Latest Tip of the Week

The Two Minutes That Tell You Everything

The block is winding down. A few students are finishing their last sentences. You ask them to close their books and say, "What did you try today, and did it help you in your learning?"

Share and Reflect is the final component in the Teaching Structure. Two to ten minutes at the end of the block where students come back together, name what they tried, and tell you what they took away from the lesson.

What students share here, at the end of the block, shapes tomorrow’s lesson. If most students understood and applied it, you move forward. If several are still working it out, you know exactly where to begin. If the room goes quiet, the practice may not have gone deep enough yet.

Research on retrieval practice shows that the act of students naming and reflecting on what they learned, out loud, in their own words, strengthens the memory trace (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). The learning moves from something that happened today into something they can access tomorrow and next week.

Share and Reflect allows you to take inventory on the learning happening in your classroom.

We have spent four weeks building the structure together. Brief Lesson. Set a Purpose. Independent Practice and Responsive Teaching. Share and Reflect.

And this week, for the first time, you get to see it all in one place.

Here is the Teaching Structure. Every component, why they matter, the impact on student learning and the benefits you’ll see in your classroom.

The Teaching Structure is your map. One clear picture of what effective teaching looks like, where your strengths already live, and where your next step forward begins.

Next week this map becomes a tool. We will show you how to use it to find exactly where your teaching is already strong, and where one small shift could change everything for your students.

Until then,      
Gail

Discover The Teaching Structure

References

Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255.

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