to behave to please

you; they are supposed to behave so they can better themselves, be the best
people they can be, and get the most out of school. Your goal should be to take
action rather than to get angry: Act early, Act reliably, Act proportionately. The
behavior that most often gets in the way of taking action is the warning. Giving a warning
is not taking action; it is threatening that you might take an action and therefore,
counterproductive. Warnings tell students that a certain amount of disobedience will not
only be tolerated but is expected. Remember it is critical that you NOT punish students
when the issue is incompetence. Its also fine to offer a general reminder to all students
about common expectations when they begin to slide. If the issue is a result of defiance
then a consequence is better than a warning.

Chapter 7

Building Character and Trust

Technique 43 Positive Framing Make corrections consistently and

positively. Narrate the world you want your students to see even while you
are relentlessly improving it.Psychological studies repeatedly show that people
are far more likely to be spurred to action by a vision of a positive outcome than
they are to avoid a negative one. Positive Framing corrects and guides behavior by
following six rules:

1. Live in the now. Give instructions describing what the next move on the path to
success is. Show me how to SLANT! NOT You werent SLANTing.
2. Assume the best. Dont attribute to ill intention what could be the result of
distraction, lack of practice, or genuine misunderstanding. Assuming the worst
makes you appear weak.
3. Allow plausible anonymity. Begin by correcting them without using their names
when possible.
4. Build momentum, and narrate the positive.
5. Challenge! Exhort them to prove what they can do by building competition into the
day.
6. Talk expectations and aspirations. Talk about who your students are becoming
and where youre going. The goal in the end is not for them to please you but for
them to leave you behind on a long journey toward a more distant and more
important goal than making you happy. Keep positive by avoiding two things:
rhetorical questions, and contingencies.

Technique 44 Precise Praise Positive reinforcement is one of the most

powerful tools in every classroom. Most experts say it should happen
three times as often as criticism and correction, however, it is sometimes
used poorly.

Rules of thumb:
Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 20
 Differentiate acknowledgment and praise. However, do not mix the two. Praising
students for doing what is expected can be destructive.
Praise (and acknowledge) loud; fix soft. Praise as specifically as possible and
focus on exactly the behavior and action that you would like to see more of.
Praise must be genuine.

Technique 45 Warm/Strict you must be both: caring, funny, warm,

concerned, and nurturing and also strict, by the book, relentless, and
sometimes inflexible.

Explain to students why youre doing what you are doing and how it is designed to
help them.
Distinguish between behavior and people.
Demonstrate that consequences are temporary.
Use warm, nonverbal behavior.

Technique 46 The J-Factor it turns out that finding joy in the work of
learning is a key driver not just of a happy classroom but of a high-
achieving classroom. Champion teachers use the following 5 categories of J-Factor
activities:

Fun and games

Us (and them) making members feel they belong
Drama, song, and dance
Humor
Suspense and surprise

Technique 47 Emotional Constancy modulate your emotions; expect

almost anything and have a plan to deal with it; tie your emotions to
student achievement, not to your own moods or the emotions of the
students you teach. An emotionally constant teacher earns students trust in part
by having them know he is always under control.

Technique 48 Explain Everything Students know the logic behind the

rules and expectations designed for their betterment; they understand the
group success depends on everyones participation. Teachers make their
expectations clear, rational, and logical. They constantly remind students
why they do what they do and ground their explanations in the mission:
this will help you get to college; this will help you understand how to be
responsible. This happens either in a calm moment well in advance of
behavior that needs fixing or else after fixing has resulted in the
meeting of expectations.

Technique 49 Normalize Error Getting it wrong and then getting it right

is one of the fundamental processes for schooling. Respond to both parts
of this sequence, the wrong and the right, as completely normal.

Right answers; dont flatter; dont fuss

Wrong answers; dont chasten; dont excuse

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 21
 Champion teachers show their students they expect both right and wrong to
happen by not making too big a deal of either.

