Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

04.07.16 Watch Carefully: Prevention Beats Cure

“Students say I’m strict, but I don’t write referrals. How is that?” Peter D. Ford, a teacher I admire, recently tweeted. There’s something deeply important to reflect on in his words. In the classroom, as in medicine, prevention always beats cure. What you want is not so much the ability to fix it when students are…