Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

10.05.17 Ulrich Boser: Why Learning Less Sometimes Means Learning More

Ulrich Boser’s new book Learn Better is a kind of Yin to Teach Like a Champion’s Yang.  Like TLAC it attempts to study what goes right when learning is successful. And like a lot of the writing my team and I do on this blog, it draws on the findings of cognitive science.  But Learn Better…


10.03.17 Retrieval Practice: A Teachers’ Definition and Video Examples

  We’ve been reading up a lot on retrieval practice lately.  Hopefully we’re not alone in that. From a cognitive science standpoint it’s absolutely central to improving learning. You might recall  Daniel Willingham’s assertion about the importance of knowledge: Data from the last thirty years lead to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengeable: thinking well…


09.28.17 Nick Winkelman on Blocked, Serial and Random Practice

I had the chance to visit a highly successful sports franchise earlier this week. It was the second time in a month I got to visit an elite organization in the sports sector and both visits were amazing because I learned so much- even in the ‘classroom,’ because in both cases the organizations had also brought…


09.27.17 Eric Snider Installs His Turn and Talk Routine

I’m not really sure where to start in talking about the clip I’m going to share in this post. It’s pretty amazing. It’s of Eric Snider, who teachers English at Achievement First Bushwick Middle School and who is a TLAC Fellow. It’s important because it shows how Eric installs a routine in his classroom. One of…


09.22.17 Art of the Sentence: Brittany Rumph’s Kindergartners Can Really Write!

We love the technique Art of the Sentence.  By asking students to write a single sentence- ideally by asking them to write that sentence about some rich and engaging area of content- we teach them to master the art of syntactic control- the ability to use diverse tools to express complex ideas and this is extremely…