Chapter 8

Improving Your Pace: Additional Techniques for Creating a Positive Rhythm

in the Classroom

It isnt the rate at which material is presented, but rather the rate at which the
lesson makes the material appear to unfold. When maximizing pacing, your
teaching engages and interests students, giving them a sense of progress and
change.

6 Techniques for managing the illusion of speed:

Change the Pace changing the format of the work every 10-15 minutes as
you seek to master a single topic. In addition, activities should fluctuate
between active and passive.
Brighten Lines every time you start an activity in a lesson, present an
opportunity to draw bright, clear lines at the beginning and end. Making
activities begin and end crisply and clearly rather than melding together.
Beginnings and endings that are visible to participants are more likely to be
perceived as reference points and create the perception that youve done
multiple discrete things. Bounding each activity with finite time limits makes it

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 22
 appear to be more autonomous and makes the end point clear and use odd
increments of time. You can make the transition even sharper and more
visible by giving a start signal: Take three minutes to answer the questions in
front of you. Then well begin discussing the novel. Ready? Go!
All Hands shifting rapidly among and involving a wide array of participants.
Every Minute Matters instead of the usual break at the last few minutes of
class time or waiting in the hall for the next event, reward students for their
hard work with a high-energy review of all theyve learned or with a challenge
problem. Keep a series of short learning activities ready so youre prepared
when a 2 minute opportunity emerges.
Look Forward put an agenda on the board for a lesson or the morning, you
can start students looking forward. Refer to the future when giving directions:
Take three minutes to answer the questions in front of you. Then well
begin discussing the novel. Ready? Go!
Work the Clock Count it down, parcel it out in highly specific increments,
often announcing an allotted time for each activity. The countdown lends a
sense of urgency to class time, reminding students that time matters and
hastening them along to the next step. It also allows you to continually set
goals for your classs speed in meeting expectations.

Chapter 9
Challenging Students to Think Critically:
Additional Techniques for Questioning and Responding to Students

Good questioning builds solid mastery of even complex ideas by uncovering and explicating each
component piece of a concept in progression.

Questioning serves at least 5 distinct purposes in an effective classroom:

To guide students toward understanding when introducing material

To push students to a greater share of the thinking
To remediate error
To stretch students

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 23
 To check for understanding

General rules of thumb for designing effective questioning, no matter its purpose:

One at a time ask one question at a time. This helps focus students on developing one idea
at a time and focuses you on questioning with a specific goal or purpose in mind, not just a
generalized desire to spark any discussion.
Simple to Complex ask questions that progress from simple to complex. Beginning with
simple questions allows students to begin to activate their memory of relevant facts and
details to support their answer. They have time to develop and reflect on ideas, turning them
into insights before being called on. As a result, they will likely answer more complex
question more factually, more insightfully, and more confidently with success from the simple
questions, which leads to a willingness to take greater risks in the future.
Verbatim (No Bait and Switch) when repeating the question before asking a student to
answer, remember to ask the same question verbatim. Changing the question may cause
negative consequences: to child ready to respond may not be prepared and the quality of the
question will be lower, may leave the child confused or distracted.
Clear and Concise too often the problem with a wrong answer is not with the answer but
with the question. 5 ways to improve clarity of your questions:
1. Start with a question word
2. Limit them to two clauses
3. Write them in advance when they matter (single driver of better teaching that teacher
ignore)
4. Ask an actual question
5. Assume the answer (ask who can tell me NOT Can anyone tell me) The first
assumes someone can answer, and the latter expresses doubt that anyone will.
Stock Questions similar sequences of questions applied over and over in different settings.
Hit Rate the rate at which students answer your questions correctly. Its good if your hit rate
starts at 100% but it should not remain that way for long: when kids get everything right, its
time to ask harder questions. By the same token a hit rate below 2 or 3 shows that youve
got a problem with either how you presented the material you taught or how aligned your
questions are to the material.

