Welcome to Chalk Dust, the podcast that gives you a front row seat into some of the best classrooms in the world. There are lots of great conversations about teaching and education happening around the world right now. There are already so many fantastic podcasts out there about evidence based practice, and we're so excited to bring you one more, but this one has a distinctive difference.
Each episode, Rebecca Birch and Nathaniel Swain break down real classroom footage to illuminate the moments that make great teaching great. Teaching is both a science and an art. There are proven techniques that we know to work, but applying them in real classrooms is where the complexity lies.
Our goal? To help you develop the eye of an expert observer, so you can see what makes lessons effective and apply those insights into your own teaching or coaching practice.
Discover shows related to Chalk Dust, based on actual content similarities. Explore podcasts with similar topics, themes, and formats, backed by real data.
Season Two, Episode 11: The Penny Promise with Kris Boulton
Sunday, October 11, 2026 • Duration 42:34
Summary
In this episode of Chalk Dust, Rebecca Birch and Nathaniel Swain are joined by Kris Boulton, founder and CEO of Unstoppable Learning, to explore atomisation, an approach to instructional design that breaks complex learning into carefully sequenced, manageable elements. Drawing on classroom footage of Kris teaching algebra to primary and secondary students at Mastery Schools Australia, the discussion examines how precise explanations, minimally different examples and systematic checking for understanding can enable students to master mathematical concepts that initially appear well beyond their capabilities.
Kris demonstrates how deliberate instructional design can remove unnecessary cognitive demands, allowing students to concentrate on exactly what they are learning. Through examples of expanding algebraic expressions, he explains why the selection and sequencing of examples matter, how to separate arithmetic from new mathematical procedures, and how mini whiteboards and immediate corrective feedback help teachers identify and address errors before moving forward. Central to his approach is the Penny Promise: if students give their attention and follow the instruction, the responsibility for their success rests with the teacher.
Throughout the episode, Rebecca, Nathaniel and Kris explore the relationship between instructional design, cognitive load, student motivation and teaching expertise. The conversation extends beyond mathematics into broader questions about teaching sentence construction, selecting examples, managing instructional pace and the balance between explicit modelling and guided practice. Ultimately, the episode challenges teachers to consider how much more students might learn when every explanation, example and practice opportunity is designed with precision.
Mentioned resources and explainers
Kris Boulton
Kris Boulton is an international teacher educator and education writer specialising in evidence-informed instructional design. He has contributed to England’s Early Career Framework and Ofsted’s Mathematics Inspection Framework, led teacher educator development at Teach First, and helped design Up Learn’s learning system.
Unstoppable Learning
Founded by Kris Boulton, Unstoppable Learning works with schools to improve mathematics instruction through a structured approach to instructional design known as atomisation. The organisation focuses on making complex learning accessible through precise explanations and carefully sequenced examples.
Atomisation
An approach to instructional design that breaks learning into a small number of fundamental elements, each requiring a particular form of explanation and sequencing. Kris argues that identifying these elements allows teachers to design instruction that minimises ambiguity and prevents predictable misconceptions.
The Penny Promise
Named after Kris’s early-career mentor, Penny Jones, the Penny Promise is a commitment to students that if they pay attention and follow the instruction, they will succeed. It places responsibility on the teacher to design and deliver instruction that makes success possible.
Engelmann and Carnine – Theory of Instruction
Siegfried Engelmann and Douglas Carnine developed Direct Instruction, a systematic approach to instructional design that informs Kris’s work. Their Theory of Instruction examines how examples, non-examples, transformations and carefully controlled variations can support accurate learning and generalisation.
Minimally Different Examples
Examples that change only one carefully selected feature at a time. By controlling what changes and what stays the same, teachers can direct students’ attention to the specific concept or procedure being taught.
The Setup Principle
A principle associated with Engelmann and Carnine’s instructional design in which irrelevant features of examples are kept constant while the feature being taught is varied. Kris discusses how this might apply to teaching sentence syntax without simultaneously introducing challenging vocabulary.
Cognitive Load and Instructional Design
Kris explains how unnecessary arithmetic can interfere with learning a new mathematical procedure. By using simple number facts or stopping tasks before the calculation stage, teachers can direct students’ attention towards the intended learning rather than competing demands.
Instruction and Testing Sequences
Kris distinguishes between the initial presentation of carefully sequenced examples and the subsequent testing sequence, where students respond independently on mini whiteboards. Teachers use these responses to identify errors, provide feedback and determine whether students are ready to progress.
