Technique 58: Strong voice - High behavioral expectations

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

Technique 58: Strong voice
High behavioral expectations

The communication we are consciously aware of amounts to only a portion—sometimes a small one—of the communication we actually do.14 We may think our listeners are attending to the content of our words but that's only partly true. When people listen, they react to an array of signals (tone, expression, and body language) that begin influencing them right away. “Affective reactions are so tightly integrated with perception that we find ourselves liking or disliking something the instant we notice it, sometimes even before we know what it is,” writes the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.15 In his book The Righteous Mind he describes the process of belief and opinion formation in cognitive terms and finds that humans typically have instant reactions based on factors they perceive subconsciously, and then later create explanations and justifications for those responses. Those justifications and responses are often “based on socially strategic purposes.” We react in a fraction of a second and afterwards try to convince ourselves that our responses were justified and look to use our responses to build the social bonds that are so important to us.

Ha! That was funny. I laughed too!

Ha! What a fool he is. You and I, we are smarter than that.

The chain of reactions that begins with how people read our tone, expression, and body language is long and complex. Strong Voice helps you attend to signals communicated by such factors in your communication as a teacher and use them to increase the likelihood that students will react productively and positively to the things you ask of them. This is especially important because attending to such signals can be especially valuable in avoiding or resolving situations where emotions run hot and where the follow-through required from students is far better achieved without raised voices or recrimination.

Aligning your tone, expression, and body language signals to the rest of your communication helps you to build stronger relationships, ensure productivity and, especially, avoid the sorts of showdowns that can spiral into negativity. A shouting match is a disaster for teacher and student, in the moment it happens and over the long run of a relationship that often struggles to recover. Needless to say there is a lot more to building relationships than the topics discussed here. They are merely one contributing aspect—a critical one for a person charged with responsibility for ensuring that thirty students get from point A to point B in a timely manner so learning can happen and regardless of whatever is on their personal agendas at the moment.

While Strong Voice is a critical technique for teachers to master, it is also one that is easily misunderstood, so I begin with some important notes on the purpose and even the name of the technique, which, to be honest, I almost changed for this version of the book, in part because “strong voice” has always been a bit of a misnomer. It is a technique as much about body language as about voice, for example. More importantly, the strength implied is in most cases about steadiness and self-control, about maintaining poise and composure, especially under duress.

Social science research tells us that emotions broadcast to others are contagious. When we're conversing, we're not merely exchanging ideas, we're often shaping the listener's mindset and emotions. Researchers have found that emotions can spread between individuals even when their contact with each other is entirely nonverbal. In one study, three strangers were observed facing one another in silence. Researchers found that an emotionally expressive person transmitted his or her mood to the other two without uttering a word.16 What we do with our voice, words, and body language can cause others to shift into modes of communication more like our own and this phenomenon has a name, “mirroring,” which refers to the way in which we unconsciously synchronize our emotional state to match that of another person's during an interaction. One implication for teachers is that if we can keep our composure, or even noticeably recompose ourselves as things get tense, others are likely to follow. And of course if we lose our composure others are more likely to as well.

Young people's emotions are real and often intense; our job as teachers is not to tell them not to feel them. However, part of our job is to help them manage emotions, keep control, and match their response to the setting. I am sure there are people who will see this as “controlling,” but I think most teachers are clear on the benefits to young people when we help them learn to self-regulate as they enter society.

To return briefly to the word “strong,” however, at trainings my team and I run, our coaching often involves helping teachers not to come on so “strong” with their Strong Voice—to be calmer and quieter, to appear self-assured, not loud. One potential reason people might try to be more forceful in tone and body language than necessary is the name itself: something called Strong Voice must be about being overpowering, right?

Wrong. A composed teacher makes it more likely that students will maintain their composure, will focus on the message, and not be distracted by how it was delivered. Being more aware of your body language and tone of voice and keeping them purposeful, poised, and confident helps you and your students.

So while I toyed with the idea of renaming Strong Voice, I have kept it for continuity's sake—and chosen instead to add framing to help make sure the purpose is clear.

The Six Principles of Strong Voice

Over the years, my team and I have had the privilege of watching hundreds of teachers who lead vibrant, rigorous, and joyful classrooms that are also productive and orderly. These two things are related. When students follow directions, teachers can make engaging and rigorous activities happen with a minimum of fuss. And teachers who provide quality lessons are more likely to get students to do as they ask. Neither of these causes the other, but attending to both helps.

