Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

02.16.17 Two Clips in Honor of World Read Aloud Day

With thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for the heads up, it turns out that today is World Read Aloud Day, and I am going to make up for the fact that I was not really on-the-ball with Valentine’s Day by being all over World Read Aloud Day.  With good reason. First, a clever Valentines/World Read Aloud Day…


02.14.17 A Post Card from High-Performing PS 172

Earlier this year Teach Like a Champion team-members Hilary Lewis, Erica Woolway and John Costello visited PS 172 in Brooklyn as part of our efforts to study what high-performing schools and teachers do differently.  John shared these notes: I’m always excited when New York State releases their end-of-year data. The excel spreadsheet is massive. New York’s…


02.01.17 Tucking In and Tucking Out

I am going to to use this post to share a parenting idea: something that enriches my daughter’s life and our relationship. I thought some others might want to steal it. I do not purport to be a parenting expert. This is recreational advice. Context: Tuck-in time at night is often the best time of the day…


01.17.17 How Dani Quinn Uses Show Me to Check for Understanding

Dani Quinn is a math teacher at the Michaela School in London. We recently video-taped her lesson and, in watching, I was struck right away by her Check for Understanding. She constantly used Show Me (technique #5 in TLaC) to assess students as she taught and she used that data to guide her lesson. And she…