Education: Boost Your Intelligence

I was so excited to get this on Kindle before it was available in stores! Until I realized that the “included DVD” was not actually included. Amazon has a format for digital video, so I assumed the video clips would be sent, along with the book, in that format..wrong! I read through several chapters in the book, and I love it!! However, without the video clips, it loses some of its power. I returned it and will eagerly wait until it comes out in stores.

I think it is fine if Amazon wants to sell a version without the video clips, but there should be full disclosure about that on the description.
Rating: 3 / 5

This experienced teacher provides countless tips for success in teaching. He values routines for “banal” things such as passing out papers. He has students practice the routines, and uses a stopwatch to time the routines. If something can be done in ten minutes, he attempts to reduce it to eight minutes. He also stresses the managing of transitions between classroom activities. In order to minimize disruptions to learning, he has children use different hand signals for different requests such as picking up a fallen pencil, sharpening a pencil, or going to the washroom.

Classroom management should attempt 100% compliance. It can be secured by noninvasive methods whenever possible, such as by eye contact, or by stating that: “We are following along in our books.” or “Quentin, I need your eyes.” Clear commands that use few words and which avoid reasoning or arguing with students are the best.

Lemov takes a “no opt out” approach to learning. For example, if a student doesn’t know the answer, the teacher calls on someone who does, and then returns to the original student to ask him/her the same question. The author believes that students should learn the correct technical definitions of scientific terms, not everyday or approximately-correct definitions. He rejects the premise that this is too difficult for children. For instance, inner-city children have learned Mandarin Chinese, which is very technical.

Rating: 5 / 5

Disclaimer: I have bachelor’s and master’s degrees from a nationally-ranked College of Education at a large public university in the southeast. I spent 6 years in higher education learning how to teach and about education. One-thid of that time was specific to middle schools, where I reach now. I have read hundreds of books or excerpts from books about all sorts of topics in education. This book is the most practical of all of those.

I first read about this book in a New York Times magazine article entitles “Building a Better Teacher.” After reading excerpts online, I decided that I should preorder it. I am very thankful that I did. It is the single best book about the specific practices of teaching that I have ever read. I have told every teacher I know about it, with the recommendation that they need to purchase it to see how it can transform their practice.

Doug Lemov distinguishes between strategies and techniques. Strategies are generalized statements (i.e. have high expectations, promote student engagement, encourage students to read), while techniques are the specific actions that accomplish those strategies (in Lemov’s language, No Opt Out, Strong Voice, etc). This book focuses on techniques to use in the classroom, which makes it incredibly helpful. Lemov gives specific instructions for each technique to addresses, as well as possible dialogue and teacher responses. There is also an accompanying DVD with many of the techniques filmed in the some of the best classrooms in the northeast.

I have tried several of the techniques in my sixth grade math classroom, and each has worked. Some, like No Opt Out, must be used in concert with your expectations and classroom culture. Others, like the technique of interrupting yourself if students are taking when you are giving directions (”Please turn to your partn-”) work amazingly well if getting the attention of my students, even the one who struggle to behave appropriately.

I would recommend this book to every teacher, both novice and experienced. As a novice teacher, I have found techniques that have made my job much easier, which has made me a much more effective teacher. Experienced teacher who I know have read the book say that they are learning techniques to implement their heightened academic or behavioral expectations, which has renewed their excitement about teaching.

There are excerpts available through Google Books and on the publisher’s website (the Josey-Bass webpage for this book). Read them, and then buy this book. You will not regret it.
Rating: 5 / 5