Three educators on what changed their teaching — attention and cognitive load, why a grade stops feedback, and a 60-second routine for teaching a word.
My first year of teaching, I came from the business world and did pretty well in school. So, the first thing I did was make some powerpoints and write a test. Yes, a 200+ question test. I thought the things were important. Basic things to know about computer science, for sure. The only problem. Everyone failed the test. It didn’t work. It wasn’t that what I thought I was teaching wasn’t important. It was that my pedagogical approach needed a big improvement.
I was so dissapointed in myself. I covered everything I had tested on. I even told the kids what was on the test. And they still failed. And because it was most of them except the one or two who are wired to study super hard, I felt it was on me. And it was.
So, I sat down with my Mom and began to make a list of what was really important. We looked at the skills and talents. But then, out of that the Flat Classroom Project was born.
Looking back on my own learning journey, I couldn’t name one test that changed my life. Not one. It was the projects. The marketing ad campaign from college. Governor’s Honors here in Georgia, sitting at a tombstone writing a poem. The marketing simulation. The speech activity. Those are the things that changed my life.
Now I’m not saying we can get rid of all tests. But in my computer science class I had a lot of freedom, and I truly adjusted.
Because of those hard questions, a few years later I co-created the Flat Classroom Project with another teacher in Bangladesh. We were studying Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat, and we had our students write wikis together about the different globalization trends changing the world. Then they outsourced their videos to each other. Now, that was back in the day of 56K and 128K, so we were literally sitting at the school all night just trying to get a really small video to upload to their partners in Bangladesh. And to download theirs. Those were the days, right?
But the students showed what could be done. And lo and behold, Thomas Friedman found out about the Flat Classroom Project and included us in version three of the book as what was possible in education. The project went on to win the International Society for Technology in Education’s Online Learning Award for 2007 and Best Wiki in Education.
If I had held on to that test, I wouldn’t have changed their lives or mine. One of those students ended up going to the White House many years later as a result of knowing how to collaborate, how to blog, how to work with people in other places — even though she runs a family farm right here in South Georgia.
I know some teachers don’t have a lot of choice about their curriculum. But we all have a choice about our pedagogical approach. That’s where it started for me. Asking what I actually wanted to happen in my classroom.
So I learned. And then I changed. And then I grew.
So, as a teacher, we have to grow and change and learn. The greatest teachers are often not the best from day one. In fact, most great teachers I know look sheepishly at their feet when talking about their first year (except maybe my Mom, she had a great first year but she was just kind of amazing like that, and yes, I’m biased.) The greatest teachers are those who learn and grow.
So, today we’re talking to three amazing teachers who learned and grew and adjusted and got better. Award winning teachers who can help us learn how to better teach, better assess, and better teach vocabulary. All because they learned and grew.
Listen to the Show
How to Become a Better Teacher Every Day
Ross Morrison McGill on attention, load, and what studying actually is
Ross has been in the classroom 27 years. He founded Teacher Toolkit, and in 2015 The Sunday Times named him one of the 500 most influential people in Britain — still the only classroom teacher ever on that list. His newest book is The Teacher Toolkit Guide to the Science of Learning.
Ross talks about attention, cognitive load, and the myth of learning styles.
He also talks about how we tell kids to “study” but don’t teach them how. For example, many students just highlight and reread chapters, thinking it will help them remember. Then, they are frustrated when that kind of studying doesn’t help them remember and do well on the test. They need to learn retrieval instead, where they close the book and learn to produce the answer. It is harder but works better.
Then, he shares his favorite class routine, which takes your think, pair, share one step further. His favorite classroom routine is Think, Pair, Share, Show Me. The Show Me is the part most people drop, and it’s the part that matters. Every child holds up an answer. You see the whole room at once instead of the three hands that always go up.
Starr Sackstein on why the grade shuts the door
Starr is a National Board Certified Teacher with more than twenty years in education, sixteen of them teaching high school English. Her new book with Michael McDowell is Actionable Assessment.
She makes the point that once we put a number on a piece of work and give a grade, it stops being formative, and often the feedback just doesn’t work.
Think about what a kid does with a returned paper. They look at the grade. If the grade is fine, they’re done, and your careful comments in the margin go in the backpack unread. If the grade is bad, they feel bad, and the comments read as a list of reasons they’re bad. Either way, the thinking is over before the feedback gets a chance.