Mini Whiteboards and Corrective Feedback
Mini whiteboards allow teachers to check every student’s response and provide immediate feedback. Kris demonstrates how repeated opportunities to respond, combined with precise correction, help students move towards mastery.
Kick-Yourself Mistakes
A term Kris credits to his mentor Penny Jones, describing small errors that students recognise immediately when shown the correct response. The approach helps normalise mistakes while encouraging students to attend carefully to the correction.
Instructional Pace
Kris discusses the importance of moving through examples and practice opportunities efficiently without sacrificing understanding. The principle of going as fast as you can, but as slow as you must captures the balance between providing sufficient scaffolding and maximising opportunities to practise.
* Atomisation breaks complex learning into fundamental elements that can be taught through carefully designed instructional sequences.
* Precise instructional design can prevent misconceptions rather than simply responding to them after they occur.
* The Penny Promise places responsibility for student success on the teacher, provided students attend to and follow the instruction.
* Minimally different examples help students identify what changes and what remains constant, supporting generalisation.
* Introducing one new element at a time reduces unnecessary cognitive demands and allows students to focus on the intended learning.
* Teaching a new mathematical procedure does not necessarily require students to practise difficult arithmetic at the same time.
* Students may need several closely sequenced practice opportunities before they can consistently apply a new procedure.
* Atomisation may have applications beyond mathematics, including teaching sentence syntax and other aspects of writing.
* Instructional pace matters because efficient routines create more opportunities for students to practise within the available learning time.
* Effective teaching requires both subject expertise and the ability to transform that knowledge into explanations and examples that novices can understand.
* Student success can be a powerful source of motivation, particularly when learners recognise that they have mastered something previously considered difficult.
Keywords
Kris Boulton, Unstoppable Learning, atomisation, instructional design, explicit instruction, mathematics teaching, algebra, minimally different examples, Engelmann and Carnine, Theory of Instruction, Penny Promise, cognitive load, worked examples, guided practice, mini whiteboards, corrective feedback, checking for understanding, instructional sequencing, generalisation, mathematical notation, instructional pace, mastery learning, student motivation, evidence-informed teaching, Chalk Dust podcast
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Season Two, Episode 10: Professor Anna Stokke on Effective and Engaging Math(s) Instruction
Sunday, August 30, 2026 • Duration 36:13
Summary
In this special in-person episode of Chalk Dust, recorded at researchEd Melbourne at Haileybury, Rebecca Birch and Nathaniel Swain are joined by Professor Anna Stokke, mathematician, educator and host of the Chalk & Talk podcast. Together they analyse classroom footage from Australian mathematics lessons, exploring how carefully sequenced instruction, explicit teaching and strong classroom routines support successful mathematics learning.
Across examples including number bonds, subtraction algorithms, number lines and percentages, Anna explains why mathematics should be taught through deliberate sequencing, clear modelling and extensive guided practice. The discussion examines pair-share routines, scripted mathematics programs, mastery of mathematical symbols, the role of automaticity, and why concrete materials should be viewed as temporary scaffolds rather than permanent learning tools.
Throughout the episode, Rebecca, Nathaniel and Professor Stokke discuss mathematics-specific pedagogy, instructional coaching, pedagogical content knowledge and the importance of ensuring every student has access to effective mathematics instruction. The conversation argues that explicit mathematics teaching is not passive or robotic, but highly interactive, intellectually demanding and built around giving students repeated experiences of success.
Special thanks to Pat Sanders, Ollie Lovell and Brendan Lee for their help with this episode.
Mentioned resources and explainers
Professor Anna Stokke
Anna Stokke is Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Winnipeg, adjunct professor and honorary co-director of the Science of Mathematics Lab at La Trobe University, and host of the podcast. Her work focuses on evidence-informed mathematics education and improving mathematics instruction.
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Season Two, Episode 9: Every Class is a Reading Class
Season 2 · Episode 9
Monday, August 10, 2026 • Duration 39:52
Summary
In this episode of Chalk Dust, Rebecca Birch and Nathaniel Swain are joined by Andrew McCrorey, an experienced educator and instructional leader at Monterey Secondary College in Victoria. Drawing on classroom footage from a secondary setting serving a highly disadvantaged community, Andrew demonstrates how explicit instruction, trauma-informed positive education and high expectations can work together rather than compete with one another.
