Chalk Dust

Summary
In this episode of Chalk Dust, Rebecca Birch and Nathaniel Swain are joined by Andrew McCrorey, an experienced educator and instructional leader at Monterey Secondary College in Victoria. Drawing on classroom footage from a secondary setting serving a highly disadvantaged community, Andrew demonstrates how explicit instruction, trauma-informed positive education and high expectations can work together rather than compete with one another.
The discussion explores entry routines, co-regulation, secondary choral reading, gist statements, cold calling, participation as an equity issue, and the explicit teaching of behaviour expectations. Andrew explains how consistency across classrooms can function as an equity strategy, creating predictable environments in which students know what success looks like and teachers can focus on teaching rather than repeatedly resetting behaviour.
Across the episode, Rebecca, Nathaniel and Andrew return to the idea that supporting students does not require lowering the bar. Instead, effective practice combines strong relationships, clear routines, deliberate participation structures and carefully sequenced academic support. The result is a classroom where students are both safe and challenged, and where literacy, behaviour and wellbeing are treated as interconnected parts of successful teaching.
Mentioned resources and explainers
Andrew McCrorey
Andrew McCrorey is an educator with more than 20 years’ experience teaching in Australia and internationally. His work focuses on explicit instruction, behaviour support, trauma-informed positive education and improving classroom practice in complex educational settings.
Monterey Secondary College
Monterey Secondary College is located in Frankston North, Victoria. Andrew describes the school’s approach as combining evidence-informed teaching, trauma-informed positive education and consistency across classrooms to improve student learning and engagement.
Trauma-Informed Positive Education
A framework used at Monterey to support student regulation, relationships and readiness to learn. Andrew emphasises that trauma-informed practice is not about lowering expectations, but about raising expectations while providing the support students need to meet them.
Four-to-One Positive to Corrective Feedback
Andrew describes using a high ratio of positive to corrective feedback during routines such as lesson entry. Positive narration, greeting students warmly and acknowledging successful behaviour help establish a calm, predictable start.
Entry Routines
A tightly rehearsed lesson-entry process in which students know what materials to collect, where to go and what task to begin. Andrew explains how predictable entry routines support regulation, reduce bottlenecks and maximise learning time.
Choral Reading
Students read a text aloud together, following the teacher’s pacing and expression. Andrew uses choral reading in secondary English to build fluency, confidence, prosody and participation while allowing the teacher to hear and correct reading in real time.
Gist Statements
A summarising strategy in which students identify who or what a section is about, select key details and then condense the information into a single statement. Andrew uses this as part of a gradual release process to support comprehension and later writing.
Cold Calling
Andrew uses cold calling after students have had time to rehearse thinking through pair discussion. He frames participation as an equity issue, while also maintaining flexibility when a student is not ready to respond.
Tracking the Speaker
A universal attention routine used across the school. Students are explicitly taught to orient towards the speaker so that teachers can secure attention efficiently and maintain lesson flow.
Explicit Teaching of Behaviour
Rather than relying on broad classroom rules, Andrew teaches specific routines for situations such as arriving late. Students are shown what to do, what to expect, and how consequences will work, reducing uncertainty and preserving learning time.
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Takeaways
* Consistency can function as an equity strategy when students experience the same clear expectations across classrooms.
* Trauma-informed practice and high expectations are not opposites; students often need more support in order to meet ambitious expectations.
* Entry routines help students regulate, reduce uncertainty and maximise learning time.
* Positive narration and unconditional positive regard can coexist with firm behavioural expectations.
* Secondary students can successfully participate in choral reading when routines are carefully taught and the purpose is made clear.
* Reading aloud is an entitlement, not just an activity for younger students.
* Participation structures such as pair share, choral response and cold calling can support equity by ensuring more students have a voice.
* Cold calling works best when students have had time to rehearse and when teachers remain responsive to individual readiness.
* Gist statements help students move from reading to comprehension and then to concise written expression.
* Explicitly teaching what to do when students are late reduces interruptions and makes consequences predictable.
* Behaviour routines are more useful when they are precise enough to rehearse, rather than framed as broad expectations such as “be respectful”.