The more we studied such teachers, the more we noticed patterns in what they did to ensure follow-through when they asked students to do things.

We have distilled these observations into six replicable principles that teachers can name a practice.

Principle 1: Shift Your Register

Watch the body language of Arielle Hoo and Denarius Frazier in the short video Hoo and Frazier: Register Shift. In the moment when each asks for students' attention, their body language shifts slightly. Arielle steps back from the projector, holds herself upright and symmetrical, and scans the room. She does this for perhaps a second. Beforehand, she's more fluid in her motions and posture and by the time she has said, “Great, let's take a look at Tyler's work,” she has shifted back to this more informal body language once again, but in that short moment of formality she signals to her class the importance of what they are about to do and they respond. She's asked for their eye contact with her words but, also, with the signals of body language and tone.

So, too, does Denarius. Preparing students to analyze an example of student work, he steps forward slightly, so students can see him better. He stands upright, chin slightly raised, and symmetrical. His cadence slows slightly. Again there's an air of formality. And then, like Arielle, the formality dissolves into a more casual tone, “On a few of our papers …” he says, his voice now sounding more relaxed. But that short shift has signaled to students that what we are doing is important, worthy of increased attention, and they have intuitively responded.

Neither teacher is tense, mind you, just slightly formal and this moment of heightened formality is like a punctuation mark: short but legible and shaping the meaning of what gets said before and after.

This is what I call a register shift and to understand it further it will be helpful to first define the term register, which I use to refer to the overall tone communicated by a teacher's affect—her voice, her body language, her facial expressions, and so on. In our study of classrooms, we typically observe teachers shifting between three registers: casual, formal, and urgent.

The table titled “Three Registers” further differentiates typical features.

Three Registers

Register

Voice/Words

Body Language

Casual

  • Words may run together (e.g. with a pitter-patter rhythm)
  • Frequent vocal inflections and a wide range of pitch
  • Use of colloquial language
  • Asymmetrical distribution of weight on each foot (e.g. leaning more on one foot)
  • Relaxed posture
  • Inconsistent eye contact

Formal

  • Clearly articulated words and syllables
  • Carefully chosen words that describe the solution or next step forward
  • Intentionally slows or pauses speech for emphasis
  • Drops intonation at the end of sentences to signal certainty and finality
  • Symmetrical distribution of weight on feet, which are placed shoulder-width apart
  • Upright posture
  • Steady eye contact
  • Hands relaxed at one's sides or clasped in front or behind back

Urgent

  • Loud volume, intensity of tone and emotion
  • Words run together
  • Exaggerated emphasis on a specific word or words
  • Widened eyes
  • Leaning in versus standing straight up
  • Rushed and abrupt gestures

When teachers want students to hear and follow through on their requests, they often shift into a version of the formal register, using their body language and tone to emphasize the importance of what they're saying. This might mean doing some of the things Arielle and Denarius were doing: standing symmetrically, and with an upright posture, slowing the cadence of speech, minimizing inflection, and articulating each word with intentional clarity. Or modulating movements slightly. When Arielle and Denarius move during a register shift, they do so with poise and purpose. They reduce the amount and scope of hand gestures. They are often deliberately still. These things send a clear message that what they're saying is important and deserves attention and follow-through.

This formal register contrasts with the casual register, which signals relaxed openness and but also optionality—to be casual is to say Take it or leave it or We're just chatting here. When teachers assume a casual register, we often observe them standing with a relaxed posture. If they're very casual, they might be leaning against a wall or piece of classroom furniture. They often allow their words to run together, the words coming fast like raindrops, each hard to differentiate from the previous with absolute clarity, and their range of infection varies widely.

Teachers often use some version of a more casual register when delivering content. For example, to become animated in an art class when you talk about shading and cross-hatching is to express enthusiasm and energy for these methods, and students commonly respond to enthusiasm and energy. To state the obvious, a range of casual registers exists. Each person's register is different, qualitatively but also quantitatively: versions of casual speech can communicate everything from “Oh, man, I looove this passage,” to “Let us relax a bit and take pleasure in reading the novel aloud for a moment.” Some teachers rarely use the casual register at all and maintain, quite successfully, an air of seriousness and formality throughout. Each teacher has his or her own style of teaching, and this is as it should be. Variety is beneficial; the core work of teaching can be done in a wide range of casual and formal registers. You be you.

