Habits of Success Getting Every

Student Learning 1st Edition Harry

Fletcher-Wood
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmeta.com/product/habits-of-success-getting-every-student-learning-1st-e
dition-harry-fletcher-wood/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

P.O.W.E.R. Learning: Foundations of Student Success 4th

Edition Robert Feldman

https://ebookmeta.com/product/p-o-w-e-r-learning-foundations-of-
student-success-4th-edition-robert-feldman/

Success Habits For Dummies Dirk Zeller

https://ebookmeta.com/product/success-habits-for-dummies-dirk-
zeller/

The Influence of Teacher Student Relationships and

Feedback on Students Engagement with Learning 1st
Edition Roger Wood

https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-influence-of-teacher-student-
relationships-and-feedback-on-students-engagement-with-
learning-1st-edition-roger-wood/

Rise to the Challenge Designing Rigorous Learning That

Maximizes Student Success 1st Edition Jeff C. Marshall

https://ebookmeta.com/product/rise-to-the-challenge-designing-
rigorous-learning-that-maximizes-student-success-1st-edition-
jeff-c-marshall/
Culturally and linguistically responsive teaching and
learning classroom practices for student success 2nd
Edition Sharroky Hollie

https://ebookmeta.com/product/culturally-and-linguistically-
responsive-teaching-and-learning-classroom-practices-for-student-
success-2nd-edition-sharroky-hollie/

The Analytics Revolution in Higher Education Big Data

Organizational Learning and Student Success 1st Edition
Jonathan S. Gagliardi

https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-analytics-revolution-in-higher-
education-big-data-organizational-learning-and-student-
success-1st-edition-jonathan-s-gagliardi/

Hermione Granger Harry Potter Student Turned Heroine

Kenny Abdo

https://ebookmeta.com/product/hermione-granger-harry-potter-
student-turned-heroine-kenny-abdo/

Nurturing Habits of Mind in Early Childhood Success

Stories from Classrooms Around the World 1st Edition
Arthur L. Costa

https://ebookmeta.com/product/nurturing-habits-of-mind-in-early-
childhood-success-stories-from-classrooms-around-the-world-1st-
edition-arthur-l-costa/

Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of

Leadership for Student Success, 2nd Edition Tia Brown
Mcnair

https://ebookmeta.com/product/becoming-a-student-ready-college-a-
new-culture-of-leadership-for-student-success-2nd-edition-tia-
brown-mcnair/
”Habits of Success is clear, well-organized and full of useful advice. It embraces . . .
research often overlooked, but deeply and profoundly meaningful. What you get
from Harry is not just the research and interpretation but deep insight and humanity
in thinking about how it fits together and what it means. There couldn’t be a better
guide.”
Doug Lemov, Author of Teach Like a Champion, Reading
Reconsidered and The Coach’s Guide to Teaching
9 Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
http://taylorandfra ncis.com
HABITS OF SUCCESS

For students to benefit from lessons, they must attend, listen, and try their best.
But at times, almost all teachers struggle to manage classroom behavior, and to
motivate students to learn. Drawing on decades of research on behavioral science,
this book offers teachers practical strategies to get students learning. The key is
students’ habits. This book reveals simple, powerful ways to help students build
habits of success.
Harry Fletcher-Wood shows how teachers can use behavioral science techniques
to increase motivation and improve behavior. He offers clear guidance on topics such
as using role models to motivate students, making detailed plans to help students
act, and building habits to ensure students keep going. The book addresses five
challenges teachers face in encouraging desirable behavior:

• Choosing what change to prioritize

• Convincing students to change
• Encouraging students to commit to a plan
• Making starting easy
• Ensuring students keep going

Workshops, checklists, and real-life examples illustrate how these ideas work in
the classroom and make the book a resource to revisit and share. Distilling the
evidence into clear principles, this innovative book is a valuable resource for new
and experienced teachers alike.

Harry Fletcher-Wood is a teacher, researcher, and teacher educator. He’s fascinated

by making things better and the social, psychological, and structural changes this
requires. He leads a teacher educator development program and is studying for a
doctorate in behavioral science.
 Also Available from Routledge
(www.routledge.com/k-12)
Responsive Teaching: Cognitive Science and Formative Assessment
in Practice
Harry Fletcher-Wood

The Total Teacher: Understanding the Three Dimensions

That Define Effective Educators
Danny Steele

Better Questioning for Better Learning: Strategies

for Engaged Thinking
Benjamin Stewart Johnson

What Great Teachers Do Differently, 3e: Nineteen

Things That Matter Most
Todd Whitaker

Thinking Like a Lawyer: A Framework for Teaching Critical

Thinking to All Students
Colin Seale

10 Perspectives on Equity in Education

Edited by Jeffrey Zoul, Onica Mayers, Jimmy Casas

Building Effective Learning Environments: A Framework

for Merging the Best of Old and New Practices
Kevin S. Krahenbuhl
HABITS OF SUCCESS
Getting Every Student Learning

Harry Fletcher-Wood
US Edition published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2022 Harry Fletcher-Wood

The right of Harry Fletcher-Wood to be identified as author of this work has

been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or

utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or

registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record has been requested for this book

ISBN: 978-0-367-44496-9 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-44498-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-01007-4 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003010074

Typeset in Interstate
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Visit the companion website: www.routledge.com/cw/fletcher-wood

For Daniel
9 Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
http://taylorandfra ncis.com
CONTENTS

Acknowledgments xi
Foreword xiii
Doug Lemov
Preface xvi

Introduction: How Can We Get Every Student Learning? 1

1 What Should We Ask Students to Change? 16

2 How Can We Convince Students to Learn? 33

3 How Can We Help Students to Commit to Action? 57

4 How Can We Encourage Students to Start? 71

5 How Can We Help Students to Keep Going? 87

6 How Can We Help Students to Stop? 111

7 How Can We Encourage Teachers to Change? 124

Conclusion 147

Resources 148

Notes 154
References 169
Index 179
“Education is mandatory but learning is not.”
Mary Kennedy
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many, many friends and colleagues have improved this book.

Thoughtful critique from Daisy Christodoulou, Josh Goodrich, Jenny Griffiths,
and Michael Pershan led me to rewrite important sections.
Many early readers offered valuable feedback: the book was particularly improved
thanks to comments from Amir Arezoo, Brendan Bayew, Paul Cline, Dan Cronin,
Andrew Day, Rachel Ernst, John Etty, Iain Garioch, Peter Hall, Sara Hjelm, James
McKenna, Cathy Potter, Josh Powell, Rachel Rossiter, Dave Ruddle, Dom Shibli,
Craig Simpson, Sam Thomas, Laura Watkin, Henry Wiggins, Miles Winter, and Nick
Ye Myint. Routledge’s anonymous reviewers also offered exacting and encouraging
comments.
Working with Ambition Institute’s Teacher Education Fellows to apply these strat-
egies taught me a lot about how to make them work. Feedback from a few Fellows
particularly influenced the final draft: thank you Ben Bignall, Jen Calvert, Sarah
Cottingham, Alex Douglas, Gemma Edgcome, Susie Fraser, Belinda Goodship, Emma
McCrea, Lucy Newman, and Ashley Weatherhogg.
Discussing classroom challenges and solutions with a number of teachers shaped
crucial aspects of the book: thank you to Janice Allen, Jess Dumbreck, Adele Finch,
Lucy Hall, Peter Hall, David Hibbert, Emma Holness, Ollie Lovell, Joel Mendes, Helen
Pritchard, Ellie Russell, Dom Shibli, and others who have chosen to remain nameless.
Other teachers suggested ways to tackle specific classroom dilemmas, many of
which made their way into the book: thank you to Alice, Charlotte Bell, Paul James,
Niki Kaiser, Alice Lane, Steve Lawley, Kate Mason, Amanda Melton, Adam Robbins,
Julian Selman, Carrie Swan, and E. Wilson.
Valuable suggestions and ideas came from Raj Chande, Peps McCrea, and Ben
Piper.
For this US edition, particular thanks go to the many educators in the US who
helped me prepare this book for an American audience. Friends and strangers
helped translate British educational terms to American ones, and taught me a lot
about American schools in the process. I’m especially grateful to Rachel Ernst for
her help and encouragement.
I’m very grateful, again, for the support and patience of Annamarie Kino and
Amy Welmers at Routledge.
xii Acknowledgments

My son was born a few months after I began working on this book. He has tried to
contribute to the manuscript, but none of his suggestions survived the editing pro-
cess. My biggest thanks go to Loren, for her support, and for spending more time
than I like to think about looking after Daniel: without her, this book would never
have been completed.
FOREWORD
Doug Lemov

As the rational humanists of 21st-century western culture, we think of ourselves as

individuals above all else. Perhaps only the phrase “above all else” strikes you as
strange in that sentence. What else would there be to think of ourselves as? What
could a self be other than an individual?
We are each of us a seed, unfolding. This is our journey, our purpose, our struggle.
Our governments and our institutions must act to protect our individual freedoms
and not infringe our rights as individuals, otherwise they are tyrannical. We believe
this, just possibly, to the point of deception.
Evolution, for example, tells a different story. What makes a human? A bigger
brain? The use of language? An opposable thumb? Yes, but at least as much, a
human is a member of a group.
The scientists of evolution tell us we survived and were selected through all
those unwritten years of prehistory because we formed groups and groups formed
us. Individuals succeeded based on the strength of the sustained alliances they
formed and therefore based on their ability to form alliances. They competed within
groups for mates and for status—but that was a luxury they achieved only if they
also retained membership in the group and the group succeeded. To be an indi-
vidual, and only an individual, across that vast sweep of time, was almost certainly
to perish and disappear.
A human being is weak alone and powerful in coordinated groups, and so—here’s
the important part—each us has evolved to need the group, to respond to the group,
to be deeply, inexorably, and unconsciously shaped by the group. We have evolved
to be intensely sensitive both to our own status within the group but also to the
requirements and demands of staying in the group.
We are guided by immensely powerful instincts toward membership rules and
norms of inclusion of which, the nature of instincts being what they are, we are
mostly unaware.
What the group does, we are drawn to do, often without our realizing it. Then
and only then—after we look up and see what we have chosen in a state of half-
consciousness—as Jonathan Haidt ably describes in The Righteous Mind, do we seek
to explain it via reason and logic.
xiv Foreword

What else would there be to think of ourselves as beyond individuals, then? As

group members. As parts of a larger whole.
What does this mean for us as teachers?

