Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

08.20.20 Whaaat??? Susie Kim Brings Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle’ to Life

Just wanted to take a minute to share some fantastic video of Susie Kim’s 7th grade Social Studies class at Achievement First’s East New York Middle School. It’s a great example of a lot of good teaching things, not least strong Ratio and Checking for Understanding Susie and her students are reading a passage from teaching…


06.19.20 Marine Academy Plymouth’s Jen Brimming Models Implicit Accountability

Yesterday I blogged about one of Chloe Hykin’s lessons at Marine Academy Plymouth. Not only was it really well designed and implemented but it was clearly part of an intentional school-wide effort to produce consistent and high-quality Lessons. Her response on Twitter was to share all of her peers’ work to share the credit. In fact…


06.09.20 Putting It All Together: Scenes from Joshua Humphrey’s Asynchronous Math Lesson

Just finished watching footage of Joshua Humphrey, who teaches math at KIPP St. Louis High School. Joshua’s lesson was full of great moves that I thought others would benefit from watching as much as I did. Background: The footage I’m sharing is of an asynchronous lesson. Joshua’s students watch two short asynchronous lessons per day and…


05.22.20 Excerpt: The Coach’s Guide to Teaching

I’m closing in on my manuscript deadline on my new book, The Coach’s Guide to Teaching. The sense of urgency–some might call it desperation–is palpable. But I’ve just finished Chapter 4, which is about Checking for Understanding. Here’s an excerpt to whet your appetite. Hope you enjoy John Wooden was among the greatest coaches of the…