DIRECT INSTRUCTION - PART 2

GRADUAL RELEASE OF RESPONSIBILITY - TEACHER AND STUDENTS “WE DO”

Direct Instruction Part 1 stated the research findings that Direct Instruction has the best overall impact on increasing student achievement.

The first essential component of Direct Instruction is to present new information in small parts or chunks. When information is NEW, students process it best in small, understandable pieces. Learners can only hold small amounts of information in their working memories. 

The second essential component of Direct Instruction is scaffolding content with a Gradual Release of Responsibility. Gradual Release of Responsibility is an instructional style that transitions the responsibility of learning from the teacher to the student. Support is provided at the start of a lesson then gradually removed as learners become more knowledgeable and independent.

DIRECT INSTRUCTION LESSON PLAN:

GRADUAL RELEASE OF RESPONSIBILITY

OPENING

• Inform students about what materials they will need & the expectations for behavior

• Present the Learning Target: “Today we are going to learn…”

• Discuss the relevance of the Learning Target - why is this skill important? How will this skill be used once it is mastered?

• Review critical Prerequisite Skills/Background Knowledge (can be done BEFORE the lesson begins): A review can be done to verify that ALL students can perform a needed skill

  
  

TEACHER – I DO

Modeling - Demonstrate the skill and describe (think aloud) what is being done.

Be Clear. Be Consistent. Be Concise. Provide several models. Involve students in the models.

Ask students to help as you do the think-aloud.

TEACHER AND STUDENTS - WE DO

Guided Practice - students complete a skill with the teacher providing step by step guidance. Physical prompts, visual prompts, spoken prompts are used.

The teacher monitors for student understanding and gives immediate feedback for errors.

STUDENTS - YOU DO TOGETHER

Paired or Cooperative Practice – Allow students to practice the skill and share responses with a partner or table group. Students can give each other feedback on accuracy and discuss solutions.

STUDENTS – YOU DO ALONE

Independent practice is done while still in the instructional group. Monitor students closely and give feedback. Students do ONE item at a time, followed by checking answers and giving feedback until students are consistently performing accurately. You do not want students practicing incorrectly. 

CONCLUSION

• Provide a review of what was learned. Involve the students to check for understanding

• You can give a brief preview of what will be learned next

• Assign additional independent work

• To read about the Lesson Opening and Teacher Modeling click HERE

GUIDED PRACTICE “WE DO”

Guided Practice provides students an opportunity to work through several examples of the newly taught skill or concept together, as a class. Teachers should see a high success rate before releasing students, who are ready, to practice skills and tasks independently. Checking for understanding as well as providing immediate, effective feedback is crucial during the Guided Practice component of the lesson.  

During Guided Practice the teacher provides verbal prompts that begin with TELLING students each step, then ASKING students what needs to be done, then REMINDING as needed.

• The teacher provides several examples for all students to work through. Students are tasked to follow along in a workbook, a notebook, or on a whiteboard. Make learning multi-sensory, and ensure student engagement, by having students verbally say each step aloud. 

• Next, continue the modeled task but have students say what comes next in each step in a collaborative learning style. The teacher should be monitoring how well the students can follow the steps and their level of comprehension of the task. 

• Finally, students should complete the task independently to show understanding with the teacher giving reminders.

WALK AROUND. LOOK AROUND. TALK AROUND - Explicit Instruction

Once students are attempting to complete a task independently, the teacher is walking around to monitor student understanding, the teacher is looking around at student work, and talking around giving prompts, corrections, and affirmations.

Still in the Guided Practice stage of a lesson, as students complete practice problems, they should only be allowed to complete one at a time to allow the teacher to ensure accuracy and address errors.

30-40-30 RULE

A good rule of thumb when guiding students through practice is to follow the 30-40-30 rule…

30% of examples are at a basic level (begin with these)

40% of examples are at the grade or ‘core’ level

30% of examples should be challenging

(only after the students have successfully completed less difficult examples)

Be sure practice tasks are similar to the independent practice students will complete.

CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING

Depending on the number of students you have, it is difficult to keep the pace of a lesson moving and catch every student that is making errors. Often students who are struggling to grasp concepts will copy from a neighbor and appear to understand at first glance. Because of this, periodically, stop the lesson to check for understanding. There are a variety of ways to do this.

THUMBS – Thumbs up (got it!), thumbs down (I need help!), thumb to the side (I’m getting there).

COLOR CARDS - Hold up color cards. Green means “Keep going, I understand”; yellow means “I’m a little confused”; red means “Stop, I need help.”

FIST TO FIVE – Closed Fist (no understanding), One Finger (I’m starting to understand), Two Fingers (I think I get it but need support) Three Fingers (I’m getting it but need more practice) Four Fingers (I get it and don’t need support) Five Fingers (I get it and I can teach someone else).

FEEDBACK

One of the most important tools in your instructional toolbox is FEEDBACK. Teachers must monitor student responses to gain information on student performance, provide corrections and affirmations, and adjust instruction WITHIN the lesson or for a future lesson. 

John Hattie: Visible Learning states that feedback is one of the top 10 influences on student achievement with an effect size of 0.70.

The ultimate goal of feedback is to “close the gap” between an incorrect student response and the correct response or a response that shows accurate understanding. When students receive feedback, in any form, it tells them what adjustments they need to make to improve and what to do next.

For feedback to be effective, students need to know what success looks like. This makes SUCCESS CRITERIA a critical component of every lesson.  Within the modeling stage of a lesson, the teacher presents what the end result of a strategy or skill, completed with proficiency, looks like. The teacher and students can refer to this success criteria throughout the learning process.

Feedback can be as simple as, “Hmmm, take another look at that and see if it makes sense,” or as specific as, “Let’s work through all the steps together to ensure you understand.”

However, whenever, and wherever you give feedback be sure that it is SPECIFIC, TIMELY, and the student can take immediate ACTION to improve their work. 

SPECIFIC - “Great Job!” may put a smile on a student’s face, but it doesn’t tell them exactly what they did “great”. Take the time to give students specific information on what they did well or where they may need improvement.

“Sarah, I love how you remembered to end your sentence with a period and your printing is so neat! Next time, remember to capitalize the beginning of every sentence.”

The information you give students should allow them to immediately take action to correct or improve their work.

Involve students in feedback. Before immediately telling a student what error they made ASK them to explain their work and their thinking process. Often through this process a student will “see” their error and correct it.  If they do not, the teacher has a better understanding of the student’s thought process and can provide more effective commentary.

If the teacher is quick to give corrections to a student, they take away the opportunity for them to learn from their mistakes. Nothing has been learned and this can have a negative effect on the learning process. Allow students to struggle a bit and hopefully figure it out on their own.

“Matteo, your answer to this subtraction problem is incorrect. Tell me what steps you took to find the answer.”

“Take a look at your notes and see if you can find where you made a mistake.  If you can’t figure it out, raise your hand and I will come back. If you do figure it out, raise your hand and I’ll be back to give you a high five.”

TIMELY - Immediate feedback is the best feedback. Feedback given days later loses its effect and has a lesser impact on student achievement. 

It is not always possible to give feedback “in the moment” and that is fine, just ensure that you are communicating information to students as soon as possible. Taking those assessments back and forth from school to home for two weeks before grading them does not provide students with the timely feedback they need.

Once Guided Practice is complete, students are ready for Independent Practice!

Check out DIRECT INSTRUCTION PART 1:

GRADUAL RELEASE OF RESPONSIBILITY - I DO

& DIRECT INSTRUCTION PART 3:

GRADUAL RELEASE OF RESPONSIBILITY - STUDENTS “YOU DO”