It takes very little time for us to form judgements about a person when we first meet them. Palomares et al (2017) found evidence that a single glance at a person’s face (for just 33 to 100 milliseconds) is enough for us to form a first impression. Judgements about status, trustworthiness and attractiveness are the most common.
Before you think about those times when you rapidly formed judgements of the school inspectors walking into your classroom, instead turn your attention to the students and consider how rapidly they might get learning.
I am a firm believer that the starting routines and rhythm to a lesson are a predicator to the learning that can follow. Even the most challenging of students (and classes) deserve a great start to their learning.
Practice makes permanent
Nothing says “welcome to my lesson” more than a beaming smile and presence at the door. The routine of being stood at a classroom door, greeting students as they enter and directing them is critical. Sherrington and Caviglioli (2020) state: “Routines are bedrock of a positive behaviour management system – the key is to establish them and rehearse them so that they are known, understood and enacted consistently.”
Anybody wishing to question the value of routines and the impact on learning just needs to let a wasp into the lesson to see the chaos that ensues. Not an experiment I’m recommending I hasten to add!
To help embed classroom routines, there is mileage in practising these with colleagues too. As part of our diet for early career teachers at Bede Academy, we have been regularly practising positive start-of-lesson routines in mentoring sessions.
Second year teacher, Caitlin Tubby, told me: “Regularly practising the start-of-lesson routines enabled me to begin to predict how certain students might respond to different tasks. I have been able to rehearse these and script out my responses to students.
“This has helped better prepare me for live teaching moments and ensured that I am routinely ready for students, including challenging classes, at the start of lessons.”
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Readiness to learn
A few years back, I was observed teaching the topic of war and conflict to a group of GCSE students. As students entered, I had learning objectives displayed over a montage of the opening scenes of the film Saving Private Ryan. The surround sound of war-torn beaches of Normandy and the visual bloodiness of the D-Day landings was memorable for both observer and students.
Even though the observer praised my heroic valour in the delivery of lesson openings, I look back now and cringe: I hadn’t given any thought to the learning that I wanted to take place.
Furthermore, my Spielberg-esque approach to a Do It Now activity at the start of a lesson probably took a good hour to produce. The observer and students were captivated, but they didn’t learn anything. It may have been Oscar-worthy, but it did not support students’ understanding of the topic.
Doug Lemov (2021) highlights some common pitfalls when it comes to starting lessons with a learning activity, or what he refers to as “Do Nows”. He points out that well-informed Do Nows allow for an emphasis on recapping previously learned concepts rather than acting as a hook to new content with which students will not be familiar.
He writes: “When I see Do Nows go wrong it’s most often because a teacher loses track of time and reviews for 15 minutes – thereby unintentionally turning the Do Now into the lesson and leaving the lesson truncated and shoe-horned into a space where it can never fit. The result of that is usually a dearth of independent practice – arguably the most important part of a lesson.”
Lemov et al provide a helpful gallery of Do Nows for use by teachers (see further information). Since my Normandy experience, I have found that the Do It Now Task (DINT) should be timely, simple and clear.
- Timely: The task should be ready as pupils come in (e.g. task displayed on the screen). Pupils should be able to access it promptly and it should ideally be framed around what has been learned previously.
- Simplicity: The opening task is worded clearly. A “no frills” explanation is needed, therefore enabling the teacher to carry on putting energy into greeting students as they enter (e.g. do the following three questions in silence). Finally, the tasks should not take long for the teacher to craft as part of lesson design and planning.
- Clear: All pupils should be able to access the task with ease with escalating levels of challenge. There are benefits to ensuring that some of the questions or activities allow for students to have a guess or an attempt at it (e.g. true or false quiz, one word response, multiple-choice).
Checking for understanding
Professor Dylan Wiliam (2011), writing on the topic of assessment and instruction, notes: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there.”
Again, I am having flashbacks to my war-torn start of the lesson on the beaches of Normandy. My problem here is that I had not considered the learning intention. I didn’t know what learning I wanted to take place. In my haste to come up with a stimulating lesson opener, I hadn’t considered what I wanted students to be able to know or do at the point in the lesson.
One of the clearest ways in which we can communicate learning intentions at the start of a lesson is to spell out to students the recap of knowledge that we want to take place.
A clearly and cohesively planned retrieval activity can help students to both recall what has been learned previously and support the mechanics of working memory.
Kate Jones (2021) writes about the value of retrieval habits and routines in the Retrieval Practice: Resource guide. The resource is filled with ready-to-use approaches for crafting retrieval tasks that can sit at various points in the lesson to support students in recapping previous learning.
She writes about the value of using big questions or enquiry-based questions as part of learning intentions. She notes: “If you use these ... as part of your learning intentions shared at the start of a lesson then a useful idea is to revisit these later with a retrieval task.”
Research has highlighted the value of low-stakes quizzing as a way of supporting students committal of knowledge to long-term memory. While not limited to the start of lessons, it is important that Do It Now activities and routines support students with this too.
Roediger and Karpicke (2006) research into “test-enhanced learning” is a useful point of reference to those wanting to understand the science of starting right with low-stakes quizzing. Roediger and Karpicke’s research reminds us of the value of testing for developing long-term recall in lessons.
Focused testing is a great lever for starting learning in lessons, but also supporting students in committing knowledge to their long-term schema.
Recalibrate and practice
I am a firm believer that you can always recalibrate your classes back into routines, though it may take longer with some students and classes than others.
If you are out of the routine of good learning with students, take some time to reflect on these points and consider which routines and rhythms you need to recalibrate. Meet with a colleague or mentor to routinely rehearse some of these routines. As classical pianist and composer Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz once said: “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is practice.”
- Sean Harris is a doctoral researcher with Teesside University investigating poverty and disadvantage in schools. Sean is also a classroom teacher at Bede Academy in Northumberland. He writes regularly for SecEd and is in the routine and rhythm of tweeting @SeanHarris_NE. Read his previous articles via https://bit.ly/seced-harris
Further information & research
- Jones: Retrieval Practice: Resource guide, ideas and activities for the classroom, John Catt Educational, April 2021.
- Lemov: Teach Like A Champion 3.0: 63 techniques that put students on the path to college, Jossey-Bass, August 2021.
- Lemov: Do Now activities worksheet download: https://bit.ly/3oRCHtO
- Palomares et al: Facial first impressions and partner preference models: Comparable or distinct underlying structures? British Journal of Psychology, December 2017.
- Roediger & Karpicke: Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention, Psychological Science, March 2006: https://bit.ly/3qZVrKm
- Sherrington & Caviglioli: Teaching Walkthrus: Five step guides to instructional coaching, John Catt Educational, March 2020.
Wiliam: Embedded formative assessment, Solution Tree Press, 2011.