The most effective teachers know how to create a course map that is relevant, rigorous, and manageable. It took me a long time to realize the importance of that last one. Manageability means being agile and balanced to address the needs of students while also covering the material expected of you.

A few years ago, I shared a student‐teacher with another member of the English department. He was in the early stages of his practicum and spent most of his time observing us from the back of our respective classes. One day, after a morning of bouncing between our two rooms, he turned to me and said, “It's as if you are driving a racecar and she is paddling a boat.”

“What does that mean?” I asked him.

According to our eager protégé, my classroom routine exhibited a high level of anticipation and control, while hers was more flexible and meandering.

“One isn't better than the other,” he told me. “They're just—different.”

At first, I took great pride in this comparison. In my mind, I had the command of female race car driver Danica Patrick and my colleague had a rowboat with no breaks. I doubled down on keeping a tight activity sequence and maximizing time on learning to the millisecond.

If you entered my classroom on any given day of the year, there would be three guarantees. First, students were greeted with a six‐minute independent do now activity and began working immediately with no need for explanation. Next, a learning goal would be posted on the board in “kid‐friendly” language and I would read it aloud to the class. Finally, an agenda always remained visible for the duration of the day, allowing students to make a mental check of our to‐do list.

As Danica Patrick well knows, this level of rigid regulation occasionally leaves you with no choice but to hit the wall. An objective not met. A task on the agenda left incomplete. An activity that made perfect sense in the lesson plan and, as it turns out, sounds like utter nonsense to a bunch of 13‐year‐olds. Every time my habitual patterns were thrown out of whack, I became unrelenting. I felt like a total failure if things didn't go according to plan. I would go home and cry, afraid that I had failed my students in some way.

Meanwhile, my neighbor kept paddling along, slow and steady. Our class raced through twice the material, while her class paused frequently to admire the view and dig deep. I lacked her patience and profundity. She lacked my discipline and breadth.

The student‐teacher had been correct in his assessment that both styles held merit. I kept circling the racetrack and trying to learn how to navigate obstacles more fluidly whenever they threatened to disrupt my routine. My journey as an educator was not without collisions, but I became increasingly efficient and so did my students. I found ways to foster student ownership within the confines of my classroom structure, and in doing so, I saw an increase in both growth and academic achievement. The most difficult adjustment for me was learning to be more flexible.

This chapter outlines conditions for nurturing an environment where deep learning can take place in a manner that intentionally requires minimal preparation or additional grading. Employing the objectives and agendas described here will keep you on track and help your students find their balance. Just remember, even Danica makes pit stops. If I learned one thing from my colleague, it was to slow down and adjust students' practice so as not to crash and burn. Breezing through the basics to get to the “good stuff” comes with great sacrifice. My best advice is to cut yourself some slack and think about what will be most advantageous for the kids in front of you. Also, invest the time to make a detailed syllabus over the summer, and you will reap the benefits all year long. The syllabus is as much a map for you as it is for your students.

WHAT'S THE THEORY?

Mapping student learning to maximize time is a key component of any Small Teaching classroom. At the start of my career, I thought my daily agendas should be steadfast and unchanging. It turned out that the most important part of activating student learning was not checking everything off the list—it was establishing a strong learning goal. How we got there could differ from learner to learner. In other words, it did not so much matter how they arrived at the goal just as long as they understood their aim from the get‐go.

I would like to acknowledge that while most educator evaluation rubrics require teachers to post their objectives at the start of every lesson, it's not enough to simply write a learning goal on the board. Doing an internet search for “learning objective” and then copying and pasting it to the top of your lesson plan does no one any good. The internet is a vast resource for teaching materials, but many of them are not vetted and do not encourage higher‐order thinking. Stefanie Livers of Missouri State University and Victoria Miller Bennett of The Collaborative for Teaching and Learning, Louisville, have developed a protocol to help educators avoid falling into the trap of downloading cute materials that lack substance (2021). Livers and Bennett pose questions such as:

• Is it aligned with standards? If not, can it be modified so it's on target?
• What is the understanding being developed? Or is it just a following‐directions task?
• Is it high‐quality, promoting reasoning and problem solving?
• Does it offer an accessible, equitable opportunity for all students?
• Does it meet the preceding criteria listed?
• Does it ask students to demonstrate evidence of their thinking?