But every teacher also needs to be able to shift, for example, into the formal from the casual or into a higher degree of formality from their everyday self in moments when, like Arielle and Denarius, they want to signal that paying attention and following through are now especially important. There are two parts to that observation: the work is done by both the tone and the shift. The discernable change in affect draws students' attention; the formal affect expresses importance once you have their attention.

You can see an especially clear and effective example of this in the video Trona Cenac: Register Shifts. As the video opens, Trona is chatting casually with students before the beginning of class on the first day of school at Troy Prep High School. Her body language is casual: loose and asymmetrical. You can tell from the student's use of language (“I did that packet and I was like …”) that she reads the casualness of the situation. Suddenly it's time to start class. Trona signals this in part through her voice and more upright body language. Her shoulders are back and her chin is raised. Students are quickly attentive, though, and everything is going well so she moves to the front of the group and greets students in the casual register. She's asymmetrical with a relaxed smile. Soon after there are important directions to hear. Trona emphasizes this by assuming a more formal bearing. Here's a series of still shots from the video that show the clear differences in Trona's body language from when she is casual to when she is formal.

Photos depict the comparison of casual and formal approach of teacher.

The following graphic may help you to conceptualize the idea of shifting registers. Your range of normal teaching may be somewhere within a range of casual to formal, depending on your personal style. Likely your range varies slightly from day to day and moment to moment depending on factors such as the content you're teaching.

A rectangular bar divided into three parts. The three parts are labeled, casual, formal, and urgent.

But when you need students' fullest attention you shift briefly to the right …

A rectangular bar divided into three parts. The three parts are labeled, casual, formal, and urgent. The casual part has a text that reads teach and the formal part has a text that reads important directions.

and then return quickly to your usual range.

A rectangular bar divided into three parts. The three parts are labeled, casual, formal, and urgent. The casual part has a text that reads teach and the formal part has a text that reads important directions.

I should note that I have discussed only two of the three available registers. The urgent register is, for the most part, counterproductive in classrooms, except in the case of absolute emergencies. Using this register increases tension and anxiety. It may be useful if someone is in danger of imminent physical harm, for example, but use it in other situations and you'll likely come off as nervous and panicky or you'll ratchet up the level of tension at exactly the moment when you want things to remain calm. It will just as likely become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If it becomes familiar, students may experience “urgency fatigue” and grow immune to it. Then you won't have it if you ever really need it.

More relevant to most teachers, however, is that creeping hint of urgency that can sneak into our communication when things aren't going as we'd like. Students aren't following directions and seem to be, perhaps deliberately, not doing what is expected. We speak as if through gritted teeth. Our posture becomes stilted and tense and that tension creeps into our voices, too. We can begin slipping into it without realizing it. My team and I find it useful to practice listening for this, to take a phrase we might say in the classroom and practice saying it casually and formally so we can hear the difference and find the tone that feels right, and then practice saying it in an urgent register so we become attuned to what we sound like when we start to slip. If we are aware, if we hear it when it happens, we can correct it more quickly.

As this implies there are several skills implicit in managing your register. The first is awareness: What register am I in right now? What is it communicating? Does my register align to my words? Are my words saying “I need your attention” but my body language that “We're just hanging out here”? Am I saying, “I'm not frustrated” when the edge in my voice confirms the contrary?

The second is making changes in register evident with the right degree of emphasis and speed. The changes are subtle in Arielle’s and Denarius's classrooms. They might be less so in other cases.

Register shifts can also be useful when students have not responded as they should the first time. If a student fails to follow a direction, a good first response is to shift noticeably (that is, visibly and, if possible, audibly) into a more formal register, perhaps putting your hands behind your back and changing to a more symmetrical stance—a lot of teachers add a raised eyebrow here as if to show surprise—and then giving the directions again, modulating your voice and leaving a clear gap between each word, which suggests that you have chosen each … word … very … carefully. “Please give me your eyes.” Once this is done you would likely shift back toward something more casual to show the moment is over, though you might retain a formal tone until you begin to see a response from your student.

To summarize: Do the core work of teaching in whatever balance of casual and formal that expresses your style, but when you need full attention, shift noticeably into formal register. And save your urgent register for the truly urgent.