So, she suggests that we separate them. We should be giving feedback while the work is still moving. The grade later, if you must have one, after the learning has happened.
I pushed on this because it’s easy to say and hard to do inside a gradebook that wants a number every Friday. She didn’t pretend otherwise. What she said is that you can start with one assignment. One. Give comments only, require a revision, and grade the revision. This is a better way. (And with the age of AI, I would argue, a verbal grade talking about the paper makes sense before you allow final submission.
Two classroom moves of hers that I want to emphasize that we can do (even though they have been around awhile):
Four Corners. Put a claim on the board. Corners are strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree. Kids move. Now you can see what the room thinks instead of guessing, and the quiet kids have voted with their feet.
The Post-It method. Everyone writes one thought on a sticky note and puts it up. Every voice is in the room, and no one had to raise a hand to get there. She uses it for equity of voice, and it costs nothing.
The part I appreciated most was when she talked about a project that flopped. Again, she’s modeling this learn-and-grow point of the whole show. She figured out that her directions were the problem, not the kids. She figured that out by asking them. So, this is a great point, when something goes sideways, ask the students what happened before you decide what happened. Get their feedback. Then, they are invested in the outcome.
Sean Morrisey on the words kids don’t have
Sean spent eight years as a school psychologist before he moved into the classroom. As of now, he’s spent eighteen years teaching (first it was first grade, and now he is teaching fifth grade) As he created some methods to learn vocabulary, his friends said that he needed to document what he was doing, so he created the Word Mapping Project.
So, why would a teacher leave being a school counselor and move into the classroom? His story is interesting. As a psychologist, he kept testing kids who could decode fine and still couldn’t read. They said the words correctly and understood nothing. So he went and taught.
His point is that we solved half the problem. The phonics work was necessary, and it worked. But a child who can pronounce a word they’ve never really understood still doesn’t know what it means, and comprehension is not a skill you can drill separately from knowing words.
His 60-second word routine something every grade level can use tomorrow. Here’s how he breaks it down:
- One minute per word.
- Say it.
- Break it into parts that mean something. (This is called morphology and root words can help.)
- Give a kid-friendly definition.
- Connect it to a word they already know.
- Use it in a sentence about their actual life.
- If it has an opposite (antonym) word, teach it at the same time.
He also digs into morphology. For example, let’s look at the word gregarious. The root greg means flock. Now the kid has congregate, gregarious, segregate, aggregate. One root, four words, and a strategy for the fifth word they meet in the wild. I learned this when vocab used to be on the SAT but it does help with decoding when you learn the roots like this.
Sean says that words shouldn’t really be taught as one-offs. A list of twenty unrelated vocabulary words doesn’t help as much as teaching them in families, and the kid gets a system and group of words instead of a list.
He also teaches words in pairs — related terms together, so each one holds the other in place. Opposite words, words that go together.
He also made a great point about the science of reading that fits with the growth mode of the whole show. Some teachers have expressed guilt about the science of reading. Some teachers (granted they were told to do it) feel like they taught it wrong for years. Sean’s answer was, essentially, you gotta let that go. You taught what you knew. Now you know something else. That’s not failure. That’s the job. We learn. We grow. We get better. That is what we teachers do.
Try this tomorrow
Ask the kids what went wrong. Next time something flops, before you redesign it, ask them. Starr found out her directions were the problem that way.
Pick an opposite. When you teach a word, teach the antonym at the same time.
Consider assessment. Give feedback on what kids are learning without a grade and ask them to improve what they did based on that feedback. Then, evaluate how you feel it went.
A few for parents
If you’re a parent reading this, three things carry over to your kitchen table.
When your child says they studied, ask what that looked like. If the answer is “I read it over” or “I highlighted it,” that’s the least useful version. Close the book and ask them to tell you what they remember. They’ll resist. Not all studying is the same. If your child is “studying” and you see them studying and they fail the test, don’t jump to blaming the child or the teacher; look at how the child is studying and apply some of the tips from Ross.
When they hit a word they don’t know, don’t just define it. Ask if it looks like another word they know. You’re teaching them that words come in families.
And when they bring home a grade, resist the urge to make the grade the conversation. Ask what the teacher said. Ask what they’d do differently. The number is the least interesting thing, but it helps talk about growth.
Out on a limb
I closed the show with a passage from Jim Henson about going out on a limb — the idea that the fruit is out there, not back against the trunk where it’s safe.