It can be very tempting to snatch up a lesson from Teachers Pay Teachers as a planning shortcut. The hard truth is, sometimes these unvetted resources do more harm than good. Make a habit of writing your own objectives according to the goal you are actually aiming for, and you will save time in the long run. Most importantly, share your objective with the kids. Articulating an objective at the start of class is one of the most concrete ways a K–8 educator can activate targeted learning. The objective explicitly tells students what they are working toward, enabling them to take risks along the way.

Writing strong objectives and making the goal or purpose of a lesson clear is particularly important for English language learners. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) is widely used to meet needs of English language learners across America. Beyond content objectives, SIOP lesson plans include language objectives to share with students. For example, a content objective for a primary science class might state, “Students will be able to sort ten animals based on whether they are diurnal or nocturnal.” The corresponding language objective would state, “Students will be able to discuss the differences between animals that are active in the daytime and animals that are active in the nighttime.” Additionally, the lesson plan would stipulate key vocabulary for the science class such as: nocturnal, diurnal, nighttime, daytime, and habitat. SIOP ensures that the academic needs of English language learners are being met.

Sharing clear objectives with all students can improve learning outcomes and test scores. A meta‐analysis conducted by researchers Charles Igel, Trudy Clemons, and Helen Apthorp in 2010 found an average gain of approximately 12 percentage points for learners exposed to objective setting during a lesson. “In other words, a perfectly average student—scoring at the 50th percentile on academic achievement measures—who had been exposed to objective setting strategies would be expected to perform at the 62nd percentile” (Igel et al., 2010). Evidently, when our expectations are not a guessing game, students are more likely to meet them.

To activate learning, we must provide a proverbial road map. In the classroom, this often comes in the form of an agenda or to‐do list for students to follow along with. An agenda dictates a clear path toward achieving one's learning objective. The agenda lays out a plan for both my students and me to remain organized, manage our time wisely, and think ahead. Agendas and checklists are quite common in many of the workforce's most demanding fields. Pilots, surgeons, architects, and astronauts rely on checklists every day, not to avoid errors of ignorance, but rather, errors of ineptitude (Gawande, p. 8, 2009).

In his book, The Checklist Manifesto, surgeon and public health leader Atul Gawande encourages expert practitioners to utilize checklists as a means for slowing down (2009). He points out that we are much more forgiving when it comes to errors of ignorance than we are of ineptitude. Highly skilled, highly trained, hard‐working people in the modern workplace are expected to do extraordinary things. As a result, avoidable failures persist. “And the reason is increasingly evident,” writes Gawande. “The volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefit correctly, safely, or reliably. Knowledge has both saved us and burdened us” (Gawande, p. 13, 2009). That is why he proposes a simple strategy—the checklist.

The same is true of teaching. We now have access to enough reliable research on the science of learning that “best practice” actually means something. Nevertheless, wielding the tools in our toolbelt when Carissa is pocketing her seatmate's lunch money and Eddie is delivering an impromptu yodeling performance can set us off our game. Hang your checklist, typically referred to as an agenda, where everyone can see it. Gawande found that surgeons hesitant to embrace checklists were easily swayed when consulted about their own processes. Surgeons changed their attitudes when they were told something like, “We see you have a lot of experience doing this kind of surgery and we really want to understand what makes you so successful. Could you break down your process into a checklist to help us understand?” You can do the same with your students—let them take ownership of the checklist. If there are two activities on the agenda and it doesn't matter which one they do first, allow them to make the decision about what order you complete the items on your agenda. Tell them you care about their input and you want to know what order makes the most sense according to them.

Checklists and agendas also contribute positively to the social and emotional needs of our students. In recent years, educators have come to understand that leaving children metaphorically in the dark is particularly harmful to survivors of trauma. Trauma can refer to abuse or neglect, but it is also relevant to the collective experience of a large‐scale tragedy like the COVID‐19 pandemic. Heather C. Forkey, MD, is the clinical director of the Foster Children Evaluation Service and chief of the Division of Child Protection for the UMass Memorial Children's Medical Center. Her work emphasizes the importance of establishing routines for educators and other youth workers. “Routines really shut down the stress response,” explained Forkey. “Most people can remember the end of March 2020; with everything out of routine, you spent the day spinning and thinking, ‘I should be doing something. I know there's something I should be doing, but I can't do it and I can't think.’ That was the impact of stress hormones hitting a part of our brain called the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for keeping us organized and focused.” Forkey's research shows that teachers who institute dependable routines are able to calm the prefrontal cortex for their students and shut down the stress response, sometimes before it starts. She is especially passionate about the practice of making charts, such as agendas, for students who are prone to a fight‐or‐flight response when they are triggered during the course of the school day.

