Classroom Routines and Expectations Books for Teachers

Classroom routines and clear expectations give teachers and pupils a dependable structure for learning, from the first greeting and entry task to transitions, independent practice and the end of a lesson. This selection of books on classroom routines and expectations brings together practical guides, research-informed teaching books and coaching resources for building routines that are explicit, rehearsed and adaptable rather than assumed. It is designed for individual reading, mentor conversations and instructional coaching, with useful entry points for ECTs as well as experienced teachers. For prices and ordering, click on the book cover.

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Classroom Routines and Expectations Books for Teachers – our recommendations

Teach Like a Champion 3.0: 63 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College by Doug Lemov

Doug Lemov’s third edition sets out 63 classroom techniques in a practical guide to teaching, classroom culture and student participation. Its routines are concrete enough to examine closely: how teachers give directions, start work, check understanding, narrate expectations and maintain a purposeful lesson. It is particularly useful for teachers and coaches who want shared language for observing and rehearsing practice, though the techniques still need adapting to subject, phase and school context.

Teach Like a Champion Field Guide 3.0: A Practical Resource to Make the 63 Techniques Your Own by Doug Lemov, Sadie McCleary, Hannah Solomon and Erica Woolway

Designed as a companion to Teach Like a Champion 3.0, this field guide turns the techniques into a working resource for planning, reflection and professional development. It offers room to make notes, select techniques and think about how a routine will look in a particular classroom. It suits mentor meetings and coaching cycles where a teacher needs to move from a named technique to deliberate rehearsal and review.

Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better by Doug Lemov, Erica Woolway and Katie Yezzi

Lemov, Woolway and Yezzi focus on how people improve through deliberate practice, feedback, rehearsal and coaching. It is not a classroom-routines manual, but it is valuable for teams that want to practise the small actions behind clear explanations, transitions, questioning and expectations. Dan Heath’s foreword is credited on this edition.

Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington

Tom Sherrington interprets Rosenshine’s principles for everyday classroom teaching. The short format helps readers connect review, small steps, questioning, modelling, guided practice, checks for understanding and independent practice with the structure of a lesson. It works well as a shared text for planning, observation or instructional coaching, especially when a team wants to discuss routines as part of effective instruction.

Teaching WalkThrus: Five-step guides to instructional coaching by Tom Sherrington, illustrated by Oliver Caviglioli

This illustrated guide presents essential teaching techniques as five-step sequences. The visual format makes it easy to discuss what a routine looks like before, during and after a lesson move, then use the steps in rehearsal, observation and feedback. It covers practical areas such as explaining, modelling, questioning, feedback, classroom culture and relationships, making it a strong bridge between individual reading and coaching.

Teaching WalkThrus 3: Five-step guides to instructional coaching by Tom Sherrington, illustrated by Oliver Caviglioli

Volume 3 extends the series of concise, visual guides for instructional coaching. Teachers can use a single WalkThru to clarify an expectation, plan a small change and revisit it with a coach, while mentors can use the sequence to keep feedback specific. It is best read alongside the other volumes as a practical coaching resource rather than as a complete theory of classroom routines.

Coaching WalkThrus by Matt Stone, Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli

Coaching WalkThrus shifts the focus from teaching techniques to the coaching process itself. Matt Stone, Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli describe more than 50 techniques for structuring coaching conversations, practice, observation and follow-up. It is aimed squarely at instructional coaches and mentors who want a usable repertoire for helping teachers make classroom routines and expectations more consistent.

Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory in Action by Oliver Lovell and Tom Sherrington

Oliver Lovell and Tom Sherrington apply cognitive load theory to classroom practice, with discussion of strategies across subjects. For routines and expectations, the useful question is how much working memory a new procedure, explanation or task demands, and how teachers can model, sequence and practise it. The book supports coaches who want to connect calm lesson flow with clearer instructional design, not just with compliance.

Making Every Lesson Count: Six Principles to Support Great Teaching and Learning by Shaun Allison and Andy Tharby

Allison and Tharby organise great teaching around six principles: challenge, explanation, modelling, practice, feedback and questioning. The book is useful for turning broad expectations about lesson quality into observable actions that can be planned, rehearsed and discussed. Its case studies also give mentors and coaches material for professional conversations about consistency without reducing teaching to a script.

