Planning lessons using "I do, We do, You do"

The text below is my script for a recent event with the Cambodia Teacher Community on lesson planning. I've enjoyed volunteering with these events every other month since last October, but this month was extra special, getting to co-speak with a teacher named Rumny!

Nakru (Teacher) Rumny just shared about the Khmer format for lesson planning. Now, I want to build on that by helping you plan lessons that connect your objectives to your activities and assessment. This will make your lesson plan flow smoothly and help your students grow so they can reach the objectives. My objective is that you can recognize and use the steps in the teaching technique called “I do, we do, you do.”

One difference from Khmer schools is that in American schools, there is not just one format for lesson plans. It depends on the state, school, and level. But every American lesson plan includes many of the same components or parts that we saw in Nakru Rumny’s presentation just now, including objectives, activities, and assessments.

Today, I want to share with you a teaching strategy recommended by American education specialists. Research shows evidence that it works in many different subject areas, with many different age groups. This strategy is also easy to use outside of a classroom. Actually, all of you have learned before using this strategy.

Raise your hand if you know how to wash the dishes. Do you remember how you learned?

Let’s think about the girl in this picture. We’ll call her Pich ("Diamond").

At the beginning, Pich’s family wanted her to help wash the dishes. So their objective was, “Pich will be able to wash the dishes.” 

How do you think they taught her? Did she read a book about it? Did she memorize 10 steps for scrubbing a pot? Did she take a multiple-choice test about it? Probably not.

Here’s how I think she learned. There are 3 steps:

• First, she watched other people wash the dishes. 
• Then, other people worked with her to wash the dishes. Maybe they helped her put on the gloves, guided her hand while she scrubbed, and told her to move the bowl around under the water so the whole bowl would be rinsed off. 
• Then she did it on her own while they watched. 

Maybe she’s still not ready to wash dishes without them watching. Maybe they still check to see if she uses too little soap, or if she left a dirty spot on a spoon, or if she puts a glass where it could fall and break. That way they can correct her until she’s able to succeed all by herself at this objective of washing the dishes.

There is a name for this teaching strategy. It’s called, “I do, We Do, You Do.” I is the teacher. We is the teacher and students together. You is the students.

During “I do,” the teacher shows a skill or procedure or explains information, while the students watch. During “We do,” the teacher helps the students practice. During “You do,” students practice while the teacher watches and gives feedback. Notice that in “I do,” the students are passive, but in “We do” and “You do,” they are active. Being active helps them understand and remember it long-term.

Planning “I do, we do, you do” starts by thinking about the objective. What will be difficult for students about this objective? What do they need from the teacher? This helps us organize the first step: "I do." During “I do,” the teacher does or says something while the students watch. Maybe the teacher shows how to use a water pump. Maybe she reads a story or lesson. Maybe the teacher demonstrates a math problem, or shows an example of a project that students will do.

“I do” is important so that students will understand the objective. But if we stop at “I do,” the students will not do the objective, and we will not know if they are able to do it. They need to actively practice the objective. But probably they are not yet ready to do the objective by themselves. So next step is “We do.”

To plan “We do,” the teacher thinks about the support that students need so they can do the objective. Often, we need to break the objective into smaller steps so students can do a little bit at a time. Maybe for math, the teacher has students use blocks to practice addition, or asks a student to come to the board to solve a problem. Maybe for English, she asks students to unscramble some words on the board to make a question. Maybe for geography, she has the students read the textbook about Laos and list some important facts on the board.

The last step? “You do.” To plan “You do,” the teacher looks for ways to let the students practice the objective on their own. Maybe the students work in groups to create a poster about different provinces. Maybe the students do a worksheet. Maybe they practice reading out loud. While the students practice, the teacher observes and is ready to give feedback: either praise or gentle correction. If many students are making mistakes and not succeeding, maybe the teacher goes back to re-teach using “I do” or “We do” until the students are ready to try again by themselves. Homework is another part of “You do” because students are trying a skill when the teacher is not there to help or correct them right away.

The teacher uses “I do, we do, you do” so students will learn to do the objective correctly without any help. Sometimes the students will succeed after just one class. For other objectives like washing dishes or reading a book, maybe they have to practice “We do” for many days before they can move to “I do.” Maybe some students will be ready sooner than other students. But the teacher is always thinking about how much support students need so that they can move toward completing the objective independently.

"I do, we do, you do" is not only useful in a classroom, but also in real life. As a Christian, I found it fascinating to realize that even Jesus used this teaching method. First, he demonstrated love as he honored low-status people, healed suffering people, and washed the disciples' feet. Then he had the disciples join him in demonstrating love to others. Finally, just before he went to the cross, he commanded them to continue loving others the way he had loved: 

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35)

After “You do,” the goal is that students can do this without any help or feedback from the teacher. I think many of you already use this technique sometimes when you teach. But I hope that after today, you can identify these steps in your lessons and you can use these steps more often to help you plan effective lessons. Thank you!

Next, I did a brief sample lesson teaching the German names for red, yellow, and blue, and then participants explained how they saw each step of "I do, We do, You do" in my lesson. Then they worked in their table groups to design a lesson on subtraction using all three steps. It's hard to do those activities as an individual blog reader, but instead you can test yourself with these review questions, which I ran out of time for at our event:

Today in my entire lesson, my objective was to teach you about the three steps of a good lesson. Tell me again, what are they? “I do, we do, you do.” Great! But did I use all those steps when I taught you about this technique?

How did I use “I do” to teach you about this technique? 

What about "We do" and "You do?" 

When you're ready, read on for how I tried to include them all:

"I do" - I described an example of this technique to teach a child how to wash the dishes. I also demonstrated a lesson on colors.

“We do” - I had everyone participate in a lesson on colors, and then they identified the steps in my lesson.

“You do” - Everyone worked in table groups to plan a lesson using this technique. Then one table shared their ideas with the whole group and we gave feedback.

Record turnout - exciting to see these events growing!

*None of these photos are mine except the last two.