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Everybody Uses Direct Instruction For Reading · The Reading Instruction Show

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  This is The Reading Instruction Show. I am your
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  host, as always, the genial one, Dr. Andy Johnson.
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  Topic of today's podcast is direct and explicit
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  instruction to teach skills in reading. Let's
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  see if we can learn something today. Now the
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  terms direct and explicit instruction is often
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  used to sell products or to persuade state legislators
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  to make bad decisions. So let's unpack direct
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  instruction. What is it? Direct instruction is
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  a structured form of teaching where students
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  receive information directly from the teacher.
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  Sometimes called the Elements of Effective Skills
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  instruction, It's been around for years. Siegfried
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  Engelmann has said to have quote invented unquote
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  direct instruction in the early 1960s. He was
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  working in advertising analyzing the type of
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  input needed to maintain viewer retention. He
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  applied what he learned there to the design of
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  instructional programs and techniques for teaching
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  children. In the late 70s, Madeline Hunter repackaged
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  direct instruction and put it in the form of
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  a lesson plan consisting of seven elements. Anticipatory
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  set, purpose, input, modeling, check for understanding,
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  guided practice, closure. She described it as
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  a scientific method for teaching. Sound familiar?
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  If it were followed explicitly, It was said the
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  teacher was guaranteed to be successful and all
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  students would learn. Imagine that. Well, every
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  few years someone claims to have discovered direct
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  instruction and repackages it into a commercial
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  product or service. However, here's the thing.
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  All good teachers use direct instruction in some
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  form to teach necessary skills. You don't need
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  special training or expensive products to do
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  it. It comes in a variety of forms. So this podcast,
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  I'm going to identify the basic elements of direct
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  instruction. And these can be used to effectively
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  teach a skill of any kind in any area. Remember
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  when I was coaching wrestling, I was using direct
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  instruction. A purpose. starts with the first
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  one, a clearly defined purpose. This is usually
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  put in the form of a statement or a single sentence
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  that states exactly what it is you want students
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  to learn. A clearly stated purpose defines the
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  learning experience and provides focus for the
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  lesson. Everything that follows should support
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  the purpose statement. Direct instruction is
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  purposeful. And here's the thing, even balanced
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  literacy teachers, and even whole language practitioners
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  use very direct and very explicit instruction.
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  It's not something, it's not something magical
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  that only structured literacy or science of reading
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  people use. It's a pedagogical strategy. Everyone
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  uses direct instruction. Alright, off on a tangent.
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  Purpose is the first one. The second one is input.
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  The input is the specific information that students
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  need to know in order to learn the skill. This
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  would include a description of the skill, how
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  to use it, and either modeling the specific steps
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  or a demonstration with examples. The input should
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  be well organized with a logical structure to
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  enhance students' understanding. and using list
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  or outline form as you're designing the lesson
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  enables the sequence and structure of the lesson
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  to be easily seen. This is both during the planning
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  and the teaching of the lesson. All right, part
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  of the input is the identification of procedural
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  components with demonstration. If the skill involves
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  several steps, like a study skill strategy, The
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  skill should be introduced along with the specific
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  steps. And a description should include what
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  it is, why it's used, and how it's used. Next,
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  cognitive modeling is used to demonstrate the
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  skill. Here, the teacher thinks out loud while
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  going through each step. For example, if I was
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  teaching a study skill strategy, The input would
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  be something like this. Boys and girls, we read
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  informational texts different than stories. We
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  use special skills called study skill strategies.
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  Read and pause is one of these strategies. Here
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  are the steps. Step one, read a paragraph. Step
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  two, pause. Step three, ask, do I understand?
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  Step four, review or resume. Now watch me as
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  I demonstrate. That's the basic essence. to teach
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  a study skill strategy or a skill, a procedure
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  broken down into steps. Now what about identify
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  with examples? Some skills such as letter sounds
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  or recognizing letter sound patterns don't have
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  specific steps like the short A vowel sound.
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  In these cases, the letter sound or letter sound
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  pattern is introduced along with many examples.
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  For example, to illustrate, the short A lesson
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  plan would include many examples of the CVC short
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  A vowel words, of CVC short A vowel words. Students
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  would then be able to practice reading them several
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  times and the input would be something like this.
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  This is the letter A. It's a vowel. It makes
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  the A sound as in ha, at, m, an, la, a, fa, an,
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  a. and specific information with lots of examples.
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  The third part is guided practice, sometimes
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  referred to as scaffolded instruction. This is
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  where the teacher takes the whole class through
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  each step of the skill several times. The goal
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  is to provide the support necessary for students
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  to use the skill independently. So here they
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  use, apply, or practice the skill several times
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  as the teacher monitors their performance in
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  order to assess their level of learning. This
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  is called formative assessment. Small group activities
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  can be effective here because they enable the
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  teacher to see many students simultaneously and
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  to hear their thinking processes as they discuss
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  ideas with others. Guided practice is used with
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  a gradual release of teacher responsibility.
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  This means that less support is provided each
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  time the skill is practiced until students can
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  use the skill independently. And independent
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  practice. Independent practice is practice of
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  what students already know or can do. Students
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  are practicing their learning by using or applying
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  the new skill. Independent practice should be
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  used to reinforce the skill that was just taught
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  as part of input and guided practice. This should
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  not be used to challenge students or to get a
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  nice dispersion of scores. If successful, students
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  should be able to complete independent practice
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  with 95 -100 % success ratio. Again, this is
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  practice of what has already been learned. This
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  is not the place to evaluate their learning.
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  But how do you know if they've learned, you say?
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  Well, there are other times and places to assess
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  learning. That's not our goal here. If guided
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  practice is done correctly, of course, you already
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  have a good sense of this. And the last part
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  is review, revisit, and re -imply. Any skill
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  does not happen in a single setting. Learners
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  must encounter new skills in a variety of situations
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  and settings over time for mastery to occur.
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  Good teachers revisit skills and review them
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  and apply them at successively higher levels
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  over time. They evaluate to document mastery,
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  not to catch. failure. Direct instruction. It's
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  used to describe, often, structured literacy,
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  as if balanced literacy, and as if all teachers
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  don't use direct instruction. Direct instruction
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  is a pedagogical strategy to be used for some
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  purposes. It is not a method. This has been The
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  Reading Instruction Show. I am your host, Dr.
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  Andy Johnson.