Technique #1 in the new Teach Like a Champion 2.0 is “Reject Self Report.” The idea being that we should listen for the moments when, having just taught something or explained a task, we ask students questions like: “Everybody understand?” or “Everyone got it?” These questions, we should realize, are functionally rhetorical. There is only one…
The following is an excerpt from Teach Like a Champion 2.0 about the technique Reject Self-Report. I discuss it further in this post. Volumes of social science literature have established that self-report is highly unreliable. Questions that ask for binary (that is, yes-no) answers are particularly suspect. Throw in group dynamics in the classroom, and…
I spent some time with journalist Ian Leslie last fall when I was in London–we spoke a couple of times and he came to a couple of workshops. This morning he published a reflection on Teach Like a Champion and the ideas behind it in the Guardian. I was very happy to see the work my…
I watched an interesting lesson today, a pretty good one, in which the teacher asked her students to describe the setting of Amy Tan’s short essay “Fish Cheeks.” When one student did so—describing it as a “weird and different Christmas,” the teacher asked him for evidence to support his claim. When he provided it, she asked…
Joy Factor is one of the most popular techniques in Teach Like a Champion. Who doesn’t want to have fun while they (and their kids) work? Who doesn’t want to have their students feel the joy of learning? But while it’s popular and positive, Joy Factor can be a surprisingly tricky thing to get just right. …