Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

09.19.17 Two Cold Calls from the First Days of First Grade

This morning we watched two great clips of first grade teacher Jennifer Crucetti Cold Calling her first graders on the second day of school at Abram Lansing Elementary in Cohoes, NY. Cold Call, as you may know, is a hugely powerful tool in the classroom when it’s a normal and positive part of the lives of…


03.23.15 When a Pre-Call Killed the Mojo- And What to do About it

Recently, our team sat down together to watch footage of a first rate elementary teacher leading a math lesson with her second grade scholars. We observed a lot of great things–and one very unexpected outcome.  Joaquin Hernandez and Colleen Driggs describe it in this guest post: After giving students a few minutes to solve a word problem,…