The discussion explores entry routines, co-regulation, secondary choral reading, gist statements, cold calling, participation as an equity issue, and the explicit teaching of behaviour expectations. Andrew explains how consistency across classrooms can function as an equity strategy, creating predictable environments in which students know what success looks like and teachers can focus on teaching rather than repeatedly resetting behaviour.
Across the episode, Rebecca, Nathaniel and Andrew return to the idea that supporting students does not require lowering the bar. Instead, effective practice combines strong relationships, clear routines, deliberate participation structures and carefully sequenced academic support. The result is a classroom where students are both safe and challenged, and where literacy, behaviour and wellbeing are treated as interconnected parts of successful teaching.
Mentioned resources and explainers
Andrew McCrorey
Andrew McCrorey is an educator with more than 20 years’ experience teaching in Australia and internationally. His work focuses on explicit instruction, behaviour support, trauma-informed positive education and improving classroom practice in complex educational settings.
Monterey Secondary College
Monterey Secondary College is located in Frankston North, Victoria. Andrew describes the school’s approach as combining evidence-informed teaching, trauma-informed positive education and consistency across classrooms to improve student learning and engagement.
Trauma-Informed Positive Education
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Season Two, Episode 8: Getting Hands-On
Season 2 · Episode 8
Sunday, July 19, 2026 • Duration 37:29
Summary
In this episode of Chalk Dust, Rebecca Birch and Nathaniel Swain are joined by STEM educator Amber Haven to explore what happens when explicit instruction meets genuinely engaging hands-on learning. Using footage from Amber’s middle-school STEM classroom, the discussion follows a lesson on neutral buoyancy, revealing how carefully designed routines allow practical investigations to remain cognitively demanding rather than descending into chaos.
Amber demonstrates how retrieval practice, mini-whiteboards, Six Bricks, gesture, choral response and explicit behaviour routines work together to create classrooms where every student is thinking. Throughout the episode, Rebecca, Nathaniel and Amber discuss the importance of background knowledge, continuous checking for understanding, purposeful transitions, differentiation without lowering expectations, and designing practical activities that provide immediate feedback. The conversation highlights how high-quality classroom routines free students to focus on learning rather than logistics, making complex scientific concepts accessible through deliberate instructional design.
Mentioned resources and explainers
Amber Haven
Amber Haven is a STEM educator with more than 16 years of classroom experience and a strong focus on translating cognitive science into practical classroom strategies. She has presented at ResearchED conferences across the United States and at the Thriving Educators Summit, and her work has been featured by The Learning Scientists and in Powerful Classrooms by Patrice Bain.
Retrieval Practice
Throughout the lesson, Amber demonstrates retrieval as an ongoing classroom habit rather than a single lesson component. Students repeatedly retrieve knowledge through mini-whiteboards, questioning, gestures, closed sentences and practical activities.
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Season Two, Episode 7: Everyone can learn mathematics with John Mighton
Sunday, June 21, 2026 • Duration 51:21
Summary
In this episode of Chalk Dust, Rebecca Birch and Nathaniel Swain are joined by renowned mathematician, educator and founder of JUMP Math, John Mighton. Drawing on classroom footage from Canadian primary classrooms, John shares the instructional principles that underpin his work: breaking complex ideas into manageable steps, ensuring every student experiences success, and building confidence through carefully sequenced learning.
The discussion explores the relationship between motivation and achievement, challenging the idea that some students are simply “maths people” while others are not. John argues that confidence is not a prerequisite for success but a consequence of it. Through examples from lessons on place value and long division, he demonstrates how micro-scaffolding, structured inquiry, and deliberate practice can help students tackle sophisticated mathematical ideas while remaining engaged and optimistic.
Throughout the episode, Rebecca, Nathaniel and John discuss the role of challenge, the importance of maintaining students in an optimal learning zone, micro-scaffolding, and how effective teachers create classrooms where every learner can participate in meaningful thinking. The conversation extends beyond mathematics into broader questions about motivation, differentiation, classroom culture and what it means to teach with both precision and humanity.
Mentioned resources and explainers
John Mighton
John Mighton is a mathematician, playwright and educator best known as the founder of JUMP Math. His work focuses on making mathematics accessible to all students through carefully sequenced instruction, micro-scaffolding and high expectations. His books can be found here, and .
