Ms. Imrie

A new little wrinkle I’ve added to our Turn and Talk routine is finishing with a three-second countdown and then calling all students to put their hands up, leading directly into cold calling. I like how the “all hands up” move effectively re-harnesses student attention after their conversation with a partner. It seems to work better than simply counting down to get their attention back on me and then beginning to cold call. When all hands go up, students are already prepared to be called on, and, more importantly, they’re thinking about what they’re going to say based on the conversation they just had. It creates a much more seamless transition from partner talk → retrieval/thinking → cold call.

A few have requested a printable version and here she be… drive.google.com/file/d/1mhp…

If a new teacher comes within your sphere of influence and they want to know the “secret” to great teaching, show them this clip and give them a copy of Rosenshine’s principles of instruction to read. That’s it. Start there and build your procedures and routines accordingly.

A teacher can’t plan instruction that truly supports learning if they don’t understand how learning happens. I’ve been there. My lessons were packed with fun, engaging poor proxies for learning. Very little learning happened. Not anymore. What changed? Cognitive science.