Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

07.29.24 Scott Wells Models the Foundations of a Successful Cold Call

In our workshops on Cold Call we often provide a summary of four key things teachers can do while Cold Calling to ensure that the experience is positive, productive and successful. They are: 1) Preparation. Giving students time to prepare answers before a Cold Call helps them to develop quality ideas and often rehearse them in…


07.23.24 Using Writing in The (Reading) Classroom–The Amazing Success of First Year Teacher Emily Fleming

    Last week I had the pleasure of joining Kristen McQuillan, Natalie Wexler and Julia Cooper on a webinar sponsored by the Knowledge Matters campaign. Topic: The critical role of writing in reading comprehension. You can watch the webinar here: https://knowledgematterscampaign.org/post/writing-an-unsung-hero-of-reading-comprehension/ Meanwhile I thought I’d share a lovely video of a teacher using writing in…


07.13.24 Better Questioning for Athletes Starts with Clear Principles of Play

  I’m prepping this weekend to narrate the audiobook version of The Coach’s Guide to Teaching… which basically means reading my own book. Obviously that means noticing a lot of small things I’d like to change. But also noticing some passages that, as I learn more, I see even more value in. Here’s one, from the…


05.03.24 More Ace Footage from Scott Wells’ Classroom

Earlier this week I posted a clip of Scott Wells of Goldsmith Primary Academy as he Checked for Understanding with his students. Justifiably, the clip got rave reviews in a recent workshop and online as well.  No surprise that- you can see how sharp it is (and some of the highlights from my perspective at least)…


05.01.24 My England Travelogue Part 3: A Really Wonderful CFU Workshop in London

  Last week I shared two blog posts here and here about my week-long trip to England the week prior, in which I visited two really fascinating schools. The week ended with a two-day workshop in London on the topic of Checking for Understanding, co-sponsored by Ark Schools (thank you Victor Voutov, the king of workshop…