“I know that it’s easier to portray a world that’s filled with cynicism and anger, where problems are solved with violence. What’s a whole lot tougher is to offer alternatives, to present other ways conflicts can be resolved, and to show that you can have a positive impact on your world. To do that, you have to put yourself out on a limb, take chances, and run the risk of being called a do-gooder.”
That’s what all three of these conversations have in common. Change can be uncomfortable but it is part of teaching ourselves to be better teachers. We get feedback. We try new things. We understand that the kids in front of us might be different than what another person has who is recommending a strategy and we work to teach the kids we have, not someone else’s students.
All of it is out on the limb.
For me, the failed two-hundred-question test is still the best teacher I ever had, which is a ridiculous thing to write and also true. I wasn’t a bad teacher for giving it. I was new when I faced the fact that my pedagogical approach and standards needed an upgrade. The only thing that would have made it a failure is if I’d given it again the next year.
Learn. Change. Grow.
The research behind this episode
Neuromyths among teachers. Dekker, Lee, Howard-Jones and Jolles (2012), Frontiers in Psychology — open access. 242 teachers, 137 in the UK and 105 in the Netherlands. Ninety-three percent of the UK teachers and ninety-six percent of the Dutch teachers endorsed the learning-styles statement. Teachers with more general knowledge about the brain believed more neuromyths, not fewer. On why these myths persist: Howard-Jones (2014), Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
Learning styles. Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer and Bjork (2008), Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Worth stating precisely — they did not say learning styles are false. They said validating the idea requires a crossover interaction, and that the literature “fails to provide adequate support for applying learning-style assessments in school settings.” Plain-language summary.
Cognitive load theory. Sweller (1988), Cognitive Science. The foundational studies used algebra, geometry, trigonometry, physics and puzzle problems, building on earlier expertise research that included chess studies. Sweller on the theory’s own boundaries: Sweller (2023), Educational Psychology Review, open access — “All theories have boundary conditions.”
Dual coding. Allan Paivio’s dual coding theory. The Learning Scientists on why dual coding is not learning styles — the two get conflated constantly. Dual coding says everyone benefits from words and visuals together. Learning styles says match one modality to one learner.
Highlighting and rereading versus retrieval. Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan and Willingham (2013), Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Practice testing and distributed practice rated high utility. Highlighting, underlining and rereading rated low utility. Free full text.
Fidget spinners. The evidence runs against them. Graziano, Garcia and Landis (2020), Journal of Attention Disorders — 60 young children with ADHD; attention violations roughly doubled when spinners were introduced. Soares and Storm (2020), Applied Cognitive Psychology — spinners impaired memory for a video lecture even when students believed the spinners were helping. Whole-body movement has support for ADHD; handheld spinners do not. Overview.
Decoding alone isn’t reading. The Simple View of Reading — Gough and Tunmer (1986). Reading comprehension is decoding multiplied by language comprehension, so a zero on either side gives you zero. This is the research behind what Sean kept seeing as a school psychologist.
Morphology and vocabulary. Goodwin and Ahn (2010), meta-analysis of 17 studies — vocabulary effect size 0.40, with the largest gains for struggling readers, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities. A newer pre-registered meta-analysis, Colenbrander and colleagues (2024), open access, found reliable gains for reading and spelling but no clear evidence of effects on reading comprehension. So morphology instruction builds vocabulary, morphological awareness and spelling.
Resources from the Show
Books from this episode
Topic-specific resource links
People and ideas referenced
- John Sweller — the Australian educational psychologist who originated cognitive load theory, cited by Ross
- Thomas Friedman — author of The World Is Flat
- Michael McDowell — Starr’s co-author on Actionable Assessment
- Allan Paivio — originator of dual coding theory
- Jim Henson — the closing passage
- Dual coding — pairing words with images that carry meaning
- Retrieval practice — producing the answer from memory instead of rereading
- Four Corners and the Post-It method — Starr’s equity-of-voice routines
- Think, Pair, Share, Show Me — Ross’s questioning routine
- The 60-second word routine and morphology / word families — Sean’s vocabulary approach
- The Simple View of Reading — the framework behind decoding versus language comprehension
Key Takeaways for Teachers
From Ross Morrison McGill
- “Pay attention” is not an instruction a child can follow. Attention isn’t one switch. Build the lesson so attention is supported, not demanded.
