Never Work Harder Than Your Students and Other Principles of Great Teaching
by Robyn R. Jackson
ASCD (2009)

Reviewed by Gail Tillery, NBCT
High School English & Mentoring (Georgia)
Teacher Leaders Network

I must confess I was a little disappointed that this book did not turn out to contain the magic secret of getting past the hard work of teaching. However, Robyn Jackson does offer many practical tips for helping proficient teachers move to what she calls the master teacher level, so the book is definitely worth reading.

Jackson builds her work on the premise that the most effective teachers have what she calls “the master teacher mindset.” This mindset is built around a set of seven principles that Jackson says master teachers use to guide their practice. Each chapter of the book is built around exploring one of these principles, including

• knowing where students are and where they are going
• expecting students to reach their goals
• supporting students through effective feedback
• focusing on quality rather than quantity

The master teacher mindset is centered around reflective practice; master teachers work in such a way that the principles become automatic to them, and they use these principles constantly to design the work and assessments they prepare for students.

Jackson believes that a teacher's work should be done at the front end, as it were. She advocates becoming an expert on the standards of the given course and using that expertise to design work that challenges students and helps them reach their learning goals. She gives practical advice on understanding standards by helping her readers interpret their language. For example, she explains that standards emphasize either learning goals or a process (content vs. skills). Once teachers understand exactly what the standards are asking students to know and be able to do, they can assign work and assessments to help students meet the standards.

One of the most interesting and challenging ideas Jackson presents is that teachers should be able to explain why they are doing each activity and assessment they chose. She urges teachers to ask themselves, “Why am I doing what I'm doing?” If students ask you why they're doing an activity, and you can't give them an answer that makes sense, the activity must go.

Another interesting idea Jackson develops is Principle 3: ”Expect Your Students to Get There.” She discusses the point of view that I have heard all my life among colleagues: that some students can't or won't do the work because they’re lazy or don’t care or whatever, and there's really nothing we can do to change that. Jackson, however, believes that expectations are really all about what we expect of ourselves—not of our students.

She asks us as readers to shift focus from what students can and will do to what WE can and will do. She says that teachers must have high expectations of their own abilities to get their students where they need to go. She points out that, if we say students can't acquire knowledge or develop skills, we're really saying we don't believe WE can get them to the learning goal in question.

Jackson also gives practical guidelines for effective feedback in Principle 4: ”Support Your Students.” A firm believer in intervening before disaster strikes, she provides ideas on how to help students as soon as you see that a problem is developing. Undoing confusion before it starts is a proactive approach that allows teachers to anticipate and head off the damage before it happens. This was one of my favorite principles.

Jackson's book includes a self-assessment for readers to complete so they will know where they are in relation to the master teacher mindset. In the appendix, she includes an array of tools to help teachers develop action plans to help them move toward the mastery of teaching. The toolbox is user-friendly and provides concrete help for teachers who wish to pursue Jackson's line of thinking.

While I didn't agree with everything in the book, I found Jackson's passion for teaching and her obvious belief in all students to be inspiring and refreshing. This book is an easy read but also thought-provoking and full of ideas to aid teachers in helping students to excel. It is definitely worth looking into.