****

Research into the cognitive sciences has rightly prompted the first stirrings of a rev-
olution in teaching. Understanding the roles and interactions of working memory
and long-term memory, the profound influence of background knowledge, the per-
sistent influences of cognitive load theory has begun to change classroom practices
in a way that will almost assuredly, if they take root, improve learning outcomes for
millions of young people.
But teaching is not yet learning. For it to become learning, Harry Fletcher-Wood
points out, it has to be accepted, attended to, embraced. People have to decide to
work, decide they want to learn. They must motivate themselves and us them. Or
they must build habits that subvert the constant struggle to self-motivate.
“Your habits change depending on the room you are in and the cues in front of
you,” James Clear writes. “Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human
behaviour. Despite our unique personalities, certain behaviours tend to arise again
and again under certain environmental conditions.”
How do we design environments to shape behaviors optimally? How do we help
people to design their own environments to build habits, which are the most effi-
cient way of making optimal decisions.
How do we combine the influence of the built environment with respect for the
necessity of individual choice, and “nudge” (to use Richard Thaler and Cass Sun-
stein’s word) people toward using their free will and autonomy wisely?
Some may think of these questions as paternalistic, but as Thaler and Sunstein
remind us, there is no neutral choice. Every environment shapes the behavior of
people within it, whether we are intentional about its influence or not.
Cognitive science helps, in other words—immensely—but the reception is as
important as the delivery and there we require a new round of research to help us
help young people succeed. That research comes from the social and behavioral sci-
ences. It looks at how social norms shape us, how we build habits, how we motivate
ourselves and others, how we are influenced by the norms around us. For schools,
these topics are deeply important and relatively untapped. The sources are diverse
and sometimes unexpected and require application and adaptation to the particular
setting of the classroom. It’s a tall order.
Fortunately, you have Harry Fletcher-Wood to do it for you. For my money he is
the perfect guide. Insightful, wise and humble, but relentless in his pursuit of the
facts. In his previous book, Responsive Teaching, you will find as comprehensive,
well-organized, and useful application of cognitive science as you can find on the
market. Habits of Success offers something similar: clear, well-organized, and useful
 Foreword xv

advice. But it embraces a wider range of evidence, far closer to the vanguard—
research often overlooked, but deeply and profoundly meaningful.
What you get from Harry is not just the research and interpretation but deep
insight and humanity in thinking about how it fits together and what it means. There
couldn’t be a better guide.
Which is great, because the opportunity is massive. If we can get this right, if we
can transform our learning spaces to influence learners at exactly the time when, in
the wake of pandemic-induced crisis in education, they most need transforming, we
will have expanded our horizons.
PREFACE

The bittersweet realization came as I watched an Eleventh Grade Social Studies les-
son in Brooklyn: no matter how good a teacher I became, I would never stop working
to get students learning.
I guess I was an OK teacher by then. I’d been teaching five years. Like many Brit-
ish teachers, I was fascinated by the efforts that public and charter schools in the
US were making to serve their students better. So one May morning, I got on a plane
to New York City.
It was eye-opening. I visited the most focused elementary school classroom I’ve
ever seen. I attended training and learned skills I’ll never forget. I met inspiring
teachers, coaches, and school leaders. I learned a lot about improving my teaching.
I was excited. On some level, I believed that if I worked hard enough, said the
right things, and found the right approach, one day my students would all just learn.
I thought the job of motivating, pushing, and challenging them would evaporate:
every student would just want to do their best.
That Eleventh Grade lesson was a reality check.
The school was great. The teachers were so good people came to film their teach-
ing. The students were working hard: they were interested, engaged, and on track
to do well.
But the teachers were working hard too. This is what I’d underestimated. I thought
that there was a point at which your teaching was so good, the job was done: you
generated perpetual student enthusiasm. Instead, teachers were working non-stop
to keep students focused, motivated, and learning.
They were doing it way better than I was. But the challenge they faced was the
same challenge I faced in London: getting every student learning is hard.

***

It’s hard wherever you teach.

I’ve watched classes across five states in the USA. Everywhere I went, I saw the
same thing. A few students had jumped out of bed impatient to learn. But only a
few. Some students needed a little nudge to get started; some needed a big dose of
encouragement and support.
 Preface xvii

My friend Lucy Crehan has watched classes around the world. She wrote a great
book—Cleverlands —about visiting schools in top-performing education systems, like
Finland, Shanghai, and Singapore. In every country she visited, she saw “at least
a couple of classes in which children were misbehaving —ignoring the teacher and
chatting at the back, throwing paper balls at each other, or playing on their phones.”
Learning can be fun. But to learn, students must wrestle with hard tasks: pars-
ing a tricky text, solving an unfamiliar problem, redrafting a good answer. Students
must wrestle with themselves too: they must maintain their focus, effort, and con-
fidence, even when they struggle. Eventually, something more tempting or enjoy-
able comes along—whether students are in Boston or Houston, Britain or America,
Finland or Singapore.
Some days, wherever we are, whoever we teach, whatever we teach, some of our
students struggle to focus on learning, to keep going, to do their best.

***

So what are we to do? We need to equip ourselves with the best tools, techniques,
and skills to get students learning.
By “get students learning”, I mean two things. First, and simply: to encourage,
motivate, and support students to engage in lessons and independent learning.
Second, harder but more lasting: to help students form habits of success; to focus,
persevere, and collaborate routinely.
By “tools, techniques, and skills”, I mean the approaches that behavioral sci-
entists have developed and refined to help people act, change, and improve. The
evidence and the techniques are out there. Many businesses are amazing at encour-
aging people to buy, consume, or browse more. In public service, we’re playing catch
up. In this book, I’ve tried to redress the balance: to show how teachers can use
behavioral science to help their students improve—to get every student learning.
Wherever you teach, I hope you find this useful. Please let me know.
Harry Fletcher-Wood
London, England,
March, 2021
9 Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
http://taylorandfra ncis.com
Introduction
How Can We Get Every Student Learning?

DOI: 10.4324/9781003010074-1
Copyright material from Harry Fletcher-Wood (2022), Habits of Success: Getting Every Student Learning, Routledge
 Introduction 3

Why This Book?

As a new teacher, I struggled to get my students to learn. If they were to benefit
from classes, I needed them to attend, to listen, and to try their best. Some did.
Yet I struggled in every class: sometimes with a few students, sometimes with the
majority. My eleventh graders arrived late. Many of my ninth graders refused to
listen or work: they said they didn’t want to study history. My sixth graders seemed
enthusiastic, but some students were already struggling to complete relatively sim-
ple tasks. I tried to convince students that they should try, that I could help, that
the class was worthwhile. I tried to promote positive behavior and enforce basic
standards. I tried, but for too many students, I failed. My planning and assessment
improved, but many of my students did not benefit.

I struggled to get my students to learn

A universal challenge underlies these individual experiences: most teachers strug-

gle to get all their students learning. One in three teachers report that teaching
and learning “largely stopped because of poor behaviour” at some point in the final
class of the day.1 Schools vary, but not enormously: half of teachers in poorer areas
expected behavior to affect learning significantly in their next class; so did a third
of teachers in wealthier areas.2 Teachers in elementary and high schools report
similar amounts of disruption,3 and while new teachers struggle most, poor behav-
ior stopped learning for one in five teachers with twenty years’ experience.4 As one
researcher has concluded:

To some degree, pupil behaviour and disengagement from learning are prob-
lems in nearly all schools, and the questions of how to motivate pupils to want
to learn, and how to get a calm, purposeful and collaborative working atmo-
sphere in all classrooms, and stop some pupils spoiling the learning of others
are relevant to large numbers of teachers.5

Yet creating a calm, purposeful atmosphere is just the foundation: we want stu-
dents to learn independently, not just follow instructions. And we want diligent
and dedicated students to change too, even if it’s just to put themselves under
less pressure.

All teachers struggle, to some extent, to get students to learn

4 Introduction

This book is designed to help you get students learning better, whether you are the
struggling new teacher I was, or an experienced teacher or administrator. Getting
this right matters: poor behavior holds individuals back, disrupts classes, and grinds
teachers down. Yet while we increasingly apply the science of learning to our plan-
ning, we learn to manage and motivate students by watching others, sharing ideas,
and painstaking trial and error. There is a science of behavior, just as there is a sci-
ence of learning. This book describes what it reveals, offering practical strategies to
get every student learning.

This book applies behavioral science to get every student learning

Four Approaches to Getting Students Learning

1) Reasoning and Experimentation
I began by trying to convince my students that learning mattered. I spent hours
explaining the value of social studies, of specific topics, of working hard. I adapted
the curriculum around students’ interests and experiences. I experimented: with
posters encouraging learning, with displaying the names of student “role models of
the week,” with letting students discover the answers for themselves. Some things
worked: students appreciated being named “role model of the week,” for example.
Some were less effective: my seventh graders managed one brilliant self-directed
class, but never repeated this success. I exhausted myself. Perhaps I changed the
opinions of a few students. I don’t regret my attempts: I still believe we should show
students why learning is worthwhile. But my experiments and attempts at persua-
sion did not create an orderly classroom, let alone inspire every student.

Reasoning may help, but it’s not enough

2) Punishment and Reward

When my patience, enthusiasm, and imagination ran out, I resorted to punish-
ment and reward. As an idealistic new teacher, I hoped to avoid them: I believed
I could persuade all my students to learn. Instead, I found myself telling students off,
keeping them in, and giving detentions. Meanwhile, I rewarded those who behaved
well: praising them, calling their parents, or telling their homeroom teachers. This
worked—to an extent—but gaining students’ cooperation proved exhausting. For
example, I got all my seventh graders to do their homework each week, but only
 Introduction 5

by checking it in the class (interrupting teaching) and keeping students in if they

hadn’t done it: I couldn’t do this with every class. My approach also proved emotion-
ally exhausting: it created conflict and resentment, and made future classes harder.
Rewards and punishments can help, but they’re hard to sustain: they’re not enough
to get every student learning.

Rewards and punishments help, but they’re not enough

3) Nudges and Social Infuence

The first book I read about behavioral science—Switch: How to Change Things When
Change Is Hard—opened my eyes to a more nuanced view of human behavior.6 The
authors argue that we tend to see resistance to change as a “people problem”;
we respond by blaming, cajoling, and punishing individuals.7 (This is what I’d done:
I tried to persuade students to act, rewarded them if they did, punished them if they
didn’t.) Often, however, people want to do something, but are discouraged by the
situation and their emotions. For example, a case study in Switch asked the reader
how to get more employees to submit expense claims on time.8 My first thought
was to enforce the deadline: don’t reimburse people who submit claims late. This
would encourage prompt submission, but it wouldn’t address the underlying prob-
lem (people not submitting claims promptly) and it could foster resentment. By con-
trast, the authors suggested:

• Emphasizing that most employees are submitting their expenses on time

(encouraging others to follow the norm)
• Identifying how employees who submit promptly are doing it (do they have
shortcuts?)
• Emphasizing that a colleague must process their claims (appealing to social
bonds).9

Switch showed me that persuasion and enforcement aren’t always enough to over-
come obstacles and emotions: I learned to make change easier and more tempting.
For example, on a university visit, I’d been talking to a student about an issue they
had with a friend. Later, I noticed she was still preoccupied, and was getting noth-
ing from the seminar. Previously, I’d have asked her to “Focus”: she might have
wanted to, but she would have struggled. Instead, I gave her a simple task that
redirected her attention: I asked her to ask a brilliant question before the end of
the session. “What, now?” she asked. “Yes!” A few seconds later, her face lit up and
her hand flew up. Making change easier and more tempting helped me get students
learning—but the effects didn’t always last.
6 Introduction

Nudging students—by making change easy and tempting—helps

4) Building Habits
When I discuss getting students learning, teachers most often ask “How can I moti-
vate my students to learn?” and “How can I get students to manage their own learn-
ing?” Increasingly, I’ve come to believe a third question is more important: how can
I help students form good habits?

