100 Teaching Tips (Penny Ur)

Highlights / notes file: 100 Teaching Tips - Penny Ur (notes)

My long Uzbek notes on tips 1–17 of Ur’s 100 Teaching Tips (CUP), with my own experience and examples (e.g., Temur Solief on spacing).

Tips I’ve written up, linked to the evidence notes

Ur tip	Linked notes
1 Start with a smile · 2 Start and end clearly · 3 Tell students the plan	Close lessons deliberately - a menu of closing routines
4 New material first, review later (distributed practice, expanding rehearsal)	Spacing and interleaving beat massed practice · Spaced retrieval is the best-supported technique
5 Don’t give homework at the very end · 6 End on something good	Design peak moments in a course · Homework should be the exception, not the default
7 Use the coursebook selectively · 8 Use exercises in different ways	Ambient language - exploit coursebook exercises beyond the targets
9 Allow many right answers	Open-ended exercises - allow many right answers
10 Recycle tasks	Repetition without boredom - vary one task parameter at a time
11 Learn names · 12 Keep the lesson moving · 13 Make it interesting	Teaching is the management of attention
14 Catch problems as they start · 15 Avoid confrontations	Behaviour management is mostly pre-emption
16 Compliment good behaviour	Descriptive praise beats evaluative praise · Five reasons to stop saying Good job
17 Do correct mistakes	Topic - Error and Corrective Feedback

Ur’s position on research vs craft knowledge is debated in Research mediators vs craft knowledge - the Penny Ur debate.