I’ve been watching video this week of Mike Ellicott, a coach with Empire United‘s academy in Rochester, NY. I’d arranged to tape Mike as part of my effort to observe and learn from top coaches. I’m going to share some video of him soon. But I want to share a couple of small things that…
One of our favorite classroom moves is the PIPP…Positive Individual Precise Praise, a name that has to make the final four of unwieldy names. The origin of this name came was that it comes from the Private Individual Correction (PIC). The idea is that if you have to correct a student on their behavior or effort during a lesson,…
One of the techniques I’ve found myself thinking a lot about lately is Precise Praise. I think, honestly, it’s easy to underestimate. What could be simpler than telling someone “good job”? We know that critical feedback can be tricky, but we tend to assume that good news is easy to deliver. Over time, though, I’ve come…
Technique #59 in Teach Like a Champion is Precise Praise. One of it’s key ideas is that you should give lots of positive reinforcement to students to build morale &motivation but that you should try to distinguish acknowledgement from praise. In the book I describe the difference this way: Acknowledgment is what you often use when…
I love Carol Dweck’s work and think Mindset should be required reading for educators, particularly as a guide to giving positive reinforcement to students. To summarize briefly, she describes how important a growth rather than fixed mindset is to children in determining how much they learn. If they love difficulty and challenge, if they say not,…