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Season Two, Episode 6: The Knowledge Rich Classroom of Laura Stam
Sunday, May 31, 2026 • Duration 43:52
Summary
In this episode of Chalk Dust, Rebecca Birch and Dr Nathaniel Swain are joined by Laura Stam, a third grade teacher in Wyoming, writer of The Knowledge Exchange on Substack, 2024–2025 Goyen Fellow, and founding board member of The Reading League Wyoming. Laura takes us inside a knowledge-rich history lesson on the earliest Native American peoples of North America, with a particular focus on the Arapaho and Shoshone peoples of Wyoming.
The episode explores how a text-based lesson can be highly interactive, precise, and content-rich without becoming fragmented. Using a knowledge organiser, document camera, shared reading, choral responses, pair shares, sentence stems, and a co-constructed Venn diagram, Laura shows how students can build deep knowledge while also practising reading, speaking, listening, and writing. The conversation highlights how explicit teaching can remain flexible and responsive when the content itself drives the lesson.
Across the episode, Rebecca and Nathaniel unpack the small moves that make the lesson work: high participation, full sentence responses, careful questioning, purposeful pauses, and frequent opportunities for students to rehearse and elaborate their thinking. The result is a classroom where students are excited to contribute, but supported enough to do so with precision and confidence.
Mentioned resources and explainers
The Knowledge ExchangeLaura’s Substack, focused on building teacher knowledge through practical resources, classroom examples, and reflections on evidence-informed teaching.
The Reading League WyomingLaura is a founding board member of The Reading League Wyoming, part of a broader movement supporting knowledge about evidence-aligned reading instruction.
Core Knowledge History and GeographyLaura adapted parts of the lesson from Core Knowledge History and Geography materials on the earliest Americans, then supplemented them with local content on the Arapaho and Shoshone peoples.
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Season Two, Episode 5: The choreography of learning
Sunday, May 10, 2026 • Duration 39:00
Summary
In this episode of Chalk Dust, Rebecca Birch and Dr Nathaniel Swain are joined by Hannah Pointon, a Year 3/4 teacher at Woodstock School in Hamilton, New Zealand. Hannah shares how her school has moved towards structured literacy, structured maths, explicit teaching, and teaching behaviour as a curriculum in its own right.
Using early-year classroom footage, the episode explores how clear routines transform classroom life: lining up, entering the room, organising materials, whole-class reading, whiteboard responses in maths, and even collecting lunchboxes. Hannah shows how routines that look simple on the surface are deliberately taught, scaffolded, practised, and reinforced until they become calm, independent habits.
Across the conversation, the hosts reflect on the difference between reacting to chaos and proactively teaching the behaviours students need for learning, safety, and belonging. The result is a classroom that feels purposeful, warm, and highly structured — not because students are constrained, but because they know exactly how to succeed.
Mentioned resources and explainers
Structured literacyA systematic approach to teaching reading that gives students explicit instruction in the skills and knowledge needed for reading success.
Structured mathsAn approach to maths teaching that emphasises clear modelling, practice, fluency, and careful sequencing of foundational knowledge.
The Writing RevolutionA writing approach that supports sentence-level and paragraph-level instruction through explicit, carefully sequenced routines.
Teaching behaviour as curriculumThe idea that behaviour should not be assumed; it should be explicitly taught, practised, checked, and reinforced like any academic skill.
Entry routinesHannah’s students line up, enter in order, put shoes away, sit down, and begin handwriting. The routine is scaffolded early in the year so students gradually become independent.
Whole-class readingHannah uses routines such as tracking, echo reading, buddy reading, and self-reading to support fluency, accountability, vocabulary, and comprehension.
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Season Two, Episode 4: The power of precision
Sunday, April 19, 2026 • Duration 20:07
Summary
In this second part of their conversation with Adam Boxer, Rebecca Birch and Nathaniel Swain move from behaviour and presence into the micro-detail of questioning, participation, and formative assessment. Using a retrieval practice clip, Adam unpacks how tightly structured classroom talk—particularly through “name at end” questioning, deliberate wait time, and systematic student selection—ensures every student is cognitively engaged.
The discussion highlights how seemingly small choices in questioning routines shape accountability, attention, and the flow of classroom thinking. Adam reframes familiar ideas such as “cold call” and “no opt out” into more precise, actionable language, arguing that naming strategies clearly improve teacher implementation. The episode also explores “looping” as a formative assessment technique, where teachers return to students to probe understanding and track learning in real time.
