Building a Better Teacher - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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“So if there’s anything else on your desk right now, please put that inside your desk.” He mimics what he wants the students to do with a neat underhand pitch. A few students in the front put papers away. “Just like you’re doing, thank you very much,” Zimmerli says, pointing to one of them. Another desk emerges neat; Zimmerli targets it. “Thank you, sir.” “I appreciate it,” he says, pointing to another. By the time he points to one last student — “Nice . . . nice” — the headphones are gone, the binder has clicked shut and everyone is paying attention. Lemov switched off the video. “Imagine if his first direction had been, ‘Please get your things out for class,’ ” he said. Zimmerli got the students to pay attention not because of some inborn charisma, Lemov explained, but simply by being direct and specific. Children often fail to follow directions because they really don’t know what they are supposed to do.
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This point is a very important teaching tool. Policies and procedures need to be constantly repeated so that they become long term memories for students. At the age of 11, many of my students do not recognize the inappropriate behaviors that they constantly do. My constant reminders make them aware of their behaviors. I can see when they are about to make a mistake and then they say to themselves, "Oh...I'm not supposed to do that."
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which Lemov attended, the students don’t raise their hands — the teacher picks the one who will answer the question. Lemov’s favorite variety has the teacher ask the question first, and then say the student’s name, forcing every single student to do the work of figuring out an answ
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We do this at my school. The fact that every student is forced to be held accountable for the answer at any time forces students to pay attention in class. When students assist each other with coming up with the answer, it actually helps them remember in the future. They end up learning from each other, explaining the concept in a different way.
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