Newsletters by Craig Barton
I write not one, but two, free weekly newsletters.
Tips for Teachers newsletter
Each Monday morning the Tips for Teachers newsletter lands in your inbox with a tip to try out on your classrooms that week. Subscribe (for free) by entering your email in the box above, and check out all the past editions here:
- #1 Make use of both sides of a mini-whiteboard
- #2 Ban the word “easy”
- #3 Try students standing during explanations
- #4 Check students have heard you instructions
- #5 Cold Call a student twice in a lesson
- #6 How to choose which pair of students to call upon
- #7 Include upcoming prerequisite knowledge in homeworks
- #8 Ask pupils “what was the most useful thing I did today?”
- #9 How to respond to “I don’t know”
- #10 Lower the content demand initially when introducing a new routine
- #11 Getting even more out of Diagnostic questions
- #12 Introducing Call and Response
- #13 Two questions to write when planning a lesson
- #14 The four steps of Responsive teaching
- #15 Coaching: the hypothesis and critical evidence combo
- #16 The importance of Wait time 1
- #17 The importance of Wait time 2
- #18 What is the optimal group size?
- #19 Ask me two questions
- #20 Improving revision lessons
- #21 Two tips to improve whole-class feedback
- #22 Ask students to respond in sentences
- #23 The power of waiting for Golden Silence
- #24 Reducing the tactical delay with voting cards
- #25 Ask students to Copy worked examples later in the lesson
- #26 Use mini-whiteboard when going through tests
- #27 What to say to high-achieving students if they are bored
- #28 Model in real-time
- #29 Three questions to ask during a departmental meeting
- #30 Add confidence scores to mini-whiteboards
- #31 Three videos, podcasts, tips and blogs posts to check out
- #32 “Head down, fist on head” for answering diagnostic questions
- #33 Carry a mini-whiteboard with you when circulating
- #34 Explain, Frame, Reframe, Rehearse when doing Call and Respond
- #35 Beware of saying "If you got the question wrong, make sure you have corrected it"
- #36 Use Call and Respond to check calculator use
- #37 The score you get is when you make your first mistake
- #38 Step away from the board when modelling
- #39 Follow tumbleweed with a Turn and Talk
- #40 Don't make hints unavoidable
- #41 How to make Call and Respond (even more) fun
- #42 Don't clean your mini-whiteboard!
- #43 Ask the easiest question first
- #44 Use the Instruction Sandwich to improve how you give instructions
- #45 Reveal answers one at a time to direct focus
- #46 Explain, Condense, Unpack
- #47 Can you get us started…
- #48 Check for listening to see if your explanation is clear and concise
- #49 Play the "Does that make sense?" game
- #50 When using multiple-choice questions, remove the options initially
- #51 Try a new idea with one class, for one week
- #52 Introduce checks for listening using non-subject content
- #53 Ask students to put their mini-whiteboards together
- #54 Ask students not to say or write anything for 30 seconds
- #55 Hide your tell when calling upon students to explain their thinking
- #56 Try these four different ways of going through the answers
Eedi newsletter
My Eedi newsletter comes out every Tuesday. Typically, this contains longer-form content, focussing on coaching, classroom pedagogy and resources. Subscribe (for free) by entering your email in the box above, and check out all the past editions here:
Coaching
- My Coaching Process
- Coaching Case Studies #1: Improving the Do Now and explanations
- Coaching Case Studies #2: Improving worked examples and check for understanding
- Coaching Case Studies #3: Misconceptions and going through tests
- Coaching Case Studies #4: Non-examples and room layout
- The power of the Hypothesis Model when coaching
- The importance of rehearsal when coaching
Departmental support
- Developing a departmental approach to the Do Now
- Developing a departmental approach to worked examples
- Developing a departmental approach to reviewing answers
- Developing a departmental approach to problem-solving
High-value activity structures
- Venn Diagrams: 10 tips to supercharge them in the classroom
- SSDD Problems: 10 tips to supercharge them in the classroom
- Intelligent Practice: 10 tips to supercharge it in the classroom
- A little bit of problem-solving in every lesson: 10 tips to make it happen
Pedagogy
- Two ideas for improving GCSE revision
- The myth of copying things down
- Busy tricking during the Do Now
- Supercharging Think, Pair, Share
- The cost of classroom interruptions
- How many of your students are participating?
- Participation ratio in lessons: the results are in!
- Boosting the participation ratio during our explanations
- How prescriptive should a Head of Department be?
- Book-to-Board: One of my favourite uses of mini-whiteboards
- Pitfalls to avoid when going through answers
- Mini-whiteboard + Exam paper = ❤️
- 13
ideas to help boost homework completion rates
- The
perils of Rounding Up students' answers
- Helping students listen to each other
- The opportunity cost of digging deeper
- 10 things we know about testing
- Correcting in green pen does not work
- Poor proxies for understanding
- Poor proxies for listening
- How
to think about new ideas
- Seven ways to use diagnostic questions to check for understanding
Resources
- Variation spiders!
- GCSE Big 20
- The best maths worksheet ever?
- Free maths CPD
- Back to school: Four things to listen to
- Brand-new, free maths resources for every maths topic
- Explain
the mistake
- Free quizzes, videos, fluency practice, problem solving questions and more
3-Read Friday
- Coaching expectations, consistency and worked examples
- Attention, revision mistakes, and seminal studies
- Explanations, confidence, and productive struggle
- Efficiency, observations, and ChatGTP
- Teach like nobody’s watching, 1% better, and angles
- Participation ratio, Go-to guides, and success
- Time, planning, and mathematical literacy
- Problem-solving, self-explanation, and 3 Acts
- Maths resources, action bias, and fun lessons
- Homework, highlighting, and angles
- Pre-testing, quizzes, and if-then statements
- Variation Theory, lesson planning,
and subject knowledge
- Questions, sense, and chatbots
- Variation Theory, mobile phones, and CPD
- Thinking time, One Note, and group coaching
- Improving teaching, QLAs, and product of prime factors
- Klaxons, checks for listening, and the first 10 minutes of a lesson
- Skills v knowledge, live coaching, and conceptual understanding
- Experience, worksheets, and Christmas!
- Wrong answers, 100%, and unintended consequences
- PISA,
ChatGPT, and mobile phones
- Hypercorrection, textbooks, and praise
- Pace, productive struggle, and free maths resources
- MCQs, belonging, and attention
- Stepping away from the speaker, messy markbooks, and GCSE Maths revision
- Feedback, inclusive classrooms, and more feedback!
- Calling out, fixing the Do Now, and multi-tasking
- Improving teaching, student absence, and tageting indicators
- Worked examples, SEND, and AI tutors
- Rehearsal, assessments, and naked explanations
- Stories, attention, and maths gems