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All Great Lessons Start at the Beginning

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All Great Lessons Start at the Beginning

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The start of any lesson needs to accomplish a myriad of goals: activating prior knowledge, capturing student attention, making connections to new topics, et ceterta, et cetera... but if your do-now, warm-up, drill, or whatever you want to call it puts your students to sleep in the first five minutes of class, you're going to be feeling the pain for the remaining fifty five.

In the example below, I captured students attention and brought up their energy levels by staging a hostage situation where their class mascot (an as-of-yet un-named stuffed gnome) had been kidnapped by a mysterious criminal with only one thing on his mind: Pre-Assessment. Watch as my class performs a biological rescue mission and sets the tone for the rest of the period.

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Classroom Engagement - Hostage Situation

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Watch the hook for my lesson on pedigrees and patterns of inheritance as I turn my student's warm up drill into a rescue mission.

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I found this to be a helpful resource for defining the characteristics of a fully engaged classroom. The full book is available on Amazon, but if you want the cliffs notes (and a handy self-check for your own professional development) the PDF below is for you.

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Micah Harrison, Kayla Willis, Fedor Menchukov, Marvin Howell

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Micah Harrison, Kayla Willis, Fedor Menchukov, Marvin Howell

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Work Cited

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In class transitions hinge upon three things: Routines and Procedures, Clear Expectations and Explicit Agenda

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By creating an environment where the students are explicitly aware of how the classroom functions and giving them some choice in the set up of those expectations is huge for minimizing distractions. Ideally you want a classroom where a student does not have to take up your attention to find out if he/she can sharpen a pencil or not while you are trying to move on to the next activity. Try to let the students be as autonomous as possible, with you only being involved in reinforcing the routines rather then having to constantly re-establish them. Simple things, such as having different hand signals students can use to indicate weather they need help on the task of if they need to use the bathroom can save time, with the latter only requiring a nod or a shake of the head to address. Involving the students in setting up the process will promote the most buy in, but additional positive reinforcement will refine the students’ performance. Simply giving praise is always good, but a more structured approach, such as giving “table points” with some sort of reward for having the most will lead to a higher interest.

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The more the students are aware of where the class as a whole is going, both short term in terms of the specific agenda for the day, as well as long term, the more likely you are to get the students to manage transitions themselves. Students who know what's coming up next can prompt each other and you to transition, resulting in the flow of the class being much less teacher-centric as an added benefit.

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Make your activities worth the transitions!

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Make your activities worth the transitions!

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Finally the more engaging the presentation of the material, the easier it will be to ensure students want to get to the next activity. Gain student interest and they will help you with your transitions!

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The following video demonstrates a veteran teacher and her thoughts and reflections on how she handles transitions.

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. What is the impact of having students' reflect on the time it takes them to complete tasks?

2. How do the 1, 2, and 3 finger signs help limit class interruptions?

3. Why does the use of a timer help both the teacher and students more so than just saying?

School Details

Springfield Twp Middle School
1901 Paper Mill Road
Oreland PA 19075

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Strategies to Improve Transitions and Time Management

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Instructional expert Jim Knight observes Wendy Hopf's Language Arts classroom to offer feedback on her management of transitions between tasks, as well as time management. Ms. Hopf involves students' in thinking about how long an activity or task should take and how long it actually takes.

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One of the hardest things to master as a new teacher is a smooth and quiet transition from one task to another. The class can turn from calm to chaos in the blink of an eye, as soon as you make a change in what you are doing. While some children can move easily between activities, there is always a group who just struggle with transitions. When chaos breaks out, only your toughest do-gooders stay focused. Everyone else sinks to the lowest common denominator.

Here are ten tips on how to build smooth transitions into your classroom routine.

1. Give notice before it time to make a change. By announcing to the class before making a transition, you allow them time to get ready. Depending on what you are doing this could be five minutes in advance for a large activity or just 60 seconds for a math page. "You have five minute before clean up. Think about a good stopping place." This way they won't be in the middle of something when you ask them to transition. It saves a lot of mess and frustration.
2. Make personal contact with hard-to-transition kids. You know who doesn't understand or like transitions. Take a moment to stop by his desk to guide him to get ready to make the change. "I want you to stop after this math problem." Or "Don't start gluing today. You can put the things you cut out in this envelope." This helps the child cope and avoid panic. In fact, hard-to-transition kids frequently are the children who want or need extra attention anyway, so you are able to give them that attention in a positive way.

3. Teach them to freeze, or at least, stop talking. I used a variety of ways. Hand signals, call and response, spelling the word "quiet," or a sound such as clapping or ringing a chime. Call and response is when you announce a word in your teacher voice and the class responds. For example, you call "Macaroni and." The class will reply with "Cheese!" You can also use a fact you are studying. For example, if your class is learning about magnets: "Attract or" "Repel!"

