Doug Lemov

Lemov makes the distinction between teaching strategies and teaching techniques - the latter being something that can be honed and applied in any teaching situation, where the former's success is dependent on so many variables that teachers should approach them with caution. _Teach Like a Champion_ does not pretend to hold all of the answers, but the suggested techniques it delineates give teachers practices that are concrete and instantly applicable.

I found this book most useful in terms of ideas for classroom management and reading and vocabulary instruction. The caveat is that it assumes that teachers are dedicated enough to want to constantly hone their instruction, an assumption that is not necessarily true in real life.… (mehr)

Lots of sensible ideas for creating a disciplined classroom focused on learning... but where are the fun and the warmth? For example, the first technique for supposedly engaging students is the "cold call", which we all know many students fear and hate. This may engage them, in the sense of making them participate, but will they grow to love your subject? For me, this book contains some useful strategies to be sprinkled through your many lessons, but don't imagine you or your students would enjoy teaching in such a coldly "technical" way. The author does briefly discuss making learning fun here and there, but this is not the place to look for a wealth of ideas in that area. The general tone is authoritarian, at one point even draconian: the author suggests that students' right to use the toilet at certain times of a lesson should be tied to their behavior, which may be coded green, yellow or red, and that an emergency toilet use outside of the normally permitted times must be paid for with extra work. This feels too extreme even for a prison, let alone a school! This book's advice must therefore be parsed thoughtfully, and the beginning teacher should pair it with a book with more heart: I like 'Essential Motivation in the Classroom' by Ian Gilbert.… (mehr)