* High response rates can support both learning and behaviour by keeping students cognitively engaged.
* Wellbeing strategies should support academic learning rather than displace it.
* High expectations are most effective when paired with strong relationships, scaffolds and opportunities for success.
* Calm, engaged classrooms are built through deliberate systems, not through lowered expectations.
Keywords
Andrew McCrorey, Monterey Secondary College, explicit instruction, trauma-informed positive education, high expectations, secondary reading, choral reading, gist statements, cold calling, participation, equity, classroom routines, entry routines, positive narration, behaviour support, co-regulation, tracking the speaker, classroom management, literacy instruction, Chalk Dust podcast


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Summary
In this episode of Chalk Dust, Rebecca Birch and Nathaniel Swain are joined by STEM educator Amber Haven to explore what happens when explicit instruction meets genuinely engaging hands-on learning. Using footage from Amber’s middle-school STEM classroom, the discussion follows a lesson on neutral buoyancy, revealing how carefully designed routines allow practical investigations to remain cognitively demanding rather than descending into chaos.
Amber demonstrates how retrieval practice, mini-whiteboards, Six Bricks, gesture, choral response and explicit behaviour routines work together to create classrooms where every student is thinking. Throughout the episode, Rebecca, Nathaniel and Amber discuss the importance of background knowledge, continuous checking for understanding, purposeful transitions, differentiation without lowering expectations, and designing practical activities that provide immediate feedback. The conversation highlights how high-quality classroom routines free students to focus on learning rather than logistics, making complex scientific concepts accessible through deliberate instructional design.
Mentioned resources and explainers
Amber Haven
Amber Haven is a STEM educator with more than 16 years of classroom experience and a strong focus on translating cognitive science into practical classroom strategies. She has presented at ResearchED conferences across the United States and at the Thriving Educators Summit, and her work has been featured by The Learning Scientists and in Powerful Classrooms by Patrice Bain.
Retrieval Practice
Throughout the lesson, Amber demonstrates retrieval as an ongoing classroom habit rather than a single lesson component. Students repeatedly retrieve knowledge through mini-whiteboards, questioning, gestures, closed sentences and practical activities.
Mini Whiteboards
Mini-whiteboards allow every student to participate, provide immediate formative assessment, and make thinking visible. Amber discusses the routines required to use them fluently throughout a lesson.
Six Bricks
Six Bricks is a hands-on retrieval strategy that uses coloured Duplo bricks to sequence concepts, definitions or problems. Students retrieve vocabulary while constructing a coloured stack, allowing rapid checking for understanding and high levels of engagement.
Continuous Checking for Understanding
Rather than reserving checks for understanding for isolated moments, Amber embeds them throughout explanations, transitions and instructions, ensuring students remain cognitively engaged from beginning to end.
Gesture and Dual Coding
The episode explores how gesture, movement and simple physical cues support memory and retrieval—even with older students who may initially resist participating.
Differentiation
Amber demonstrates how differentiation can maintain common learning goals while adjusting the amount of work or level of support individual students receive, rather than lowering expectations or creating entirely different tasks.
Practical Science with Explicit Instruction
The discussion explores how carefully sequenced demonstrations, clear success criteria and explicit routines allow practical science lessons to remain focused on conceptual understanding rather than entertainment.
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Takeaways
* Retrieval practice is most powerful when woven continuously throughout lessons.
* Strong routines allow practical learning to remain focused on thinking rather than managing behaviour.
* Mini-whiteboards provide rapid formative assessment while ensuring whole-class participation.
* Six Bricks offer a simple, flexible alternative to traditional matching and multiple-choice activities.
* Explicit behaviour instruction creates the conditions for successful hands-on learning.
* Practical activities should reinforce conceptual understanding rather than distract from it.
* Gesture and dual coding can strengthen learning well beyond the primary years.
* Immediate feedback helps students refine their thinking during practical investigations.
* Differentiation can preserve common learning goals while adjusting levels of support.
* Clear transitions minimise extraneous cognitive load during complex activities.
