'Teach Like A Champion' said affecting cultural change at LMS

LACONIA — Is it possible for a school to positively change its culture through the adoption of five simple instructional practices? Jim McCollum, principal at Laconia Middle School, said that's exactly what he and the school's teachers have witnessed this school year.

At a December School Board meeting, McCollum presented astonishing statistics, calculated just a few months after his teachers began using a handful of the 49 teaching techniques described by Doug Lemov in his book "Teach Like a Champion." McCollum told the board that, accompanying a dramatic drop in referrals for discipline is academic performance greater than he's seen in his seven years at the school.

"Teach Like a Champion" is a compilation of 49 instructional techniques the author observed in schools that managed to produce exceptional performance despite serving some of the most challenged of student bodies. "This is the best practices boiled down and given names," said McCollum this week.

The book was brought to Laconia by Superintendent Bob Champlin, who shared it with district administrators. McCollum presented the book to his teachers in June of last year. Over the summer, about 20 teachers read the book and the entire staff is expected to have implemented "Teach Like a Champion" in some capacity by the end of the school year.

Although most of the attention following his School Board presentation has been on behavioral change – he states that disciplinary referrals have been cut nearly in half – McCollum said the six techniques teachers identified for the school to adopt are all focused on instruction. The result that McCollum celebrates is the academic success that students have exhibited this year, with more than half of the school's students making honor roll.

"None of these techniques are punitive. They're about making sure that learning is happening. To me, that's caring," said McCollum.

Among the techniques the school has adopted are "No Opt Out," in which teachers won't allow a student to get away with answering "I don't know" or otherwise dodge participation. That combines with "Cold Calling," where teachers pick which student will answer a question rather than waiting for someone to raise her hand.

Those two techniques set the expectation for students that everyone will pay attention and engage the lesson. A pair of other techniques aim to better manage the middle school schedule. "Do Now" has teachers prepare a task that students must complete immediately upon entering the classroom, thereby eliminating the several minutes of socialization at the beginning of each of the seven periods. The "Exit Ticket" is a quick assessment that teachers employ at the end of each period as a way of testing whether the students grasped a key concept of the day.

Peg Tetreault, a math and special education teacher, said "Teach Like a Champion" was an "inspiring book" for her. "After teaching for 30 years, I found this a valuable book," she said. "I feel that I'm doing a better job teaching."

Carleen Steckert, who teaches social studies, said students are "engaged" in their learning, which naturally results in fewer behavioral distractions. "They're good teaching strategies," she said. For her, a sign of a successful delivery of instruction is when the class period seems to go by quickly because students and teachers are so focused on the lesson. Now, she said, "Those 50 minutes, they pretty much fly by."

Taylor Gagne, an eighth grader, agreed that the new strategies were changing the typical school day. Now, instead of lingering in the hallways between classes and chatting for a few minutes at the start of each period, he said students are in a hurry to get to the next class so they can tackle the "Do Now" assignment. "It opens you up to getting ready to learn about the subject," he explained.

"Paying attention in class has improved. There's still social stuff going on in the hallway," Gagne said, but between-class interactions are quick and students are more likely to avoid distraction during class, "so they can answer the 'Exit Ticket' and get to the next class on time."

"The goal is to move from management to influence," said McCollum. He said the key to the school's success begins with positive relationships between students and teachers, with the latter creating an expectation that the former will be an active participant in his education. "If you create the opportunity that the right choice is the available option," said McCollum, students will respond in kind. "When we raise the bar, the performance of the majority goes up."

"We're excited about this," said McCollum. The Middle School will implement six of the book's techniques this year, add more next year and adopt yet more the year following. "Structure, accountability, engagement, strong student-teacher relationships, these are what works," he said.