Explicit instruction is a purposeful way of overtly teaching students.

  Explicit in this
case means a clear-cut and finite way of teaching that includes both instructional
and delivery procedures.   Torgesen (2004) described explicit instruction as
“instruction that does not leave anything to chance and does not make assumptions
about skills and knowledge that children will acquire on their own.”  Rosenshine
(1987) described explicit instruction as “a systematic method of teaching with
emphasis on proceeding in small steps, checking for understanding, and achieving
active and successful participation by all students.”

Explicit instruction is a series of instructional behaviors that increase the likelihood

for student achievement.  Think of it as improving student outcomes with elevating
your practice.  The instructional behaviors that we will look at are all about
increasing modeling, providing students with frequent opportunities to respond and
providing both guided and independent practice.  Instruction is explicit when
teachers tell students what they need to to do using direct explanations along with
sharing and modeling new knowledge (Flethcer, Lynn, Fuchs & Barnes 2019).

We will explore each of these practices in two way:  individually and in a case
study.  We will look at each of the sixteen elements individually and explore each of
their attributes.  We will then apply these sixteen elements to a case study of
teacher and her instruction in the classroom.

Archer and Hughes have provided access to the first chapter of their book “Explicit
Instruction:  Effective and Efficient Teaching.”
How does explicit teaching work?

When you adopt explicit teaching practices, you are clearly showing your students what to do and
how to do it. You are not relying on students to construct this information for themselves.

There are several steps to explicit instruction teaching:

1. A teacher decides on a learning intention for a class and sets specific, transparent success
criteria. These criteria are shared with students and explained in detail.
2. The teacher clearly shows students what to do and how to do it through a clear physical
demonstration.
3. The teacher checks for student understanding periodically. At the end of the lesson, the
teacher will revisit what was covered to summarize understanding and learning.
4. In the content of an ongoing task or assessment, students are provided with all the information
they need to complete this independently.

Benefits of explicit teaching in the classroom

Fast-tracked performance

Explicit teaching is effective in fast-tracking student performance. Explicit teaching aims to move beyond rote
learning and to attempt to sequence learning for students.

Increased flexibility

Explicit teaching can be done in real-time or with video content, an excellent option for students to then revisit
beyond the classroom. This content can be created from scratch and tailored to your specific class or an existing
ClickView video resource.

Clear expectations

Explicit teaching is a useful teaching strategy for making sure all students are clear about the criteria. Part of the
process is setting the scene for each lesson or session, recapping previously taught information and stating aims
and objectives moving forward.

Systematic and sequential

Explicit teaching is always systematic and sequential. By directly supporting guided practice using a series of
steps, it’s ideal for teaching practical hands-on skills rather than more abstract concepts.

Explicit teaching ideas for teachers

Explicit teaching involves a high level of teacher-student interaction, incorporating targeted feedback. Teachers
need to take an active role in supporting students to achieve success as they move through the learning process.
By carefully monitoring student understanding, you can offer targeted individual support.

ClickView’s interactive video feature can be used to create your own teaching videos. Just add an interactive
layer of questions or steps to any video to help students better understand the content as they learn.

Learn more about interactive videos

Top 2 ways ClickView can help you with explicit teaching

1. Create your own step-by-step videos

It’s so easy to create your own video content to demonstrate specific skills for your students.
These might include how to draw a spiral pattern for elementary art students, how to cut wood
correctly for a high school woodworking lesson, or even how to perform a dance sequence.

2. Access sample explicit teaching content

You can also take advantage of the extensive library of explicit teaching strategy content that
already lives on ClickView. ClickView houses many video examples of explicit teaching uploaded
by our users, to inspire you in your classroom.
The sixteen(16) elements of explicit instruction are describe in Explicit Teaching by
Anita Archer and Charles Hughes.  These sixteen elements are both accessible to
teachers and have research to back their impact on student learning.  We are now
going to explore each of the elements and their features individually.

Focus instruction on critical content

Teach skills, strategies, vocabulary terms, concepts, and rules that will empower
students on the future to match the students instructional needs (Archer & Hughes,
2011).

Example:

If you’re teaching a unit about plants, you wouldn’t focus the content on the different
types of plants you would focus on the critical features of plants and how they keep
a plant alive.  The knowledge of the parts of plants and how a plant stays alive are
more critical for students future success than the different types of plants.