The real secret to making freezing work is that when everyone stops talking, you wait. Wait! Wait for at least fifteen seconds before you begin to give instructions. This requires patience on your part, but I promise you, they will learn to listen better if you start when the class is completely quiet.

4. Give an honest amount of time to put things away. Be realistic about how much time it takes to put books away or clean up after a science experiment. It gives everyone the chance to do it right.

5. Avoid too much empty transition time. Let everyone know what to do or where to go next. If they are done quickly, consider letting them stay put and talk quietly until you are ready to give instructions. You can even give them a question or topic to discuss such as the weather or "Do you think whales can talk to each other?"

6. Crowd control. Letting a class of 27 kids move from one place to the other en masse is asking for trouble. Try moving them in smaller groups. Be sure to mix it up so they don't anticipate who they will be able to start something with. You can move them by table numbers, birth months, clothing attributes, or whatever. Wait until a group is nearly to their next location before moving another group.

7. Notice without naming. I love this trick because it works like a charm, every single time. Say in your teacher voice, "I notice six people have their notebooks and pencils out." Suddenly, ten more have their pencil and notebooks ready. "Okay, let's see. Seventeen people are ready." Lo and behold, the whole class is poised for the lesson. Everyone wants to be noticed. Be sure to make eye contact with the child who will blurt, "Notice me!"

There is one caveat to this. Don't notice bad behavior this way. Remember that everyone wants to be noticed works both ways. If you acknowledge negative behavior by saying "I see six people are still at their desks," your middle-of-the-road kids will join them in a flash. Keep it positive.

8. Make it fun. Have the class tiptoe or walk like a zombie to where they are going. Let them try to whistle as they wait. Have a quiet contest. Keep it light and they will look forward to the transitions rather than losing control.

9. No whining or complaining allowed. The classroom is not a minivan. It is not even a democracy. A simple, "I know no one wants to stop right now, but we have more things to accomplish today" goes a long way. When the whining begins just practice that freeze tactic of waiting. Use your most impassive teacher face. Don't respond to the whine. YOU are in charge.

10. Practice, Practice, Practice. Yes, this works great by the third week. And yes, they will forget it at the end of October, the week before Winter Break, in March, and certainly at the end of May. When it falls apart, make everyone go back to where they were and do it again. In May, it may take three tries but they will fall back into the habit. Don't let the class get by with a messy transition, unless the fire alarm is ringing.

A good transition is not just quiet and calm. It can be a mental break when needed. It can be refreshing. It can help us regroup. It can change the mood of the room. Best of all, the reward of smooth transitions is less chaos and more joy.

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One of the hardest things to master as a new teacher is a smooth and quiet transition from one task to another. The class can turn from calm to chaos in the blink of an eye, as soon as you make a change in what you are

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Teach Like a Champion Technique 30 - Tight Transitions

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All great lesson have a final wind down time where students again transition their minds into a different mentality. The end of the lesson has a few phases of transitioning: tiding up materials, recapping what was learned, and possible exit ticket/ summative assignment. It is a time when all classwork activities are coming to an end and students are preparing to leave the classroom.

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Consistency is the first secret to smooth transitions at any point of a lesson. This concept is especially easy to implement at the end of your lesson. If you create a routine of how all classes will end then you can depend on the students' knowledge of the expectations. This also includes being consistent in explaining expectations and responding to misbehavior.

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Be Pro-active About Expectations and Behavior

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Be Pro-active About Expectations and Behavior

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Before any and all transitions very specific expectations should be explained by the teacher to prevent misbehavior and to ensure that all students know their role during the transition time. When dealing with misbehavior at the end of the lesson it is important to remember that the students have heard your voice the entire lesson. This is the perfect time to recognize the good behavior rather than directly address the students not following the expectations.

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Timing is key of all lessons. It is also very important to allow enough time for these transitions while also being careful to not allow too much time for each transition. If students are not given enough time to transition then its quite obvious that the expectations will not be met. On the other hand if too much time is allotted then students will not use the time appropriately.

This especially important at the end of the lesson because you do not want to rush or skip the opportunity to summarize what was learned. It also is not fair to the students to expect them to give an assignment like an exit ticket their all if they don't have enough time to complete it.

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Relieve any Anxiety Before Winding Down 

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Relieve any Anxiety Before Winding Down 

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In the instant that students are not able to finish a classwork assignment this can also cause a rough transition if not addressed. Often a good fix for this is to simply say "You may not have finished the assignment and that is okay, but now I need us to regroup clean up our supplies, and return to our seats to prepare to begin our summary." . If students are concerned they might be penalized for an incomplete assignment this can cause frustration, and panic for student which does not allow a easy task of regrouping and winding down the lesson.