Today’s post continues a multiyear series in which educators share simple “teacher moves” that can make a big difference.

Introducing Texts

Michele Caracappa, Ed.D, is a former teacher, principal, chief academic officer, and nonprofit leader. As the founder of Lead Learning, she partners with school and system leaders to enhance and transform instructional systems so that all students thrive:

When you introduce texts to your students—whether in the form of a read-aloud, a shared text, or even a text that students will read independently—do you consistently share with them why you think the text is worth their time?

I’m not talking about telling kids how a text connects to a learning standard or even to the lesson objective. I’m talking about sharing why, as the person who put this text in front of your students, you think there’s something valuable and important about what they’ll read today. I’m talking about taking 30 seconds to tell your class not just that you love or appreciate a text but why you do and why you think it matters.

Here are a few thoughts on how and why to make this “small teaching move” a consistent part of your planning and instructional practice:

Ask yourself: Can I justify why this text is worthy of students’ time and attention?

As a prerequisite for telling students why you believe a text is valuable, you must first be able to authentically articulate that value for yourself. Use these questions as a self-check:

• What do I appreciate or find interesting about this text?
• What excites or intrigues me about the author’s ideas and/or craft choices?
• What makes me want to share this text with students?

These questions can also be incorporated within collaborative planning meetings—so that when teachers work together to plan for instruction, they first discuss their own enthusiasm for the text before digging into the details of the questions they’ll ask and tasks they’ll provide students.

When posing these questions, take note when you find it hard to generate answers. If you’re struggling to find value, pay attention to whether your own biases or assumptions about the text or the subject matter may be influencing your perspective. Nonetheless, if you find yourself unable to communicate what’s interesting or exciting about a text, it may be worth reconsidering whether the text is worthy of students’ time and attention.

Shift from a transactional to transformational purpose for reading

The ultimate aim of reading instruction is to make meaning of texts, so that we might deepen our content knowledge and our understanding of both ourselves and the world around us. But so often, this transformational purpose for reading is sidelined by a transactional one. We assign texts. We pose questions and ask for evidence-based answers. We review students’ responses to reading. Somewhere in all of the assigning and questioning and reviewing, we risk losing sight of our broader aims.

By taking time to tell students why a text matters when introducing it, we clarify the purpose of our work together in the classroom. That purpose goes beyond practicing a skill or a strategy, beyond mastering making inferences or distinguishing details from big ideas. That purpose is rooted in the pursuit of intellectual engagement and critical thinking.

The next time you introduce a text to your class, plan to do so in a way that is not transactional but transformative—that cultivates within students excitement and enthusiasm for engaging with new ideas and that supports them in viewing the literacy classroom as a site for personal and intellectual development.

Prime your students for thinking—without telling them what to think

You won’t love every text you introduce to students—and that’s OK. The aim of this “small teaching move” is to consistently communicate the value of the texts with which students will engage. In doing so, you prepare your students to grapple with the text’s meaning—what the author was seeking to convey, why it matters, and what moves the author made to convey that meaning.

The aim is not to tell your students what to think about the text but rather to model the type of intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm you hope to cultivate within them. After all, if we aspire for our students to be readers and thinkers, we must demonstrate to them that so are we. Through this “small teaching move,” we can do just that.

Let Kids Make Decisions

Mari Dean is an elementary school teacher in Northern Virginia with a passion for reimagining school systems where all kids experience agency, joy, and a deep sense of belonging. She is the author of Lessons in Community: A Teacher’s Guide to Reimagining Classroom Management and Social-Emotional Learning. You can connect with her on Instagram @lessonsincommunity.

One small teaching move that boosts engagement, empowers students, and strengthens your classroom community is entrusting kids to be decisionmakers in the classroom.

Just like adults, children crave freedom and influence. They want to feel a sense of control and impact on their world. When they do, they often become more invested in their learning and community. In schools where so much is already dictated and decided for kids, we can lean into opportunities to nurture agency rather than pushing against it for a culture of compliance. When we invite kids to make decisions, we convey that we trust them and see them as capable individuals. This can deepen kids’ sense of belonging, a crucial element for learning to occur. Here are a few ways to integrate more student decisionmaking into your classroom:

Noticing opportunities for kids to make decisions

As Alfie Kohn, author and advocate for educators, noted as far back as 1993, “The way a child learns how to make decisions is by making decisions, not by following directions.” If our goal is to help kids develop skills as thoughtful decisionmakers, we need to create space for them to do just that.

