Setting High Academic

Expectations

Teach Like a Champion 2.0

Chrissy Reese
The goals of this chapter
To build a “culture of better”

Being pushed by your teacher a little further is normalized

Taking a look at the five techniques derived from champion

teachers

Opt Out, Right is Right, Stretch It, Format Matters and

Without Apology

These techniques build a culture, raise expectations, and

differentiate GREAT classrooms from good ones
NO OPT OUT

Turning “I don't know” into success by ensuring that students who

won't try or can't answer practice getting it right (pg. 90)

It's not OK to not try

Eliminating the option for students to not answer

Can help ensure that all students especially reluctant ones take
responsibility for learning

Effective with students who genuinely don't know the answer because it
helps them “rehearse success”
NO OPT OUT continued...

Many students come to school expecting to fail because they've

normalized failure…

Teachers tend to forget how powerful it can be for a student to

experience simple success when it is so rare.

Finally..

NO OPT OUT honors and validates students who do know the answer by
allowing them to help their peers in a positive and public way.

Pgs. 94-98 show great examples of No Opt Out

Right is Right!
Technique: when you respond to answers in class, hold out for
answers that are “all the way right” or all the way to your
standards of rigor

Saying right to not exactly the right answer will withhold the
student from truly finding the correct answer

Right is Right is about the difference between partially right

and all the way right, between pretty good and 100 percent
correct.
Right is Right continued..
Teachers = the arbiters of equality; what counts as right or
what has answered a question fully and well

Sometimes there are questions that have no right answers,

BUT…

Every CHAMPION teacher asks questions that are open to

interpretation or require nuance, but overall this, the answer
must be a high-quality response.

Example of reaching for the RIGHT answer: Romeo and Juliet

 Right is Right continued..
Scenarios of using RIGHT IS RIGHT

Holding out for all the way right: resisting saying the student is all
the way right when they are only partially right

Answer my question: insisting that students are disciplined about

answering the question i've asked

Right answer right time: resisting giving a student credit when

he/she rushes ahead of us

Specific vocab: locking down the details in precise words and

technology
Stretch It
Reward “right” Answers with harder questions

Making their classroom a place where the reward for right

answers is harder questions.

Posing a challenge helps ensure the reliability of correct

answers when you make your follow-up a “how or “why
question

Stretch it can help build a culture where students want,

expect, and relish challenge, and where they perhaps embrace
a growth mindset
Stretch it

Stretch it Involves doing 3 things:

-making a habit of asking follow up questions to successful

answers

-asking a diversity of types of questions

-building a culture around those interactions that helps

students embrace, and even welcome, the notion that learning
is never done
Examples of Stretch It

teacher : how far is it from Durango from Pueblo?

Student: six hundred miles

Teacher: how did you get that?

Student: by measuring 3 inches in the map and adding 2

hundred plus two plus two hundred plus two hundred

Teacher: how'd you know how to do that?

Format Matters

Help your students practice responding in a format that

communicates the worthiness of their ideas

Format matters prepares your students to succeed by

making complete sentences and proficient syntax the
expectation in the classroom

Teachers who understand the importance of this technique

rely on three basic format expectations: grammatical format,
sentence format, and audible format
Format Matters continued..

Grammatical format: correcting slang, syntax, usage, and grammar in your

classroom prepares students to succeed, even if you believe that divergences
form “standard” are acceptable and normal. There is a language of opportunity,
the code that signals preparedness and proficiency to the broadest possible
audience

Example: code switching

Identify the error: we was walking down the street

Begin the conversation: we were walking down the street

Without Apology

Embarace! Rather than apologize for rigorous content,

academic challenge, and the hard work necessary to
scholarship

No longer saying: “guys i know this is kind of dull let's just try
to get through it. Students will automatically believe it is going
to be boring because you said it will be!

There is no such thing as boring content but there is such a

thing as a boring teacher...
Alternatives to No Apology

This material is great because it's really challenging!

Lots of people don't understand this until they get to college,

but you'll know it before them, how cool is that?

This can really help you succeed

Were going to have some fun doing this project!

There's a great story behind this!