Part II: Never Work Harder than your Students by Robyn R. Jackson

One sentence summary:

Chapters 3 to 6 talks about how effective teaching means providing timely support, intentional feedback, and prioritising quality over quantity—so all students can master what truly matters.

Some key ideas:

1) Support systems should be planned, not improvised

Don’t wait for students to fail before intervening. Set clear red flags, shared accountability, and concrete next steps. Anticipate struggles and plan supports like writing frames, visual models, or peer tutoring. Just as importantly, plan how and when these supports will be removed.

2) Feedback is more powerful when it looks forward

Feedback isn’t just about correcting mistakes—it’s about coaching students towards mastery. Use tools like weekly tracking sheets and rubrics students understand. Create space for reflection, action, and correction, not just looking at grades.

3) Focus on fewer, deeper learning tasks

Quality trumps quantity. Avoid “busy work” and aim for well-structured assignments that allow for revision and growth. Before starting a unit, diagnose students’ prior knowledge and bridge essential gaps. Know the difference between what’s need to know and what’s just nice to know based on syllabus documents and past year examinations.

My thoughts:

"Don't ask why your students are not studying, if you never taught them how."

This was a powerful message I took away from Chapter 4. I have caught myself blaming students for incomplete or poorly done work, only to now realise I hadn’t actually taught them how to learn or complete the task. I assumed they would know what to do just by reading notes or instructions. After this insight, I spent time teaching my Biology students how to approach a practical experiment step by step—how to read the instructions, what to highlight, and how to visualise what kind of results I should be expecting. Explaining my thinking process and making expectations explicit helped them engage better. I want to continue helping students recognise when they need help, and provide scaffolds that gradually fade, starting with concrete examples before moving into abstract content.

In Chapter 5, the emphasis on coaching-style feedback made me reflect on my current worksheets and marking. Are they helping students learn, or just ticking a box? I like the idea of getting students to track their own progress—perhaps through a Google Sheet where they record scores, concepts they’ve mastered, and areas for revision. To make this meaningful, I’ll need to break down learning objectives clearly and model how to reflect on feedback. Feedback should be simple, targeted, and purposeful, helping students take charge of their improvement without overburdening me. I’m reminded of something my colleague Esther said this week: “Put in the bare minimum time that gives the maximum impact.” That’s not cutting corners—it’s empowering students to learn independently and efficiently.

Chapter 6 stood out most. The reminder to prioritise essential learning over trying to teach everything was liberating. It gave me permission to slow down, curate resources, and focus on mastery, not coverage. I tried this in my NA class—I skipped the usual slides (with loads of blanks to fill in) and used my co-teacher’s scaffolded worksheet. The clarity and focus made it easier to teach and more digestible for students. One single-paged well-designed worksheet taught a skill far better than my long, flashy slideshow. It was a sense of relief to realise that a good lesson can be as short as a 1 to 2 page worksheet, rather than having to do like 40 slides or an activity booklet. This will be my goal, to create short, intentional worksheets, so that their Science file stays thin but value-packed.

Disclaimer: This blog post is a summary of my written takeaways by ChatGPT and the cover image is generated by using the takeaway as the prompt in Gemini.