“Messy transitions are also an invitation to disruptions and conflicts that continue to undercut the classroom environment even after class has started.”
KEY IDEA: Having quick and routine transitions (when students move from place to place or activity to activity) that students can execute without extensive narration by the teacher is a critical piece of any highly effective classroom.
- By the end of the first week of school, every student should know and understand the procedures like how to line up and move from place to place without having to be told
- Transitions should take less than 30 seconds.
- Students needs to practice transitions
- Scaffold the steps of the transition
- Teach students point-to-point walking/actions. (teach them step by step and have them carry out each step separately.
- Consistently enforce when students start testing the rules.
Applies to Moving Materials
- Generally pass across rows, not up and back
- Distribute materials in groups: to the student at the end of each row, to each table.
From Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemove (Jossey Bass, 2010)