3 ridiculously SIMPLE, ridiculously EFFECTIVE classroom strategies my Dad taught me!
- Susan de Lautour
- 20 hours ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 50 minutes ago
Before I began teaching, and when my father (a high school principal) was trying to get me into it, dear old Dad dragged me into a classroom and taught me two of these tips. And they totally change everything. The third tip is an initiative my father ran at his school – the one I attended as a student. Here goes - 3 simple but effective classroom strategies:
ONE: Just one thing.
Your goal is to teach just one thing in each lesson. You must ask yourself, “What’s the ONE thing EVERY student will know before they walk back out the door?”
This is a learning intention on steroids. A learning intention is a goal designed to show students what they’re learning. The one thing every student will know angle is a challenge to you. It forces you to:
Focus on teaching that skill/knowledge point – getting the job done come hell or high water.
Focus on every student, including that wee quiet one you have to admit potters under your radar at times.
This technique will also have you questioning those week-long activities when students are plodding through a group project. I’m not poo-poohing teamwork etc, but in terms of subject skills and knowledge, is that fun week giving your students bang for their buck?
Remember all those ‘one things’ add up to many things by the end of the year.
TWO: Every lesson is a race.
Make every lesson a race. Create a happy panic. I like to think about ripping the Bandaid off fast – great progress with less pain. It shouldn’t take two lessons to write ten sentences that practice different skills. If you give them 15 minutes, they’ll take 15 minutes (well, most of them). If you give them two lessons, they’ll take two lessons. Time students. Make noises like, “Quick! How are you going? Nearly done? Let’s go! Come on – whoop-whoop!” Get the job done. (Yes, of course you’d then give time to proofread but again, “come on, let’s go, five minutes…!”)
This push boosts engagement ten-fold!
If students are given work to do, insist it’s finished. When work is finished, there’s a far greater sense of achievement established. The only way to get things finished is to go for gold! Students will learn that this is the class where we get stuff done.
Also, if students are dragging the chain because you’re letting them, well…how’s that “just one thing” going?
THREE: Attainment Goal Tests …or whatever you want to call them.
These are fabulous informal tests with a twist! Here’s how they work:
Students are given a test paper that includes 10-20 questions all on one page. You work with the class to go through the test and they all write the answers in.
Students then have 1-2 weeks to rote learn the answers.
1-2 weeks later you give students clean test papers (yes, exactly the same test) which they complete under test conditions.
Parents are informed via slips home (see freebie here), an email (although I find these too cumbersome), or by sending the test itself home. With the latter option, it’s a good idea to ask that parent writes a message and signs it, then sends it back to you. Whatever method I use to inform parents, the tests are always glued into their books.
What? Why?
This forces students to rote learn key points:
For exams (eg: three ways the setting affects the main character).
To free their brains of the ‘mechanics’ so they can surge ahead with more critical thinking, more complex writing etc (eg: language techniques).
Most importantly, those students who have always struggled and coped with assessment failure suddenly get 85% in their English test. Can you imagine the boost?! And just as importantly, can you imagine the joy of the parent who rarely hears anything positive about their child from school when they receive a slip from their teacher that tells them their child just got 85% in their English test?
Give them a go!
I guarantee they’ll help you as much as your students. Sometimes the simplest tools are the best tools.
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