Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

04.25.17 Why Reading Aloud to Students is So Critical to Vocabulary

Last night, after reading aloud to my daughter and tucking her in, I was mopping up a bit of work from the day and came across this observation by Isabel Beck: “The source of later vocabulary learning shifts [as students get older] to written texts–what children read [as opposed to what they hear].  The problem is…


04.12.17 Clip of the Week: Courtney Betar’s Show Call

Show Call is one of my favorite teaching techniques.  It’s essentially a visible Cold Call.  You assign a written task and then, when it’s done, choose an example or two and project to the class. I love how it puts student work at the center of the classroom, making it visible and tangible so everyone can…


04.09.17 Technical Difficulties [Updated]

4.10.17 Thanks for your patience everyone.  All blog posts from the last two and a half years or so should have videos that don’t require passwords.  Some of our older posts may take another day or so to repair. 4.9.17 No, you’re not crazy. If you’re having trouble seeing the videos on our site, it’s because…


04.04.17 How Julia Addeo Improves Student Thinking By Improving Student Vocabulary

A couple of weeks ago I shared a picture of Jo Facer at Michaela school. She’d used a list of sophisticated verbs that added depth and nuance to discussion about what a text “showed” to expand her students vocabulary and precision when discussing texts. The idea resonated with lots of folks so I am happy to…