This document summarizes key principles from Chapters 5 and 6 of Teach Like a Champion for establishing strong classroom structure and maintaining high behavioral expectations. It discusses the five principles of classroom culture: discipline, management, control, influence, and engagement. It also covers specific classroom management techniques like entry routines, "Do Now" activities, tight transitions, binder control, "SLANT", "On Your Mark", seat signals, props, 100% compliance, "What to Do" directions, using a strong voice, "Do It Again", sweating the details, setting expectations at the classroom threshold, avoiding warnings, and more. The overall focus is on maximizing instructional time through intentional routines and clear behavioral expectations.

1. Discussion
Notes from:
Teach Like a
Champion
Chapters 5 & 6

2. Chapter 5
Creating a Strong
Classroom Structure

3. The Five Principles of
Classroom Culture
1. Discipline
At the core of the definition of „discipline‟ is teaching
Teaching with discipline implies a front-end investment in
teaching kids how to be students
2. Management
The process of reinforcing behavior by consequences and
rewards
Management w/out the other 4 elements loses effectiveness
3. Control
The capacity to cause someone to choose to do what you
ask, regardless of consequences
Control should be non-judgmental, clear, purposeful, caring

4. The Five Principles of
Classroom Culture
4. Influence
Control gets them to do what you suggest; influence gets
them to want and internalize what you suggest
5. Engagement
Students who are busily engaged in productive, positive work
have little time to think about how to act
counterproductively.
Champion teachers keep their students positively engaged
and after a while they start to think of themselves as
positively engaged people

5. Entry Routine
 Make a habit out of what is efficient, productive, and
scholarly
 Everything students do upon entering should be
automatic and shaped intentionally

6. Do Now
 Short activity on the board or desks before they
enter
 Students should know what to do with no ambiguity
 4 Criteria for DO NOW:
1. Completed with no direction or discussion
2. 3 to 5 minutes
3. Requires a written product
4. Preview the day‟s lesson, or review the previous
5. A Do Now works because of consistency and
preparation

7. Tight Transitions
 Teach transitions by scaffolding the steps
 Transitions should be practiced until all students can
follow through as a matter of habit
 Practice for speed, accuracy, silence
 Use Do It Again (#39) and re-teaching if students test
the limits
 Tight Transitions applies to materials also:
1. Practice for speed, accuracy, and silence
2. Pass and collect across rows, not front to back
3. Distribute materials in groups

8. Binder Control
 Have a required format and place for notes and papers
 Everyone uses the same system, and you can check
to make sure to has and can find what they need
 Consider a numbering system with a table of content
students add to
 Don‟t let the binder go home – students can remove
what they need and return it the next day

9. SLANT
Sit up
Listen
Ask and answer questions
Nod your head
Track the speaker
 The word should be deeply imbedded in the vocabulary
(e.g. Be sure to SLANT)
 Develop non-verbal signals to reinforce and correct
SLANTing

10. On Your Mark
Show them how to prepare before class begins and expect
them to do so every day.
• Be explicit about what students need to start class
• Set a time limit (don‟t accept “I‟m doing it,” or “I‟m about
to”)
• Use a standard consequence
• Provide tools w/out consequences to those who
recognize the need before class
• Include homework

11. Seat Signals
 Students must signal requests from their seats
 Signals should be nonverbal
 Signals should be specific and unambiguous – non-
distracting
 Request and response should be managed without
interrupting instruction
 Be explicit and consistent – require them by
responding to them only

12. Props
 1 second to cue…no more than 5 seconds to execute
 Must be crisp
 Involve sound and movement
• Quick (“Oh, Yeah!”)
• Visceral (e.g. percussive)
• Universal (everybody)
• Enthusiastic ((fun and lively)
• Evolving (renew for freshness)

13. Chapter 6
Setting & Maintaining
High Behavioral
Expectations

14. 100 Percent
With anything less than 100% your authority is subject to interpretation
Unless you want to send the message that
following an explicit direction is optional,
don’t move on w/out 100%
The more seriously you take compliance,
the more you should reflect on the justness and discretion of
your commands –
do they help achieve the end goal?
3 Principals of 100% Compliance:

