Read and Coach

 Ask someone outside of education what high school classrooms look like and various visions of Ferris Bueller fill our heads: Apathetic students, out-of-touch teachers, and droning lectures with echos of "Bueller, Bueller." The film is a cult classic, but it doesn't paint an overly engaged classroom portrait. Lecture, or in educationese, direct instruction, is common and vital in many secondary classrooms. However, there's an awful lot of side-eye from professional developers when we talk about it. Why would we provide direct instruction when we could use inquiry or projects or cooperative learning? Direct instruction has become the black sheep of the teaching toolbox, but it doesn't have to be. Ferris Bueller style droning lectures that go on for hours are no longer in vogue. However, according to all the research, direct instruction is absolutely essential. As a matter of fact, a recent science study in Educational Research Review corroborates that a combinatio...

 It's January, which means there's a whiff of resolution in the air. Teachers are returning to classrooms with the tang of new beginnings guiding those "new year, new you" vision boards. So, in 2024, let's focus on maximum impact in whatever teaching ideas we are pinning on Pinterest. While schools and teaching situations may vary, when you sit down to do the math, most teachers are working a median of fifty hours a week and providing around 1200 hours of instruction to students each year. If we're planning things in the new year, they should be focused on easy solutions that increase student engagement during those hours. I submit for your consideration a No Hands Up Classroom in the new semester. According to Robert Marzano, who has spent decades researching the science behind effective instruction, mild pressure has a positive influence on students' learning because it prompts them to focus their attention. Thus, increasing response rates in classrooms...