As you know, the next book is Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov.
The introduction fascinated me with the profiles, statistics, and the way in which he frames the work as field notes. The facts and charts at the end of the introduction captured my imagination the most.
Unfortunately, as soon as I read past the introduction, I became disappointed for several reasons.
Many of his examples are incomplete, confusing, and do not explicitly demonstrate fully the concept the he tries to communicate. If I had not already learned many of these techniques in several of my education classes, I would have no idea what he really means or how I could apply this to practice.
He also dis includes extremely important factors in these tactics. For 'No Opt-out" he forgets to mention how to pick which students to call on in class, how to scaffold questions to move from easy to hard, or the fact that calling on only one students does not ensure that all the other students are learning. One student answering the question correctly is a review, not insurance that all students know what one student knows. Even if you use this strategy well, there will be students who will still not get the word correctly if you do not know how to teach using multiple means of representation or any real world applications.
While this book seems to be a great introduction to teaching in the classroom, genuine champions do much more than 'no opt-out' and 'right is right.' True champions balance IEPs with differentiated instruction in reading groups where students are all working on areas of weakness while continuing to building up areas of strength. A real champion among teachers can tell anybody at any time what the five areas of reading are, and how they teach those five areas in their classroom. True champions collaborate well with other teachers in order to ensure that every student is getting attention from teachers with the right expertise to ensure success. Champions know that they don't have all the answers, and are on a lifelong quest of learning in order to find the answers. Many teachers revamp lesson every year in order to make sure that the needs of every learner are met, and spend copious amounts of time observing and studying their own students in order to ensure that they actually know the true needs of the students in their class.
While I have great respect for Lemov, and I know these are good strategies that I use, so far his strategies are just tips and hints to make already great masters of teaching content into better teachers. None of these strategies help teachers teach better lessons, they simply help already great teachers ensure student retention and engagement. Nothing can replace a teacher's knowledge of the material or their ability to reach the students by knowing each student individually. I would not call this book Teach Like a Champion; I would call this book Basics on Improving Student Retention.
I would say my biggest disappointment is his emphasis on getting his students into college and improving test scores. Where is the love of learning, and cultivating life long learners? Where does he teach the independence students need to find solutions on their own in the real world? I hope to see this more in the upcoming pages of his book.
Reference:
Lemov, Doug. (2010). Teach like a champion. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
The introduction fascinated me with the profiles, statistics, and the way in which he frames the work as field notes. The facts and charts at the end of the introduction captured my imagination the most.
Unfortunately, as soon as I read past the introduction, I became disappointed for several reasons.
Many of his examples are incomplete, confusing, and do not explicitly demonstrate fully the concept the he tries to communicate. If I had not already learned many of these techniques in several of my education classes, I would have no idea what he really means or how I could apply this to practice.
He also dis includes extremely important factors in these tactics. For 'No Opt-out" he forgets to mention how to pick which students to call on in class, how to scaffold questions to move from easy to hard, or the fact that calling on only one students does not ensure that all the other students are learning. One student answering the question correctly is a review, not insurance that all students know what one student knows. Even if you use this strategy well, there will be students who will still not get the word correctly if you do not know how to teach using multiple means of representation or any real world applications.
While this book seems to be a great introduction to teaching in the classroom, genuine champions do much more than 'no opt-out' and 'right is right.' True champions balance IEPs with differentiated instruction in reading groups where students are all working on areas of weakness while continuing to building up areas of strength. A real champion among teachers can tell anybody at any time what the five areas of reading are, and how they teach those five areas in their classroom. True champions collaborate well with other teachers in order to ensure that every student is getting attention from teachers with the right expertise to ensure success. Champions know that they don't have all the answers, and are on a lifelong quest of learning in order to find the answers. Many teachers revamp lesson every year in order to make sure that the needs of every learner are met, and spend copious amounts of time observing and studying their own students in order to ensure that they actually know the true needs of the students in their class.
While I have great respect for Lemov, and I know these are good strategies that I use, so far his strategies are just tips and hints to make already great masters of teaching content into better teachers. None of these strategies help teachers teach better lessons, they simply help already great teachers ensure student retention and engagement. Nothing can replace a teacher's knowledge of the material or their ability to reach the students by knowing each student individually. I would not call this book Teach Like a Champion; I would call this book Basics on Improving Student Retention.
I would say my biggest disappointment is his emphasis on getting his students into college and improving test scores. Where is the love of learning, and cultivating life long learners? Where does he teach the independence students need to find solutions on their own in the real world? I hope to see this more in the upcoming pages of his book.
Reference:
Lemov, Doug. (2010). Teach like a champion. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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