Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College (K-12)

By Doug Lemov and Norman Atkins

Teach Like a Champion offers effective teaching techniquesto help teachers, especially those in their first few years, becomechampions in the classroom. These powerful techniques are concrete,specific, and are easy to put into action the very next day.Training activities at the end of each chapter help the readerfurther their understanding through reflection and application ofthe ideas to their own practice.

Among the techniques:

• Technique #1: No Opt Out. How to move students from theblank stare or stubborn shrug to giving the right answer everytime.
• Technique #35: Do It Again. When students fail tosuccessfully complete a basic task—from entering theclassroom quietly to passing papers around—doing it again,doing it right, and doing it perfectly, results in the bestconsequences.
• Technique #38: No Warnings. If you're angry with yourstudents, it usually means you should be angry with yourself. Thistechnique shows how to effectively address misbehaviors in yourclassroom.

The print version includes a DVD of 25 videoclips of teachers demonstrating the techniques in the classroom.E-book customers: please note that details on how to access thecontent from the DVD may be found in the e-book Table of Contents.Please see the section: "How to Access DVD Contents" 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Mar 10, 2010
• ISBN: 9780470617717

Reviews for Teach Like a Champion

[benuathanasia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a great deal to digest. However, the amount of simple, obvious, and ingenious suggestions are completely invaluable. This should be used more as a reference guide where you look up suggestions as needed, rather than a book where you read it once, absorb what you can, and then put it aside for eternity.

[sammusher · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting to read this along with Robert Fried's The Passionate Teacher. It's oriented toward practicality, rather than being about love of learning for its own sake. I kept reading techniques from Lemov that directly opposed what Fried suggested. Fried's was the more fun to read, but I think I need both in my teaching life.

[honkneeb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have been teaching a long time, but I have never seen 49 good techniques set up in a book so compactly. I have done some of the techniques and not used the names that the the author does. I like the way he explains why a particular technique is especially good to use.All teachers complain about not having enough time to complete all the curriculum that we are expected to, but in reading the author's explanations I can see how much time is wasted by using too many words to get something done. I know for sure that children do enjoy trying to beat the clock, which he mentions and it is a fun way to quicken activities.I have found it hard to turn kids off who want to tell us something when it is time to go on to something else. I liked the examples he gave of a teacher saying,"I would love to hear the rest of your stories, but we need to get on to math now because my job is to teach you and this is where we need to be next."I don't think that I would use the idea of the children need to learn this because they are getting ready to go to college. Not all children will go to college and we need good mechanics etc, who get more education, but not necessarily in college. I think it would be better to say we are learning these things so that we can be the best that we can be in whatever field we choose to pursue.

[marikolee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was an excellent read about the craft of teaching. I would recommend it for anyone with any interest in teaching. This book broke down and explained in clear detail "what to do" (technique 37) to teach students what you would like them to learn. For good teachers who want to become better, I might recommend starting at part 4 or 5. Parts 1-3 are about planning your lesson. Most teachers already know the basics of how to do these things, but Lemov offers helpful pointers that are worth reading, such as "No Opt Out" and "Double Planning." Part 4 is about engaging students in your lessons. It has some useful techniques, such as "Cold Call" that speed up the pacing of your classes and lectures. However, most diligent teachers usually know how to plan a lesson. What is hardest is creating a positive classroom culture and preventing misbehavior from derailing the entire class. This problem can be particularly acute at inner city schools, where time spent off task could mean a fight breaks out in the classroom. Parts 5 and 6 (Creating a Strong Classroom Culture and Setting and Maintaining High Behavioral Expectations) help deal with these problems. Lemov discusses why having a standard entry routine (technique 28) helps students transition into your classroom environment ready to work, regardless of what happened at home or in their other classes. He also explains to teachers "What To Do" (technique 37) when giving directions. Basically, he argues that teachers need to be painfully clear when giving directions. It's not enough to say, "Joey, pay attention!" Joey might not know how to pay attention or what that looks like. It's more effective to tell Joey what you mean, which is usually something like "Sit-up, Listen, Ask and answer questions, Nod your head, Track the speaker." His school summarizes this instruction as "SLANT" (technique 32).The section on "What To Do" is novel for several reasons. In this section, Lemov makes the critical distinction between incompetence and misbehavior. He points out that if incompetence is confused with defiance and punished, the student may come to believe that consequences are random. If, however, misbehavior is treated as merely incompetence and is allowed, then hat student is able to disrupt the entire classroom with impunity. Many fail to understand the distinction between incompetence and misbehavior when trying to teach in a classroom, which can result in learned helplessness or unnecessary class disruptions.There were many more useful techniques in the book, such as "100%", "Strong Voice" and "Right is Right." While I do not teach, learning these techniques made me more interested in teaching and I have used them when interacting with children in psychiatric hospitals.