Small Moves Big Gains

by Nancy Motley

“I don’t have enough time.” “I learned so many strategies at that training, but I don’t have the time to plan for them.” “This strategy works well…when I remember to use it. There are so many initiatives though. It’s hard to do it all.” Can you relate to any of these sentiments? If so, this book is for YOU! Small Moves, Big Teacher Habits That Help Kids to Talk More, Think More, and Achieve More offers educators a straightforward path toward increasing student outcomes. The small moves found within this resource are brief, actionable, and require little to no preparation. Each one is a high-yield strategy that benefits all types of learners and can be applied across content areas. Nancy Motley gives practical steps for turning the moves into automatic habits - showing how to do them, why they are significant, and possible variations. Along the way, she shares the science behind habit formation, as well as many examples from real classrooms.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

102 pages, Perfect Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Greg Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful, practical book that offers lots of little strategies to use intentionally in our lessons. These will hopefully build in high yield results from smaller moves that become habits. Great book. Quick read. One I'll return to to reexamine and harvest ideas from

[Chaos & Confetti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nancy Motley gathers together numerous teaching strategies that will help students talk more, think more, and achieve more. Motley aims to get the most success out of the smallest effort.
Nancy’s strategies are meant to be quick to implement with little to no preparation.

Many experienced educators will look at the ideas within Small Moves and think “no duh,” but that turns out to be the beauty of the book. The teaching skills presented are probably many that teachers have learned before and may already be using to some degree. However, Motley’s approaches how to best implement each with little effort and how to maximize their effectiveness. Even practices that are already in use may come in ways that enhance them.

Each skill is presented with ways and reasons to use it, along with examples on how to differentiate them and apply them to different learning groups.

Small Moves Big Gains feels like a guide to common sense teaching strategies, but it is also a guide to how to finally get around to implementing those strategies and rolling them out effectively. I would recommend this book to teachers of any level or content area.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Small Moves, Big Gains is honestly one of the best teaching books I’ve read because it is so practical. Each of the small moves takes a very short amount of time and minimal prep, but they can help classrooms become more organized, interactive, and engaging. Some of the small moves are things I already do, but I’ve got some great ideas for things I can add to my teaching routines to get my students talking more. That’s a big goal for me this year. I love the way Nancy Motley provides examples for all levels and content areas. Highly recommend this for any teacher!

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this while waiting at the airport. That's how easy it is to find and identify the strategies you want to implement. In addition, there is a huge bonus at the back of the book: a table telling how each strategy aligns with WIDA Standards! This was a great choice for the end of Winter Break as it gets me back into a school mindset and sends me back eager and motivated.

[Karah McCool · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a lot of very realistic and applicable teaching advice in this book. There are several small ways to adjust how you're teaching/running your classroom that help to engage students in a way that I, personally, have struggled to.

Bonus: I got to take a class with the author who was an incredibly engaging teacher--this lady knows what she's doing!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical steps that are actually do-able! Nothing that requires changing the whole way you teach, just little tweaks! Excited to try out these methods1

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic teaching tips that can really change your life! Also love that one pagers can be easily shared with busy classroom teachers. Thank you, Nancy!!!