Sequence skills logically

Consider several curricular variables, such as teaching easier skills before harder
skills, teaching high-frequency skills before skills that are less frequent in usage,
ensuring mastery of prerequisites to a skill before teaching the skill itself, and
separating skills and strategies that are similar and thus may be confusing to
students (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Example:
 You wouldn’t teach your students how to do double addition with regrouping before
teaching them simple addition.  Ensuring that students have mastery of the
prerequisite skill of addition will increase the likelihood that students will apply the
prerequisite skills to the harder skill of addition with regrouping.

Break down complex skills and strategies into smaller instructional units 

Teach in small steps. Segmenting complex skills into smaller instructional units of
new material addresses concerns about cognitive overloading, processing
demands, and the capacity of students’ working memory. Once mastered, units are
synthesized. (i.e. practiced as a whole).  (Archer & Hughes, 2011)

Example:

If you are teaching a new science unit on light and sound, you wouldn’t teach all of
the content and skills in one day.  You would break apart the content into smaller
units, teach them individually and then once all the smaller units are taught you
would review the entire unit, with all the content, together.

Design organized and focused lessons

Make sure lessons are organized and focused, in order to make optimal use of
instructional time. Organized lessons are on topic, well sequenced, and contain no
irrelevant digressions (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Example:

When you create a lesson plan, you have the content you are going to teach, the
order in which to teach and any modeling, opportunities for students to respond, etc.
and a place for the order in which you will teach the content.  Doing this means that
 your lesson is designed around teaching critical content and focused on how and
when you will teach skills.

Begin lessons with a clear statement of the lesson’s goals and your
expectations

Tell learners clearly what is to be learned and why is important. Students achieve
better if they understand the instructional goals and outcomes expected, as well, as
how the information or skills presented will help them (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Example:

When you begin a lesson, you wouldn’t just start the lesson without telling students
what they will be learning and why.  You also wouldn’t just begin a lesson without
telling the students the expectations you have for the lesson.  You would explain to
students the skills they will be learning and the reason why they are learning them
and what you expect for the lesson you are about to teach.

Review prior skills and knowledge before beginning instruction

Provide a review of relevant information. Verify that students have the prerequisite
skills and knowledge to learn the skill being taught in the lesson. This element also
provides an opportunity to link the new skill with other related skills (Archer &
Hughes, 2011).

Example:

When you begin your lesson on two-by-two multiplication, you would first ensure
that students have the relevant multiplication skills.  If student’s do not have the
prerequisite skills, then a review lesson may need to be done first.  Doing so
 demonstrates to students that basic multiplication skills connect with higher order
multiplication skills like two-by-two digit multiplication.

Provide step-by-step instruction

Model the skill and clarify the decision-making processed needed to complete a
task or procedure by thinking aloud as you perform the skill. Clearly demonstrate
the target skill or strategy, in order to show the students a model of proficient
performance (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Example:

This portion of the lesson is the “I do, we do, you do.”  Teacher starts by providing
extensive modeling of the new skill or content (I do), practice with students with
frequent opportunities to respond built in (we do) and finally the student practice
both guided and independently (you do).

Use clear and concise language

Use consistent, unambiguous wording and terminology. The complexity of your

speech (e.g. vocabulary, sentence structure) should depend on students’ receptive
vocabulary to reduce possible confusion.

Example:

When you are teaching a lesson about weather, you wouldn’t just refer to clouds as
clouds.  You would refer to them as cumulonimbus and stratus.  Using concise
language for the clouds is part of teaching the content.  When you are teaching, you
keep the same wording and terminology through the lesson and subsequent
practice students will do.
 

Provide an adequate range of examples and non-examples

In order to establish the boundaries of when and when not to apply a skill, strategy,
concept or rule, provide a wide range of examples and non-examples. A wide range
of examples illustrating situations when the skill will be used or applied is necessary
so that students do not under use it. Conversely, presenting a wide range of non-
examples reduces the possibility that students will use the skill inappropriately
(Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Example:

When teaching students about nouns, creating examples and non-examples will
help students differentiate nouns from other parts of speech.  Here is an example
and non-example for noun: example would be “a dog is a noun because a dog is a
thing” and the non-example would be “fast is not a noun because it is not a person,
place, thing or idea.” Providing students with examples and non-examples help
students to differentiate between the critical features and variable attributes of
content and skills.  To learn more about identifying the critical features and variable
attributes, click on this link Creating Examples and Non-Examples for Words.

