By Ruhina Cockar
In this blogpost we’re going to revisit one of the 5 Quick Wins we spoke about on INSET day - the Do Now!
Why do we call our starters, “Do Now”’s at Westminster Academy?
We don’t often talk about the rationale behind the language we use so let’s talk about Do Nows versus Starters.
The term "Do Now" originates from the Teach Like a Champion (TLAC, 2010) framework, developed by Doug Lemov. At the time, TLAC was a groundbreaking book detailing deliberate pedagogical practice and has made a huge impact in education in the UK since.
As educators, we understand the importance of the first few minutes of a lesson - it is crucial for setting the tone, engaging students, and ensuring a purposeful start to learning. The “Do Now” is a short, focused activity that students begin immediately upon entering the classroom. The key here is that the Do Now is ready, written on the board or given to students as they enter. At WA we expect the Do Now in its entirety (including going through answers) to be no more than 10 minutes of the lesson structure. We want to prime students for the learning to come, not take time away from progressing the learning.
“While you are greeting students at the door, or finding that stack of copies, or erasing the mark-ups you made to your overhead from the last lesson, students should already be busy, via the Do Now with scholarly work that prepares them to succeed. In fact, students entering your room should never have to ask themselves, ‘What am I supposed to be doing?’ That much should go without saying. The habits of a good classroom should answer, ‘You should be doing the Do Now, because we always start with the Do Now.’” - TLAC, Doug Lemov
The language of “Do Now” as opposed to “starter” is deliberate to promote a sense of urgency - students begin the work straight away, reducing idle time and maximising the time on the task and their learning.
The language is designed to transition students from entering the classroom into the learning mindset required for the current lesson. As the teacher, you can then align this with other evidence-based strategies such as retrieval practice or reviewing previous learning/prerequisites required for the lesson to engage and support students with the new concept/knowledge being taught.
The “Do Now” is also designed to promote self-management through building routines and predictability in the classroom. This in turn fosters independence and focus - students know the expected behaviour at the start of every lesson. This ensures that the teacher is then able to manage other tasks, like taking the register or addressing individual student needs.
We know from the EEF Improving Behaviour in Schools Report that Consistency is Key (recommendation 6) so all staff, every lesson delivering Do Nows in this way adds to the power of the Do Now to support maximising learning time in lesson.
Working with Quick Win 1: Meet and greet at the door, together with Quick Win 4: Do Nows should be short, these are powerful, practical strategies to transform the way lessons begin!
Reflective Questions for you:
How often do you speak to students about making every minute of their learning count? How do you foster that sense of urgency?
How purposeful are your Do Nows currently?
Do your students start their work independently, or do they often rely on you for direction during the first few minutes? What can you do to change this?
Is a predictable routine that helps students transition smoothly into learning established?
How do you gauge the effectiveness of your Do Nows? What evidence do you use to decide if they’re working?
What adjustments could you make to ensure your "Do Now" activities better meet the needs of your students?
It might be helpful to revisit the guiding questions from the INSET on how to think about your Do Now activity:
What do they need to remember in order to make sense of today’s learning? From last lesson? From any time before?
What are the misconceptions arising when I’ve taught this lesson/topic before?
What is a question that all students can answer on this? (This should help devise the first activity in particular)
Sources:
Lemov, D. (2014). The Do Now: A primer. Doug Lemov’s Field Notes. https://teachlikeachampion.org/blog/now-primer/
Ensuring a smooth and successful start to the lesson - Evidence Based Education - Blog post