One thing I've tried to do in this version of Teach Like a Champion is to show small techniques—things that happen in a moment and can be distorted with isolation—in the larger context of a keystone video, and I'd like to show you how BreOnna Tindall uses subtle and elegant register shifts throughout the Keystone from her lesson at Denver School of Science and Technology. One thing you'll notice is how often and how subtly she shifts registers to help students perceive correctly and warmly what is expected of them in any given moment. Her use of Strong Voice is a form of caring that she uses to help her students be successful in knowing what to do and study an inspiring book (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass) without interruption or distraction. Her moves are subtle so I will describe them with time codes and still photos.

As the timer goes off at the beginning of the clip, you can see BreOnna walk to the corner of the room (Pastore's Perch; see technique 53). “That's time,” she says and, wanting to ensure she gets all eyes and ears for her upcoming directions, she “goes formal,” very briefly raising her chin, standing symmetrically, leaving a distinct space between each word as she speaks.

Here she is asking for eyes:

Photo depicts Breonna walking to the corner of the room.

Even as she does this—you might argue because she does this, at least in part—she gets an eager and positive response from her students and you can hear her relax her tone slightly afterwards and include a tiny gesture that feels more casual as she says “with your face partner.”

Then students are off on their Turn and Talk (technique 43) where they are industrious and engaged. Her casual body language as she chats with students reaffirms this:

Photo depicts students sitting around a table and looking at their books.

At 1:14 in the video, BreOnna calls an end to the Turn and Talk. Her first words are, “Check your SLANT” and her tone is casual here because she is reinforcing a habit almost everyone has been attentive to rather than issuing a reminder about an expectation some have neglected. Using a more casual register suggests this and implies that she assumes the best (see technique 59, Positive Framing). If she were less happy with the level of follow-through, we might expect her request, “Check your SLANT,” to be accompanied by a clearer shift to greater formality.

In her next sentence, however, BreOnna edges toward slightly more formality. There's a brief pause where she uses Radar and Be Seen Looking (technique 53) to scan the room and ensure everyone listening for the coming direction. Again her upright and symmetrical body language suggests the importance of attention, so her words don't have to. She doesn't have to give a verbal reminder because she is reinforcing the point nonverbally. Then she drops her voice and begins her next sentence, “We're gonna go ahead and track Adriel …”

Photo depicts BreOnna edges toward slightly more formality.

Her register shifts in the middle of the sentence, I'd argue. In the first half (above picture) it is formal—I need you with me; class is starting—but in the second half of her sentence—as she Cold Calls Adriel—you probably notice a distinct shift to the casual. This is because—as I interpret it—her body language is now signaling information about the Cold Call rather than the preceding direction. She wants to make sure it feels inclusive and positive to Adriel. In his book Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Classroom, Adeyemi Stembridge reminds us that how students perceive our actions is as important as how we intend them, and as you can see in the picture below, BreOnna's bright smile and relaxed posture as she asks Adriel's classmates to “snap it up” for him ensures her actions will be received as they are intended. She wants to diffuse any tension and ensure that Adriel feels support and sunshine from his classmates.

Photo depicts BreOnna's bright smile and relaxed posture as she asks Adriel's classmates to “snap it up” for him ensures her actions will be received as they are intended.

Adriel does well, and Breonna then Cold Calls Renee to “share her response.” Notice her casual body language just after she reminds the class in the most lilting of voices that they should be “Tracking Renee.” In Running the Room, Tom Bennett makes the point that behavioral reinforcements are most important to give when things are going well, as they certainly are here, because it allows us to build culture positively and preventatively. Again, the pairing of the reminder and a more casual register makes it easy for BreOnna to do that. Her mastery of register allows her to consistently reinforce expectations with just the right level of gentleness or emphasis.

Now here's BreOnna as Renee answers:

Photo depicts casual body language just after BreOnna reminds the class in the most lilting of voices that they should be “Tracking Renee.”

She's relaxed, standing small instead of standing tall, asymmetrical instead of symmetrical, because she is deflecting attention from herself. She wants students to be tracking their classmate. Notice also how doubly casual BreOnna is when she interrupts Renee to praise her use of the word “exonerated.” As she breaks in, she wants to reassure Renee and communicate immediately that the interruption is a good thing.

It's a master class, frankly, in building not just loving positive culture but rigorous academic culture at the same time, and though you might not expect this to be a classroom where Strong Voice is key, among the sources of BreOnna's success is her remarkable ability to shift registers to communicate nonverbally both her affection for students and the importance of their attention in critical moments.