* Practical science lessons benefit from explicit modelling, routines and carefully sequenced instructions.
* Student engagement is strongest when cognitive engagement and physical activity work together.
* Background knowledge provides the foundation for successful inquiry.
* Effective classroom management enables ambitious learning experiences.
* Great practical lessons appear effortless because the routines have been carefully taught.
Keywords
Amber Haven, STEM education, retrieval practice, mini-whiteboards, Six Bricks, explicit instruction, science of learning, STEM, cognitive science, classroom routines, neutral buoyancy, formative assessment, gesture, dual coding, checking for understanding, differentiation, classroom management, practical science, cognitive engagement, Chalk Dust podcast


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Summary
In this episode of Chalk Dust, Rebecca Birch and Nathaniel Swain are joined by renowned mathematician, educator and founder of JUMP Math, John Mighton. Drawing on classroom footage from Canadian primary classrooms, John shares the instructional principles that underpin his work: breaking complex ideas into manageable steps, ensuring every student experiences success, and building confidence through carefully sequenced learning.
The discussion explores the relationship between motivation and achievement, challenging the idea that some students are simply “maths people” while others are not. John argues that confidence is not a prerequisite for success but a consequence of it. Through examples from lessons on place value and long division, he demonstrates how micro-scaffolding, structured inquiry, and deliberate practice can help students tackle sophisticated mathematical ideas while remaining engaged and optimistic.
Throughout the episode, Rebecca, Nathaniel and John discuss the role of challenge, the importance of maintaining students in an optimal learning zone, micro-scaffolding, and how effective teachers create classrooms where every learner can participate in meaningful thinking. The conversation extends beyond mathematics into broader questions about motivation, differentiation, classroom culture and what it means to teach with both precision and humanity.
Mentioned resources and explainers
John Mighton
John Mighton is a mathematician, playwright and educator best known as the founder of JUMP Math. His work focuses on making mathematics accessible to all students through carefully sequenced instruction, micro-scaffolding and high expectations. His books can be found here, here and here.
JUMP Math
JUMP Math is an instructional approach and curriculum developed by John Mighton. The model emphasises breaking learning into small achievable steps while maintaining conceptual understanding and challenge.
The 85% Rule
A principle discussed by John suggesting that learners are most motivated when they are successful most of the time, but still experience enough challenge to stretch their thinking. The goal is to avoid both frustration and boredom.
Structured Inquiry
Rather than choosing between explicit instruction and discovery learning, structured inquiry carefully guides students towards important insights through well-designed questions, examples and prompts.
Micro-Scaffolding
A teaching approach that breaks complex concepts into very small, manageable components so that students experience repeated success while building towards sophisticated understanding.
Collective Confidence
John discusses how confidence can become a collective classroom phenomenon. When students repeatedly experience success and see their peers succeeding, expectations about who can learn begin to change.
Deliberate Practice
The idea that expertise develops through carefully designed practice targeting specific areas for improvement. John discusses how this principle influenced his thinking about mathematics instruction.
The End of Ignorance
John Mighton’s book exploring mathematics learning, intelligence, and the belief that far more students can succeed in mathematics than is commonly assumed.
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Takeaways
* Confidence often follows success rather than preceding it.
* Mathematics learning can be transformed through careful sequencing and micro-scaffolding.
* Students are most motivated when challenge sits just beyond their current level of mastery.
* Structured inquiry offers a middle ground between direct instruction and pure discovery learning.
* Small successes accumulate into powerful changes in student identity and motivation.
* Effective teachers reduce unnecessary barriers while maintaining high expectations.
* Differentiation does not have to mean different outcomes for different students.
* Whole-class participation helps build collective confidence.
* Conceptual understanding and procedural fluency can be developed simultaneously.
* Teachers should think carefully about the size of the steps between learning tasks.
* Classroom culture is shaped by what students experience themselves capable of doing.
* Mathematical talent is often far more malleable than commonly assumed.
* Deliberate practice principles have important implications for classroom teaching.
* Motivation and learning are deeply interconnected.
* Great teaching often looks simple because the complexity has been carefully designed behind the scenes.