The good news is we don’t need to manufacture moments for kids to make decisions—the school day is ripe with opportunities! One way to think about this is to consider various components of your day—your schedule, curriculum, routines, classroom space—and identify opportunities where you might shift to invite kids’ voices in.

Instead of assigning seats, try teaching ways to choose a good spot and letting kids decide where to sit. Instead of telling kids what the class rules are, consider crafting shared values and promises together. Instead of telling kids arguing that they have to share, consider prompting them to decide how they’ll work it out in a fair way. Kids are often far more capable and innovative than we give them credit for.

Guiding decisionmaking in the classroom

It’s easy to slip into the dichotomy of thinking that either the teacher makes all decisions or students have total control. And yet, as we shift into encouraging kids to have more input in the classroom, the teacher role remains important. As teachers, we can guide students to pause and reflect before, during, and even after making decisions.

This might look like conferring with a student after they had an argument with a peer and asking them, “What are some ways you might repair together?” After they try out a strategy, you can reflect together asking, “How did it go?” and either continuing to problem-solve or celebrate how the student worked through the situation. It can be easy to slip back into the decisionmaking role for kids, but just as the coach doesn’t play in the game, we want to stay rooted in our role as a guide to allow the kids to build the skills in action.

If students are not used to being included in making decisions, they might say that they don’t know what to do or ask you what the “right” thing to do is. These are great opportunities for us to support students’ thinking with some guiding questions. Here are some guiding questions to keep in your back pocket that can help guide students as they’re trying this out:

• What choices are you considering?
• How could you try it?
• What might you try next?
• What went well? What might you want to do differently next time?

Observing and responding

Effective teaching involves observing students and responding to their strengths and needs. By pausing and noticing how students approach decisions, where they get stuck, or what conflicts arise, we gain valuable insights into what scaffolding and teaching they need. Are students fighting over a spot in line? Teach them problem-solving skills. Are their decisions negatively impacting others? Teach them perspective-taking. Expect there to be bumps and remember that this often indicates that kids need more opportunities, not less, to make decisions.

When we invite kids in as decisionmakers, we not only help them develop critical-thinking skills, we also help kids feel more invested in their community and learning. Where are there places you think you might invite kids in as decisionmakers?

The Original Thought Annotation

Sarah M. Zerwin began her career as a high school language arts teacher in 1996; she currently teaches in Boulder, Colo., and writes books for teachers that reflect her careerlong obsession to get out of her students’ way. See sarahmzerwin.com and her latest book, Step Aside: Strategies for Student-Driven Learning with Secondary Readers and Writers for more:

In an ongoing effort to keep myself from doing too much thinking for my students, I use a small teaching move that I call the Original Thought Annotation (OTA).

On a single 3x3-inch sticky note, I invite students to write “I noticed …” and then “I think …” What they notice should be something small, concrete, and specific in a text that grabbed their attention for any reason and what they think should be a sentence or two of original thinking about that small detail.

Given a handful of OTAs, students can look across their thinking based on small details in a text and start to cobble together some bigger ideas—ideas that are solely theirs, that started with their own initial noticing, that they can craft into larger pieces of writing or presentations or plans for revision or contributions to a class discussion or … (the possibilities are endless!). The simple OTA is a powerful tool for teaching students how to build their own ideas about any kind of text, no matter how complex.

In my high school language arts classroom, I use OTAs most frequently alongside reading books, short stories, plays, poems, essays, and articles to build my students’ skills and confidence in making sense of complex texts. But consider other potential uses with a broadened definition of “text”:

• In preparing to revise a piece of writing, invite a few OTAs about spots in a student’s writing the student notices as places to potentially revise: I noticed this sentence is difficult to follow. I think I could break it up and rewrite it.
  
• In reviewing performance on an exam, invite a few OTAs about specific items a student missed and what they think were the errors in their thinking: I noticed I got the answer wrong on the third equation. I think I messed up the factoring in my fifth step.
  
