Teach Like A Champion (TLAC)

Lemov’s ‘Teach Like A Champion 2.0’ is available HERE.

TLAC techniques help with the practical implementation the ‘Rosenshine Principles’ and also help to extend the common language we use, so we have a shared understanding. Bambrick-Santoyo in ‘Leverage Leadership 2.0’ (HERE) states ‘The power of a common language to describe best practices is impossible to overstate’.

About 50% of UL academies currently use TLAC in some form, and a key focus of our T&L strategy for 2020-21 is to use TLAC techniques to help further embed Rosenshine’s Principles. There are a number of UL academies where TLAC is already very well embedded.

Lemov describes his work as ‘data-driven’, providing concrete, specific, actionable advice to teachers. ‘These are techniques … because techniques are actions, the more you practice, the better you get’. TLAC techniques are referenced in both Sherrington’s ‘Rosenshine’s Principles In Action’ (2019) and Allison and Tharby’s ‘Making Every Lesson Count’ book (HERE). Sherrington (@teacherhead) tweeted

‘It’s easy to teach some kids some of the stuff. Getting everyone to learn all of it? That’s really hard. Lots of teachers struggle. For me @Doug_Lemov’s TLAC 2.0 is the best set of strategies there is to support teachers in getting ALL students learning’ https://t.co/9dSDhq2wDB.

It is important to also stress that TLAC is also not a checklist for every lesson. Lemov states that it is a ‘recipe book’ about the tools of the teaching craft and ‘not an instruction manual’, providing a variety of suggestions rather than promoting conformity. ‘Not every teacher I observed used every technique I described… I found that great teachers came in every stripe and style (p.3)…’Teachers may choose to adopt techniques but almost right away, great teachers start to adapt and adjust anything good; they make it fit their own unique style and approach, their setting and students (p.5).’

3.1: The TLAC ‘Pillars’ and ‘Techniques’

Please see Appendix 3 for an overview of the ‘Pillars’ and ‘Techniques’.

3.2: TLAC and Rosenshine

Appendix 4 outlines some examples of TLAC techniques associated with each Rosenshine Principle – this is not an exhaustive list of techniques for each principle. It just provides some examples of how TLAC can be used to help implement Rosenshine.

3.3: TLAC and ‘Disruption Free Learning’

TLAC can also be used to help sharpen routines, support ‘disruption-free learning’ and maximise every minute of learning.

From the UL ‘Yr 10 Strategy Plan April 2020’ document:

‘Pacing’ [See TLAC chapter 6]:

• Pace planning (lesson by lesson) in all subject areas to ensure the lesson time you have left is sufficient to cover all syllabus content to be examined.
• ‘Protect every lesson like it was their last’. We need to use the analogy ‘every second counts – every lesson matters’.
• We should continue to insist on ‘disruption free teaching’.

From the ‘Behaviour & Attendance -Guidance to secondary schools on reopening for the summer term’ document May 2020 [See TLAC Chapter 10 (Systems and Routines), 11 (High Behavioural Expectations) and 12 (Building Character and Trust) which are useful here]:

• Train and re-train staff, over communicate and practise desired routines with students and monitor staff to ensure consistency in implementation.
• Routines, norms, and consistency are how cultures are built. As an approach, it is a rising tide that lifts all ships. The most vulnerable or challenging students often need structure more than other children, who may have been living in a challenging, turbulent or unstructured environment.

Appendix 5 outlines how these TLAC techniques can be used.

 

Some examples of these techniques are outlined in more detail below:

• Technique 48. Engineer Efficiency – Example: This can include routines such as distributing books and equipment e.g. YouTube clip HERE.
• Technique 28: Brighten Lines and Technique 52 Make Compliance Visible
• Technique 58 Positive Framing – examples: a blog on this can be accessed HERE.