Home › Chapters › Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - The Lean Framework

What do my students need tomorrow, and what is the simplest way to give it to them?

The Lean Framework in one sentence

Find the stuck point. Choose the simplest tool. Try it. Everything else - the five stuck points, the Lean Tech Map, flow versus accuracy, the four-stage teaching-learning cycle - exists to make that sentence usable at 9pm with five classes the next day.

Telling the five stuck points apart

Stuck point	Looks like	Is not	First move
Blank page	Staring, checking phone, restarting the same sentence	Defiance	2 minutes of paired oral rehearsal before writing
One-draft	Submits immediately, resists revision	Laziness	Make one revision pass mandatory and visible
Repeated errors	Same correction every draft, no change	Not listening	Isolate one error type using the Ch.7 diagnostic protocol
No audience	Correct but flat, generic sentences	Low ability	Name a real reader before drafting begins
Perfectionist shutdown	Deletes more than keeps; can talk fluently but won't commit to text	Blank page (similar but distinct)	Timed speed-write, self-correction forbidden until time is up

Blank page and perfectionist shutdown look alike but need opposite first moves. Ask: can the student talk through the idea aloud? If yes, it's shutdown, not blank page.

Worked example: a Tuesday-night plan

Scenario: three students submit 60–70 word descriptive paragraphs when 120 are expected, with heavy cross-outs. Diagnosis: they can describe the place vividly aloud - this is perfectionist shutdown, not low ability. Simplest tool: a 5-minute speed-write where the pen/cursor cannot stop and self-correction is forbidden until the timer ends - no new app required. Try it before escalating to anything more technological.

Additional activities for Chapter 2

Group25 minProject

Activity 2.A - Stuck Point Case Files. Groups diagnose an anonymised writing sample's stuck point, choose a Lean Tech Map tool, and present their reasoning in two minutes.

Facilitation notes

Watch for groups that jump to "use AI" without naming the stuck point first - correct this live; it is exactly the habit the framework prevents.

Pair20 minDigital

Activity 2.B - Build Your Own Quick Reference. Pairs build a one-page reference, listing the first tool they'd reach for at each stuck point in their own context.

Further resources

Appendix B - The Four Waves and the Lean Framework ↗(printable planning template)
Chapter 7 - diagnostic grammar-checker protocol for repeated errors
Ferris, D. (2003). Response to Student Writing. Routledge.