• To prepare for a conference conversation with a teacher, invite a few OTAs about the student’s work: I noticed the way I started the results section of my lab report is different from the model we were provided. I think I want to ask the teacher if the way I did it works or if I should make it look more like the example.
  
• To prepare for a discussion about a video, invite a few OTAs about details students notice in the video and why they think the class should talk about them: I noticed the protesters in this history video were chanting something similar to what I saw protesters chant in a news story about a recent protest in our town. I think we should talk about how our current tensions relate to the societal tensions shown in the video. Then invite students to share their OTAs in a small group to determine topics/questions for whole-class discussion about the video.
  
• To facilitate reflection over a students’ growth at semester’s end, invite a few OTAs about specific key moments from a student’s weekly learning reflections and what they reveal about the students’ learning journey: I noticed I had several weeks in a row where I did not hit the expected time of independent reading for the week. I think I was struggling during that time at managing my phone and spending way too much time scrolling mindlessly.

We can use OTAs to invite students to practice—again and again—how to figure out, on their own, what they think about any kind of text. In this way, we build students’ confidence about building their own ideas and provide them a strategy they can use well into the future to make meaning out of complexity.

Using Protocols

Sarah Tadmor is a 6th grade ELA teacher at Christa McAuliffe Charter School in Framingham, Mass., which recently earned a School Credential from EL Education. Sarah earned the 2024 Klingenstein Teacher Award, which is given annually to an outstanding teacher who brings to life the spirit and values of EL Education in the classroom:

In my 6th grade ELA classroom at Christa McAuliffe Charter School, we do a lot of protocols: discussion protocols to probe deeper into themes of a reading, information-sharing protocols like jigsaws, and peer-editing protocols. These protocols are already pretty structured in terms of what students should do while participating. However, the directions can sometimes overlook the interpersonal and unspoken norms that students need to follow to be sure the protocol is successful, so I use a small teaching move to help things go smoother and to establish peer-to-peer accountability in my classroom during these protocols.

For many years, I’ve had my students take a moment to talk as a class before we dive into a protocol. I explain what the steps of the protocol are, what they’ll be responsible for producing, and what the end goal is. Then, I ask them some iteration of the question: What do you need from your classmates in order for this to go well, and what do your classmates need from you?

Students come up with different answers based on the protocol. During book club discussions last trimester, one student wanted their group members to “share your real thoughts, even if you’re unsure.” When we do jigsaws, students often include, “Use your best handwriting so you can read your own notes when it’s your turn to share.”

If we’re doing a GOGOMO (Give One, Get One, Move On), I usually hear something that sounds like, “Don’t just talk to your friends.” In this case, I remind students that telling people what you don’t want them to do is not super helpful. Instead, I encourage them to frame these group expectations positively to give our classmates a list of things we would like to see them doing so there isn’t any gray area to misunderstand. For example, we would change “Don’t just talk to your friends” to “Talk to anybody.” In that same protocol, we usually add, “Approach people who seem shy so they can participate, too.”

As I call on people, I write their brainstormed expectations on the board. I reiterate at the end that following these expectations sets us up for a smoother class and greater success. During the protocol, I refer back to these group-established norms to redirect students. Sometimes, students even feel comfortable enough to do it themselves, if we’ve successfully built that vibe of peer-to-peer accountability in class.

At the end of every protocol, we always save some time to give shout-outs to each other. I ask everyone to review what we brainstormed, then students raise their hands to give a compliment to someone who followed one of the expectations. As with all feedback, students are encouraged to be specific (as well as kind and helpful). For example, “Kayla used a clear voice and repeated her words more than once so everybody could copy them down.”

Over time, this routine has become one of our most effective tools for building a cooperative, accountable classroom culture. By giving students space to name what they need from each other—and to celebrate when those expectations are met—they take greater ownership of both the process and each other’s success. It’s a simple move but one that consistently helps turn protocols into truly collaborative learning experiences.

Thanks to Michele, Mari, Sarah, and Sarah for contributing their thoughts.

Today’s contributors answered this question:

What is a “small teaching move” that you think is not as common as it should be? A “small teaching move” in this context is an action that would require very little prep, can easily be made into a routine or habit, and is likely to result in increased student engagement and learning.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on X at @Larryferlazzo or on Bluesky at @larryferlazzo.bsky.social

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