Teach like a champion 3.0: 63 techniques that put students on the path to college - Lemov Doug 2021

Technique 45: Batch process
Building ratio through discussion

You can see some of the elements of strong Habits of Discussion and other elements from this book in the video Jason Brewer: Batch Process. Discussing changes in labor brought about by the early stages of industrialization in the United States, student are attentive and supportive of one another. Their prosocial listening behaviors and tracking (see Habits of Attention, technique 48) are strong. It feels like the kind of classroom where you can have a substantive conversation in a supportive environment. You'll probably also notice Jason's outstanding Wait Time (technique 33) before he calls on his first student, Mahaira. Her answer is wrong, but her classmates remain supportive and respectful and Jason manages his tell (see technique 12, Culture of Error) beautifully. He merely says, “Agree or disagree? … Nyesha …” It's a textbook follow-on prompt, reminding Nyesha to ground her comment in Mahaira's.

“I respectfully disagree with you, Mahaira,” Nyesha begins, proceeding to point out how the rise of replaceable parts required less skill from laborers, allowing factory owners to replace them as they wished. She speaks directly to Mahaira and refers back to her classmate’s answer gracefully.

Jason then calls on a third student, “Marty, what do you think?” reminding him to sustain focus on the present topic with a follow-on prompt that gives wide latitude and opens the opportunity for him to incorporate his classmate's comments into his own reflections.

It's a short discussion but a productive one. Jason says almost nothing about the content of the conversation in the spaces between his three students’ comments except to call on the next speaker and gently remind them of discussion norms. He doesn't say, “That's right, would anyone like to build off of Nyesha's idea?” or “Marty has made an important point!” or “Almost, Mahaira, but I think you've left something out.” Only at the end after three comments from students does he step in, asking the class questions about a hypothetical example in which Drayvon works in a factory and asks for more pay.

In addition to socializing strong Habits of Discussion, Jason is Batch Processing, establishing very short sequences in which students have mini peer-to-peer discussions even within other lesson activities, such as direct instruction or questioning (see Chapter 6). Jason doesn't have to stop class and announce: “OK, we'll have a discussion now.” Merely by letting three students have turns directly in a row and not taking a turn himself until the end, he allows a mini-discussion to emerge naturally. He speaks only after three students have offered their commentary rather than responding to each individually. Rather than playing tennis (comments going student-teacher-student-teacher-student-teacher) in Jason's class, they play volleyball: the comments go student-student-student-teacher.

You can see another example in the video Josh Sullivan: Say More About That. As they respond to his question, Josh chooses to let three students speak in a row without comment from him. Or at least without verbal comment. His expression and gestures and the notes he silently writes on the board show that he is listening and that ideas of merit are emerging as students speak. In an environment where strong norms like Habits of Attention, Habits of Discussion, and of course volunteering through hand-raising are in place, this can facilitate short bursts of student-to-student discourse in the midst of other activities.

Obviously the key is to resist mediating every comment and allow short strings of three or four students to speak in a row. (Then you can step in to comment and steer.) But it's also important to model thoughtful, attentive listening. Not only does this reinforce the importance of student comments, but it helps you resist talking since much of what we say between comments is designed to show the sort of interest and approval we can often express without words. I personally prefer saying students' names rather than just pointing at speakers and it's also sometimes useful to add low-transaction-cost reminders of established discussion norms, such as, “Build on that, Henry.” It's still Batch Processing if you speak between student comments as long as what you say is merely to manage the process (i.e. choose who's next) as opposed to commenting on ideas. And of course it can still be beneficial for the teacher to comment on ideas offered during Batch Processing—you just have to wait a bit so students get to talk to each other first.

Another benefit of Batch Processing is that it meshes perfectly with our understanding of deliberate practice. Short iterations of spaced practice will build a skill more completely than larger but less frequent doses. Do something a little bit every day—for two minutes, say—and you'll get better at it than if you do it twice a month in a larger block—forty minutes, say. In one school we worked closely with, where students were especially adept at discussion, the key to transformation was the principal's request that all teachers take one minute during every lesson to practice the fundamentals of peer-to-peer discussion. That small amount of daily practice turned out to be more productive and easier to orchestrate than the more elaborate forms of discussions that required fifteen hypothetical minutes everyone was hoping would still be there at the end of a lesson.

History teacher Ryan Miller used this approach for student-to-student discussion at Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School in Brooklyn. In every lesson, Ryan asked what he thought would be a challenging and interesting question, set a clock for two minutes, and then stepped back and let students talk and respond directly to one another with little mediation or intervention from him except to identify the next speaker. He found two minutes to be plenty of time, and transparently using a timer brought out the best ideas—students had to make valuable contributions, not fill time—without letting things go on for too long. Suddenly he could drop into a two-minute discussion at any point: Let's pause as Kennedy and his cabinet are planning their response to the missiles and put two minutes on the clock. What were some alternative actions they could have considered?

Some other points Ryan made about his daily Batch Process: he's always disciplined about making the conversation connect to the central idea of the lesson. And he trained his students carefully on Habits of Discussion so they were effective at responding to building off each other's ideas. Ryan would step in to guide students in staying on task and avoiding off-task comments, straying from the topic, or not developing the previous idea. Those actions are part of the final technique in this chapter, Disciplined Discussion.

My colleague Hannah Solomon, who has made a habit of running schools characterized by rigor and joy, offered some suggestions to consider if you choose to try this idea:

· Student preparation is critical for this to succeed—kids need to be clear on the question, have ample processing time (preferably in writing, so teachers can use Cold Call to stir the pot if the conversation slows), and have received support in how to respond to each other (i.e. Habits of Discussion) before the teacher sets the timer and sits back.

· Teachers need to choose intentionally whether or not to summarize key takeaways at the end of the two minutes—either by clarifying misconceptions or by stating something like, “Let's keep wrestling with this challenge as we move forward.”

· Teachers should be transparent about the Means of Participation—is it all volunteers or some Cold Calls or some other model?

· One challenge with techniques similar to this in younger grades is that so much misinformation can get shared that teachers then need to tidy up after—so the role of knowledge feeding is important to consider. This is an activity that works much better when everyone has learned a lot and has strong background knowledge.

Charting Aids Discussion by Aiding Memory

One way to help students stay on topic and validate their classmates' ideas is to help them to remember them. This may seem trivial but we know that people can only keep one or two ideas in working memory at a time and that recall fades quickly. Thirty seconds after hearing Kimani's great idea it will be hard for his classmates to remember exactly what he said. You can write a brief reminder on the board. “Jonas alarmed by feelings bc he doesn't know what they are” or perhaps simply “’Jonas doesn't know what feelings are’—Kimani.”

Now students can think about Kimani's comment. Remember it. Refer back to it. Even with several comments made in between, they can use Habits of Discussion not just to build off of the most recent comment but those that happened several minutes ago. It provides the assist when a student says, “I'd like to build off of what Kimani said earlier about Jonas not knowing what feelings are …”

You can do this on the whiteboard, the overhead projector, or chart paper. It's important to note that it is different from technique 22, Board = Paper, because students may well not be writing what you write. You are the memory scribe. Their job is to listen. Here's Jessica Bracey doing that as Omar comments in her Keystone video.

She is helping to keep his idea alive for students to use throughout discussion and you can see the results.

Of course, as with anything else, there's some explicit instruction to be done. Students won't know what you're doing and how to make use of it when you chart unless you tell them: I'm writing down key ideas up here so you can refer back to them and tie your ideas together. It will help us have a real discussion where we connect and remember one another's ideas.