The Unteachables Podcast

#136: The entry routine that is magic for low-level disruption! The power of learning maps

• Claire English • Season 6 • Episode 136

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If your lessons feel like a sprint uphill from the very first bell... kids trickling in, backpacks still on, everyone chatting while you’re already repeating yourself, then friend, you don’t have an entry routine problem. You have an entry routine opportunity.

This is part two of the Behaviour Club Kickstart, and today we’re talking entry routines! Specifically, the simple but mighty tool: Learning Maps.

Think of Learning Maps like Google Maps for your lesson: they show students exactly where they’re headed, how they’ll get there, and why it matters. And the magic? They’re not just a “best practice” teaching tool, they’re also low-level behaviour kryptonite.

I’ll walk you through:

  • Why a shaky start sets the tone for a chaotic lesson (and how to fix it)
  • How Learning Maps calm student anxiety and cut down disruption
  • What to include so they actually work in the real world—not just on paper
  • How to use them as part of your entry routine without adding extra work to your plate

It’s never just about the behaviour, it’s every dang thing we do in our classroom!

What you’ll learn in this episode:

  • Why entry routines are your first (and best) line of defence against disruption
  • The three superpowers of Learning Maps for behaviour and engagement
  • Exactly what to include in a Learning Map so it’s clear, consistent, and student-friendly
  • How to embed Learning Maps into every lesson, no matter your schedule or classroom setup
  • Ways to keep students returning to the Learning Map throughout the lesson to boost clarity and buy-in

Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!

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Speaker 1:

Oh, hi there, teachers. Welcome to the Unteachables podcast. I'm your host, claire English, and I am just a fellow teacher, a toddler mama and a big old behavior nerd on a mission to demystify and simplify that little thing called classroom management. The way we've all been taught to manage behavior and classroom manage has left us playing crowd control, which is not something I subscribe to, because we're not bouncers, we're teachers. So listen in as I walk you through the game, changing strategies and I mean the things that we can actually do and action in our classrooms that will allow you to lean into your beautiful values as a compassionate educator and feel empowered to run your room with a little more calm and, dare I say it, a lot less chaos. I will see you in the episode, hello teachers, and welcome.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the Unteachables podcast and welcome back to session two of the Behaviour Club Kickstart. If you didn't listen to last week's episode, please go back and do that. It was about presence and that is just the foundation for everything that we bring through the kickstart. So please go back and listen to that first. But if you need a little reminder about what the kickstart is, it is just like five really short actionable sessions where you are going to learn one quick, simple and powerful strategy for every single part of your lesson. It will help you to reduce disruption and to increase predictability and just build beautiful, calm and confident teaching habits and routines that just start shaping your proactive, incredible, compassionate, everything classroom management approach All of the things that we talk about here is just going to be a little bridge to help you to really start to implement those things. So it really is just small shifts done, every single lesson for huge impact.

Speaker 1:

If you would like to officially join us for the kickstart because obviously here there's only so much that you can learn through a podcast you can come and join the proper kickstart where you will get the presentations. You'll get um, you know me actually talking through things. There's um, like visuals that'll be really easy for you to then apply the kind of things that we're teaching. You'll also get all of the resources that are attached to those lessons. Then please come and join us over at the dash unteachablescom forward slash kickstart, because you'll be able to get the resources and just watch everything through in more depth. So if you want to do the kickstart, come and join us, make the time, come and join me. It's 10 minute sessions, like that's why I've done quick five days, 10 minutes each, the attached resources. I just want you to go. Oh my gosh, yes, this work actually works and I can make incredible changes and I'm not stuck and there are things that I can do. So come and commit to that. So it's $1. So come and do it, it's $1, and you can't even get a quarter of a coffee for that. So it would just be so fabulous to be able to support you inside of the kickstart, anyway.