The Learning Rainforest: Great Teaching in Real Classrooms by Tom Sherrington, illustrated by Oliver Caviglioli

Tom Sherrington’s framework links classroom conditions, knowledge-building and the exploration of possibilities. It offers a broad way to think about how routines create the conditions for attention, participation and learning, while pedagogy and curriculum give those routines purpose. This is a good choice for experienced teachers, mentors and coaches who want a larger framework around day-to-day classroom practice.

The Learning Rainforest Fieldbook: 30 case studies from the UK and around the world by Tom Sherrington

This companion volume uses 30 case studies from the UK and around the world to show how ideas about teaching are interpreted in real settings. It is useful when a team wants to compare approaches, ask what is transferable and discuss how expectations become visible in planning, classroom talk and pupil work. The case-study format makes it well suited to book groups and coaching conversations.

The Teaching Delusion 3: Power Up Your Pedagogy by Bruce Robertson

Bruce Robertson’s third Teaching Delusion book is a practical guide to pedagogy and effective teaching. It helps readers examine the choices that sit beneath a consistent lesson: explanation, modelling, practice, questioning and feedback, as well as the professional habits needed to improve them. It is a useful bridge between a teacher’s own routines and the shared language used in instructional coaching.

The Ultimate Guide to Self-Regulation in the Classroom: Helping teachers improve outcomes for every learner by Sue Cowley

Sue Cowley focuses on self-regulation and the conditions that help learners manage attention, emotions and behaviour for learning. The book is relevant to routines because it encourages teachers to make expectations, transitions and learning habits teachable rather than assumed. It offers accessible prompts for staff discussion, while individual pupils may need more specialised SEND, safeguarding or mental-health support than a general classroom book can provide.

The Early Career Framework Handbook, Second Edition by Chartered College of Teaching

Published by the Chartered College of Teaching, this second edition guides readers through the two-year ECF programme and includes material for mentors. Its contents include building a productive classroom environment, setting and maintaining high expectations, motivation, memory, talk, adaptation and professional learning. It is a useful anchor for ECT reading and mentor conversations when classroom routines need to connect with wider teacher development.

The Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework: A Handbook for Mentors and Mentees by Henry Sauntson

Henry Sauntson’s handbook is written around the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework, with trainee and early-career teachers, mentors and mentees in view. Summaries, reflective activities, case studies and practical strategies make it suitable for reading before a lesson observation or mentoring conversation. It can help readers connect routines and expectations to the broader professional knowledge expected at the start of teaching.

How to Survive Your First Year in Teaching: Fourth edition, fully updated for the Early Career Framework by Sue Cowley

Sue Cowley’s fourth edition is fully updated for the ECF and covers the first two years of teaching. It takes an honest, practical approach to workload, wellbeing and the everyday decisions that make classroom life manageable. ECTs can use it as a starting point for building routines, while mentors can use its accessible structure to identify a small focus for support.

Mentoring and Coaching in Education: A Guide to Coaching and Mentoring Teachers at Every Stage of their Careers by Lizana Oberholzer and Derek Boyle

This guide defines coaching and mentoring and examines how they can support teachers at every career stage. It is useful for schools that want to distinguish developmental coaching from general advice, and for mentors working with ECTs on specific classroom practices. Chapters and discussion points can support a coherent cycle of observation, reflection, action and review.

The Coaching Toolkit: A Practical Guide for Your School by Shaun Allison and Michael Harbour

Allison and Harbour focus on establishing and running a coaching programme in a school. They cover choosing and training coaches, making coaching part of professional development, measuring impact and using case studies and practical resources. It is particularly helpful for instructional coaches or leaders who are building the structures that allow classroom routines to be discussed and practised over time.

The Leader’s Guide to Coaching in Schools: Creating Conditions for Effective Learning by John Campbell and Christian van Nieuwerburgh

Campbell and van Nieuwerburgh examine the conditions that make coaching work across a school. The book introduces a GROWTH framework and considers coaching conversations, feedback and teams, giving leaders a way to connect individual development with a wider learning culture. It is aimed at those leading coaching provision rather than at teachers looking for a list of classroom routines.

Get Better Faster 2.0: A 90-Day Plan for Coaching New Teachers by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo

Paul Bambrick-Santoyo presents a 90-day coaching plan for new teachers, breaking teaching skills into smaller steps that can be practised and revisited. Its focus on foundational management and rigour makes it relevant to entry routines, directions, transitions and expectations, especially in structured coaching programmes. As a US-origin framework, it should be interpreted through UK school policy, the ECF and local professional judgement.