Technique 49: Engineer efficiency - Procedures and routines

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

Technique 49: Engineer efficiency
Procedures and routines

Whether they use the term or not, nearly all educators develop procedures—set ways to complete recurring tasks—and teach them to students. One reason why procedures are so ubiquitous in classrooms is that, when designed well, they help teachers conserve time for learning. A second reason is that procedures “hack attention”; they save working memory for more important things. A third slightly more hidden benefit is that when students know what to do without being told, teachers have to make fewer corrections and can talk to them about more important or more positive things. Still, as every teacher knows, not all procedures are created equal. Sometimes, a procedure that's poorly designed can make doing a task more difficult. To avoid this pitfall, I recommend designing procedures that satisfy five criteria: Simplicity, Plan the Words, Quick Is King, Little Narration Required, and Double Planned.

Simplicity. Plan the simplest way to complete each key task correctly. Although this point might seem obvious, teachers are sometimes tempted to design elaborate procedures because executing them can be fun. Adding that extra sequence of Call and Response or holding students in a crisp line for an additional fifteen seconds can also make things feel orderly. But in the end, these are perverse incentives. You want procedures so that you can get to learning. Period. The simplest version is the best.

If you're not sure whether or not you should add something to your procedure, ask yourself: Does it help my students accomplish the task? Will I want to require them to do this step every time they do this task for the rest of the year? Will the productivity I gain be greater than the cost in time? The answer will often be yes, but strive to make certain of that for each step, and trim the procedure down to a handful of actions.

Plan the Words. “First, there is a cue, a trigger that tells your brain … which habit to use,” writes Charles Duhigg in The Power of Habit, “Then there is the routine.” The words that cue a procedure to begin and the ones that guide its steps are part of the routine. They should be planned as carefully and used as consistently as any other part. Notice how carefully Nikki Bowen says the word “transition” to her first graders in the video Nikki Bowen: Stand Up and how “shoulder partners” or “table partners” is the cue for different version of Turn and Talk in the video BreOnna Tindall: Keystone.

Quick Is King. Make the most of class time by showing students the fastest right way to do something. Even tightening your procedures by mere seconds can lead to big savings over the course of a school year. To get a sense of just how much time is at stake, let's say that your students completed ten transitions per day. Next, imagine that you pruned these transitions down by a minute apiece and sustained that pace for two hundred school days. Practically speaking, this would enable you to add back an entire week's worth of instructional time. That's one more week you could spend analyzing the themes in Animal Farm, teaching students how to dissect a frog, or helping students master the skill of adding fractions with unlike denominators. Looking at it the opposite way can give you a sense of just how much time inefficient procedures can steal from you and your students.

To challenge your students to get it right as quickly as possible and to discipline yourself to focus on speed, practice procedures against the clock. Use a stopwatch to measure and celebrate progress while continuously challenging kids to execute the procedures a little faster. “We did this in sixteen seconds yesterday; let's shoot for twelve today!”

That said, keep in mind that you are shooting for the fastest possible “right version”; if your students go so fast that they get it wrong, it's better to have them go back, do it slower but just right, and then keep practicing. Once it's done correctly you can speed it up.

Little Narration Required. When it comes to establishing a procedure, using fewer words to manage the execution is preferable. The goal is autonomy, and too many directions from the teacher keeps students from internalizing how to do it on their own. Autonomy is also lost if students need you there to explain each detail.

Further, providing too much verbal support (in the form of hints or reminders) cheapens the sense of satisfaction students get from successfully completing a procedure without your help. Saying less helps them feel more independent and take more ownership of it.

Plan the phrases you want to use at each step to ensure their clarity and efficiency. Use them consistently and with as little other verbiage as possible. Over time, remove verbal reminders and use only nonverbals, which students can refer to only if they need them. In time, remove those reminders as well; only step in to reinforce the procedure if students show you they need it.

Double Planned. Plan for what both you and your students will do at every step in a procedure. Then walk through the procedure yourself or with peers to make sure it works and there are no unexpected blind spots.