Motivation
Trying to motivate students seems logical. Bored students try less and do worse10
(and students say they are bored much of the time).11 But motivating every student—
every class—is impossible. First, a student is not “motivated” in general, but moti-
vated by specific things: Alex loves writing stories; Abdi enjoys discussion tasks;
Anna likes mathematical puzzles. Few tasks (or topics) will truly motivate them
all. Second, motivation fluctuates: it wanes when students tire, or struggle, or see
something more tempting. We hope that motivating students will get them learning.
But while high-achieving students tend to be more motivated, that doesn’t mean
motivation caused their success. In fact, researchers find the opposite: when stu-
dents succeed in math, their motivation grows (but not the other way around); if
they read well, they choose to read more (but not the other way around).12 Pursuing
motivation may also tempt us to choose easier and more enjoyable tasks and top-
ics, neglecting more rewarding, but more challenging, alternatives. I’m not saying
we shouldn’t try to motivate students at all: they must be willing to begin (we dis-
cuss ways to motivate students at length in Chapter 2). But motivation is fickle and
transient: it’s not the secret of students’ success, and pursuing it will not get every
student learning. The best goal (and the best motivator) is learning itself.

Motivation helps, but it’s better to pursue student success

Self-Regulation
Similarly, self-regulation helps students learn: they are more likely to succeed if they
are able to choose how to approach a task, monitor their progress, and adapt accord-
ingly.13 But, self-regulation is hard. Imagine a student who is struggling to focus, or has
chosen an unhelpful strategy to solve a problem. To self-regulate, they must:

• Remember to pause and review what they are doing

• Realize that their current approach isn’t working
 Introduction 7

• Choose a better approach

• Implement that approach.

This imposes high cognitive load: students must simultaneously complete the task
and monitor their actions. It also demands substantial expertise: students must
know their approach (and the alternatives) well if they are to notice problems and
choose better options.14 In other words, to self-regulate effectively, students must
already be fairly successful. Self-regulation is valuable, but student success is our
priority. How can we ensure it?

Self-regulation is hard: students must already know what they’re doing

Habits: The Key to Success

Productive habits help students sustain success. A habit is an automatic response
to a situation. A student is acting habitually if they always start a sentence with a
capital letter, always do homework the day they get it, or always check their working
when they finish a problem. This automaticity distinguishes habits from motivated
or self-regulated actions. A student could check their working because they want
to do well, or because they’re trying to monitor their learning better (either would
be acceptable). But when they form a habit, they check their working automatically:
they no longer have to decide, or be motivated, to do it. Motivation is fickle, self-
regulation is effortful: we can’t rely on either to get students learning consistently.
We can rely on habits: if students check their working automatically, they’ll do it
even when they’re tired, even when they’re working independently, and even when
they’re under pressure in an exam. Habits get —and keep—students learning.15

Productive habits are the surest way to get—and keep—students learning

We will have much more to say about the power of habit, what makes a good habit,
and how to ensure habits stick; here I want only to introduce two further justifi-
cations for pursuing them. First, habits help students focus their efforts, without
creating automata. If students plan habitually, they can focus on writing an original
and insightful plan (rather than focusing on what to do and whether they are moti-
vated and confident to begin). Second, much of students’ daily behavior (and every-
one else’s) is already habitual:16 students face similar situations each day, and their
responses become increasingly automatic. This may be positive—“When I get stuck
I always ask for help”—or negative: “When I get stuck I give up.” Some students
8 Introduction

come to school with productive habits, but no student is perfect, and some arrive
with habits that undermine their success. We may feel uncomfortable planning to
influence students’ habits, but if we don’t, we abandon them to their existing habits:
in effect, we renounce our influence on their learning. Helping students form good
habits is crucial to getting them learning.

Students’ success depends on their habits

Drawing This Together

Jonathan Haidt offers the arresting image of a restaurant failing to satisfy because
it serves only sweet, or only salty, food.17 Similarly, we are unlikely to get all students
learning if we use only one or two of the approaches described above:

• Reasoning sways some students—but not all.

• Rewards and punishments can be powerful—but they are hard work and can
evoke resentment.
• Making change easy and tempting helps—but the effects may not last.
• Motivation and self-regulation are valuable—but pursuing them may not get stu-
dents learning.
• Habits promise lasting change—but to form habits, we may need to make change
easier and to motivate, reward, or reason with students.18
• We can help students see themselves differently (encouraging further change)—
but it’s easiest to do this once they are succeeding.

Just as a satisfying meal combines many flavors, to get every student learning we
must combine these approaches.19 This book offers strategies to encourage stu-
dents, to make change easier, and to make change stick. We can use them sep-
arately (we can make a task easier without promoting a habit, for example), but
lasting impact is most likely if we combine these approaches to help students form
habits of success.

We can get all students learning by combining these approaches to help stu-
dents form habits of success

What This Book Offers

Behavioral scientists study habit, motivation, and choice, but little of this research
reaches teachers.20 Instead, we learn to manage classrooms and motivate students
 Introduction 9

through trial and error, tips from colleagues, and observing peers. Trial and error
is slow and risky: it’s hard to regain respect once we’ve lost it. Tips can be overly
prescriptive—“Greet students at the door”—or excessively vague: “Be firm but fair.”
Observations rarely reveal why colleagues are succeeding: it often looks like force
of personality and weight of experience. Craft wisdom is powerful, but this book
seeks to move beyond it, by offering practical guidance based on the science of
human behavior.
Critics have suggested behavioral science conveys wisdom your grandmother
(or in this case, a more experienced teacher) could have told you.21 But this wis-
dom is not always usable. At worst, struggling teachers are offered truisms with-
out concrete guidance: “relationships are crucial” or “culture matters.” Behavioral
science takes these truisms, tests them, and explains the mechanisms at work.
Relationships are crucial; researchers show how to strengthen them (identifying
things people have in common, for example). Culture matters; researchers show
how it develops through collective traditions. If ideas in this book are familiar, that’s
encouraging: research should tally with experience. But examining the underlying
evidence should make familiar ideas more comprehensible and allow you to use
them in new ways (reducing the need for trial and error).

Behavioral science allows us to go beyond trial and error, and tips and tricks, to
understand what influences students

The Evidence
Behavioral science reveals what drives people’s actions. Researchers have applied it
to encourage exercise, vaccination, and saving for retirement—among other things—
and, in schools, to encourage effort through rewards, reminders, and role models.
Compared to other disciplines, however, schools have been neglected by research-
ers.22 We might conclude that behavioral science offers little—at least until research-
ers study students like ours, in schools like ours. But research is valuable because
it reveals principles we can apply, not because it provides a blueprint that has been
tested in every context.23 Where we lack evidence from schools therefore, I’ve drawn
on research conducted elsewhere: in universities, gyms, hospitals, and businesses.
Does this apply to our students? Researchers consistently find (for example) that
people are more likely to do something if they plan when to do it.24 It must be worth
trying this with our students. Children are not adults, but like adults, they form
habits, forget things, and admire role models. (Like adults, but more so, children
follow their peers, and prefer immediate rewards to delayed ones.)25 We can wish
for more research in classrooms like ours. Until it takes place, I believe it’s better
to cautiously apply what we know about human behavior, than to feign ignorance.
10 Introduction

Better to apply what we know than to pretend we know nothing

The reliability of social science research has been challenged. Researchers have
struggled to replicate famous research findings: they have repeated the original
experiments, but reached different conclusions.26 While failures to replicate find-
ings are troubling, the exposure of this issue is encouraging: it shows science is
weeding out weaker findings; “behaving as it should.”27 Moreover, findings that
seemed more robust initially have been replicated successfully.28 I’ve used the most
robust research I’ve found, drawing on recent work, meta-analyses, and random-
ized controlled trials where they exist, and expressing doubt where it exists. I’ve
omitted phenomena under dispute, and will post any significant new findings on my
blog, improvingteaching.co.uk. As my goal has been to create a usable guide (not an
academic treatise), I have discussed research methods only where doing so clarifies
the study’s import: interested readers are invited to consult the references, and to
get in touch.

I’ve drawn on the most robust research available

A Usable Guide
I’ve tried to make this book usable, by:

Organizing the Book Around Challenges

The book is organized around five challenges:

• Deciding what to change (Chapter 1)

• Convincing students to act (Chapter 2)
• Getting students to commit to action (Chapter 3)
• Helping students begin (Chapter 4)
• Ensuring students keep going (Chapter 5).

Usually, we need to tackle these in sequence. However, if your students are commit-
ted to action but struggling to begin (for example), you may want to skip to Chapter 4.
If they still struggle, it’s worth revisiting their commitments, their motives, and the
change itself. (Where should I start? on page 15 may help you choose where to
begin). I’ve focused on promoting desired improvements because, while we may
need to discourage undesirable behavior (discussed in Chapter 6), our goal is almost
 Introduction 11

always to get students to do something they’re not yet doing: to stop shouting out,
but also to focus on the class. Finally, Chapter 7 discusses ways to encourage teach-
ers to change.
Each chapter breaks a challenge into specific barriers: if we want students to
begin, for example, one barrier is lack of confidence. Rather than trying to identify
which strategy from the book is most powerful, I would suggest choosing the bar-
rier that seems most acute, and trying to overcome it. Changing many things at
once is difficult and yields diminishing returns:29 it’s better to tackle just one or two
barriers at a time.

Developing a Framework
I’ve tried to make the framework memorable with a mnemonic; we can SIMPLIFy
change if we:

• Specify the change: pick a priority, then choose a powerful habit or small step to
achieve it
• Inspire and Motivate students to value the change
• PLan change: ask students to commit to action
• Initiate action: make starting easy
• Follow up: help students keep going.

Offering Practical Examples

While writing the book, I’ve invited teachers to discuss how behavioral science can
address their challenges. I’ve included some of the situations we discussed in the
“Applications” sections running through each chapter, and in the workshops at the
end of the chapter. These are not meant to reflect a perfect cross section of schools,
but I hope they offer relatable examples.