Beyond technique, the conversation turns to subject knowledge, with Adam suggesting that while it matters, classroom control and participation structures are foundational. The episode closes with a broader reflection on professional learning, teacher buy-in, and the importance of giving teachers practical, effective strategies that genuinely improve classroom experience.
Part 1 (Episode 3) is below if you’re new to the pod and want to dive in here first.
Mentioned resources and explainers
Carousel Learning
Carousel Learning is Adam Boxer’s retrieval practice platform for students. It is designed to support retrieval and checking for understanding through structured classroom routines and digital tools.
Carousel Teaching
Carousel Teaching is the professional learning platform attached to Carousel Learning. It combines video exemplars, commentary, quizzes, and courses on specific aspects of classroom practice such as questioning, mini whiteboards, lesson starts, and behaviour management.
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Season Two, Episode 3: Getting nitty gritty with it
Sunday, March 15, 2026 • Duration 36:04
Summary
In this special episode of Chalk Dust, Nathaniel Swain and Rebecca Birch sit down with Adam Boxer to explore the thinking behind Carousel Teaching’s new video library. Rather than simply showcasing polished classroom clips, Adam explains how the platform is designed to pair tightly curated footage with explicit professional learning, commentary, and guidance so teachers understand not just what works, but why. The conversation focuses on one deceptively small but powerful domain of classroom craft: behaviour, transitions, and teacher presence.
Using clips from Adam’s own classroom and from colleagues Abby and Jack, the episode examines how teachers can prevent disruption before it starts through eye contact, body positioning, clear instructions, visible scanning, and carefully calibrated countdowns. Adam argues that strong classroom culture is not built through friendliness or vague notions of “relationships” alone, but through clear routines, consistent expectations, and precise, replicable moves. Across the discussion, the hosts reflect on what makes video-based professional learning useful: the chance to see normal classrooms, normal friction, and the specific choices that make lessons run smoothly.
Mentioned resources and explainers
Carousel Learning
Carousel Learning is Adam Boxer’s retrieval practice platform for students. It is designed to support retrieval and checking for understanding through structured classroom routines and digital tools.
Carousel Teaching
Carousel Teaching is the professional learning platform attached to Carousel Learning. It combines video exemplars, commentary, quizzes, and courses on specific aspects of classroom practice such as questioning, mini whiteboards, lesson starts, and behaviour management.
Turnaround school
Adam explains that the Totteridge Academy (), where the videos were filmed, is not a selective or “startup” school built from scratch with ideal conditions. It is a turnaround school: a previously low-performing school that has significantly improved. This matters because the strategies shown are intended to feel achievable in ordinary school contexts.
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Season Two: Episode 2: Expertise Goes Global
Sunday, February 22, 2026 • Duration 33:56
Summary
In this episode of Chalk Dust, Rebecca Birch and Dr Nathaniel Swain are joined by Jo-Anne Dooner and Geoff Ongley from Get Reading Right, Training 24/7 and Learning 24/7. The conversation explores how high-quality, knowledge-rich literacy instruction can be made accessible at scale — including in remote and international contexts.
Using training videos rather than live classroom footage, Jo-Anne models a structured morning routine designed to build factual knowledge, grammatical metalanguage, and sentence construction over time. The episode unpacks how deliberate instruction in parts of speech, schema-building, chanting, live scribing, and gradual release culminates in a “quarantined” writing lesson with a clear end in mind.
The discussion moves beyond classroom technique to the broader question of instructional coaching and teacher development. Rebecca and Nathaniel reflect on the importance of showing teachers what excellence looks like, especially in contexts where high-quality modelling is scarce. The episode closes with a powerful example from Fiji, where the implementation of morning routines has contributed to renewed student engagement and school attendance.
Jo-Anne references the importance of background knowledge in writing. The idea is that students struggle to write not because of grammar deficits alone, but because they lack facts and schema to draw upon. Morning routines are used to deliberately build that knowledge base.
Morning Routine
A 30-minute daily session focused on explicitly teaching factual knowledge, vocabulary, grammar metalanguage, and oral rehearsal. Knowledge is built cumulatively across the week and displayed on a “schema poster” for later retrieval in reading and writing lessons.