Principle 2: Show Both Shoulders/Stand Still

Many times when we give a direction, we communicate to listeners that the direction is an afterthought, because we appear to be doing something else while we give it. The message is Something else is foremost in my mind relative to this direction. If you are passing out papers while you direct students, you suggest that your directions aren't that important. If you stop moving, you show that there is nothing more important than the direction you are giving. When you want directions to be followed, don't engage in other tasks at the same time. It may even help to strike a formal pose.

You can see an example of this in the video of BreOnna Tindall. At about 3:25, BreOnna has wrapped up the discussion and is transitioning to the next task, introducing the passage the class will read during the day's lesson.

“I'd like for us to be thinking about ’blind justice,’” she says. But here she's getting her materials ready and placing them on the projector. You'll notice she starts to slow down her pace of diction, almost as if she's stalling. She doesn't want to engage the topic fully until she's done with that task and can face students fully to show its importance.

Here's what that moment looks like.

Photo depicts BreOnna slowing down her pace of diction, almost as if she's stalling.

A few seconds later, however, she turns to face the class to frame the topic for the day. Suddenly it feels as if we are no longer in transition. Below is a still shot of BreOnna having turned to face the class fully to show that they, and the coming task, are her singular priority. Notice that students are now looking at her, whereas in the first image they were not. She's shown them that what she's saying to them is her priority and they've responded accordingly.

Photo depicts a still shot of BreOnna having turned to face the class fully to show that they, and the coming task, are her singular priority.

Another observation: when you learn to shoot a basketball, the first bit of advice you get is to square up17 to the basket. It's hard to get the right result if you're not facing your objective fully. With human communication it's similar. You show what is important to you by facing it. Glance over your shoulder and say to David, please put that away, and you are saying that what you are facing with your shoulders is still more important to you. That may be fine for an off-hand reminder. Or it could help you surreptitiously give a student a reminder you want to keep as private as possible. But if you are not getting the follow-through you need from students, try facing them more intentionally as you give directions or if you must repeat them. In this way the orientation of your body reinforces the importance of your words.

Photo depicts a person addressing the students in a classroom.

Photo depicts a person addressing the students in a classroom.

Notice, too, Matthew Gray's body language in his lesson at the beginning of his class at Oasis South Bank. His class of Year Sixes has just arrived and are a bit fidgety. Matthew is careful to hold very still and face them as he gives directions. There's an air of formality; he is still and stands with both shoulders squared to the class throughout, no matter where he stands. Soon his class is focused and hard at work.

Principle 3: Use Economy of Language

When you're communicating what you want students to do, strive to use the fewest words possible. Demonstrating Economy of Language shows students that you are prepared, composed, know your purpose in speaking, and that what you are saying is worth hearing. Conversely, when people are nervous, they tend to use more filler words as they decide what to say. Flip the script and start using filler words and one outcome can be that you appear nervous.

Another benefit of Economy of Language is that it focuses listeners on the most important points of what you said, eliminating the distraction of unnecessary language.

When emotions are running high, and your students' thinking brains may be clouded with negative emotion, brevity can be a powerful ally. By keeping your directions simple and concise, you can cut through the brain fog wrought by an active limbic system and help students stay focused on the path forward. This simplicity and repetition is crucial, as researchers have found that when you're under duress, your emotions “swamp the thinking brain's capacity to focus” on even the simplest of tasks.18 Striving for Economy of Language can also discipline you to resist the temptation to engage in the kind of unnecessary argument and debate that can make a tense situation worse.

To be clear, I am not suggesting that you need to use Economy of Language when you are discussing anaerobic respiration or the last chapter of Lord of the Flies—just when you're discussing behavior and when there are potential distractions. If anything, maintaining Economy of Language when you're correcting unproductive behavior or giving directions helps you conserve your time, words, and energy for such academic instruction.

Most of the Keystone clips contain examples of strong Economy of Language in critical moments, particularly the start of class or a transition where the teacher wants to maintain energy and momentum. Nicole Warren is a good example; her bright joyful energy is emphasized by her choice of few words when students are getting started with the lesson: “Eyes up here … waiting on one … tell your partner …” Or Jessica Bracey, who transitions from Omar to Danielle amidst a remarkable discussion by saying, “Habits of Discussion … Paraphrase … push it even further. Please track … Danielle.” She can't build Habits of Discussion (technique 44) without reminding students to use them and in particular to remember to restate Omar's point. She wants to call on Danielle. She wants to remind students to direct their eyes to the speaker. All of these things are important but she does not want to disrupt the momentum or distract from Omar's excellent comment, so she uses tiny reminder phrases. Ten words and perhaps three seconds and she's done it all.

