Increasing Teacher Productivity

Before I dive in, let’s talk about the “Increasing Teacher Productivity” from the title. It’s important to remember that productivity isn’t about doing more. It’s about achieving the best results in the most efficient manner.

When I began developing the four moves every literacy lesson plan needs, I believed that I could create change with students AND enjoy my weekends. If you’d like to see the Facebook live version of this post, you can check it out here.

 I only have so much time with my students, and every moment is precious to me.

When I found myself struggling to prepare lessons and grade assignments each day, it would’ve been tolerable if my students made the progress I longed for them to experience.

Most of my students did okay, but I could tell that it didn’t matter that I was their teacher. They did as well as they would do, as they had always done.

I was spinning my wheels and not impacting those that needed something different. 

This has always been important to me. There were times in high school when my own success seemed unlikely, but I made it. I long for my students to have that same experience.

9 Things To Do Less Of

So what did I do less of and how did it contribute to reading growth?

1. I taught fewer novels. This allowed me more time to build more background knowledge through text sets. Students who were absent or couldn’t connect with the whole-class novel had more entry points with different texts.
2. I spent more time on a text. We read only a few paragraphs a day, so we have time to really close read. Students have the chance to build a mental model of the text, which supports their comprehension and gives them the processing time they need to navigate challenge.
3. I simplified independent reading. I let go of lots of complicated forms and focused on a question of the week in my conferences–same question for everybody saved my mental bandwidth. This question was aligned to our whole-class reading standard so that students had time to transfer the learning to greater independence.
4. I managed my creative energy. The most popular influencers have nothing on teachers when it comes to content generation. I decided to opt out of the content monster by slowing down and making every day look the same. When we need a change-up, I bring it on. Because everyday looks the same, everyone has enough time to learn the literacy language and routines that sustain growth. I have time to focus on instruction and not worry so much about the shiny one-off lessons.
5. I focused each lesson on one standard. Students know what we are practicing, and they practice it across reading, discussion, and writing throughout the lesson.
6. I used cycles of gradual release of responsibility. Writing is another reading accelerator that must be regularly practiced but can often be time-consuming for teachers. We might write everyday, but not everyone is writing on their own everyday. We cycle through modeling, whole class, small group, and independent writing.
7. I focused on parts of writing. Early in the year, I may only give feedback on the claim, evidence, etc. to allow students enough time to focus on a key concept before they get overwhelmed by the complexity of all the facets of writing..
8. I put grading in the backseat. I take the minimum required number of grades, about 6 per trimester in my district. This gives me more time to teach, give feedback, reteach, and build relationships. This has a less direct connection to reading growth, but for high school students, grades can often help them write negative stories about their abilities, making it harder for them to dare to believe they can understand what they read.
9. I am willing to stretch a lesson across days. We recently changed to shorter classes, and it’s crazy, but I feel those three minutes! Rather than sprint through the literacy lesson plan, I will take my time across multiple days. The only hurry is the one we create for ourselves and our students. Again, this is a social-emotional service, allowing students the space to learn the material (with a teacher who’s feeling calm and collected).

Teacher Productivity Can Work For You

How are you feeling about these productivity strategies? You may be feeling like productivity has nothing to do with reading results, but if the most important things aren’t prioritized, so many other things will control your time. My simple lesson plan used consistently creates productive results.