System: a network of related procedures that help teachers accomplish end goals: help students maintain an organized binder, manage behavior, move materials, participate successfully in a discussion, and so on.

Routine: a procedure or system that has become automatic, which students do either without much oversight, without intentional cognition (in other words, as a habit), and/or of their own volition and without teacher prompting (for example, note taking while reading).

Strong Start sets the table for mastery by efficiently previewing or reviewing high-quality content students need to master. Strong Start isn’t just about tight procedures and efficiency. These conditions should be in service of the overarching goal: equipping students right off the bat with the academic tools they’ll need to succeed.

Students should know where to sit. Time spent milling around, looking for a seat, deciding where to sit, or talking about deciding where to sit (“Can I sit next to him? Will he think I’m flirting?”) is a waste of learning time and energy. Assign seats or allow students to sign up for regular seats.

Whatever students need to do with homework (put it in a basket, place it on the front left corner of their desk, pass it to a proctor), they should do the same way every day without prompting. This lets you collect it seamlessly, and collecting it at the start of every class tacitly underscores its importance. Put your Do Now (the second part of this routine) in the same place every day: on the board, on an interactive handout, or in the packet. The objectives for the lesson, the agenda, and the homework for the coming evening should be on the board already, also in the same predictable place every day.

Sit up 

Track the speaker 

Ask and answer questions like a scholar 

Respect those around you

SLANT:

Sit up 

Listen

Ask and answer questions 

Nod your head 

Track the speaker

One of the best aspects of these acronyms is that they serve as shorthand. Once you’ve taught students how to STAR/SLANT, all you ordinarily have to do is use the phrase, and students are able to use it to self-correct.

One reason why procedures are so ubiquitous in classrooms is that, when designed well, they help teachers conserve their most precious nonrenewable resource: time. A second, slightly more hidden benefit is that when students know what to do without being told, teachers are freed to talk to them about other things.

Things to keep in mind:

Simplicity.

Quick Is King.

Little Narration Required.

Planned to the Detail.

Plan out the key phrases you will use every day with your procedures and practice them. 

“When I give you an excerpt from a text we’re reading and ask you to ‘analyze it,’ you’ll do four things: (1) identify the characters who are present and the setting, (2) explain the passage’s place in the plot of the novel, (3) describe how the scene exemplifies or challenges a key theme from the book, and (4) compare the scene to another from the same book or another we’ve read as a class this year.”

When I say ‘one,’ please stand and push in your chairs. When I say ‘two,’ please turn to face the door. When I say ‘three,’ please follow your line leader to the place to line up

Modeling the procedure without describing it can leave students confused about what they should take away from what you’re demonstrating. And at best, it would take you much longer to sufficiently describe a procedure in words without modeling it. (points out common problems) 

To truly master procedures, students need lots of practice as well as timely feedback on their execution.

Isolated step: Sometimes teachers will choose just one small aspect of a procedure and practice it over and over or at half speed to make sure their students get it. Only then will they speed it up to real time or link it to the steps before and after it.

Strategically simplified: Sometimes a teacher will remove a distraction to make practice more effective—for example, by practicing a transition without books the first few times (“Imagine you’re carrying your books”) or by practicing the process for putting materials away in art class without the actual supplies the first few times. That way students can lock in on the steps with simplicity and without pencils and crayons rolling around on the floor.

Faux errors: Other times, a teacher will ask students to deliberately make a common error to role-play how to respond. “What do you do if you go to the left if everyone is going to the right? Let’s try it and work it out.”