Skip to content

Instructional routines

An instructional routine is how a session unfolds, written down once and reused as often as you need. Rather than repeating in every lesson "we start with this, then do that", you store that sequence in a routine and apply it.

An example

A "Problem-solving session" routine might come down to four ordered steps, each with its own duration and instruction: warm-up, demonstration, guided practice, independent practice. How many steps there are, what they are called and how long they last is whatever your curriculum has written. The tool imposes none of it.

A routine is made of:

  • ordered steps, each with its instruction (and often a duration);
  • cross-cutting rules that hold for every step.

The catalog

Routines live in the catalog, a library of reusable entries. It has two shelves:

  • Workspace: entries specific to your curriculum, which its approvers can edit;
  • Shared: entries common to every curriculum, reserved for the super administrator.

The catalog holds three kinds of entry: routines (the sequence of a session, this page), formatters (Formatters) and evaluation grids (Evaluate a document). You browse and apply all three the same way.

"Which routines are in the catalog?"

"Show me the details of the 'Problem-solving session' routine."

Apply a routine

You apply a routine to a course, to a lesson or to an activity:

"Apply this routine to the course."

"For this lesson only, apply the 'Review session' routine instead."

The closest routine wins. Applied to the course, a routine covers all of its lessons; a lesson that carries its own routine keeps it.

Applying a routine changes the draft, like any other change to the curriculum, so a curator can do it.

Applying means copying

When you apply a routine, you put down an independent copy of it. If someone later edits the routine in the catalog, whatever already received its copy stays as it was: nothing shifts behind your back. To adopt the new version, apply it again.

Create or edit a routine

Start from a similar routine if there is one:

"Duplicate the 'Problem-solving session' routine under the name 'Review session'."

"In my copy, cut guided practice down to 6 minutes and add a wrap-up step."

Otherwise, describe it:

"Create a 'Mental arithmetic session' routine in the workspace library, with three steps: …"

Say 'in the library' in your very first sentence

A routine is created straight in the catalog. A write to the catalog is applied and published in one go: there is no draft and no undoing the last change, because other people start using a library right away. Read the preview carefully before you confirm.

Check a routine

The tool spots routines that contradict themselves (say, a stated total duration that is not the sum of the steps) and routines nobody uses. These checks are part of the review (see Evaluate a document).

Who can change what

  • Applying a routine to your curriculum: a curator (it is a change to the draft).
  • Creating, duplicating or editing an entry in the workspace library: an approver, because the write is published at once.
  • Deleting an entry: an admin, because it cannot be undone.
  • Touching a shared entry: the super administrator only. To adapt a shared entry, duplicate it into your workspace library.