Providing Quick References

I’ve tried to make it easy to use and reuse the book, by including:

• Chapter maps, illustrating the thread of ideas

• Summaries of important points throughout the text
• Key ideas sections, encouraging you to consider how strategies apply in your
school
• Checklists summarizing the key points (you can also download these at improv
ingteaching.co.uk).
12 Introduction

I’m Not Suggesting . . .

. . . That School Culture Isn’t Important
A collective approach—across the grade, department, or school—makes it easier
to get students learning. Students will form habits more quickly, for example, if
every teacher expects them to start work immediately, to contribute, and to treat
one another respectfully. Most examples in the book describe individual teachers’
actions however, for two reasons. First, most teachers report meaningful autonomy
over classroom practice:30 we can change our entry routine, or ask students to
plan when to do homework, tomorrow. School policy, on the other hand, is outside
our immediate control, and changing it takes longer. Second, classroom examples
demonstrate principles that can easily be applied at a larger scale: we can highlight
social norms with a class, a grade, or the entire school.

School culture is crucial, but I’ve focused on classroom applications to make

the principles clear and usable

. . . That This Solves Everything for Every Student

A student may struggle in school due to learning difficulties, their mental health,
or their home environment. They may need specialist help—help that is beyond the
classroom teacher’s training and beyond the scope of this book. Knowing a stu-
dent’s needs however, the classroom teacher is often forced to decide “What do I do
now?” This is the question I have tried to answer. All students—all people—are more
likely to act if they have a clear goal, if they form a habit, and if they know their
peers are acting. (In some cases, struggling students may benefit most: making a
plan particularly helps people with limited self-control, for example.)31 This book
does not pretend to replace specialist support; it will, I hope, help to get all students
learning better.

This book answers “What now?”

. . . A Return to Behaviorism
A behaviorist rewards desirable behavior and punishes undesirable behavior, until
the desirable behavior sticks (you may have trained a pet using this approach).
Behavioral science differs in two important ways. First, behavioral scientists try
to understand the complex combination of influences on people’s actions: these
 Introduction 13

include rewards and punishments, but also peers, emotions, and aspirations. I’m
suggesting making learning easy, natural, and tempting, not issuing more deten-
tions. Second, a behaviorist decides what the learner is to do—the learner’s choices
are of little importance. Behavioral scientists try to influence students, but they
emphasize helping them make better choices (not forcing them to do things).32
Indeed, behavioral scientists advocate teaching people behavioral science, helping
them to understand their behavior, and better direct their lives.33 Behavioral sci-
ence helps people make better choices, and recognizes the complex emotions and
motivations influencing those choices: it goes far beyond behaviorism.

Behavioral science goes far beyond behaviorism

Checking Our Impact

Often, similar people respond to an experiment in different ways. For example,
experimenters have found that:

• Encouraging gym attendance using audiobooks influenced busier students

more than less busy students.34
• Encouraging gym attendance with money led infrequent attendees to go more,
but regular attendees went slightly less.35
• Hearing about successful graduates inspired new students, but discouraged
older ones.36

We can’t assume the results of our strategies will be straightforward: we must track
their impact. We examine how to do this in Chapter 5.

We must check the impact of our approach

An Example
Sitting in a school reception, I looked up as a student arrived—“Morning.” The
teacher asked why he was late.

“I woke up late.”
“How’s your toe?”
“Feels numb, but better.”
“OK, good, have a good day.”
14 Introduction

There’s nothing wrong with this conversation: no doubt there were thousands of
similar conversations that morning. But it felt like a missed opportunity to increase
the chance of the student arriving on time the next day. The teacher might have:

• Elicited a commitment: “What time will you arrive tomorrow?”

• Prepared a prompt: “Can you set your alarm for tomorrow now?”
• Emphasized a social norm: “The rest of your homeroom were on time, I’d like
you to be with them tomorrow.”

Administrators might have worked with teachers to encourage students to build

good habits. This wouldn’t have to mean working harder: the teacher was having
the conversation already. Nor would it offer a perfect solution. But it might make
a small difference, and these differences add up across years, grades, and schools.
I hope this book will help you make those small differences add up, to get every
student learning.

To share this introduction with a colleague, go to improvingteaching.co.uk/habits/

share
Copyright material from Harry Fletcher-Wood (2022), Habits of Success: Getting Every Student Learning, Routledge
1 What Should We Ask
Students to Change?

Specify the change: pick a priority, then choose a powerful habit or small step to
achieve it

Inspire and motivate students to value the change

PLan change: ask students to commit to action

Initiate action: make starting easy

Follow up: help students keep going

DOI: 10.4324/9781003010074-2
Copyright material from Harry Fletcher-Wood (2022), Habits of Success: Getting Every Student Learning, Routledge
18 What Should We Ask Students to Change?

The Problem
All our students could be doing something better. For example:

• Ellie Russell describes Joe, one of her tenth graders, as “bright, but often
lazy.” He “regularly distracts peers and disrupts classes. He wants atten-
tion from peers or me all the time: he’s equally happy to get negative or
positive attention, as long as it is attention.”
• Adele Finch has four students who are “reluctant to break words into
chunks and sounds to help them spell. When I remind and support them
to use a phonics mat and to segment words their spellings are accurate.
Without support and reminders their spelling for ‘children’ looks like
‘chren.’”
• Richard is worried about “whole-school apathy . . . We have cracked the
serious disruption in school in general, but we are really struggling with
our students’ attitude to learning. We want to build a culture where doing
your best is the norm.”

How to get each student learning—what to change—may be less obvious

than it seems however. For example, Ellie needs Joe to work harder, demand
less attention, and be less distracting: where should she start and what,
exactly, should she ask him to do? We may want to change everything,
but this would devour our time and dissipate our energy: what should we
prioritize?

The Principle: Specify the Change

To get students learning, we must first specify what we want them to do. This
means prioritizing the most fundamental challenge, then choosing a powerful
habit or a bitesize step that addresses it.

Specifying the change should make it easier to convince students to act (Chapter 2),
to plan action (Chapter 3), to begin (Chapter 4), and to keep going (Chapter 5).

1.1 If There Are Many Things to Change

There may be many things we would like students to do differently. Trying to change
them all at once would be exhausting however, and likely unsuccessful: we must
 What Should We Ask Students to Change? 19

prioritize. For example, we may want Sofia to focus better, contribute more, and
structure answers more clearly—but we can neither expect nor support her to do
all three at once. Instead, we need to begin with the most fundamental step; the
change that makes other changes possible. This is easier with a sequence of steps
in mind. For example, if students are to learn, they must:

1) Focus on learning and avoid distractions

2) Approach tasks using appropriate techniques
3) Persevere, with increasing independence
4) Contribute, speaking in discussions and helping one another, for example.

Separating these challenges may seem artificial: we can help students focus by
reminding them about the technique; we can encourage them to persevere and to
contribute in the same breath. However, a student can overcome each challenge
only if they have mastered the preceding ones: if Sofia knows how to structure her
answer, but isn’t focusing, she will achieve nothing; if she perseveres, but doesn’t
know what structure to use, she will learn little; if she hasn’t tried, she can con-
tribute little. If we want to make several changes, we must begin with the most
fundamental.37

We can get students learning by prioritizing the most fundamental challenge

they face: success makes further improvements possible

The strategies described in this book can be used to help students do anything,
including completing their homework, applying to college, avoiding conflict with
peers, and getting a good night’s sleep. Whatever the goal, we are most likely to suc-
ceed if we take our biggest concern and identify the fundamental challenge under-
lying it. First, we pick an issue: Jack keeps calling out; students aren’t finishing
their work. Then, we identify the underlying challenge: Jack isn’t focused; students
are using inappropriate techniques. We could use the sequence suggested in the
previous paragraph, but the crucial point is not the sequence itself, but the idea of
sequencing—of ensuring we prioritize the first step toward improvement, not just
the most obvious issue. This may be subject-specific: do students grasp the play’s
outline well enough to analyze it? It may be physical: does students’ posture sup-
port them to form their letters properly? It may be social: are students listening
before they comment? We may feel unsure whether the challenge we have chosen
is the right one. If so, we could ask colleagues, or just try addressing it: if students
attempt to change, but struggle to improve, we may need to pick something more
fundamental. Whatever we want to change, we must take what concerns us and
identify the fundamental challenge: the first step toward improvement.
20 What Should We Ask Students to Change?

We can prioritize by taking a concern and identifying the first step toward
improvement

Applications
• Joe isn’t working hard enough and is distracting peers. He knows what to
do and needs no encouragement to contribute; the challenge is getting
him to focus.
• Adele wants her students to break words down. The problem isn’t focus—
the children aren’t distracted or demotivated—it’s ensuring they apply the
appropriate technique.
• Richard wants to build a culture where “doing your best is the norm.” His
students are willing to focus and know what techniques to use; he needs
them to persevere.

By targeting the fundamental challenge, Ellie, Adele, and Richard can go

beyond immediate frustrations, like disruption or lack of effort, to lay founda-
tions for success: getting students focused on learning, not just sitting quietly;
encouraging perseverance, not just occasional effort. Success makes further
improvement possible: once Joe focuses, Ellie can help him select effective
techniques; once Richard’s students persevere, their contributions will be
more valuable.

Key Idea
Usually we know roughly what needs to change. But we struggle to narrow
our focus to a priority (and to let other important things go in order to
achieve it). Change is hard and, as we’ll see in the next section, students
form habits slowly. We cannot change everything: we must prioritize. We
can do so by asking ourselves:

1) What do I most want for students? What is concerning me most?

2) What is the fundamental challenge? What is the first step toward
improvement?

We must address the fundamental challenge before tackling other issues.

 What Should We Ask Students to Change? 21

Having prioritized a challenge, we can overcome it by helping students form a pow-

erful habit, or take a small step.

1.2 If We Want Students to Make a Lasting Change

Students often make isolated improvements: they have a better class, or a better
week. But isolated improvements don’t bring about consistent success. To do their
homework—once—a student must want to do it, plan to do it, and stick to their plan.
This kind of self-control is hard:38 they may succeed sometimes, but their motiva-
tion can slip, and their plans can go awry. Imagine, instead, that they start doing
their homework on Saturday morning. If someone repeats an action in the same
situation for long enough, they form a habit: the situation (in this case, Saturday
morning) comes to prompt the action (doing homework).39 As we discussed in
the Introduction, a habit is an automatic response to a situation. Having formed a
habit, motivation, confidence, and planning stop being barriers:40 Saturday morning
prompts them to do their homework, however they feel. This makes habit the key to
lasting change. Instead of isolated improvements (requiring fresh motivation, ongo-
ing self-control, and substantial support from us), we need students to form habits
of success: to focus whenever they have a task, pick the appropriate technique
whenever they see a question, and contribute whenever they have the opportunity.