 Provide guided and supported practice 

In order to promote initial success and build confidence, regulate the difficulty of
practice opportunities during the lesson, and provide students with guidance in skill
performance. When students demonstrate success, you can gradually increase task
difficulty as you decrease the level of guidance (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Example:
 Once you have taught a lesson on one digit subtraction without regrouping, you
would give your students 100 problems to practice by themselves.  Instead, you
would provide students with 5 examples to do together with you, then 5 problems to
practice with a partner and then 5 problems to practice independently.  Doing this
allows students to practice with you, practice with another learner and then practice
on their own.

Require frequent responses

Plan for a high level of student-teacher interaction via the use of questioning.
Having the students respond frequently (i.e. oral responses, written responses or
action responses) helps them focus on the lesson content, provides opportunities
for student elaboration, assists you in checking understanding and keeps students
active and attentive (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Example:

Creating a high level of opportunities to respond during a lesson ensure that

students are actively engaged in the learning process and provide frequent
opportunities for you as the teacher to monitor student progress during the lesson. 
Students can offer an action response, a thumbs up or down, a verbal response,
plus or minus for the operation needed, or a written response, using a small white
board to write their answer.  Embedding these into your lesson plan ensures that
you know when and in what part of the lesson you will be asking students to
respond.

Monitor student performance carefully 

 Carefully watch and listen to students’ responses, so that you can verify student
mastery as well as make timely adjustments in instruction if students are making
errors. Close monitoring also allows you to provide feedback to students about how
well they are doing (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Example:

If you ask a student is a car is a noun and all the students answer no, then you can
monitor the students progress and go back and either reteach the content or
provide another round of examples and non-examples.  If during guided practice,
two students are struggling with identifying nouns on a worksheet, you can pull
those two students to reteach or model the content.  Monitoring during lesson
instruction and practice guarantees that students are not coming to the end of an
entire lesson with not knowing the content fully.

Provide immediate affirmative and corrective feedback 

Follow up on students’ responses as quickly as you can. Immediate feedback to

students about the accuracy of their responses helps ensure high rates of success
and reduces the likelihood of practicing errors (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Example:

Feedback has been proven to be a very effective method in increasing student

outcomes (Hattie & Timperley, 2007).  Giving student immediate corrective
feedback ensures that they do not come to the end of a lesson not knowing or using
skills or strategies incorrectly.  Providing immediate and corrective feedback during
both instruction and practice increase students positive outcomes for the lesson. 
Providing affirmative feedback is equally as important.  Affirming students learning
and providing specific academic and behavioral feedback ensure that students are
recognized for their effort and learning during instruction and practice.

 
 Deliver the lesson at a brisk pace

Deliver instruction at an appropriate pace to optimize instructional time, the amount

of content that can be presented and on-task behavior. Use a rate of presentation
that is brisk but includes a reasonable amount of time for students’
thinking/processing, especially when they are learning new material. The desired
pace is neither so slow that students get bored nor so quick that they can’t keep up
(Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Example:

Delivering brisk instruction with frequent OTRs (opportunities to respond) increases

the likelihood that students will be engaged and on-task during your lesson.  Using
the modeling practice (I do, we do, you do) along with ensuring wait time for
students responses allows students to be presented and learn new material more
effectively.

Help students organize knowledge 

Because many students have difficulty seeing how some skills and concepts fit
together, it is important to use teaching techniques that make these connections
more apparent or explicit. Well organized and connected information makes it
easier for students to retrieve information and facilitate its integration with new
material (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Example:

When teaching students about how plants use photosynthesis to feed themselves,
connecting the parts of the plant with the function they serve in photosynthesis will
 help student make the connection that you must have both for a plant to make
food.  Connecting relevant content and skills together, ensure that students will be
able to identify and retrieve content and skills quicker.

Provide distributed and cumulative practice 

Distributed (vs. massed) practice refers to multiple opportunities to practice a skill

over time. Cumulative practice is a method for providing distributed practice by
including practice opportunities that address both previously and newly acquired
skills. Provide students with multiple practice attempts, in order to address issues of
retention as well as automaticity (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Example:

Providing students with multiple opportunities to practice both prerequisite and

current skills helps to ensure that students will not “lose” skills already learned and
have opportunities to practice new skills.  Practice can be distributed before, during
or after a lesson and days or weeks after a lesson has been delivered.  Not only are
you providing students opportunities to practice, but you can also monitor students
understanding and use of skills