Techniques discussed within the book related to effective

questioning:
Break It Down (technique 16)
No Opt Out (technique 1)
Right is Right (technique 2)
Stretch It (technique 3)
Ratio (technique 17)
Cold Call (technique 22)

Part II Helping Students Get the Most Out of Reading: Critical Skills and
Techniques

Chapter 10

How All Teachers Can (and Must) Be Reading Teachers

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 24
We are what we have read and how we read it, and no other single activity has the capacity to yield
so much educational value. And yet students in many schools spend precious little time actually
reading. Likely, they read for less than an hour a day. Even in their reading or literature classes, they
are as likely to talk about reading or respond to what they may or may not have read as they are to
actually read.

Everybody in a school must be a reading teacher.

Basic skills for helping students improve their reading: decoding, fluency, vocabulary,
comprehension.

Control of the Game skills that champion teachers integrate into their reading instruction
that makes students productive and accountable to produce meaningful reading defined as
reading that is accountable (teachers are able to reliably assess whether students are actually
reading and reading effectively decoding, reading words correctly and diligently), moderately
expressive (students demonstrate the capacity to embed meaning in words as they read, to show in
their inflection that they are processing the words at a level beyond the most basic level), and
highly leveraged (the degree to which other students are reading).

Keep Durations Unpredictable this ensures that other students

(secondary reader) in the class dont know when a new reader (primary
reader) will be asked to pick up and therefore provides them with a strong
incentive to follow along carefully. It also allows you to address an
overmatched primary reader in a noninvasive manner.
Keep the Identity of the Next Reader Unpredictable moving quickly
from one primary reader to another, students focus more closely on following
along. Holding on to your ability to choose the next reader also allows you to
match students to passages more effectively. Retaining unpredictability makes
for better leverage and better reading.
Keep Duration Short reading for short segments maximizes the
concentration of the primary reader. It allows students to invest expressive
energy in reading and focus intently on and sustain fluent and even dramatic
reading. This yield higher-quality oral reading and makes the lesson more
engaging. Moving quickly among primary readers also keeps the pacing lively.
This also allows you to gather data about your leverage.
Reduce Transaction Costs is implicit in every transition in the classroom,
especially in transitions you make frequently, like moving from one reader to
the next. A transaction that takes more than a few seconds steals reading
time and risks interrupting the continuity of what students are reading. Thus
affecting how well students follow and comprehend the text. Make it your
goal to transition from one primary reader to another quickly & with a
minimum of words.
Use Bridging to Maintain Continuity a teacher reads a short segment of
text a bridge between primary student readers. The benefit is that it
moves the story along quickly and keeps the narrative thread alive, while
interspersing teacher-quality expressive reading, which maximizes
comprehension. Generally the harder the text, the more you might consider
bridging. But you neednt necessarily always bridge.
Oral Cloze leaving a word out within/or at the end of a sentence while
reading. Allows you to quickly and simply assess leverage.
Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 25
 Rely on a Placeholder quick and reliable prompts to ensure that your
students recognize the transition and react promptly. Hold your place, and
track me. Finger freeze.

Chapter 11
The Fundamentals: Teaching Decoding, Vocabulary, Development, and
Fluency

Decoding

-Teachers should strive to correct decoding errors whenever possible, no matter

what subject or grade level. Errors often indicate a broader lack of skills, reinforcing
general rules and ensuring that students practice decoding are the antidotes.
However, many teachers who correct decoding errors fail to do either, instead they
correct the error and ask for an echo correction (repeating the word w/out
decoding).