Habits are lasting solutions to fundamental challenges

Forming new habits is slow and difficult. Existing habits may be a barrier. I mentioned
that habits form when people repeat actions in specific situations. Students face
some situations frequently—being asked a question, for example. If they respond in
similar ways, these become habits—perhaps undesirable ones, like guessing, calling
out, or giving rambling responses. Existing habits endure, even when people want
to change:41 after a heart bypass, only one patient in ten eats better and exercises
more.42 If adults in mortal danger struggle to eat differently, students who enjoy
chatting to their friends will struggle to focus. Moreover, it takes people several
weeks’ repetition to form even simple new habits, like drinking water with lunch,
or going to the gym.43 It may take students longer if we don’t see them frequently.
Forming new habits is hard: to justify the time and effort required, the habits we
encourage must be powerful.

Forming desirable habits is slow and difficult: we must choose powerful habits
that are worth this effort
22 What Should We Ask Students to Change?

What Makes a Habit Powerful?

In 1987, Paul O’Neill took over Alcoa, a massive, inefficient aluminium manufacturer.
He was under pressure to improve the struggling company rapidly; his predeces-
sor’s attempts had caused fifteen thousand workers to strike.44 Yet O’Neill did not
set profit or productivity goals: his aim—the fundamental challenge he set out to
solve—was zero worker injures; to make Alcoa “the safest company in America.”45
O’Neill designed a powerful habit to influence the actions of every employee, and
the culture of Alcoa: if anyone was injured, the unit manager had to inform O’Neill
within twenty-four hours, and present a plan to ensure the injury never happened
again.
The habit was powerful because it was both simple and fertile. It was simple
because a clear cue demanded concrete, rapid, and obvious action: an injury (cue)
demanded a report (concrete) within twenty-four hours (rapid) to O’Neill himself
(obvious). It was fertile because it encouraged collaboration, flexibility, and wider
change. It promoted collaboration by giving managers and workers a shared goal:
managers had to trust workers to pre-empt risks; workers had to accept more
oversight to identify risks. The goal was specific—avoiding injuries—but the means
were not: this flexibility allowed workers and managers to identify and act upon
the improvements needed. And it promoted wider change, because the apparently
simple goal of avoiding injuries meant understanding production, updating machin-
ery, and improving communication: it required a “habit of excellence” across the
organization,46 making Alcoa the “best, most streamlined aluminium company on
earth.”47
Powerful habits create lasting change. At Alcoa, injuries evaporated: twenty
years later—after O’Neill’s departure—American workers were more likely to be
injured working in accountancy, software, or animation than handling molten alu-
minium at Alcoa.48 It transformed the organization, cutting costs, improving produc-
tivity, and returning Alcoa to profit. And it changed people’s behavior: employees
described challenging risky behavior on the street, not just at work. We often seek
to change a culture, but sometimes this just means telling students to do some-
thing: we see temporary change, then find ourselves nagging them again a week
later. A powerful habit is simple enough to stick, and fertile enough to cause mean-
ingful transformation.49

Powerful habits are simple enough to stick, and fertile enough to cause mean-
ingful transformation

How to Design Powerful Habits for Students

I stumbled on a powerful habit while trying to encourage my twelfth grade politics
students to read the news regularly. Reading the news would bring the course to life,
 What Should We Ask Students to Change? 23

helping students to grasp abstract concepts, like checks on executive power, and
write compelling exam answers. Yet my encouragement and exhortations achieved
nothing: some weeks my students couldn’t tell me a single recent news story. Even-
tually, I began setting a weekly quiz: students had to get at least six out of ten right,
if they didn’t, they had to return with the completed quiz later that week.
This proved a powerful habit: simple and fertile. It was concrete: what students
had to do was clear (read the news) and whether they were doing it was obvious
(they got at least six out of ten right). It was rapid and frequent: the quiz took ten
minutes and ran weekly. It was flexible: I suggested websites, but students were
free to choose what to read and when. It promoted collaboration: students worked
together to predict news stories on the quiz and to identify the correct answers
afterwards if they had struggled. And it catalyzed wider change: students read the
news regularly, became interested in the stories and used them in their essays; they
even started to suggest stories they thought should have been on the quiz (for
bonus points). A powerful habit fostered meaningful change.

Applications
We begin with the challenge we have prioritized: Joe demands Ellie’s attention
constantly; Ellie’s priority is helping him focus. First, Ellie can design a simple
habit:

1) She might ask Joe to “Focus on your work.” This is simple, but there is no
clear cue to begin, and it’s not clear exactly what Joe should do.
2) She could tell Joe: “Whenever I say, ‘Start writing,’ I want you to write non-
stop until your answer is complete.” This gives him a concrete task and a
clear cue to begin, but his response could be more obvious.
3) She could tell Joe: “Whenever I say, ‘Start writing,’ I want you to write non-
stop. As soon as you’ve finished, put your hand up and I’ll come and check
it.” This makes Joe’s progress more obvious.

This simple habit should help Joe focus and reduce his demands for attention:
he gets attention by writing an answer. Ellie could make the habit more fertile
by using it to encourage further change.

4) She could tell Joe: “Whenever I say, ‘Start writing,’ I want you to write
non-stop. When you finish, review the model answer: make sure yours
is as good or better. Then, put your hand up and I’ll come and check it.”
This should challenge Joe to create high-quality work before seeking
attention.
24 What Should We Ask Students to Change?

Joe may struggle to adopt this version of the habit immediately: Ellie may
focus initially on getting him writing; once he is writing habitually, she can
push him to review and improve his work. Challenges remain: Ellie has to con-
vince Joe (Chapter 2), make starting easy (Chapter 4), and encourage him to
keep going (Chapter 5). Nor is this a perfect solution: Joe’s wish for atten-
tion is still influencing her actions excessively. Nonetheless, this habit should
reduce Joe’s demands, helping him focus more, disrupt less, and produce bet-
ter work.
Adele can design a powerful habit to ensure her students use the appro-
priate technique: breaking words into chunks to spell correctly. The action is
concrete—“Break words down”—but she can:

• Specify a cue—“Whenever you encounter a word you don’t recognize . . .”

• Encourage an immediate response—“your first action is to break it
down;” and
• Make this response obvious—“then write the word on a sticky note.”

Adele can make the habit more fertile by encouraging students to collaborate:
“show the word you’ve sounded out to your partner and check if you’re right”;
this should encourage all students to use the technique, and provide them
with feedback on their first attempt. So the powerful habit would be: “When-
ever you encounter a word you don’t recognize, first break it down, then write
the word on a sticky note. Then show the note to a peer to check you’re right.”
She may need to remind students how to break words down, train them to
collaborate, and encourage them to persevere, but all students should spell
better as a result.
Richard can design a powerful habit to encourage students to persevere
across classes. He can set a concrete goal—“Complete all tasks as best you
can”—and make students’ actions obvious by clarifying that they should either
be writing, reviewing their work, or have their hand up waiting for help. He can
make the habit more fertile by encouraging students to keep improving—“if
you get stuck, review the model”—and asking them to persevere—“keep try-
ing for one more minute before asking for help.” So the powerful habit is to
“Complete all tasks as best you can: that means you should either be writing,
reviewing your work, or have your hand up waiting for help, at all times. If
you get stuck, review the model and keep trying for one more minute before
asking for help.” Encouraging all students to adopt this approach will be
challenging, but even partial success should increase students’ perseverance
significantly.
 What Should We Ask Students to Change? 25

Key Idea
Having chosen a goal, we can design a powerful habit by asking:

• How can I make the habit simple? Can I offer a clearer cue, or make
the action more concrete, obvious, rapid, or frequent?
• How can I make the habit fertile? Can I offer more flexibility, or encour-
age collaboration and wider change?

By asking students to form a powerful habit, we promote lasting, meaningful

change. (Ways to help students keep pursuing a habit are discussed in Chapter 5.)
Sometimes however, we may want immediate progress: if so, rather than building a
habit, we can give students bitesize goals.

1.3 If We Want Students to Make an Immediate Change

Goals encourage action by focusing people’s attention and increasing their inter-
est and effort.50 Often we set big goals, which are laudable aspirations, but too
vague to guide action: we tell students we want them to “Think for themselves,” for
example. More powerful, however, is a concrete, bitesize goal that clarifies exactly
what we want students to do next: people are much more likely to act if they have a
clear goal (as opposed to no goal, or a vague goal).51 Effective goals are challenging
but achievable:52 their immediacy puts them within students’ reach. They are also
limited: one goal allows students to focus; multiple goals overburden their limited
working memory.53 At each step of a task, students are asking themselves “What
do I do next?”54 Each step is a chance to lose their way, their focus, interest, or
confidence. Small goals show students what to do next, helping them to start, and
to stay on track. Specific, challenging, achievable goals clarify what students should
do next, getting them learning.

Specific, challenging, achievable goals guide and encourage action

How to Break Big Tasks Into Bitesize Goals

Setting bitesize goals is hard, because we have to break tasks into surprisingly small
steps. Experts automate their actions, losing sight of the individual steps:55 we no
26 What Should We Ask Students to Change?

longer think about checking our mirrors or signaling, we just drive to work. This
means we forget how hard an action is, and struggle to break it into the smaller steps
a novice can hold in their working memory. To set goals, we must break these skills
down again. There are two ways to ensure we are setting genuinely bitesize goals:

• Break tasks down in advance. We could complete the task, trying to avoid
jumping to the answer, and instead asking ourselves “What am I doing and
why?” Or we could ask a student to complete the task and describe their think-
ing. This should give us a series of steps, some of which seem obvious: to help
students focus on a task, for example, we may need to specify, “Decide your
opening sentence, pick up your pen, start writing, ignore any distractions.” To
help students pick the right technique to answer a question, we might specify:
“First rephrase the question, then identify the focus, then list the possible tech-
niques.” Once we’ve broken the task into steps, we can ask colleagues or stu-
dents to check if we’ve missed anything.
• Break tasks down when students struggle. When students struggle—stopping,
losing focus, or choosing the wrong technique—the current goal may be unman-
ageable. This is a good cue to pause and set a clearer, smaller goal: “I notice
some people getting stuck, let’s go back to Question 3, remind me the first thing
we do when we approach a question like this.”

Whenever we simplify and break down tasks, we make it easier for students to
respond.56

We can break big tasks into bitesize goals by examining the task in advance, or
by breaking it down when students struggle

I learned the power of bitesize goals while trying to help students write essays.
Initially, I simply asked students to “Make a plan before you start writing.” After a
decade writing history essays, I planned instinctively: I only recognized the need
for smaller, clearer steps when I realized how many students were struggling. I set
a series of bitesize goals, based on how I planned and where students got stuck. In
my first attempt, the first three goals were:

1) Choose three topics for your paragraphs—write them as branches of a mind-map.