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Chalk Dust, a podcast by Nathaniel Swain - Stats, Episodes and Rankings - My Podcast Data
A structured primary mathematics program developed by Toni Hatton-Roberts and Ollie Lovell. The program emphasises carefully sequenced instruction, explicit modelling, guided practice and cumulative review.
An Australian special-assistance school network implementing explicit, carefully sequenced mathematics instruction.
Number Bonds
An early mathematics concept helping students understand part-whole relationships between numbers, providing foundations for later arithmetic and algebraic reasoning.
Standard Algorithms
Traditional written methods for operations such as subtraction. Anna argues that carefully sequenced instruction in standard algorithms develops procedural fluency while reinforcing place value understanding.
Automaticity
The ability to retrieve basic number facts rapidly and effortlessly. Automatic recall reduces cognitive load, allowing students to focus on more complex mathematical thinking.
Concrete Materials
Physical manipulatives used to introduce mathematical concepts. Anna argues they should be temporary instructional scaffolds rather than ongoing computational tools.
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)
The specialised knowledge teachers need to teach a particular subject effectively, including understanding misconceptions, sequencing and representations. Rebecca reflects on whether mathematics-specific instructional coaching deserves greater attention.
Scripted Instruction
Instructional programs that carefully sequence explanations, examples and practice opportunities. The discussion explores how well-designed scripts can support teacher expertise while still allowing individual teaching style to emerge.
A framework used at Monterey to support student regulation, relationships and readiness to learn. Andrew emphasises that trauma-informed practice is not about lowering expectations, but about raising expectations while providing the support students need to meet them.
Four-to-One Positive to Corrective Feedback
Andrew describes using a high ratio of positive to corrective feedback during routines such as lesson entry. Positive narration, greeting students warmly and acknowledging successful behaviour help establish a calm, predictable start.
Entry Routines
A tightly rehearsed lesson-entry process in which students know what materials to collect, where to go and what task to begin. Andrew explains how predictable entry routines support regulation, reduce bottlenecks and maximise learning time.
Choral Reading
Students read a text aloud together, following the teacher’s pacing and expression. Andrew uses choral reading in secondary English to build fluency, confidence, prosody and participation while allowing the teacher to hear and correct reading in real time.
Gist Statements
A summarising strategy in which students identify who or what a section is about, select key details and then condense the information into a single statement. Andrew uses this as part of a gradual release process to support comprehension and later writing.
Cold Calling
Andrew uses cold calling after students have had time to rehearse thinking through pair discussion. He frames participation as an equity issue, while also maintaining flexibility when a student is not ready to respond.
Tracking the Speaker
A universal attention routine used across the school. Students are explicitly taught to orient towards the speaker so that teachers can secure attention efficiently and maintain lesson flow.
Explicit Teaching of Behaviour
Rather than relying on broad classroom rules, Andrew teaches specific routines for situations such as arriving late. Students are shown what to do, what to expect, and how consequences will work, reducing uncertainty and preserving learning time.
Mini-whiteboards allow every student to participate, provide immediate formative assessment, and make thinking visible. Amber discusses the routines required to use them fluently throughout a lesson.
Six Bricks
Six Bricks is a hands-on retrieval strategy that uses coloured Duplo bricks to sequence concepts, definitions or problems. Students retrieve vocabulary while constructing a coloured stack, allowing rapid checking for understanding and high levels of engagement.
Continuous Checking for Understanding
Rather than reserving checks for understanding for isolated moments, Amber embeds them throughout explanations, transitions and instructions, ensuring students remain cognitively engaged from beginning to end.
Gesture and Dual Coding
The episode explores how gesture, movement and simple physical cues support memory and retrieval—even with older students who may initially resist participating.
Differentiation
Amber demonstrates how differentiation can maintain common learning goals while adjusting the amount of work or level of support individual students receive, rather than lowering expectations or creating entirely different tasks.
Practical Science with Explicit Instruction
The discussion explores how carefully sequenced demonstrations, clear success criteria and explicit routines allow practical science lessons to remain focused on conceptual understanding rather than entertainment.
JUMP Math is an instructional approach and curriculum developed by John Mighton. The model emphasises breaking learning into small achievable steps while maintaining conceptual understanding and challenge.
The 85% Rule
A principle discussed by John suggesting that learners are most motivated when they are successful most of the time, but still experience enough challenge to stretch their thinking. The goal is to avoid both frustration and boredom.
Structured Inquiry
Rather than choosing between explicit instruction and discovery learning, structured inquiry carefully guides students towards important insights through well-designed questions, examples and prompts.
