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Lessons · Teaching · teaching a procedure

A procedure taught is a behaviour problem prevented

Most of what looks like misbehaviour is a routine nobody ever taught: how to come in, how to hand something in, what to do when you have finished. A procedure is taught like any other content, practised, and retaught.

Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.

What it is for

Six weeks in, handing back books takes four minutes and is loud, and you are getting angry about something that was never explained to anybody. Nobody showed you this either. It is not a talent. It is a procedure, and it takes about a week to get good at.

How to think about it

Name the routine, show it, have the class do it, say what was off, do it again. Three rounds on the first day, one round a day for a week, and a reteach after every holiday.

Worked example

Routine: handing in books
Named. A routine with no name cannot be taught, reminded or retaught.
Steps: close it, spine out, front row collects, pile on the left desk
Four steps. More than five and it is two routines.
Taught: I show it, the class does it, 40 s a round
Practised on the first day rather than explained on the first day.
Reteach after every holiday, 60 s
Routines decay like everything else, and this is the same forgetting curve as any other learning.

Your turn

A routine is practised three times on day one and each round takes 40 seconds. Write the line that gives the time spent.

3 × 40 s =  s

The trap

Explaining the routine instead of practising it. An explanation is a description of a procedure, and the class has to do it badly twice before it belongs to them.

Practise teaching a procedure on HoneA question on it now, a real problem where there is one, and it is remembered for review. Free, no email needed.