Principle 4: Quiet Presence

There's a tendency to think that louder is stronger, but this is usually not the case. For the most part, raised voices rarely correlate with better listening. You give a direction but there's a background noise of talking and shuffling of papers, for example. You increase your voice level to be heard above the bustle, but students get a little louder, too, and suddenly you sound like you are speaking through a bullhorn.

Going louder emphasizes the clamor and suggests to students that things are unraveling. Often raising your voice will increase the sense of tension, especially if you are speaking at a faster pace, too. If there is an opportunist in the group, this may signal that that you're getting flustered, and he or she may take the opportunity to goad you a bit—to see how flustered you'll get. Better to set out to modulate your voice as much as possible from the beginning or to progressively modulate it as you speak. If students are already noisy, starting to speak and then self-interrupting (see further on) can help you do that—to gain students' attention while demonstrating that you won't talk over noise. But often it's we who start the process. We speak in voices that suggest they expect to be broadcast over a bed of noise. As if we are anticipating it. And in that case the anticipated noise is usually not far behind.

The best tool of prevention, however, is to help students to build a habit of listening to and listening for information that comes quietly from the outset. We want students to consistently associate quiet voices with attentiveness.

Notice, for example, how Arielle Hoo does this in the register shift clip at the beginning of the chapter. “Great, and track up here in five, four …” she begins. Her voice is a bit louder than her normal speaking voice here. Not a shout, certainly, but projected enough to make sure everyone knows she's speaking and looks up. But notice also the way her voice drops, even over the brief length of the countdown. By the time she's at “one” she's speaking at a conversational volume. She uses the shortest possible spike in volume; it's momentary and by the time her phrase ends she has already returned to speaking volume. From there she gets even quieter. Her final direction, Make sure books are closed, is at a very low volume but by this time students are listening attentively. If a tiny bit of raised volume helps you draw eyes, it helps best when it is a tiny burst, a fraction of a second. Once that's happened its work is done and Arielle, for one, is always trying to move toward quiet. Her voice drop to a near-whisper is also an investment in the future. She wants students to make a habit of listening to and for information delivered quietly.

When you want students to listen and follow through on an important request, especially when emotions are running high, strive to exude Quiet Presence. If you have to raise your voice slightly at first to show you are speaking, modulate quickly to a lower volume. Drop your pitch and speak more quietly even as you progress through a single sentence. Speak slowly and calmly; again, slowing yourself even over the course of the sentence if necessary. This helps you bring a calming effect to students in an escalating situation. And to yourself. Teachers often find that making a habit of using Quiet Presence, of always working toward quiet like Arielle does, helps them tamp down their emotions. You feel calmer because you speak more calmly and this help ensure that the interaction ends successfully.

You can see an excellent example of how speaking quietly and slowly signals caring and focus to students in Emily Bisso's lovely interaction with a student, Joshua, in Emily Bisso: Write What I Write. As the clip opens, Joshua is eagerly seeking Emily's attention to the detriment of his note-taking. It's counterproductive but also signals a student with whom she has a positive and caring relationship. She'd like to preserve that, not to mention Joshua's feelings. As Joshua waves his paper at her, Emily lowers her voice and uses impeccable economy of language. She “lives in the now” (see technique 59, Positive Framing) as well in describing what the solution looks like in the very next moment. “Write what I write, Joshua. Thank you, sweetie.” Receiving the signal that Emily is seeking to communicate her corrective guidance privately and quietly, and hearing the opposite of tension in the calm steadiness of her voice, Joshua returns happily to his work.

Principle 5: Self-Interrupt (Formerly Do Not Talk Over)

If what you're saying is worth students' attention—you are explaining the task they need to complete for the next six minutes or explaining the symbolism of the conch in Lord of the Flies—every student has the right to hear and the responsibility to allow others to do so. If students cannot hear you say these things, they cannot complete learning tasks or understand what they need to understand to succeed. Not every utterance you make in the classroom has this level of importance, but it remains true that being able to hear the teacher—and not talking while the teacher is talking—is an equity issue. The costs of even low-level disruptions (as discussed in the introduction to this chapter) are both massive and most likely to be paid by students already in suboptimal settings or most prone to distraction. “One of the reasons we get students' attention is to give them the opportunity to be successful at a task,” my colleague Darryl Williams reminded me. There are times, in other words, when your words are the most important in the room, and you must be able to ensure that they do not compete for attention with other voices.