15. 100 Percent
Principle #1: Use the Least Invasive Form of Intervention
 Nonverbal intervention (while continuing instruction)
 Positive group correction (“We’re following along in our books.”)
 Anonymous individual correction (“We need two people.”)
 Private individual correction (proximal, private, calm –
The second time brings a consequence)
 Lightning-quick public correction (“________ I need your eyes.”)
 Consequence
(delivered quickly, non-invasive, non-emotional, on a continuum)
Don’t ignore small misbehaviors – use the least invasive form of
intervention the first time it appears, quickly and consistently

16. 100 Percent
Principle #2: Rely on Firm, Calm Finesse
Command obedience because it serves the student and
make that evident in your language and demeanor –
“I need your eyes on me so you can learn.”
“That’s how we do it here.”
“In this class we…”

17. 100 Percent
Principle #3: Emphasize Compliance You Can See
Invent ways to maximize visibility
(Ask for eyes on you and pencils down – not just attention)
Be seen looking
(Scan the room and narrate your scan)
Avoid marginal compliance
(Do it and do it completely)
Leverage the power of unacknowledged behavioral opportunities
(Find opportunities to practice compliance and build muscle memory)

18. What to Do
A large portion of non-compliant behavior comes from
incompetence rather than defiance
Teach What to Do, not What Not to Do
What to Do allows you to distinguish between
incompetence and defiance
If the non-compliance is because of incompetence – teach
Break the task down further in your repeated instruction
Use What to Do (broken down into specific steps) in crisis situations to
remain calm and give specific instructions to defiant students

19. What to Do
Effective “What to Do” directions are:
Specific – What does “Pay attention” look like?
(Eyes on me, etc.)
Concrete – Break it into concrete items: physical, simple, commonplace
(Turn your body to face me, etc.)
Sequential – Paying attention may involve of sequence of steps.
(Put your feet under your desk, pencil down, and put your eyes on me…)
Observable – If your directions are simple and specific accountability is
observable. They do not allow for protests.
(“But I was paying attention,” e.g.)

20. Strong Voice
In establishing and maintaining control follow five principles
in your interactions w/ students:
Economy of Language – When you need to be all business, be crisp and clear
Do Not Talk Over – Every time! Wait if you need to: Start and then stop
Do Not Engage – Don’t engage with arguments about requests or
when students call out. Don’t let students distract from your initial request
(“But she’s…, e.g.)
Square Up / Stand Still – Don’t do other task while giving instructions.
Show that you take your own words seriously.
Quiet Power – Get slower and quieter when you want control;
drop your voice and exude poise and calm
Formal Pose – The importance of a message and the need for attentiveness is
indicated in your eye contact, body position gestures, facial expression, and
rhythm of language

21. Do It Again
When students fail successfully complete a basic task they’ve been taught,
doing it again, or better, or perfectly is often the best consequence
 It shortens the feedback loop –
Do It Again is quick and fresh in a student’s mind
 It sets a standard of excellence, not just compliance –
Use it when students do things the wrong way, and also when they could do it
better. Excellence first in small things, and then in all things.
 There is no administrative follow-up
 There is group accountability –
Students are made to be accountable to peers as well as teachers
 It ends with success –
Students build the habit of doing it right
 There are logical consequences –
Lining up again is a logical consequence for failure to do so correctly
 It can be used over and over

22. Do It Again
Use it positively whenever possible –
“We can do that better/faster!”
Striving for excellence.
“Oooh, let’s line up again and show why we’re the best!”
Don’t wait until students are lined up at the door to say that
someone forgot to push in their chair.
Do It Again as soon as execution doesn’t meet the standard

23. Sweat the Details
Combat minor but common deviations from excellence
Sweat the Details takes preparation –
let students know exactly what you want in neatness, order, dress…
all the small things

24. Threshold
Stand at the door to set the tone and expectations.
Getting it right first is easier than making it right after it’s gone wrong.
Threshold will –
1) establish a personal connection between you and your students, and
2) reinforce your classroom expectations
The point is not so much the doorway
as the power of ritual to show that the classroom is
different from the other places they go.

25. No Warnings
 Act Early –
use a minor intervention or consequence to prevent a major one later
 Act Reliably –
Be predictable and consistent
 Act Proportionately –
Start small…use a continuum
 Use corrections rather than warnings
Corrections teach, warnings only remind of the
consequences of continued poor choices
 If you determine that a behavior is deliberate and
the result of disobedience rather than incompetence a
consequence is better than a warning
 Be calm, poised and impersonal
 Be incremental. Take things away in pieces.
 Be private when possible and public when behavior involves others