Chapter 1 in Archer, Anita L., and Charles A. Hughes. Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching. New York: Guilford, 2011. Print.
Explicit: direct, unambiguous teaching approach
Components:
- series of scaffolds
- clear statements of purpose and rationale for learning a new skill
- clear explanations & demonstrations of target
- supported practice with feedback until mastery is achieved
Emphasis
- Small chunks
- Checks for understanding
- Active participation of ALL students
Elements of Explicit Instruction
- Focus on critical contents
- Sequence logically: simple -> hard, familiar -> new, foundational -> advanced, separate easily confused skills
- Break down complex skills into smaller instructional units (chunking)
- Design organized focused lessons
- Lessons start with clear statements of lesson goals and expectations
- Review prior knowledge prior to main instruction
- Step-by-step demos
- Clear concise language
- Provide examples & non-examples
- Require fréquent student responses
- Monitor student performance closely
- Provide specific feedback
- Deliver lesson at a brisk pace
- Help students organize knowledge
- Provide distributed and cumulative practice (practice old and new skills to help with retention)
6 Teaching Functions
- Review previous homework and prerequisite skills
- Presentation: chunk new material, modeling, example/non-examples, avoid digressions, be clear
- Guided practice: require high frequency responses, ensure high rates of success, provide timely feedback, continue practice until fluent
- Corrections & feedback (and reteach if needed)
- Independent practice: monitor early attempts, practice till automatic
- Weekly/monthly reviews
Underlying Principles of Explicit Instruction
- Optimize time on task
- Promote high levels of success
- Increase content coverage
- Cooperative learning
- Scaffold instruction
- Address different forms of knowledge
- declarative – facts
- procedural – how something is done
- conditional – when/where to use skill
How to ensure high levels of success:
- material is not too difficult given their current skills
- clear presentations
- modeling of skills and strategies
- supported practice
- active participation
- careful monitoring of student responses
- timely corrective feedback
Content coverage:
- Identify highly leveraged content:
- commonly used skills
- well connected ideas
- generalizable skills and ideas
Cooperative grouping
- homogeneous
- small
- leverage homogeneous groups to deliver workshops attuned to different groups needs
Scaffolding tips:
- chunking
- logical sequencing
- progress gradually in complexity
- demo / model
- use cues: thinking sheets (small sheets with problem solving steps), checklists
The explicit instruction model can be used to develop clear, well-chunked scaffolding activities that clearly tie to students’ need-to-knows and learning targets. The combination of clear modeling, logical sequencing, differentiation through grouping, guided practice, and frequent timely feedback could help develop content fluency for ALL students.
Preparation Steps
- Analyze standards. Identify skills that are highly leveraged (used often, generalizable to many contexts)
- Design short lessons that are logically sequenced
- Design assessments and assessment practices that allow students to get frequent timely feedback
Early Implementation Steps
- Start lessons by explaining why learning targets are worth knowing
- Start lessons with students’ related prior knowledge
- Be clear and concise during workshops
- Provide a lot of feedback to all students during guided practice
- Provide enough practice opportunities for students to become fluent in skills
- Use cumulative practice approach – practice old and new skills in order to develop fluency
Advanced Implementation Steps
- Have student reflect and provide evidence that they have achieved mastery in learning targets
- Differentiate workshops to match learning needs of different student groups
- Use peer feedback to increase frequency of supportive, corrective feedback on guided practice
- 18 : Lesson Plan Model for Cognitive Engagement
- 05: Engaging in Academic Literacy
- 06: Scaffolding academic talk
- 07: Scaffolding academic writing
- 16: Cognitive Structures 1 of 2
- 17: Cognitive Structures 2 of 2
- 21: Standardized test prep
- 23: Learning targets
- 24: Checks for understanding
- 25: Engaging students with data
- 26: Responsive Teaching
- 27: Responsive Teaching: Essential Skills & Attitudes 1 of 2
- 28: Responsive Teaching: Essential Skills & Attitudes 2 of 2
- 29: Responsive Teaching: Assessment Principles
- 30: 4 Assmt Prac that Honor Student Differences …
- 54: 3 teacher roles