Improve knowledge of the rules this allows the student to incorporate the
new information and then decode the word successfully and it reinforces a
rule that can be used on other high-frequency words. Asking students to self-
correct by applying a rule addresses the cause and not just the symptom.
When the ideal of self-correcting is not possible, recognize such cases quickly
so not to waste time and create confusion.
Strive for the lowest possible transaction cost in making corrections, every
extra word used to correct takes away time
- Punch the Error quickly repeating the misread word back to the
student while inflecting your voice to make it a question
- Mark the Spot rereading the 3 or 4 words prior to the word on
which the student made the error, and inflecting your voice to show
that the student should continue the reading from the point where
you stop.
- Name the Sound name the sound a letter should make, and ask
student to apply it
- Chunk It
- Speed the Exceptions
- Echo Correction makes for a very low transaction cost but does
not ask the student to decode this may be worthwhile when youre
reading an important section of text and cant afford any distraction.
Otherwise, these corrections are best for sight words that defy the
rules of decoding.
Address decoding errors even when students know the rule many reading
errors are due to carelessness, haste, or sloppy reading behaviors. These
errors remain important to correct nonetheless, this includes leaving off the
s or other ending sounds. The student who does not read words correctly
has little advantage over the student who cannot read them correctly
Twain.

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 26
 Use quick and simple positive reinforcement when students read a word
correctly not only b/c it encourages them but it also lets them know explicitly
that they got it right.
Cueing Systems 3 ways good readers infer information about words
teachers should carefully encourage students to use and develop these cueing
systems to address decoding errors:
- Letter and Sound Cueing
- Grammar and Syntax Cueing
- Meaning and Context Cueing
Poor readers often rely excessively on meaning and context cueing systems. Be
careful not to encourage them to rely exclusively on techniques that do not reinforce
actual letter and sound decoding.

Vocabulary

Students who know more words learn more words. Research suggests that a 10,000
word vocabulary gap exists between students of privilege and students from less
advantaged backgrounds by the time they reach 10th grade. Champion teachers not
only start good vocabulary instruction with a student friendly definition thats simple
and clear, but also spend time having students practice using words widely and
richly after they know the basic meaning. They recognize that knowing a definition
is a long way from being able to use a word effectively.

Many teachers also use a synonym model in teaching vocabulary; however, this
technique has critical flaws. Even if two words overlap significantly in their meaning,
they are not the same, and it is the difference between the two that matters.
Teaching deep word knowledge means helping students understand how a word is
similar to and different from similar words.

Teaching vocabulary primarily by context clues is also far less effective. Contexts
can be vague, nondirective, or misdirective. Even if students learn to infer word
meaning correctly, they are still essentially making guesses. Strong vocabulary
must be systematically and directly taught.
Teachers should invest time in teaching tier2 words, which are relevant to students
lives, likely to appear again, and respond well to instruction. If there are too many
tier 2 words to teach, invest in words that relate best to what youre teaching.

6 Techniques to Reinforce Strong Vocabulary

Multiple Takes
Compare, Combine, Contrast
Upgrade
Stress the Syntax
Back to Roots
Picture This

Vocabulary Methods for Specialists

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 27
 1. Provide the definition and part of speech of a new vocabulary word.
2. Provide a similar, ideally one with which students are familiar, and explain
how the vocabulary word is similar but different. Have students suggest times
when they might use the word in question and why.
3. Show students a picture that portrays the vocabulary word. Explain why the
picture is a representation of the word.
4. Create a sentence, written by the class with your guidance that reflects the
words meaning in a complete thought.
5. List and discuss variations on the word, identifying their part of speech.
6. Play vocabulary-reinforcing activities and games using multiple takes and
compare, combine, contrast.
7. Write a sentence independently (usually as homework) using the word
correctly and according to standards for quality vocabulary sentences.

Fluency

Fluency consists of automaticity and expression (and comprehension in order to

read a text expressively, the reader has to comprehend it).

