Name the Steps

The steps

1. Write the method as a few short steps before the lesson. Do the task yourself and note each move as you make it. Then trim the list to the moves students must hold in order. Three to five steps suits most methods; if you find you need seven, teach two shorter recipes instead.
2. Give each step a name worth remembering. Keep each name to a word or two, concrete enough to picture. In long multiplication, "zero, multiply, add" carries everything after the first row. Say the full list aloud three times; if you stumble over it, students probably will too.
3. Lay the names over a worked example. Show a completed solution first (Worked Examples). Walk through it again, saying each name at the line where that move happens. Every name should label something the class has already watched you do.
   Same example, second lap. This time we count the moves as they happen: zero… multiply… add. Three steps, and they run the whole method.
4. Have the class say the steps back. Recite the list together, then ask individual students for it, calling on them by name. Ask from the middle as well as from the start:
   What comes after multiply?
   Keep the list visible while it is still new.
5. Make the names the language of practice. Set work on the method and circulate. When a student stalls, ask which step they are on; often the next name is all the rescue they need. Mark by step as well: "step two missing" sends a student straight to the fix.
   You've done zero and you've done multiply. Say step three to me, then do it.
6. Retire the list as fluency grows. Every week or two, cover the display and set practice from memory. When most of the class can run the method without looking up, leave the display down. Keep one copy somewhere students who still want it can check.

How you’ll know it’s working

• Asked mid-task, students can answer with a step name ("I'm on scale") and say what comes next.
• The "what do I do now?" hands become rarer during practice. Count them in the first five minutes: perhaps a dozen at the start of term, two or three within a few weeks.
• Feedback becomes shorter without losing its effect: you write or say one step name, and the student goes straight to the right part of the work and fixes it.
• With the display covered, the work looks much the same. The list has moved into memory, which is the retirement test from step 6.

Weigh it up

Why it’s worth it

• Students can hold the whole method while working on one part of it. The recipe carries the order, so students who used to fall apart at step two are more likely to reach the end of the task.
• Independent practice needs less rescuing. A stalled student can ask which step they are on and read the next name, so fewer hands go up, and much of the drift that begins with being stuck never starts.
• Feedback becomes faster and more precise. "Step two missing" can replace a written paragraph, and a tally of which step failed across a set of books becomes next lesson's reteach at almost no marking cost.
• Reciting the list at the start of later lessons gives you thirty seconds of retrieval practice, which helps the method survive the gap to its next use.
• The names travel beyond your own lessons. A teaching assistant or cover teacher can support students with the same three words, and students explaining the method to a partner finally have the language they need to do it.

The costs

• Good names take real drafting work. First versions tend to run too wordy, and the list usually settles only after you have taught with it once or twice.
• A recipe rewards following it. Methods that need judgement resist being reduced to neat steps, and forcing them can produce work that is tidy, mechanical and wrong.
• The scaffold needs upkeep: introducing, rehearsing, displaying and then deliberately removing it all take lesson minutes, and a list that is never removed can become something students cannot work without.