- Working memory is small. New content, new vocabulary, new directions and a new format in the same ten minutes will overload it. The kid isn’t failing to try.
- Dual coding works; learning styles don’t. Pair words with a picture that carries meaning the sentence can’t. Decoration doesn’t count.
- Highlighting and rereading feel like studying and mostly aren’t. Retrieval feels worse and works better.
- Add the Show Me. Think, pair, share leaves you guessing. The fourth step lets you see all thirty answers at once.
From Starr Sackstein
- A grade ends the conversation. Once a number is on the work, the feedback in the margins usually goes unread.
- Separate feedback from grading. Comment while the work is still moving; grade later, if you must grade at all.
- Start with one assignment. Comments only, require a revision, grade the revision. You don’t have to change everything at once.
- Four Corners shows you the room. Kids vote with their feet, and the quiet ones are counted.
- Ask the students before you redesign. When a project flops, the directions may be the problem — they’ll tell you if you ask.
From Sean Morrisey
- Decoding is only half of reading. A child can say every word correctly and understand nothing.
- Sixty seconds is enough to teach a word well. Say it, break it into meaningful parts, define it simply, connect it, use it in their life.
- Teach words in families, not lists. One root gives a kid four words and a strategy for the fifth.
- Teach words in pairs. Optional and mandatory together — each one holds the other in place.
- Let the science-of-reading guilt go. You taught what you knew. Now you know something else. That’s the job.
About the Guests
Ross Morrison McGill
I remember as a younger teacher having to document which students in my class had a preferred learning style and plan my lessons accordingly.
Ross Morrison McGill, Founder of Teacher Toolkit
[PHOTO — Ross McGill headshot, Airtable Official-guest record recyrcccwIWWz593D]
Ross works with pupils, teachers and school leaders across the world, supporting teaching and learning, workload and mental health. A former deputy headteacher, he has been teaching for 27 years working in some of the most challenging secondary schools in London. In 2015, he was nominated as one of the ‘500 Most Influential People in Britain’ by The Sunday Times as a result of being most influential in the field of education. He remains the only classroom teacher to feature to this day…
Blog: teachertoolkit.co.uk · X: @TeacherToolkit · Facebook: TeacherToolkit · Instagram: @TeacherToolkit · LinkedIn: @TeacherToolkit
Starr Sackstein
It’s okay to not quiz and test every single day… observational data is just as valid as testing data. And don’t be afraid to trust your own judgment about what you see happening in your space.
Starr Sackstein, Educator, Author and Assessment Consultant
[PHOTO — Starr Sackstein headshot, Airtable Official-guest record rec2hIJCTncrKS3oc]
Starr Sackstein is an accomplished educator, author, and speaker known for her leadership in rethinking grading and assessment practices. With over two decades of experience in education, she has served as a teacher, instructional coach, and administrator, and is widely recognized for her advocacy of equitable, student-centered learning. Starr is the author of numerous books on grading reform, feedback, and student voice, and she frequently consults with schools and districts around the world. Through her writing, speaking, and professional development work, she continues to influence educators seeking more meaningful and inclusive approaches to teaching and learning.
Blog: mssackstein.com · Facebook · LinkedIn · YouTube · Instagram · Bluesky
Sean Morrisey
I like to teach words in pairs to have a contrast. So if I’m teaching the word optional, I’ll also teach mandatory.
Sean Morrisey, Fifth-Grade Teacher and Creator of the Word Mapping Project
[PHOTO — Sean Morrisey headshot, Airtable Official-guest record recGAD07jM2p1Sf2k]
Sean Morrisey is a fifth grade teacher at Pinehurst Elementary School in the Frontier Central School District, just outside of Buffalo, New York. He is a former school psychologist who spent eight years supporting students’ academic and behavioral needs before transitioning into the classroom, where he has spent the past 18 years refining his approach to literacy instruction.
Grounded in the Science of Learning and the Science of Reading, Sean’s work focuses on helping students build strong connections between sound, spelling, and meaning to support long-term vocabulary and literacy development. He is the creator and author of the Word Mapping Project curriculum, a structured, morphology-rich approach designed to make the inner workings of words visible and meaningful for students. Through his teaching and professional development work, Sean emphasizes practical, research-aligned strategies that help educators deliver explicit, effective vocabulary and word study instruction with clarity and confidence. Sean frequently posts on X and also writes on substack.
Blog: wordmappingproject.com · X: @smorrisey · Substack
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