4 Techniques to Reinforce Strong Fluency

Show some spunk read aloud to your students regularly What to model?
Grouping words together, identify important words in a passage and
emphasize them.
Ask for some drama identify the kind of expression your students should
impart to the passage and ask them to apply it; call students attention to
dialogue tags and their role as stage directions; ask students to identify the
2 or 3 most important words in a sentence and place special emphasis on
them; ask student to add to or distract something particular to or from the
text by choosing a key descriptive word from the surrounding passage or even
a vocabulary word and asking students to read the passage in a way that
emphasized that word; ask students to provide other possible interpretations
of a line that a student read.
Check the mechanics make explicit reference to punctuation, and ask
students to demonstrate their understanding of it in their oral reading.
Lather, rinse, repeat reread frequently to smooth out an original read
that was wooden or required mechanical correction; to emphasize some
aspect of meaning or incorporate feedback; for fun or because the original
read was especially good.

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 28
Chapter 12

Comprehension: Teaching Students to Understand What They Read

Comprehension understanding a texts full meaning and relevance is the

ultimate goal of reading.
Comprehension is difficult to teach directly b/c it encompasses so many skills. Teachers are easily
frustrated when students cant answer the deeper questions. Its not necessarily b/c they dont know
how to think in a broad or abstract manner but b/c they failed to understand what they read fully and
are trying to make cognitive leaps from a faulty base of underlying knowledge.

Techniques for Building Comprehension (according to the reading process)

Before Reading
Preteach background material this is more efficient than stopping and providing
explanation and detail during reading b/c it prevents misunderstanding before it
happens rather than remediating it afterward.
Contexting most basic approach to helping students comprehend a text is to give them
context on it taking them systematically through key information that will help them begin
their reading as informed readers. Contexting can take place before an introduction of a text,
or before reader a particular section or chapter.
Lack of prior knowledge is one of the key barriers to comprehension for at-risk
students and it affects ALL aspects of reading.
Focal Points to help students manage the complexity of a text, champion teachers steer
them in advance toward key ideas, concepts, and themes to look for while reading. In
addition, they advise whats secondary or can be ignored for now. (idea ask students to
write answers to a few quick prereading questions that force them to state their opinion
about issues in the book so they can track their own changing perceptions as they read.)
Front-loading the best teachers introduce key scenes before their students read them.
Scenes are not necessarily in narrative order (like a preview for a new movie). They are often
quick and disconnected, designed to excite our interest and offer suspense. They front load
our exposure to critical scenes so we feel connected to the story before we begin and so that

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 29
 we give special attention to those scenes when we come across them. Your goal is for your
students to say, Oh, here it is! My teacher told me about this scene.
Prereading Summary summarizing occurs before, after, and during reading. It is
especially effect as a jumping off point for any given days reading to summarize the previous
days. The goal here is to activate memory of prior reading.

During Reading
Although broad and abstract questions are important to ask while reading,
champion teachers are diligent in maintaining a balanced approach to their
questions.
Dont Wait Top teachers check for understanding by asking questions to see if they
understand frequently and throughout the passages they read not when the section or
chapter is over. Questions are often straightforward and quick in order to return to reading
asap. The goal is not to discuss but to confirm understanding. How to balance Dont Wait with
development of other skills such as fluency? read passage once for fluency then a second
time w/ embedded questions.
Lower the Level questions about a text can refer to any of the four levels of meaning:
- Word or phrase level meaning What does the word ____ mean hear? Why
might the author have chosen that word? The author says, It was the worst thing
imaginable. What is the it shes referring to there?
- Sentence level of meaning Can you take the sentence and put it in simpler
language? How might we express an idea like that today?
- Passage level of meaning What part of this paragraph tells you that Mohi is
mean spirited?
- Story level of meaning Whats the purpose of this essay?

Its easy to assume that the goal is to get to the story-level quickly and ask as many story-
level questions as possible. However, lower levels of meaning (word and sentence) are
critical to build the knowledge base needed to answer story-level questions.
Misunderstandings about big ideas often starts with misunderstandings of the smaller ideas.

Evidence-Based Questioning questions where students must make reference to a fact or

event from the text. Primary advantage is that EBQ are testable in that you can much more
clearly tell whether students have understood the reading.

