"Instructional Urgency"

How do teachers orchestrate instruction urgency (which is not going fast, but students understand the importance of their work and that every minute counts).

In Teach Like a Champion, Doug Lemov tells us that in the classroom, “time is water in the desert, a teacher’s most precious resource: to be husbanded, guarded, and conserved. Every minute matters” (2010, p. 230). Effective teachers know that time is sacred; the highest-performing teachers never waste a minute of class time (Cunningham & Allington, 2007).

In the classrooms where teachers value time — theirs and students’ — you will observe the following:

• Students arrive on time and begin working on some type of “do now” activity or anticipatory set;
• Time-saving routines are in place;
• Every minute of instructional time is used;
• Time limits are placed on activities and shared with students;
• A variety of activities occur during instruction;
• Transitions between activities are seamless; and
• Teacher praises students’ efficient use of time.

Joanne Kelleher in Phi Delta Kappan, Oct 2015.  article here.