For the classroom
EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION FOR STRUGGLING LEARNERS
High-Leverage Practices for Students with Disabilities
- HLP12 Systematically design instruction toward a specific learning goal.
- HLP14 Teach cognitive and metacognitive strategies to support learning and independence.
- HLP15 Provide scaffolded supports.
- HLP16 Use explicit instruction.
- HLP17 Use flexible grouping.
- HLP18 Use strategies to promote active student engagement.
EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION FOR READING
Classroom Reading Instruction That Supports Struggling Readers: Key Components for Effective Teaching
- Teach essential skills and strategies.
- Provide differentiated instruction based on assessment results and adapt instruction to meet students' needs.
- Provide explicit and systematic instruction with lots of practice—with and without teacher support and feedback, including cumulative practice over time.
- Provide opportunities to apply skills and strategies in reading and writing meaningful text with teacher support.
- Don't just "cover" critical content; be sure students learn it—monitor student progress regularly and reteach as necessary.
EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION FOR WRITING
WHAT WORKS CLEARINGHOUSE™
Teaching Secondary Students
to Write Effectively
Explicitly teach appropriate writing strategies using a Model-Practice-Reflect instructional cycle.
This recommendation suggests teaching writing strategies in two ways: (a) through explicit or direct instruction and (b) through a Model-Practice-Reflect instructional cycle. Recommendation 1a suggests explicitly teaching students different strategies for components of the writing process. Students learn how to select a strategy, how to execute each step of the strategy, and how to apply the strategy when writing for different audiences and purposes. Recommendation 1b discusses using a Model-Practice-Reflect instructional cycle to teach writing strategies. Students observe a strategy in use, practice the strategy on their own, and evaluate their writing and use of the strategy. Teachers should use both approaches when teaching students to use writing strategies. Writing strategies are structured series of actions (mental, physical, or both) that writers undertake to achieve their goals. Writing strategies can be used to plan and set goals, draft, evaluate, revise, and edit.
Summary of evidence: Strong Evidence
EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION FOR MATH
Middle School Matters Field Guide:
Research-Based Principles, Practices, and Tools
Principle 5:
Provide explicit and systematic instruction during instruction and intervention.
- Practice 1: Include explicit teacher or peer modeling and demonstrate key concepts and skills.
- Practice 2: Include worked examples of key concepts and skills.
- Practice 3: Gradually transition from teacher-modeled problem solving to student-directed problem solving.
- Practice 4: Include opportunities for students to talk aloud about the skills, knowledge, or problem-solving procedures they are learning.
- Practice 5: Provide immediate and corrective feedback with opportunities for students to correct errors.
- Practice 6: Include sufficient, distributed, and cumulative practice and review.
EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION FOR SCIENCE
Putting Students on the Path to Learning
The Case for Fully Guided Instruction
In a very important study, researchers not only tested whether science learners learned more via discovery, compared with explicit instruction, but also, once learning had occurred, whether the quality of learning differed. Specifically, they tested whether those who had learned through discovery were better able to transfer their learning to new contexts (as advocates for minimally guided approaches often claim). The findings were unambiguous. Direct instruction involving considerable guidance, including examples, resulted in vastly more learning than discovery.