Postreading Techniques
A good experience with a text doesnt end when the reading ends. Champion
teachers ask questions that push the discussion into broader and more analytical
topics.
Summarize most effective when it forces students to prioritize information, rephrase and
condense key ideas to ensure that they own the material. When summarizing is
unsuccessful its often b/c a teacher fails to stress the difference between retelling and
summarizing. Ask questions that prioritize information like: Who can describe the chapter by
recapping its three most important events?; can you summarize the authors two major
arguments in support of his thesis?
Another effective strategy is to provide students with an ever decreasing word limit for their
summaries.
- Ask students to go back through their initial summary and eliminate every word
thats not absolutely necessary. As they develop this skill, suggest that they
eliminate adjectives and replace them with stronger, more potent verbs. Ex: ran
as quick as she could to sprinted
- Ask students to prioritize the events in a summarized section. Rank order the
events or material to be summarized forces that process along. An event is most

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 30
 important in the impact it has (or is likely to have) on other scenes in the story. If
you know or think it will affect the outcome of the book, include it in the summary;
if not, drop it.
BETTER Connections when asking students to make connections beyond a text, champion
teachers recognize that certain types of questions are usually more rigorous and more likely
to reinforce reading comprehension than others. Keep in mind that connections are not an
end in and of themselves.

- Text to Text are preferable to text-to-world and text-to-self b/c they reinforce
testable ideas rather than judgments, opinions, and stories.
- Test-to-World relating an issue in a story to some event or person in their world is a
valid exercise, especially when it asks students to connect specific aspects of a text to
specific aspects of the broader world rather than allowing them to discuss any
connection they see to any event in the world. Be cautious of text-to-media
connections, these tend to take conversations about texts off track. If the connection
is valid, proceed; otherwise, tell students that you are not looking for these types of
connections.
- Text-to-self are inevitable and valid, but are also more limited in their relevance to
other students and comprehension of texts. Often lead classes astray. They are best
when they focus on the specific elements of the text being read rather than sweeping
in their breadth.

Standard-Aligned Questions

Although its easy for teachers to fall into the habit of asking the same three or four
types of questions over and over, their students need to practice the full array of
question types, both to ensure their success on assessments that stand between
them and college and to make sure they are comfortable demonstrating a wide
range of skills. Top teachers are intentional about this in several ways, often making
an inclusive list and mapping them into their unit plans to they are constantly
focusing on a different type of questions. They also study the different formats of
questions used on assessments to better understand how the questions are asked
and ensure that their own questions are at least as rigorous as the questions that
control access to college.

Risks and Challenges of Strategies Instruction

Based on the research of Nancy Boyles Constructing Meaning Through Kid-Friendly Comprehension
Strategy Instruction

The strategies involved are often too broadly defined.

Strategies-based reading instruction is a confusion of correlation and cause.
This is reflected in the basic argument that if good readers do x, then those
who do x will become good readers. In short, good readers may figure out,
but the problem for bad readers may not be that they dont know how to
figure out but rather that they dont understand what theyve read enough to
use those skills.
The easier a strategy is to understand and use, the more likely teachers may
be to use it. However, something easier to use is not necessarily more
conducive to student achievement.

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 31
 Reading strategies can be used to promote both engagement and
comprehension, which are different goals, and teachers sometimes do not
recognize the difference between the two.
There is a large caveat regarding fluency that generally does not get fully
acknowledged in discussions of strategies instruction. The unintended
consequence of any teaching approach is the tendency to make the approach
(not comprehension) the approach.

Reading Strategies and their Relation to the Techniques in This Book

Noticing What are the things students should notice most, and how can
they systematically be identified and modeled?
Observations that relate to and advance understanding of the most important ideas in
what you are reading use Focal Points dont just have students read; have them
read for something. Front Loading draws students attention to scenes of special
importance so that you can discuss critical watershed moments in depth.
Observations that relate to and advance understanding of skills (learning standards)
you are teaching at the time use standards-aligned questioning employing
specific skills in noticing forces them out of their comfort zones and builds their ability
to notice in a wider variety of ways.
Evidence Based observations noticing the evidence that supports the opinion is as
important as the opinion itself use evidence-based questioning
Observations drawing on different levels of noticing use lower the level techniques

Connecting one of the benefits Boyles describes of connecting is that it

engages students in the text. However, engaging students is a different goal
than comprehending.