Speaker 1:

So last week was presence and today the second focus is on entry. So the way I've structured the kickstart is to kind of bring you through a bit of a journey of being in the classroom and the things that we can control to be able to reduce disruptions and low-level behaviors. And an entry routine is honestly like if you don't have a solid entry routine, it can be so flipping hard to then continue the rest of the lesson in a way that is calm and productive and something that you feel in control of Not in control of your students, of course, but you feeling in control of that space. I remember when I did not have an entry routine and I wasn't sure, like how to establish a solid entry routine, and I had so many challenges. I just feel like it was just an uphill battle from before those kids even got to my room. There was the lack of urgency for some of them to get started.

Speaker 1:

So I felt like from the get-go, I was just nagging. They had their backpack still on, or they were really slowly unpacking, or they were just chit-chatting to each other and I was just nagging. They had their backpack still on, or they were really slowly unpacking, or they were just chit-chatting to each other and I was standing up the front and trying to get them to listen and engage, or, you know, get involved in the starter activity or whatever I had going on at that moment. I just felt like it was a constant slog at the start. Then I always had students like trickling in. If I finally got things to a point where they were kind of engaging in things, I then had students trickling in late, so I'd have to repeat myself. I'd had students, you know, asking what are we doing today, mears? What are we doing today? What are we doing today when I'm still waiting for them to settle? Or, oh, what are we doing today? Why can't we get started Like I just felt so frazzled from the get-go and just on the back foot of the lesson because I didn't have a solid entry routine to follow.

Speaker 1:

It was just chaos. And if that is at all relatable, if you've got students who have a lack of urgency, if there's just a lot of chit chat, if you feel like from the very beginning of the lesson things just aren't falling into place, then you need a good old entry routine, and the stuff that I'm talking about here is basic stuff, but implementing it in the classroom can feel like a totally different beast altogether. I remember when someone taught me about all this stuff and I was like, yeah, okay, I do that. But then I was like actually, no, I don't. I went into the classroom and I'm like I don't do that and it takes a little bit of reflection. But as I'm going through this stuff, just have a think about your own entry routine, what's happening in your classroom at the very start of the lesson, and come into this session with a little bit of an open mind about what you can change in that first five minutes.

Speaker 1:

There are lots of things when it comes to an entry routine and if you're in the behavior club. I've got a whole training called the first five that you can go and watch and there's all the resources there. But I, for the purposes of the kickstart remember 10 minutes, really quick sessions I wanted to pick out one actionable tool that you can use to start to craft an entry routine that is a little bit calmer, and that is the one that I've chosen is Learning Maps and I've spoken about Learning Maps on the podcast before, I think, because it's one of those things that I like to nerd out on, because it's something that's seemingly so simple, but these simple visual tools that they might just show students like what they're learning and you know how they'll get there, but it is the consistency and the clarity that just is such a superpower for low level disruption. So, yes, it is a brilliant teaching and learning tool and it is best practice and it helps us communicate to our students the why and get all of those wonderful things happening in terms of the learning but the felt safety that it can give to our students just by having that there as an entry routine. It is brilliant. They reduce anxiety because when students know what's happening in the routine, it is brilliant. They reduce anxiety because when students know what's happening in the lesson, it reduces their stress response. It actually, you know, increases their window of tolerance. And for the students who have the biggest behaviors, the ones that challenge us the most with their behaviors, the ones that you know feel like they're in fight, flight or freeze, it's brilliant for them because they're increasing their window of tolerance. They know what to expect from you. They know that when they go into Miss English's lesson there's a map to their learning on the board and they're going to be able to tick that off, or there's something that's there consistently. They know that in half an hour's time they're going to be doing a group activity, so they don't have to be wondering what's coming up. The second reason why they are a bit of classroom management magic is that they reinforce expectations.

Speaker 1:

Everything we are doing in the classroom, moment to moment, minute to minute, we are communicating our expectations. We're communicating our expectations through what we say. We're communicating it through the things that we provide for our students, the way that we're communicating non-verbally, every single thing that we do in the classroom, is communicating an expectation to our students. So when we clearly demonstrate what we're expecting students to achieve that lesson and showing them how we're going to support them to get there. Our students then go okay, that's what's happening in this lesson. They've, you know, mrs clearly outlined it there for me and that's what she's expecting from me. You know there's ticker box next to it. I'm going to be expected to do this. It is communicating the expectations that our students come in and they're going to be engaging in the lesson and they know that I've got it sorted. You know like I'm holding them in that space, but they're just so powerful so they reinforce expectations, they're reducing that anxiety and they're just increasing felt safety for our students. So embedding learning maps into every single lesson will just make students feel increasingly more calm about what they're going to be walking into.