In many cases, the solution is to start in order to stop—that is, start a sentence and break it off, even in the middle of a word, to show that you do not yet have full attention. This is called a self-interrupt. The noticeable break makes the explanation—I have stopped talking because not everyone is listening and right now you must listen—unnecessary. A brief pause and an effort to proceed again is often all that's required. Sometimes a second start-then-stop is required. Sometimes breaking mid-word to make the pause more evident is surprisingly effective. Adding a shift in register helps, too. But used consistently and used early—before it is attempting to compete with the auditory equivalent of Times Square—this technique is one of the most useful and simple tricks in a teacher's arsenal.

Laura Fern models this beautifully in the video Self-Interrupt Montage. She's cheery and bright, walking across the front of the classroom as she responds to a student, “That's excellent, Cameron. That's one way that while bo—” A student in the front row is mesmerized by the camera and is no longer listening. He's lost the lesson. But hearing the sudden and unexpected break in Laura's voice causes him to turn face forward, to return to the math. Notice that there's no lecture here for him. The break itself brings him back. Notice how much the unexpectedness of it calls his attention. Putting the break in the middle of a word—as opposed to just after one—maximizes this effect. Notice also how Laura's body freezes. Her face goes very briefly expressionless and formal as she pauses, but a warmer expression replaces that “teacher look” when her student refocuses, and a second or so later she's back to teaching with the problem solved. (Notice, though, how she uses a confirmation glance afterwards to double-check that he remains focused.) Also in the montage you can see Eric Snider self-interrupting with his middler school students (and thus sparing them the lecture) as well as Sadie McCleary using the technique with high school students.

Principle 6: Time and Place (Formerly Do Not Engage)

There are times when we initiate a topic of discussion with students that requires timely resolution on their part. There are times when those students may wish to avoid the timely resolution. Changing the subject is often one way to do that. This action may be deliberate or accidental, the result of distraction, intense emotion, or perhaps a bit of strategy.

Here's one example:

Teacher:

James, we don't laugh when a classmate struggles. Please move your card to yellow.

James:

It wasn't me!

Teacher:

Please move your card to yellow.

James:

Shannon was laughing! Not me!

Teacher:

If you think I am mistaken you may discuss with me after class. Please get up and move your card to yellow.

It may be reasonable for the teacher to discuss who was talking with James, but the expectation needs to be that the latter conversation doesn't happen until James has first done what his teacher asked. That's why the name for this principle is Time and Place. Sometimes the things students would rather discuss are frivolous. Sometimes they are legitimate. But the time and place for them is rarely when you have just asked them to do something else or when you are trying to attend to the needs of thirty classmates.

Either way, Time and Place is the skill of not engaging a new topic until you have achieved resolution on the one you've suggested.

One of my favorite examples of Time and Place is this example from Christy Lundy's classroom. Note the light circle. There's some drama afoot (sorry for the pun) and Christy can't see it! She calls on Patience, whose goal in answering, it soon turns out, has more to do with the kicking battle than anything having to do with The Mouse and the Motorcycle. “He's kicking me!” she states. An argument ensues.

We've all been there and we all know where this sort of situation can go. It's not bringing us back to the Beverly Cleary novel any time soon. Yes, Christy's students feel the situation keenly. The emotions are real. And also, yes, it is a distraction—the kind of thing that waylays a lesson and the kind of thing students who would rather not read can learn: If I can create some drama right now, I will not have to do the work. You will meet this student at least once in your career. She deserves a teacher who will ensure that she does the work. It's not the time and place, in other words.

“Three … two … one,” says Christy, the brief short countdown giving Patience a bit of time to compose herself. Just a bit of space. She's has done two things here: She's reminded Patience that there is an appropriate time to discuss the issue. She doesn't dismiss Patience's complaint; she just needs her to understand that it will have to wait till later. Then she returns Patience to the task: “You need to answer my question.” Patience, it turns out, is capable of putting the kicking behind her. It wasn't perhaps the crisis it appeared to be, and Christy rewards her with a bright, warm smile. Notice also the impeccable Economy of Language Christy uses. “Three … two … one. Inappropriate time. You need to answer my question.” It takes only ten words to resolve the crisis. Twenty words would probably do the opposite.