Retrieval Practice is the act of recalling previously encountered information into working memory, or conscious thinking. Brief spurts of Retrieval Practice help students solidify information in their long-term memories, and, importantly, understanding is not learning until it is encoded in long-term memory. We recently had the pleasure of watching Steve Kuninsky conduct some Retrieval Practice with…
Watered down instruction is a problem in American classrooms. TNTP’s 2018 white paper, The Opportunity Myth describes the scope of this problem. The average student “spent more than 500 hours per school year on assignments that weren’t appropriate for their grade and with instruction that didn’t ask enough of them—the equivalent of six months of wasted class time…
Two of the most important culture building techniques in Teach Like a Champion are Habits of Attention and Habits of Discussion. Habits of Attention is about teachers shaping the non-verbal signals students send to one another when they are talking. When the people in the room are looking at you–and looking a bit interested–you are…
I’ve posted twice this week about my journey through the valley of darkness after Phil Beadle got me in his crosshairs. Sure there was a brief high when I realized that of all the people in the world he could have foisted a shallow ill-conceived and hypocritical attack on, he’d chosen me. Me! But mostly…
Recently I shared a mortifying secret: I had been the subject of a full-scale take down–a full scale multimedia take down–at the hands of Phil Beadle himself. It hurt, I have to say, to hear the things one of the heroes of the movement had to say about me. [Silver lining: he did say I…