2) For each point, write three good bits of evidence.
3) Get a peer to check your evidence.

This allowed more students to plan and write coherent essays. Nonetheless, some
still struggled, because the goals I had chosen were still too big: choosing paragraph
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
but could not get them to destroy their own means of
communication. Had this been done the French army was lost. The
delay, however, caused by the necessity of forcing and repairing the
bridges, cost the French the loss of many men and horses,[1] and of
most of the spoil they were carrying off from Oporto. Unfortunately
the letters in which these operations were described are wanting. But
for the rest of the long campaign up to the battle of Salamanca, with
the exception of Talavera, when he was with Beresford in Portugal,
and of Albuera, and Bussaco, from which he was absent through
illness, his letters are fairly consecutive comments of an actor in the
events which occurred during that period of heroic struggle.
On 30th May 1811 he was promoted by Brevet to the rank of Major
in the English Army, and to that of Lieutenant-Colonel in the
Portuguese Army. At the last siege of Badajos, he was the senior
Staff Officer at the summons of Fort Christobal, and had the honour
of taking prisoners the Generals Philippon and Weyland, who
surrendered their swords to him.
In the battle of Salamanca, 1812, he was with his chief, Marshal
Beresford, when the latter was severely wounded, and, as narrated
in the letters, carried him into the town, nursed him through his
illness, and went with him to Lisbon.
In 1813 Major Warre was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-
Colonel in the English Army, and resigned his commission in the
Portuguese Army. He received from the King of Portugal medals for
his conduct at Vimeiro, at the siege and assault of Ciudad Rodrigo,
and for the two sieges of Badajos, also a medal for the four
campaigns. He was also made a Knight of the Order of the Tower
and Sword, and of the Order of St Bento d’Avis.
In 1813 he was sent to the Cape of Good Hope, where he was
appointed Q.M.G., a post which he held till 1819.
In November 1812 he had married Selina, youngest daughter of
Christopher Maling of West Herrington and Hillton, in the county of
Durham. By her he had a family of three sons and two daughters.
His youngest son, Henry, born 1819 at the Cape, was afterwards
General Sir Henry Warre, K.C.B. His wife died 3rd February 1821.
 In November 1820 he returned to England, and in 1821, by reason
of ill-health, went on half-pay.
In May 1823 he was appointed A.Q.M.G. in Ireland, and in 1826
was transferred to a similar appointment in England. In 1826-1827
he served on the Staff of the Army sent to Lisbon under the
command of Sir William Clinton, G.C.B.
On 22nd July 1830 he became a full Colonel. He served again on
the Staff in Ireland till 1836, when he was appointed to the command
at Chatham. He held this appointment till his promotion to the rank of
Major-General 23rd November 1841. It was during his command that
the Review took place which is immortalised by Dickens in Pickwick.
He was made C.B., and was Knighted in 1839. In 1842 he was
placed in command of the North-Western District. Subsequently he
was transferred to the Northern District, with his Headquarters at
York. Reference is made to him in the letters of Queen Victoria (vol.
i., p. 150).
He gave up the command at York in the year 1851, and, liking the
place and neighbourhood, remained there in a residence which he
rented at Bishopthorpe. His health broke down in 1852, and in the
following year he died, and was buried in the churchyard at
Bishopthorpe. The church has since been pulled down, and the
churchyard, which is adjacent to the gardens of the Archiepiscopal
Palace, closed. His tomb is on the south side of the old graveyard,
and bears the following inscription:—
SACRED TO THE MEMORY
OF
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR WILLIAM WARRE
C.B., K.T.S., K.C., St Bento D’Avis
Colonel of the 94th Regiment
Died at York, 26th July 1853, aged 69 Years.

[1] See Oman, vol. ii., pp. 355-9.

LETTERS FROM THE
PENINSULA
 1808
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In June 1808 the British Government determined to send
assistance to the Spaniards, who had risen in revolt against the
French domination in the Peninsula.
Spain, which had been an enemy, was now regarded as a friend.
In the previous year, an expedition under General Whitelock had
been despatched to invade the Spanish Colonies in America, with
disastrous results. In 1808 a force of about 9000 men was already
assembled in Ireland, with a view to renewing this attempt under a
more competent General. But in the altered circumstances the
destination of these troops was changed, and they were placed
under the command of Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, with
orders to proceed to Portugal and to co-operate with the Spaniards
and Portuguese in attacking the French.
Beside the troops ready to embark in Ireland there were two
Brigades—Anstruther’s and Acland’s, quartered at Harwich and
Ramsgate respectively—available for immediate service abroad.
These were added to Wellesley’s command. And in addition to these
there were at this time about 5000 men, under General Spencer,
observing Cadiz, who could join the expedition on Portuguese soil.
Lastly, there was a force of about 10,000 men under Sir John Moore,
who had been sent to the Baltic to co-operate with the Swedes, a
task which proved impracticable. These were on their way home,
and were ordered to Portugal, though some time elapsed before they
could join their comrades in the Peninsula.
Major-General Ferguson, with his Aides-de-Camp, Capt. Warre
and Capt. Mellish, embarked at Portsmouth in H.M.S. Resistance—
Capt. Adam—in May; but their destination at that time was quite
uncertain, though General Ferguson, nominally at least, belonged to
the force under General Spencer’s command. After some further
delay, owing to contrary winds, the Resistance arrived at Cork,
where Sir Arthur Wellesley on 7th June assumed the command of
the troops assembled. The news of the Spanish insurrection had
already reached England, and although quite uncertain as yet as to
their future movements, everyone seems to have taken it for granted
that they were to sail at once. As it turned out, they had many weeks
to wait before the actual start took place.
The six letters written in May and June, though not belonging
properly to the letters from the Peninsula, have been included in the
series, as giving an account not altogether uninteresting of the kind
of life led while waiting for orders to sail, the needs and necessities
recorded, and the ideas generally entertained by the writer as set
forth in his correspondence. The difficulties respecting the soldier
servant, whom he was so anxious to take with him, have an almost
tragic interest in view of the ultimate fate of the man, which is
afterwards described in the letters.
Not without interest also are the sidelights occasionally thrown
upon the jealousy with which Colonels of Regiments regarded the
taking of officers from service with the Regiment for Staff
employment, and the indications of the necessity of influence in high
quarters to obtain any appointment of the kind. But more than all is
the evidence of the enthusiasm which pervaded all ranks—
enthusiasm for a glorious cause, which was no less than the
liberation of Europe from the domination of the tyrant, who had
trampled right and justice under foot, and was without gainsaying
England’s bitterest and deadliest foe.

LETTERS
Portsmouth, May 22, 1808.
Here we are, my dearest Father, after a very hasty journey and
pleasant, as constant rain and a complete overturn about ½ a mile
short of Kingston, from which Capt. Mellish and myself escaped
quite safe, except a few trifling bruises and a sprained thumb I got,
which renders my writing somewhat difficult—with these exceptions
it was as pleasant as could be to me, leaving all those dearest to me
in the world.
We have just got all our baggage, and go on board ourselves this
evening. Capt. Adam appears to be a very fine gentlemanly young
man, and much inclined to show us every civility.
We shall sail as soon as the wind is fair, and are much hurried.
Should my things arrive this evening they will be in time, otherwise I
fear not. Nothing can be kinder than the General. I think myself every
moment more fortunate in going with him. Pray get some advice
about Rankin. I shall send him on shore at Cork, if I can, and have
no answer from Seymour.[2] If I am not able to send him on shore,
the advice I want you to get is, how to get him leave to go, as if he
were not gone but to Cork. Pray write. It may find me on board the
Resistance, Cork. I will write every opportunity. May God bless and
preserve you all and give you every happiness, is the constant
prayer of your affectionate son,
Wm. Warre.

[2] Lt.-Col. 23rd Dragoons.

H.M.S. “Resistance,” St Helens, May 24th, 1808.

Many thanks, my dear Father, for your letter of yesterday, and the
books and wine, about which I have just written to Messrs Smith and
Atkins, directing them, if we are sailed, to send it to care of Markland
at Gibraltar. Here we are with the wind as foul as it can blow, and too
hard to put to sea. We shall sail the first opportunity, and are not a
little anxious to get off. Nothing can exceed the General’s and Capt.
Adam’s kindness. We are as comfortable as on shore, and as happy
as possible.
 We have not the least idea of our destination. Reports I never
believe. If the General does not know, it is not likely any newspaper
can. I received my books and wine safe, for which accept my thanks.
The books, at all events, I could not read if I had them not. They are
therefore as well with me, and God knows how long we may be on
board or away.
I am glad you intend to call on the Duke. It is as well; and pray do
not forget to assure Ld. Mostyn of my gratitude and sense of his
kindness towards me. I have written, or rather I wrote the day I left
town to Seymour, but, should I not get his answer at Cork, must send
Rankin on shore; and to go without a servant is very inconvenient
indeed. Therefore I think, if you could hire me a steady, honest
servant, it would be worth while his coming to Cork to me; or the
General thinks it would be better to ask General Calvert, by
“empenho”[3] to send me an order to Cork for him to accompany me
at all events.
Adieu; we are ordered off by signal. May God preserve and bless
you all, is the constant prayer of your affectionate son,
Wm. Warre.

[3] By desire.

Cove, June 8, 1808.

