Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

01.10.25 On Attention, ‘cognitive endurance’ and reading

  In our forthcoming book on the Science of Reading, Colleen Driggs, Erica Woolway and I discuss the importance of attention to reading.   Short version: if nothing else, the smartphone, having fractured the attention of millions, has taught us that attention is malleable. This is especially important in reading, which places such intense demands on…


11.19.24 Student Achievement Through Staff Culture: An Interview with Max Wakeman

Over the past year we’ve been learning from 40 schools in Walsall and Sandwell England. These schools, located outside of Birmingham in areas of unusually high economic deprivation, were chosen to participate in a Priority Education Improvement Areas (PEIA) grant to increase self-regulation and meta-cognition (and therefore academic and social outcomes) in students.    Windsor Academy…


11.13.24 The Science of Reading: It’s About Knowledge not “Transferable Skills”

  Recently, I shared an overview of the topics in the forthcoming book on reading I’m writing with Colleen Driggs and Erica Woolway: seven key principles of reading instruction that should inform what we do in k-12 classrooms. (Note we’ll be discussing these principles at our Nashville workshop Dec. 5  & 6) Today, I’m going to…