Micro-Scaffolding
A teaching approach that breaks complex concepts into very small, manageable components so that students experience repeated success while building towards sophisticated understanding.
Collective Confidence
John discusses how confidence can become a collective classroom phenomenon. When students repeatedly experience success and see their peers succeeding, expectations about who can learn begin to change.
Deliberate Practice
The idea that expertise develops through carefully designed practice targeting specific areas for improvement. John discusses how this principle influenced his thinking about mathematics instruction.
The End of Ignorance
John Mighton’s book exploring mathematics learning, intelligence, and the belief that far more students can succeed in mathematics than is commonly assumed.
Knowledge organiserA one-page resource that captures key knowledge for a unit, including timelines, maps, vocabulary, and important facts. In this lesson, the knowledge organiser supports retrieval, review, previewing, and coherence across lessons. More on this here.
Document camera / visualiserLaura uses a document camera rather than slide decks so she can move flexibly between texts, maps, organisers, and student work. It allows live modelling, annotation, and co-construction.
All hands upA participation routine where all students prepare an answer and raise their hands, giving the teacher a sample of responses while maintaining high accountability.
Sentence stemsStructured sentence starters that help students answer in full sentences and elaborate their thinking. Laura uses them to support oral responses and later written work.
Pair share: windows and doorsStudents are assigned as “windows” or “doors” partners so they know who speaks first. This keeps pair discussion efficient and gives every student an opportunity to rehearse.
Shared reading with cloze responsesLaura reads aloud while students follow the text and chorally supply missing words when she pauses. This keeps attention high and gives students frequent opportunities to respond.
Phrase readingStudents are called on to read short sections aloud, with support as needed. Laura uses this carefully so all students can participate without embarrassment.
Advance organiserNathaniel connects Laura’s knowledge organiser to the idea of an advanced organiser: a structure given before learning that helps students make sense of new information.
Venn diagramLaura uses a co-constructed Venn diagram to help students compare and contrast the Arapaho, Shoshone, Inuit, and Eastern Woodlands peoples. This supports conceptual links across lessons.
* Knowledge-rich lessons can be highly interactive when students are given frequent, purposeful opportunities to respond.
* Knowledge organisers help students see the structure of a unit and retrieve important information across lessons.
* A document camera can support flexible teaching, live modelling, and co-construction more fluidly than a slide deck.
* Full sentence responses help students clarify their thinking orally before writing.
* Pair shares distribute enthusiasm and give all students a chance to rehearse ideas, not just the keenest hands.
* Stopping during shared reading helps students hold on to important information rather than losing the beginning of the paragraph.
* Cloze responses during reading keep attention high and help students practise key vocabulary in context.
* Explicit teaching does not have to be rigid; in a text-based lesson, the content can guide the movement between modelling, guided practice, and independent work.
* Co-constructed notes and diagrams reduce cognitive load before students move into independent writing.
* Strong scaffolding makes independent practice calmer, more productive, and more successful.
Keywords
knowledge-rich curriculum, Laura Stam, The Knowledge Exchange, Core Knowledge, knowledge organiser, document camera, visualiser, shared reading, cloze responses, phrase reading, full sentence answers, sentence stems, pair share, all hands up, Venn diagram, advanced organiser, explicit teaching, cognitive load, Native American history, Arapaho, Shoshone, classroom talk
TrackersStudents use a piece of paper to follow the line of text as they read. Hannah prefers paper over rulers because it is quieter and supports focused tracking.
Whiteboard normsStudents practise answering on mini whiteboards, holding boards still, turning them together, and showing work even when unfinished. The routine supports participation and gives the teacher quick feedback.
Fluency in maths factsThe episode highlights the importance of students knowing basic facts automatically so they are not held back by cognitive load when learning more complex maths.
Pre-correctionNathaniel references Anita Archer’s principle: if you expect something, pre-correct it. Hannah’s routines show this in action by preventing predictable problems before they occur.
A widely used framework (and book!) for classroom techniques, including “cold call” and participation strategies discussed and critiqued in the episode.
‘Name at end’ questioning
A questioning technique where the teacher asks the question first, provides thinking time, and only then names the student. This maximises participation and ensures all students prepare an answer.
Looping
Adam’s preferred term for returning to a student after an initial response to reassess understanding, supporting ongoing formative assessment.