My Dearest Father,
Till yesterday, on Sir A. Wellesley’s arrival at Cork to take the
command, our sailing was so uncertain, that I did not write to you, for
other news, except that we are all well, from hence I had none to tell.
We now expect to sail the day after to-morrow, Sunday, if the wind is
fair. The glorious accounts from Spain have hurried us off, and I
believe there is now no doubt that that is our destination, but what
part we know not. The Rendezvous is Tangier bay, in case of parting
company, which looks like Cadiz (this entre nous).
 We are exceedingly anxious to get away, after six weeks’ delay.
The Army are in the highest spirits; indeed the cause we are
engaged in is the noblest a soldier could wish, and to support the
liberties and independence of a country so lately our enemy. To
forget all animosity and cordially join against the common enemy of
Europe, the would-be Tyrant of the world, is worthy of the British
name; and a soldier’s heart must be cold indeed that would not
warm with enthusiasm in such a cause. I am not one of the most
sanguine; you know my opinion of armed mobs, though in this, from
the accounts we have received, there is an appearance of system
and order that promises well. May God assist the Right. It may be
the crisis of the Tyrant’s power. If he fails now, it may open the eyes
of Europe.
I will write by every opportunity and let you know how we are going
on, and the news, and a line when we sail. The General’s best
thanks for your present of maps. They are most acceptable to him.
He is gone with Adam and Mellish to Cork to dine with the Mayor, or
dine in publick in honour of Sir Arthur. I was asked, but having a
good deal to do, and not fancying a crowd, have sent an excuse. We
have been very gay here ever since we arrived, but long to be off.
How unfortunate we were not to be with Spencer at landing at
Cadiz. There will be yet something I hope to be done. Boney will not
easily give up his point, and a more beautiful army never embarked,
for its size, from any place. We have been joined by 45th, 4 troops
20 Lt. Dns., and 2 companies Artillery, besides a very large Staff,
and are to be by the 36th Regt. The troops are very healthy, in all
about 9650 men.
I have not heard further about remaining in the 23rd. Seymour has
allowed me to take Rankin, if I can get a man to exchange. Stuart is
trying to get me one from the 9th Foot, but they are all so high in
spirits at going on service, I fear of his getting one. I think we shall
certainly sail on Sunday, if possible. Write to me, in case we should
go to Porto, direct Gibraltar, and tell me if I can do anything there;
depend on my punctuality and exertions. Such a thing might happen
as going in there. Our party is much augmented on board
Resistance. Generals Crawfurd and Fane 1 A.-de-C. or 2, 1 Bᵈᵉ
Major, and a civil Secretary. It will not be so pleasant as hitherto.
Patience, it is a million times better than a transport.
From your ever affectionate son,
Wm. Warre.
Pray desire Hawkes Piccadilly to send me a Hat and Feather, the
same shape exactly as the last, by 1st opportunity; my old one is
gone to pieces. Adieu.

Cove, June 17, 1808.

My Dear Father,
I have to thank you for your kind letter on the 11th inst., and for
that you wrote to Genl. Payne, in which you have said everything
that can be said. I am much afraid he is offended with my carrying
my point in spite of him.
It is however of consequence my remaining in the Regiment, as
more Captains are quitting it I hear, and I have therefore this day
written to Greenwood’s with the enclosed paper of exchange signed,
of which letter you have an extract annexed. It may do good, and
cannot do any harm.
Seymour, I think, will do what he can for me; his letters are as
friendly as possible, though he will not allow me to take Rankin,
which is very annoying, particularly now that I have bought a horse,
nor do I know what to do for a servant here. There is no such thing,
and as all the troops are now embarked, and we may be ordered to
sail every hour, I have no time to write for one. I should therefore be
much obliged to you, if you would enquire about some honest, trusty
man, who must understand horses, and send him out to join me at
Gibraltar. Agree about wages, clothes, etc., and send him out to join
me at Gibraltar, or off Cadiz, as soon as a conveyance offers. To be
on service without a trusty servant will be exceedingly unpleasant.
 We know nothing further of our destination or plans. We have
been here amusing ourselves in perfect idleness, though very gayly.
We yesterday dined on board Ld. Thomond’s yacht, and went in the
evening to a play, acted by the Officers of the Resistance, for the
poor of Cove. It was exceedingly crowded, and went off very well. I
have bought a nice little hack, a mare, the only thing of the kind I
could get for the price, 30 guineas Irish, for which I drew yesterday
on you. They ask 50, 60, 70, for nice hacks, and the Genl. and
Mellish have been obliged to pay it. I got mine from an Artillery
Officer, through a friend of mine, and am very lucky. I also further
drew upon you for £20 British to Mr Mayhew, of which Mellish has
half and is to pay me in the money of the country we go to. I hope we
shall now leave this very soon. All the Regts. are embarked, and we
only wait for orders. I will write as soon as they arrive. I rejoice to
hear that dear Tom[4] was safe at Stockholm, and daily expected.
God send him safe, dear fellow. It would have been great happiness
to have seen him before I sailed, but I shall now be satisfied with
hearing of his safe arrival. Give him my kindest love and welcome
home.
Pray assure Lord Rosslyn when you see him of my high sense of
his Lordship’s goodness, and that if I must quit the 23rd, I shall feel
highly gratified by being in his Regiment. Pray get my uncle to get
the Duchess to speak to Gordon about the exchange. As things are
now, it is really a very hard case that I must give up my chance of
advancement because I am anxious to learn experience of my
profession, and it has disgusted me not a little. In the midst of this
idleness, such is the confusion and hurry that we can scarcely settle
to anything. Report says we are going to Spain. I am working hard at
Spanish, as is Mellish, who is a very clever fellow.
Stuart, my old friend, embarked to-day. His Regiment marched in,
in the finest order, and got great credit. He desires to be most kindly
remembered, as does the General. I believe General Hill, who
commanded at Fermoy when I was there, goes with us in the
Resistance. He is a very pleasant, mild man, and much liked. He
commands here till the arrival of the Commander-in-Chief, Sir A.
Wellesley, I believe certainly; but whether he will come here, or we
join him at sea, is not known.
Wm. Warre.
Extract of my Letter to Greenwood & Cox.
“June 17, 1808.
“The objection to my accompanying Major General Ferguson (the
number of Captns. then on the Staff from the Regt.) being now
removed by Captn. F’s exchange, I hope H.R. Highness and Major-
General Payne will be pleased to allow me to remain in the 23rd, to
which, independent of the number of steps I shall lose by the
exchange, I am much attached, and shall only quit from my great
desire of acquiring experience in my profession on actual service, of
which I saw but little prospect in the Regt. at present. Any
emolument I can receive from my Staff situation, I can assure
H.R.H., is not an object, my only wish being to render myself, as far
as lays in my power, useful in the service, however great the loss [I
may] suffer by entering another Regt. as younger Captain from one
in which I am so high up.
“I have the honour to request you will lay this before H.R.H., at the
same time assuring him of my willingness to fulfil the conditions
under which he was pleased to allow me to accompany Major-Genl.
Ferguson, by exchanging into any Regt. of Dragoons H.R.H. may
think proper. I have the honour, etc., etc.”
I have desired them to write to me what answer the Duke gives.

[4] Thomas Warre, second son of James Warre, a merchant in

St Petersburg, escaped from Russia to Sweden after war had
been declared against England.

Cove, June 22, 1808.

My Dearest Father,
 I have this morning received your kind letter of the 16th, and am
very much obliged to you for the Maps, which will be most
acceptable, as I have hunted all over Cork without finding anything of
the kind, and I think there is little doubt of Spain’s being our
destination in the first place. I shall offer them to the General, but I
fear he will not be prevailed on to accept them. He is always ready to
oblige or give anything away himself, but would not take a pen from
anyone, if he thought he deprived him of it. I shall note carefully what
you say respecting ... though on his score of fortune, I think you have
been misinformed. He is not amiable in his manners, but very clever,
and though very good friends, we are not likely ever to be very
intimate or confidential. A sort of outward cordiality must seem to
exist, placed as we are together in situation.
I am most sincerely rejoiced that Douglas is coming to join us. For
him I have really a very warm regard, and should Johnstone
succeed, shall have with me two of my greatest friends. Our General
has nothing to do with the present Expedition. He belongs to
Spencer, and is ordered to proceed by the first safe conveyance (a
man-of-war) but, should one not offer, to remain in the Resistance;
this entre nous. He has applied, but none offers, and I think there is
very little doubt of our all having the same destination. He is naturally
very anxious to join his Brigade at his post off Cadiz, but we should
all quit the Resistance with very great regret. Nothing can be more
pleasant than our situation with so excellent a fellow as Adam.
I was in great hopes of hearing of dear Tom’s safe arrival, and
hope still to have that happiness before we sail. Enclosed I send him
a few lines welcome home. They but faintly express a brother’s
feelings at his escape, and return, after so long an absence, to the
bosom of his family.
All the troops are embarked, and certainly finer, as far as they go,
never were seen. We now only wait for orders and Sir A. Wellesley,
who is expected to-day, and will I hope bring some further orders for
Genl. Ferguson. As to Rankin, I have written to Seymour to allow
him to exchange into the 9th Foot. Stuart has been so good as to
promise to get one of his men to do so, and I trust the General, who,
by the bye, it was that wrote, will have an answer.
 I have no answer to my letter about buying his discharge, which I
fear will not be allowed. It will be abominably unpleasant to embark
with a horse and no servant. As to Payne [nothing] but the steps and
prospects I have in his Regiment would induce me to remain in it,
though Seymour’s letters are highly kind and flattering. Payne
considering dispassionately, has but little right to be angry at my
using all my endeavours to get a very advantageous situation,
although in spite of him; nor can I rate my services so low, as to
suppose they are a matter of indifference to my Regiment,
particularly considering the sacrifices I offered to make on my return
to England. His not answering your letter is want of good breeding.
Seymour’s letter to him, however, perhaps makes him hesitate.
We have been endeavouring to establish a ball here this evening
for the relief of the poor distressed wives of the Soldiers, but it is a
very bad day and I fear we shall have but thin attendance. I have
been much troubled with the toothache, and yesterday had the
unruly member drawn with much difficulty, and to-day my face is very
sore and swelled; but, as I was one of the chief instigators of this
ball, I must go, though not at all in the humour for it. Adieu, my
dearest father. Ever your most affectionate son,
Wm. Warre.
The Genl. thanks you for your kind messages, and desires to be
most kindly remembered.

Cove, June 27, 1808.

