The Heavy Lifting Framework: Getting Kids To Do the Thinking

In our work supporting schools and school systems, we get the honor of visiting classrooms across all grades and subjects. And, regardless of the school system, geography, age of kid, or content, we are seeing similar challenges in all of our visits: kids are too often not being asked to do the rigorous thinking work at the heart of the lesson. Instead, teachers are holding too tight and reducing the cognitive load on kids. The result – a lack of independence in students. 

Why is this happening? In almost all systems we support, schools and teachers have adopted and are using high-quality instructional materials (HQIM). That’s a good thing! What we’re seeing, though, is that teachers often hold so tightly to the lesson structure or over-scaffold the work using those materials that students are left merely copying, following steps without genuine struggle or connections, or being guided in a way that stifles independence and problem-solving. This results in “adults doing the heavy lifting,” which prevents students from developing the deep thinking capacity we want to see.

How the Heavy Lifting Framework Can Help

In these classrooms, the ingredients are there: HQIM, productive classroom environments with kids ready to learn, and willing teachers who are working diligently to support their students. We created the Heaving Lifting Framework to support instructional leaders to coach teachers to move from doing the thinking to putting the work on kids. This framework provides coaches and instructional leaders with a clear lens to diagnose this challenge and coach teachers effectively. It focuses on two core components for creating a classroom where students own the thinking: Planning and Execution.

1. Diagnose the Issue (Planning)

Instructional leaders can use the framework to ask:

• Bottom Line: Does the teacher know the precise learning goal—the bottom line—of the lesson, and are all tasks driving directly towards it? 
• Exemplary Work: Has the teacher clearly identified exemplary work (written or verbal) aligned to grade-level expectations, which defines the high bar they are listening for during the lesson?

2. Support the Teacher (Execution)

The framework offers concrete support for in-the-moment coaching:

• Lesson Structure and Work Time: Does the lesson structure include sufficient, uninterrupted time for students to think, write, discuss, and apply the concepts? Is the teacher circulating during this time to identify trends in student data and to provide feedback on student work?
• Appropriate Scaffolding: Is the teacher providing an appropriate amount of scaffolding? This means offering enough context to launch students into the work, but resisting the urge to overscaffold with too many leading questions or by telling students how to solve the problem. Do students have what they need to get started and try on their own?

Supporting Teachers To Pass Off the Thinking

It’s easy to say that kids should be doing the thinking in the classroom, but we’ve found that it’s a lot more difficult to articulate the teacher moves to make that happen. The Heavy Lifting Framework has proven to be useful for the instructional leaders we support. The framework can be a meaningful tool to guide both planning and instructional walkthroughs to support teachers to shift the balance of cognitive work. This is how we support students to ensure that they build the independence they need to succeed. 

Want to learn more about supporting kids to do the heavy lifting? Reach out to Jess to schedule a call.