Takeaways
* Precise questioning routines—especially “name at end” with built-in wait time—ensure all students are thinking, not just those volunteering answers.
* Replacing broad labels like “cold call” with tightly defined techniques improves clarity and implementation for teachers.
* Formative assessment can be embedded in live classroom talk through strategies like looping back to students and probing partial understanding.
* Small instructional decisions, such as how a teacher responds to an incorrect or repeated answer, can reveal or obscure key diagnostic information.
* Strong classroom participation structures matter more than perfect subject knowledge, particularly for early career teachers.
* Teacher expertise develops through structured interaction patterns that reveal misconceptions and build understanding over time.
* Effective professional learning focuses on actionable techniques that reduce classroom friction and improve teacher experience.
* Teacher buy-in is often a response to prior poor professional learning; providing clear, effective strategies is the most reliable way to rebuild it.
* Naming and codifying techniques helps teachers see, remember, and apply them more consistently in practice.
* Even experienced teachers continue to refine their practice through close analysis of classroom footage and micro-level decisions.
A technique Adam links to Teach Like a Champion. It is not enough for a teacher to scan the room; students need to know they are being scanned. Visible attention helps prevent disruption before it begins.
Anticipate triggers
A strategy for preventing predictable moments of chaos. For example, if the phrase “pack up” tends to trigger movement too early, the teacher structures instructions to avoid that premature response.
Break eye contact
One of Adam’s highly specific behaviour techniques. After giving a correction, the teacher does not linger, negotiate, or invite backchat; they break eye contact and move on, signalling certainty and preventing escalation.
Circulation and the “crab walk”
Adam challenges the idea that teachers should constantly wander while addressing the class. Instead, he argues that movement should be purposeful and timed carefully, especially during independent practice. His “crab walk” describes circulating while keeping the body square to as many students as possible and the eyes up, maintaining oversight of the room.
Metronomic and non-metronomic countdowns
The episode closes with a close look at countdowns. Adam distinguishes between evenly timed countdowns and flexible ones that adapt to the task. The key principle is that countdowns should preserve urgency while still being fair and achievable.
Takeaways
* Video-based professional learning is most useful when it is paired with explanation, commentary, and shared language about what teachers are seeing.
* Teachers benefit from seeing normal classrooms, including moments of friction and correction, not just idealised footage.
* Strong behaviour management is often proactive rather than reactive: positioning, scanning, timing, and clarity matter before correction is ever needed.
* “Relationships” are valuable in themselves, but they are not a sufficient explanation for orderly classrooms.
* Students do not behave simply because they like a teacher; clear routines, boundaries, and expectations still matter.
* Teacher presence is communicated through body position, eye contact, and visible monitoring as much as through words.
* Circulation is most effective when it is purposeful and timed well, rather than constant wandering during teacher talk.
* Precise strategy names such as “be seen looking”, “anticipate triggers”, and “break eye contact” make coaching and implementation more actionable.
* Countdowns can support pace and urgency, but they need to match the actual demands of the task.
* Excellent classroom routines balance warmth, fairness, and high expectations.
A cumulative anchor chart that captures key facts from the week’s learning. Built gradually and used as a scaffold for writing, encouraging note-taking rather than copying.
Metalanguage
Explicit teaching of grammatical terminology (subject, predicate, clause, verb, preposition). Jo-Anne argues that young students can handle sophisticated metalanguage if it is taught deliberately and consistently.
Live Scribing and Think-Aloud
Modelling the writing process in real time, narrating decisions about capitals, spacing, verbs, and punctuation. This makes cognitive processes visible and reduces guesswork for novice writers.
Gradual Release Across the Week
Monday–Tuesday: teacher modelling and repetition
Wednesday: partner talk
Thursday: small-group rehearsal
Friday: independent oral rehearsal in full sentences
Takeaways
* High-quality literacy teaching begins with clarity about the final product and works backwards from there.
* Students benefit from explicit knowledge-building before being asked to write.
* Metalanguage is not beyond young learners when taught deliberately and repeatedly.
* Live modelling and think-aloud reduce cognitive overload and make writing processes visible.
* Repetition across the week builds fluency, confidence, and independence.
* Instructional coaching is more powerful when teachers can see and analyse excellent models.
* Structured routines can be adapted and scaled internationally, supporting teachers who may not have access to formal training.
* Knowledge-rich instruction builds not just skill, but motivation and engagement.