-Thoughtful connections can often be the jumping-off place for inferences about the text.
They can help students begin to understand the text by tapping into what they already know
about a topic. Effective connections can also help students see the story from a characters
point of view by accessing their own analogous experience. They dont necessarily do this,
and in many cases, the connections students are most likely to make are least rigorous and
least useful to engendering long-term reading comprehension.
-Furthermore, students (or teachers) can infer that the point is simply to make any kind of
connection to the text. Connections arent inherently valuable; only good connections are.
-A good connection serves to help readers understand something about the text, not the thing
connected to, having the discipline to use the world to understand to text rather than the text
to understand the world. They could also replace actual details with imagined details or
contradictory or confusing details.
-It may also be that people naturally make connections, and so the skill doesnt need to
taught so much as managed and guided. The skill is in making connections effective and
focused. Link connections back to the text to understand what light the connection sheds on
what youre reading.

Picturing/Visualizing the most overused and poorly used strategy. This is

significant because it can be among the most destructive in it application.

-The use of picturing as a comprehension strategy may be confused by some teachers as

validating visual literacy generally and make it more common for them to use visual images
more frequently to aid in comprehension. Teachers feel encouraged to draw on actual pictures
to make inferences about the story in a way that crowds out reading.
Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 32
 -Teachers may also overuse the picturing strategy because it is so accessible. They may
spend valuable time visualizing rather than reading or asking more productive and rigorous
questions.
-More important, picturing by the students can be incorrect. Students who are asked to
picture an image can and often do introduce erroneous details.
-Its also possible that intentionally visualizing doesnt help students learn to comprehend
what they read that much. People seem to naturally visualize when they understand
something, so we could ask whether picturing is a strategy that causes comprehension or is
the result of it.
-The MOST productive applications of visualizing are to ask students to
draw or picture a scene in order to clear up whats confusing. Another
effective us is to ask students to create a picture using details they have
read in the book. This is actually a version of EBQ, and when teachers do it
well they ask students to pint out specific aspects of the story and/or where
they found certain details that gave them their picture.

Wondering/Picturing having students develop questions about what they are

reading encourages them to be active readers and may motivate them to know more
about a text. Moreover, wonderment and curiosity are usually very good things. The
point is that there are myriad forms of wondering, and they arent all inherently of
equal value. Wondering can be especially effective when modeled by a
teacher as well as guided to a discussion that enhances the knowledge of
the group as a whole.

Predicting in its most basic and common form, it involves teachers asking
students what they think is going to happen next. Its benefits include engagement. It
gets students to focus on what they are reading next to see if their prediction is
confirmed. When done well, it can also help them monitor their understanding of the
text based on whether their prediction came true. But to make that effective, you
should make a habit of circling back to intentionally discuss whether
predictions came true and why. Unfortunately, this step doesnt always happen.
-Two other challenges: students can make wild predictions unrelated to the text or
more related to their lives or experiences instead of the text; students can narrate
the obvious and make predicting facile. The best defense for this evidence-
based questioning, which forces students to ground their predictions in the
text.

Inferring this is the strategy that asks students to go beyond the basic,
literal understanding of the text to apply higher-order thinking. Inference
happens but cant be commanded. To make inference successful you
must set the table, often by meticulous work with both the Lower the
Level and Dont Wait techniques.
-Strong instruction on the literal meaning of the text, including vocabulary
and focus on the important details, doesnt distract from higher-order
thinking. It makes it possible.

Summarize see postreading techniques p. 27.

Lemov, Doug, Teach Like a Champion 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, 2010
Page 33