Speaker 1:

Then that's going to in turn reduce disruptive, unsettled and disengaged behaviors. And it really is just such a beautiful, magical tool, so simple, and it also just reinforces the fact that the classroom management staff and the teaching and learning staff is inextricably linked. You cannot separate that out, which is why traditional classroom management, you know, pees me off a little bit, because we separate them. We're like, okay, there's behaviors happening. How about we deal with the behavior, when it's never just about that behavior, is it. It is, by the way, my husband now he edits my podcast and have you ever watched a movie? And they say the title of the movie? And we're like, oh. Every time we're like, oh, they said the title of the movie in the dialogue. Every time I mention it's never just about the behavior, like you know. He said, oh, my God, I'm going to delete this out. No, I'm not deleting this out. He's like, oh, you said the name of the book, oh, but I do say it a lot, it's never just about the behavior. Classroom management really is about everything that we do in the classroom. So anyway, yes, never just about the behavior, james, you can say it. I said the name of the title, anyway.

Speaker 1:

So a learning map. What is it really? What do we use it for? You know how do we present it? So they, as I said before, it's just the steps or the content, everything chunked down for the lesson what they're doing, why they're doing it, so what they'll be learning, the outcome and then how they'll get there, the steps, the structure, the content. You can use learning maps for a single lesson or a unit of work or a full term or year. You know, I've seen beautiful displays up on classroom walls that have the whole term's learning or the whole year's learning and you know, students like add bits of their work along the way, or it's just like a really beautiful visual map to what they've done. But I'm talking about more a single lesson learning map and for that lesson to lesson learning map, this is what you can include and what you can make sure you've got there just so you can tick the box on. You know, a really quality learning map that is reducing the stress response and increasing felt safety and doing all of those things we spoke about.

Speaker 1:

When we're talking about why it is a bit of classroom management magic, the first thing that you need to make sure of is that the outcomes are really clear and Students should be able to see exactly how they can be successful that lesson. There's nothing ambiguous, there's nothing overwhelming. It is like really clear Sweet, I know what I'm doing this lesson. I know how I'm going to get there. The second thing is always in the same place. So whether you've got it projected or written on the board or printed, consistency really is key with this.

Speaker 1:

If you're moving between rooms, I like having them printed on slips. You know, as a secondary teacher. I'm not always in the same classroom or you know, things change in the drop of a hat and I've got to move, and having printed slips is just such a game changer. I always just have like a single page document and I even just plan my lessons straight into a learning map. So I'm not doubling my work up. I'm actually doing something that's going to be super supportive of the students and it really helps me to plan because I'm really like laser focused on what I want students to achieve and what I need them to do that lesson. The third thing is, by the way, if you need to project it one day, write on the board the other day, print it one day, that's also fine. The consistency really is if you can like do the same thing every lesson, that's like fantastic. But if you need to chop and change that, that's also okay, as long as they know that every single lesson they're going to have something there.

Speaker 1:

The third thing is make sure you're using a student-friendly language. So strip out any jargon. If a student can't explain the outcome to a mate, it just needs a bit of a reworking. So if they can't go, oh yeah, this lesson I'm learning this, then we need to change that a little bit and the outline should sit next to the outcomes. It needs to visually show students that everything is connected and everything they're doing is helping them to successfully work towards an outcome. And that is where we can help to increase participation and increase engagement, because we've got the buy-in. Then we need to increase the buy-in by showing students hey, this is what you're doing and this is why you're doing it.

Speaker 1:

And the last thing I'll say on successfully using a learning map is actually use them, so talk through them. It should not be something that's just superfluous and sitting on the board. I am not a fan of doing anything that is just there to tick a box. I see a lot of teachers talking about the fact that they are made to write a learning objective on the board. But it's just there, you know. It's there in case someone walks in and it shouldn't be that way. And I remember seeing a post a couple of weeks ago and it was talking about that exact thing. And one teacher's like show me the evidence that a learning objective actually works and I'll start putting it on my board. Well, the evidence is there.

