Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

05.08.17 Carry On My Son: The Signal and the Noise in Coaching

Anthony Fowler my colleague at Uncommon Schools sent me a note this morning to pass along this great moment between Steve Kerr and Steph Curry.   “There’s something about him sharing the evidence (stats), and giving the positive reinforcement for him to keep going, even when it seems like he’s not performing his best,” Anthony wrote….


03.16.17 Lessons in Practice from the Seattle Seahawks

My Practice Perfect co-author Katie Yezzi recently came across a pretty amazing video of Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll talking about practice and his approach to it.  Beyond the key takeaway that practice is incredibly important to any performance profession–“Practice is everything,” Carroll says in the video–there are a ton of useful lessons for those…


09.06.16 On Coaching: How Kelvin Jones Uses Feedback to Build Culture

Last week I posted some video of Virginia ODP soccer coach Kelvin Jones’ training session with players at his home club in Williamsburg, Va.  The video showed some of what made his models so successful and was pretty popular so I thought I’d share a bit more from Kelvin’s session– this time on a different topic….


12.08.15 Dept. of Game-Changing Ideas: Feedback Before the Lesson

Imagine for a minute a school that provides lots of useful feedback to teachers.  Perhaps this describes your own school.  Trusted colleagues and peers frequently see you teach. They have a shared vision of successful teaching that aligns to your own in large part and they take time to give you concrete practical advice to help…