Keywords
John Mighton, JUMP Math, mathematics education, micro-scaffolding, structured inquiry, explicit instruction, deliberate practice, confidence, student motivation, mathematics teaching, classroom culture, differentiation, collective confidence, place value, long division, cognitive science, instructional design, mathematics learning, teaching strategies, Chalk Dust podcast


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Summary
In this episode of Chalk Dust, Rebecca Birch and Dr Nathaniel Swain are joined by Laura Stam, a third grade teacher in Wyoming, writer of The Knowledge Exchange on Substack, 2024–2025 Goyen Fellow, and founding board member of The Reading League Wyoming. Laura takes us inside a knowledge-rich history lesson on the earliest Native American peoples of North America, with a particular focus on the Arapaho and Shoshone peoples of Wyoming.
The episode explores how a text-based lesson can be highly interactive, precise, and content-rich without becoming fragmented. Using a knowledge organiser, document camera, shared reading, choral responses, pair shares, sentence stems, and a co-constructed Venn diagram, Laura shows how students can build deep knowledge while also practising reading, speaking, listening, and writing. The conversation highlights how explicit teaching can remain flexible and responsive when the content itself drives the lesson.
Across the episode, Rebecca and Nathaniel unpack the small moves that make the lesson work: high participation, full sentence responses, careful questioning, purposeful pauses, and frequent opportunities for students to rehearse and elaborate their thinking. The result is a classroom where students are excited to contribute, but supported enough to do so with precision and confidence.
Mentioned resources and explainers
The Knowledge ExchangeLaura’s Substack, focused on building teacher knowledge through practical resources, classroom examples, and reflections on evidence-informed teaching.
The Reading League WyomingLaura is a founding board member of The Reading League Wyoming, part of a broader movement supporting knowledge about evidence-aligned reading instruction.
Core Knowledge History and GeographyLaura adapted parts of the lesson from Core Knowledge History and Geography materials on the earliest Americans, then supplemented them with local content on the Arapaho and Shoshone peoples.
Knowledge organiserA one-page resource that captures key knowledge for a unit, including timelines, maps, vocabulary, and important facts. In this lesson, the knowledge organiser supports retrieval, review, previewing, and coherence across lessons. More on this here.
Document camera / visualiserLaura uses a document camera rather than slide decks so she can move flexibly between texts, maps, organisers, and student work. It allows live modelling, annotation, and co-construction.
All hands upA participation routine where all students prepare an answer and raise their hands, giving the teacher a sample of responses while maintaining high accountability.
Sentence stemsStructured sentence starters that help students answer in full sentences and elaborate their thinking. Laura uses them to support oral responses and later written work.
Pair share: windows and doorsStudents are assigned as “windows” or “doors” partners so they know who speaks first. This keeps pair discussion efficient and gives every student an opportunity to rehearse.
Shared reading with cloze responsesLaura reads aloud while students follow the text and chorally supply missing words when she pauses. This keeps attention high and gives students frequent opportunities to respond.
Phrase readingStudents are called on to read short sections aloud, with support as needed. Laura uses this carefully so all students can participate without embarrassment.
Advance organiserNathaniel connects Laura’s knowledge organiser to the idea of an advanced organiser: a structure given before learning that helps students make sense of new information.
Venn diagramLaura uses a co-constructed Venn diagram to help students compare and contrast the Arapaho, Shoshone, Inuit, and Eastern Woodlands peoples. This supports conceptual links across lessons.
Listen or view, and support our work
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Takeaways
* Knowledge-rich lessons can be highly interactive when students are given frequent, purposeful opportunities to respond.
* Knowledge organisers help students see the structure of a unit and retrieve important information across lessons.
* A document camera can support flexible teaching, live modelling, and co-construction more fluidly than a slide deck.
* Full sentence responses help students clarify their thinking orally before writing.
* Pair shares distribute enthusiasm and give all students a chance to rehearse ideas, not just the keenest hands.
* Stopping during shared reading helps students hold on to important information rather than losing the beginning of the paragraph.
* Cloze responses during reading keep attention high and help students practise key vocabulary in context.