My Dearest Mother,
Even had I not this morning received your most kind and
affectionate letter by Douglas with the locket, it was my intention to
have written a few lines, nor have I time for much more, as we dine
at a Mr Frankland’s some way in the country, and I have a good deal
of writing on hand. Accept my best thanks for the letter and locket
which shall never quit me, though you know I did not want it as a
souvenir. I wish it was the Talisman, so famous in the “Arabian
Nights,” that conveyed its possessor in an instant wherever he
wished. I should often visit the happy circle at Hendon.
We really know no more of our destination than you do, except
that we all belong to the same, and are to join General Spencer at
Gibraltar, which is a great satisfaction. Hitherto we have been
longing for an opportunity to get out to him, not knowing but this
expedition might have quite a different destination.
We have a large list of the Staff, among which are many friends of
mine. Sir A. Wellesley, Lieut.-Genl. commands in chief, and under
him are Major Genls. Spencer, Hill, Ferguson, Br. Genls. Fane,
Crawford, Nightingale. Col. Torrens is Mily. Secretary, and a long list
of Staff-officers, which I need not trouble you with reading. Genls.
Fane and Crawford go in the Resistance with us, which will take
away greatly in point of room. The latter and his Brigade Major I
know very well, the former not at all, though I hear he is a very good
man. I could have dispensed with him very well, as they just turn us
poor ADCₛ out of our snug berths, and strangers will prevent that
pleasant gaiety and freedom we have enjoyed hitherto.
It is very uncertain when we shall sail. We are waiting for the
Donegal 74, Capt. Malcolm, and Crocodile frigate, and for some
transports, with Artillery and Cavalry, and some empty ones to thin
those now here, which are very much crowded, though hitherto quite
healthy. The additional room allowed looks like a longer voyage than
we expected, though Cavalry and our taking horses seems to
contradict this idea. I am rather for going to Spain. It is a noble
service assisting a nation fighting for its independence, and it is
impossible to say what a brave people fighting for liberty, and
actuated at the same time by resentment for great injuries, and a
bigoted attachment to ancient customs may do, if properly
supported. At all events, our assisting to the utmost of our power the
mother country will greatly facilitate our establishing the
independence of America, whither I hope will be our ultimate
destination.
 Sir A. W. is a very good officer, and much esteemed, and I trust we
have neither a Whitelock or Gower amongst us. I have not been very
well to-day—I expect from the effects of bad water—and so liable to
catch cold, that the General has made me put on flannel, and I find
myself better since I have ordered a dozen of waistcoats of it at
Cork.
We had a gay ball here on Friday, in a storehouse fitted up with
flags, for the relief of the distressed soldiers’ wives. We had a good
many people, and collected about £50 free of expenses, little enough
among so many objects. I have had a good deal of trouble, but who
would grudge it in such a cause? To-morrow there is a ball for the
poor wounded Dutchmen taken in the Guelderland. I have never
seen greater objects. Poor fellows! they fought very bravely, but
knew nothing of their business. Our Frigate only lost one killed and
one wounded, and they 60 in both.[5] I went to see them, and the
Genl. has sent the Officer refreshments and wine. He is an excellent
man. His purse is always open to distress, even too much. He is, I
fear, often imposed upon. I am much pleased for many reasons, you
may suppose, with Mr Adamson’s kindness. Pray thank him most
kindly from me. As for Moll, I shall be much affronted if he talks of
paying for her. He must accept her as a very small proof of my
friendship and very high regard for him, to say nothing of his
kindness to me and my gratitude for it. I hope Hardy will suit dear
Emily, and she will have him as a present from her affectionate
brother. I shall be able to afford not to sell him, if we have a long
voyage, and think she will like him with greater pleasure as a present
from me. I was rejoiced to see my friend Douglas, he is gone in to
Cork to-day and returns to-morrow....
I am anxiously waiting to hear of dear Tom’s arrival. Write to me
the moment he does. We are not likely to sail for some time,
Yrs., etc.,
Wm. W.

[5] See James’s Naval History, vol. iv., p. 324 ff. May 19, 1808.
“Guelderland,” Dutch 36-gun frigate taken by the “Virginie.”
 1808
CHAPTER II
INTRODUCTION
After long delay the expedition under Lieut.-General Sir Arthur
Wellesley sailed from Cork on 12th July. Meanwhile the Government
had altered its mind as to the command of the army, and, after Sir
Arthur Wellesley had sailed, entrusted the command of the whole
force to Sir Hew Dalrymple. Under him were, in order of seniority, Sir
Harry Burrard, Sir John Moore, Sir Arthur Wellesley, who thus, after
his arrival in Portugal, found himself as the junior Lt.-General only
fourth in command.
On 26th July the fleet reached Porto Roads, and on 1st August
and the following days, the troops were landed at Figueira, in
Mondego Bay, not without difficulty, owing to the surf, which from the
open Atlantic beats with violence on the unprotected coast.
It was not till 9th August that the army was able to move forward.
Difficulties as to transport were almost insuperable, and some guns
had to be left behind. Wellesley had determined to take the coast
road, wishing to pick up on his way towards Lisbon the Brigades of
Anstruther and Acland which had sailed on July 19th, but had not yet
arrived. His impression was that Junot, the French Marshal, had
10,000 troops under his command, but he had under-estimated
these, which amounted in reality to about 26,000; though it was true
that Junot had detached about 7000 under Loison to quell the
insurrection in the Alemtejo.
On hearing of the landing in Mondego Bay, Junot hastily recalled
Loison, with orders to join De la Borde, who, with 5000 men, was
sent forward to observe and check the British army, till a
concentration of the French forces could take place. Loison,
however, whose force had a long and weary march, was delayed at
Santarem, and, on the day of Roliça, was full fifteen miles away from
the scene of the fight. De la Borde, who left Lisbon on August 6th,
advanced as far as Alcobaça, but fell back on a position he had
selected near Roliça. On August 16th the forces came into contact,
and on the 17th was fought the first combat of the Peninsular War,
which takes its name from Roliça. The action is described in the
letter from Lourinhao. Wellesley after the action moved on still by the
coast-line, neglecting Loison and allowing him unmolested to join
Junot at Cercal. He was anxious to pick up Acland and Anstruther,
who were reported off Peniche. They landed at Porto Novo, at the
mouth of the little river Maceira, 12 miles south of Roliça.
Meanwhile Junot, after many delays, had moved by Villa Franca
on Torres Vedras. It was not until the 20th that he learnt for certain
that the British force was keeping the coast road. On the evening of
the 20th he was ten miles south of Vimiero, where the British army
lay covering the disembarkation of the two Brigades. During the night
the French army marched, and at dawn on the 21st found itself close
under the British position. Followed on that day the Battle of Vimiero,
which is graphically described in the letters.
The victory was won; but to the disgust of the army, and
afterwards of the whole British nation, it was shorn of its glory, and
possible advantages, by the command of Sir Harry Burrard, who
landed in the course of the morning of the 21st, superseding Sir
Arthur Wellesley, and forbidding all pursuit. Burrard himself was
shortly superseded by Sir Hew Dalrymple, and the result which
ensued, in the Convention of Cintra, is too well known to need
comment here.
After the battle of Vimiero, William Warre was laid up with an
attack of enteric fever, which brought him to death’s door. He
recovered slowly, and by the month of October was sufficiently well
to see active service again as A.D.C. to General Beresford, who
commanded a brigade in the army of which Sir John Moore was the
C.-in-C. General Ferguson had not, as he had expected, returned
from England.
 LETTERS
Porto Roads, July 25, 1808.
My Dear Father,
We arrived this morning off this place, which was the appointed
Rendezvous. I have not been able to communicate with the shore
yet, and it is very uncertain whether I shall be able to see my friends
there, or land at all. I have just heard a Frigate is going to England,
and the boat is waiting to take my letter, so I have only time to say
we are all well. I think we are to land at Lisbon and attack Junot. This
is my idea, but nothing is known. To express my feelings at seeing
the spot of my birth, the place in which I spent some of the happiest
days of my life, would be impossible, or how tantalised at not being
able to communicate. Should we land, you shall hear further and by
first opportunity. At present they are calling for my letter.
Your ever affectionate son,
Wm. Warre.
I have opened this to say that I have a message from the
Commodore, saying he is sorry it will not be possible for me to land,
as they only wait for Sir A. Wellesley’s return from shore to make
sail. They are making dispositions for the anchoring of the fleet and
landing. Spencer is to join us. I am much disappointed at not landing
or communicating with shore.
A Deos,
Com as mayores saudades.[6]

[6] “With greatest regrets,” or, as we should say, “With much

love.”

Monday evening, July 25th, 1808. Off Ovar.

Dearest Father,
The enclosed is a second time returned to me, and as the
Peacock’s boat, by whom it is to go, is delayed a few minutes, I have
opened it to tell you we are making all sail for Figueira, where we are
to land to-morrow morning in order, I understand, to cut off a French
Corps marching to Lisbon to Junot’s assistance, and then to march
to Lisbon and try his mettle. I cannot imagine what Corps is meant,
as the annexed is the official account of their disposition in Spain
(minus 18,000 said to be killed in Spain, and some must have been
in Portugal), viz. (?9000) at St Sebastian, 6000 Pampelona, 15,000
Barcelona, closely besieged by the Patriots in great force, 10,000
Burgos, 2000 Vittoria, 50,000 Madrid and adjacent country, 16,000
Lisbon, said to be now reduced to 12,000. I have no accounts of the
state of the country. We made sail to the southward immediately, and
not a single boat came on board. Adieu.
I will write after our landing, if opportunity offers. The most anxious
moment I ever felt was seeing Porto and not being able either to
write or go near. Every house I could see looked beautiful to me who
felt how happy I had been there.

Camp Lavos, Nr. Figueira, Aug. 8, 1808.

My Dearest Mother,
I have seized the opportunity of a few leisure moments to write a
few lines just to tell you I am quite well, though a good deal fagged
and burnt by being constantly exposed to the sun, and the exertions,
which my knowledge of the language, and our situation, render
indispensable; though I feel the sincerest pleasure in being in any
way useful to my country or the service, and fully recompensed by it
for every fatigue.
We disembarked the first of this month. It took three days to land
the whole army, and had we been opposed from the land I am
positive we could never have effected it, so great is the surf both on
the coast and the bar. However, thank God, the whole army landed
without any loss but a horse or two, and now occupy a position at
this place, or rather with our left to the village and right to the sea,
where we have been waiting for the arrival of General Spencer and
his Corps, who arrived, and have been landing yesterday and to-day,
I trust without any loss, though the surf is very heavy.
We advance to attack Monsr. Junot the day after to-morrow; the
advance guard, under Genl. Fane, to-morrow. It is several days’
march. The severest part of the business is in these infamous roads
and scorching sun, which with the large train of Artillery and
Baggage will oblige us to move very slow. Junot has in all about
14,000 men, but he cannot long resist, being about to be completely
surrounded by us, about 13 to 15,000 in all, from the North, and by a
corps of about 6000 Portuguese; and from the North bank of the
Tagus, from Badajos, by a corps of 10,000 men from General
Castanhos’ army in Spain, I hear, the bravest fine fellows possible,
as is their General, and indeed the whole of the Spaniards in arms.
Nothing can exceed their courage and enmity to the French. Hitherto
their conduct has been most noble, and their praise in everybody’s
mouth. Andalusia is clear of French. Dupont and his army
capitulated to be sent to France with his arms, a curious concession
from the Spaniards, who are so much in want of them. Three armies
of French have been taken or destroyed, and Castanhos is in full
march towards Madrid, and every hope entertained of his success.
8000 of the French who had surrendered were massacred by the
Spanish peasantry, so great is their animosity. All this is positive
information. Castanhos has 45,000 men, 4000 of which excellent
cavalry, and about 23,000 Regulars. He is a very mild man, but a
fine fellow as ever was. Whittingham was in the action with
Castanhos; his conduct most gallant, and his praise universal in the
army. He is appointed a Colonel in the Spanish service, as a proof of
the esteem he is held in. The Portuguese have about 28,000 men in
all the kingdom, in arms of all descriptions, all badly armed, and I
fear not so enthusiastic in the cause (though they boast much) as
their neighbours the Spaniards. As to what the English papers say,
do not believe a word of it. I never read such a parcel of nonsense.