One of the easiest ways to alleviate a student's anxiety is to create a secure and predictable environment from the moment they walk into the classroom. Providing a “bell‐ringer” or “do now” activity that requires no introduction or explanation and appears in the same location every day will set the foundation for learning. The activity should be designed to preview the day's lesson or draw on the previous day's lesson. Ideally, it takes five or six minutes and allows the teacher an opportunity to take attendance and complete other daily “administrivia” without detracting from time spent on learning. I like to display a timer so students have a precise measure of how long the first step on our agenda will take.

As Benedict Carey puts it in his book How We Learn, “Having a goal foremost in mind tunes our perceptions to fulfilling it. And that tuning determines, to some extent, where we look and what we notice” (2014a, p. 140). For example, if you are hiking on an unfamiliar mountain trail marked with blue triangles, you will begin filtering every step through two distinct filters: “Am I on the trail?” and “Can I see a blue triangle up ahead?” When you get to the summit, you will probably be capable of recalling your general route, but unlikely to describe the layout of the mountain and answer questions like: “How many other hikers did you pass?” or “What direction was the stream flowing?” Your sense of purpose was focused on following the blue triangles to achieve a specific goal. Explicitly sharing our goals and learning objectives creates a strong sense of purpose for our students. By telling students exactly what we want them to learn, we heighten their attention and direct them toward productivity.

Drawing clear attention to long‐term or overarching learning goals is equally important. Like the hiker on the mountain who notices the blue triangles, a student familiar with the title of your unit will be more likely to zero in on significant themes that appear again and again throughout your lessons. Instructional coach Harvey Silver recommends adding “a study in …” or “a study of …” to the title of every unit (McTighe, 2016). This small change can help bring a unit of study into focus for students. He shares the following examples:

• A unit on the rainforest – A study of a complex ecosystem
• A unit on decimals, fractions, and percentages – A study of equivalence
• A unit on the story “Frog and Toad Are Friends” – A study of true friendship
• A unit on World War I – A study of unintended consequences
• A unit on weight training – A study of proper technique

The fewer secrets we keep from our students, the better. Be clear about exactly what you would like them to take away from your lesson and they will be much more likely to do so.

Stating the objective, sharing an agenda, and starting class with a consistent routine every day will propel learning outcomes for your students and provide them with a map for success. Routines provide a sense of safety and security for even the most timid learners in addition to reducing teacher planning time by replicating successful structures again and again.

IN SHORT

• Your learning goal should be clearly established at the opening and closing of your lesson.
• It is perfectly acceptable for different learners to arrive at your learning goal in different ways.
• The internet is a vast resource for learning objectives and lesson plans, but many of them are not vetted and do not encourage higher‐order thinking.
• Posting an agenda or checklist for students to refer to throughout the lesson can help ease their anxieties and keep you on target.
• Following a predictable routine is especially helpful for survivors of trauma.
• Telling students what we want them to learn makes them more attentive and productive.
• Bring your objectives into focus by adding “a study in” or “a study of …” to the title of your unit.

MODELS

As humans, we generally prefer to take the shortest path to any difficult task. I mean this quite literally. One New York‐based marketing firm, Dstillery, tracked 7.5 million mobile devices over the course of a month, only to find that a longer commute to the gym was associated with fewer visits (Bachman, 2017). According to the study, “People who go to the gym once a month travel a median distance of 5.1 miles. Those who go five or more times a month travel 3.7 miles” (Bachman, 2017). The same is true of our students. The more obstacles they must overcome to arrive at a learning outcome, the less likely they are to make an attempt. Make it easy for them. Map a direct route to your goal.

Mapping learning with a steadfast routine will likely require more discipline from you than it does from your students. Small Teaching can help you set the guidelines for success by maximizing class time with bite‐sized components. Trust that even the most challenging students will be grateful for a sense of consistency at the start of class and begin to meet your rigorous expectations more readily.