* Explicit teaching does not have to be rigid; in a text-based lesson, the content can guide the movement between modelling, guided practice, and independent work.
* Co-constructed notes and diagrams reduce cognitive load before students move into independent writing.
* Strong scaffolding makes independent practice calmer, more productive, and more successful.
Keywords
knowledge-rich curriculum, Laura Stam, The Knowledge Exchange, Core Knowledge, knowledge organiser, document camera, visualiser, shared reading, cloze responses, phrase reading, full sentence answers, sentence stems, pair share, all hands up, Venn diagram, advanced organiser, explicit teaching, cognitive load, Native American history, Arapaho, Shoshone, classroom talk


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Summary
In this episode of Chalk Dust, Rebecca Birch and Dr Nathaniel Swain are joined by Hannah Pointon, a Year 3/4 teacher at Woodstock School in Hamilton, New Zealand. Hannah shares how her school has moved towards structured literacy, structured maths, explicit teaching, and teaching behaviour as a curriculum in its own right.
Using early-year classroom footage, the episode explores how clear routines transform classroom life: lining up, entering the room, organising materials, whole-class reading, whiteboard responses in maths, and even collecting lunchboxes. Hannah shows how routines that look simple on the surface are deliberately taught, scaffolded, practised, and reinforced until they become calm, independent habits.
Across the conversation, the hosts reflect on the difference between reacting to chaos and proactively teaching the behaviours students need for learning, safety, and belonging. The result is a classroom that feels purposeful, warm, and highly structured — not because students are constrained, but because they know exactly how to succeed.
Mentioned resources and explainers
Structured literacyA systematic approach to teaching reading that gives students explicit instruction in the skills and knowledge needed for reading success.
Structured mathsAn approach to maths teaching that emphasises clear modelling, practice, fluency, and careful sequencing of foundational knowledge.
The Writing RevolutionA writing approach that supports sentence-level and paragraph-level instruction through explicit, carefully sequenced routines.
Teaching behaviour as curriculumThe idea that behaviour should not be assumed; it should be explicitly taught, practised, checked, and reinforced like any academic skill.
Entry routinesHannah’s students line up, enter in order, put shoes away, sit down, and begin handwriting. The routine is scaffolded early in the year so students gradually become independent.
Whole-class readingHannah uses routines such as tracking, echo reading, buddy reading, and self-reading to support fluency, accountability, vocabulary, and comprehension.
TrackersStudents use a piece of paper to follow the line of text as they read. Hannah prefers paper over rulers because it is quieter and supports focused tracking.
Whiteboard normsStudents practise answering on mini whiteboards, holding boards still, turning them together, and showing work even when unfinished. The routine supports participation and gives the teacher quick feedback.
Fluency in maths factsThe episode highlights the importance of students knowing basic facts automatically so they are not held back by cognitive load when learning more complex maths.
Pre-correctionNathaniel references Anita Archer’s principle: if you expect something, pre-correct it. Hannah’s routines show this in action by preventing predictable problems before they occur.
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Takeaways
* Behaviour needs to be taught explicitly, especially at the start of the year.
* Clear routines reduce the need for constant correction because students know what success looks like.
* Doing routines again is not punitive; it gives students another chance to practise correctly.
* Entry routines help students shift from playground energy into learning mode.
* Classroom organisation matters: simple systems for books, whiteboards, desks, and bags reduce friction.
* Whole-class reading can build fluency, vocabulary, focus, and accountability when routines are carefully taught.
* Echo reading supports expression, punctuation awareness, and fluent phrasing.
* Mini whiteboards are powerful only when the response routines are also taught.
* Maths fact fluency supports later mathematical understanding by reducing cognitive load.
* Strong routines create safety, belonging, and calm — not just more learning time.
Keywords
classroom routines, behaviour curriculum, explicit teaching, structured literacy, structured maths, whole-class reading, echo reading, reading fluency, tracking, mini whiteboards, maths facts, classroom organisation, entry routines, pre-correction, cognitive load, student safety, classroom belonging, primary teaching, Woodstock School, Hannah Pointon


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