Speaker 1:

John Hattie in Visible Learning. He did an extensive amount of research into what is effective teaching and learning and what effectively moves the needle with students of you know all backgrounds, every single classroom, and he did this huge, huge study and you know a learning map students knowing what they're going to be learning. Having that clarity is just so, so powerful. I understand why teachers go. Why the hell do I have to have a learning objective on my board is just because someone sitting in an office tells me that I have to have it on my board. If you're doing it for that reason, then it's not going to be impactful. So the last step of us using a learning map, that's going to actually be an entry routine that settles the class, that helps with low level behaviors, that helps students engage with their learning. It is talking through them and using it and making sure that students know what they're doing that lesson using that learning map, and you know what are we going to be ticking off, what are we going to be doing Actually using it?

Speaker 1:

If you're doing an activity in the second part of the lesson, going back to that learning map, hey, what outcome have we met? Like? Have a look at your learning map. What have we achieved? Have you met that outcome. Can you tick that off? Brilliant, see, by doing that activity you have now achieved this outcome. Ticking it off, you don't have to say outcome. You can say whatever goal, objective, whatever language you like to use, but keeping on going back to that objective, I like to use the objective to structure my exit task. So on the way out of the lesson I'll say hey everybody, on the way out, I need you to answer me this question and I'll base it like you know format formulate a question based on the outcome and I'll say you need to answer that on the way out so you can show me that you have met that outcome.

Speaker 1:

Super clear, super concise. Students are like yep, no worries, or I'll get them to write on a post-it note or they'll verbally say it to me. But having that outcome there and constantly going back to that learning map, students will then go okay, it's clear, it's purposeful, she knows what she's doing, she knows what she wants me to be doing. There's a purpose for this. They're not just doing the work, they're understanding why they're doing it. And that is when the magic happens and that is why it's so powerful for classroom management as well. You get the buy-in, you're getting the clarity and you're getting students engaging in a different way.

Speaker 1:

So I could talk about learning maps for a very long time, but I'm going to cut it off there, because if you are in the kickstart, you will be able to go through that session, but you'll also get a learning map template that you can edit on Canva and a slide version so you can always have that there and fill it in for the lesson. It just reduces your mental load. Those resources alone are worth coming in and doing the kickstart for. I'm telling you that much. So if you haven't yet, if you're not one of the at the time of recording this, the kickstart's been open for about five days and I have 450 of you incredible teachers in there going through the Kickstart. So if you're not one of them, you need to come in and do this work, because five short sessions, five huge, huge, huge shifts that is not another thing to add to your plate, because everything that I'm teaching you just like the learning maps. Another thing to add to your plate, because everything that I'm teaching you just like the learning maps giving you a template. Take it onto Canva, you know, pop your own stuff in there. I've given you a slide you can open in Google slides, plan your lessons straight onto that, project it up. Your students will see it there. It is powerful stuff and it will hopefully help you with your planning. It'll help you create lessons that that pedagogy already embedded into it. You know that's.

Speaker 1:

I don't want us to be constantly thinking what are we doing about behavior? Classroom management really should be something that we are weaving into the everyday, and that's why this kickstart is so incredible, because it is just stuff that we do in the everyday that can make huge change when it comes to behavior. Okay, I'm going to stop banging on about the kickstart now. Come and join us. It's the-unteachablescom forward slash kickstart. Come, jump in, but give that a try.

Speaker 1:

Try to embed that into an entry routine. Of course, it's not the whole puzzle. I can't teach you every little entry routine in 10 minutes but it is such an amazing place to start and something that you can embed straight away. So I will see you next week. For task. We're going to be going through how to give a task that is reducing the constant questions of, hey, what are we doing? What are we doing? What are we doing Because you are going to be providing a task that is super clear. Um and yeah, it's just again low level behavior magic. I cannot wait to see you there. Have a fantastic week, teacher friend, and bye for now.

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Claire English

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