Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

10.06.17 Using the Do Now for Retrieval Practice–An Update from Alex Laney

  A year or so ago I wrote a post about Alex Laney’s Do Nows at Smith’s Wood Academy in Birmingham, England.  Since then Alex has kept in touch and he recently shared some insights about the school’s new approach to Do Nows or (as they call them) DNAs. Most notably, given the very compelling research…


06.14.16 UK Science Teacher Alex Laney Shares Some Outstanding Do Nows

Alex Laney is a science teacher at Blessed William Howard Catholic High school in Stafford, in the UK. He’s recently been accepted onto the Future Leaders flagship program and come September will be working as an Assistant Principal responsible for Teaching and Learning in a school striving to achieve excellence for its students in a community…


03.28.14 The Do Now: A Primer

Today a section from a technique you might describe as a ‘fundamental’: The Do Now.  The best part of it, to me, is the examples (see below).  One key thing to remember with a Do Now is the speedy review.  When I see Do Nows go wrong it’s most often because a teacher loses track of…