PRINCIPLES

The more efficiently you use your class time, the less work you and your students will have to do outside of the school day. A Small Teaching approach to mapping means being consistent in your routines, and flexible in your thinking. The following principles can help activate learning in your classroom from the moment students step foot through the door.

SMALL TEACHING QUICK TIPS: MAPPING

It's simple—the more defined your routine becomes, the more learning can take place. The most crucial routine comes at the very beginning. Set the stage for student success during the first 10 minutes of a lesson by providing a bell‐ringer, articulating a clear and achievable goal, and sharing your agenda.

• Determine a year‐long theme. Make sure it is broad enough that it can be applied to every unit of study throughout the year. (Example: Perseverance, Citizenship, Respect.)
• Write your objectives first. Figure out the overarching goal of your lesson before you settle on the engaging activities that will get you there. Objectives should follow Doug Lemov's 4 Ms: manageable, measurable, made first, and most important.
• Posting an agenda for the duration of class will help you cultivate a trauma‐informed classroom and it will ultimately help all of your students to master the objective you set for them. You might not get to everything on your agenda and that's okay. If you don't complete an item on your list, it's important to adjust and try to figure out the shortest path to your objective.

CONCLUSION

The most innovative course map I have ever seen in a classroom came from Clark University marketing professor Lawrence Norman who spent more than two decades building the Adidas brand. Norman's course is highly structured, adhering to a strict syllabus. Despite the constraints of firm due dates and reading assignments, Norman manages to stay extraordinarily current by creating a “playlist” for every class meeting in lieu of a traditional agenda. The playlist consists of relevant video clips, memes, and songs to accompany each agenda item.

“Whatever is in the news that week, or even that day, on top of any appropriate business topics will always dictate the playlist,” he explained (2021). Norman strikes a fine balance between maintaining authority, staying on target, and imbuing relevance into his instructional style. He does not have an ancient binder in his desk drawer to determine what students will do on any given day, simply because it was what they did last year and the year before that. Instead, he takes the skeleton of a lesson and fleshes it out with contemporary culture. His students are happy to provide recommendations.

Norman's ability to channel balance and flexibility comes from a defined sense of purpose. He began working for Adidas in Israel while he was playing professional basketball in the late 1990s. “I would take three buses to work at 6:00 in the morning, work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., then take three buses to night practice from 8:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., and then take three buses to get home by midnight,” recalled Norman (2021). He maintained this demanding schedule for three and a half years, learning to willfully budget his time. Norman went on to become the head of business and brand affairs, the right‐hand strategy man to the CEO of Adidas. Before long, he was named the global head of basketball. Norman worked closely with NBA point guard Derrick Rose on a tremendously popular campaign called “The Return.”

Observing Norman's class at Clark is like watching a complex series of plays unfold on the basketball court. His playlist helps students stay oriented and commands their curiosity with music and other relevant media.

Norman's class “Marketing to You” has grown increasingly popular at Clark because his overarching goal is made clear in every lesson, every assignment, and every exam. “I prepare students to step in and contribute to global brands and startups on day one,” he said. Norman emphasizes this goal again and again, reminding students that great brands need them. “Companies outsource to external agencies to acquire the knowledge and skill sets needed to best target and reach people like my students,” he explained “Wouldn't it be better to go straight to the source and hire them straight out of college?” (2021).

In order to help students value their own skill sets, Norman integrates familiar music and pop culture into his daily playlist. Students are able to formulate connections between their overarching course goal of “contributing to global brands” and their existing passions or interests. It's okay to be iron‐fisted about your year‐long theme or the objectives that guide your lessons. But, be flexible in how you arrive at that theme or achieve those objectives. Norman's course content remains steady, but the delivery method changes based on the students he has in front of him. Most of all, he manages his time well and redirects every activity back to the overarching course goal.

Mapping the learning process from the moment students step foot in your classroom is crucial to maximizing your time and theirs. Remember, research shows that by setting clear goals and laying out the steps to achieve those objectives, your students will be approximately 12% more likely to make gains (Igel, 2010). The younger the student, the more important the routine. Students who learn to be productive during the school day will be more prepared to transfer those skills to independent environments. Try to be realistic in your goal setting, and don't panic if you find your agenda needs adjustments. If you know where you are going, it will be much easier to arrive there safely.