Nancy E. Marchand-Martella, Ph.D.

,
and
Ronald C. Martella, Ph.D.

Explicit Reading Instruction:

Important Features and Findings
 The purpose of this paper is to describe the tenets
of explicit instruction, an important instructional
approach to ensure the success of students who
struggle in reading in grades 3-8. An overview of the
topic is provided along with a discussion of current
reading statistics; best practices in reading; what
explicit instruction is and what it is not; lesson
planning, delivery, and assessment; the stages of
learning; and the research supporting the use of
explicit instruction.

2 SRA FLEX Literacy™

 Overview
“At no other time in our history has the ability to read been so important to all
members of society” (Coyne, Kame’enui, & Carnine, 2011, p. 50). In fact, learning to read is
the most important skill our students can learn in school, serving as the very foundation of all
other academic subjects. According to Hulme and Snowling (2011),

Teaching children to read accurately, fluently, and with adequate comprehension is

one of the main goals of early education. Reading is critical because a great deal of
formal education depends upon being able to read with understanding (p. 139).

Think of all the times we read during the day. We may have read the newspaper in the
morning, read typed text at the bottom of a television screen later in the afternoon, followed a
recipe to make dinner, read a quick e-mail or text from a friend, studied from a textbook for a
high school quiz, or enjoyed a novel before bed. “Reading is one of the fundamental skills for
the 21st century” (Lenski, Wham, Johns, & Caskey, 2007, p. 1).

The evidence on why reading should be a key instructional focal point in our schools
is indeed striking. Students who read at high levels are more likely to stay in school, gradu-
ate from high school, access college or technical schools, and be gainfully employed. (See
Alliance for Excellent Education, 2011; Hempenstall, 2004; and Lyon, 2001 for important
statistics.) Unfortunately, many of our students are not on a positive trajectory to
achieve these milestones. Colleges must now offer remedial reading classes for an
alarmingly high percentage of students (Snow & Moje, 2010). Consider that as many
as 90 percent of students with learning disabilities in our elementary and secondary
schools have problems in reading (Bender, 2008). Additionally, high percentages of
our nation’s students struggle with reading grade-level and more advanced text, plac-
ing them at a disadvantage in math and science and decreasing their ability to com-
pete for more technologically-oriented jobs (Kamil et al., 2008).

The prognosis is especially dire for students in poverty. The lowest

performers in reading are students from families who are the lowest wage earners (Carnine,
Silbert, Kame’enui, & Tarver, 2010). If these students are not able to acquire critical reading
skills, they will be unlikely to achieve their full potential in education and in earning power.
Thus, these individuals may be relegated to a life of poverty, as will future familial
generations. When students have fewer and fewer options in life, they often become juvenile
offenders. Interestingly, Vacca (2008) went so far as to say that crime could be prevented if
schools taught these individuals how to read. Therefore, we should put the highest priority on
best practices in reading instruction, particularly for the most vulnerable students, including
those who are at risk for school failure or who receive special education services.

Interestingly, Snow and Moje (2010) described the widespread and misguided
assumption that we should finish reading instruction by the end of third grade. They used the
term “inoculation fallacy” to illustrate the notion that an early vaccination of reading instruc-
tion, especially in grades K–3, does not protect permanently against reading failure. We must
continue to provide reading instruction beyond third grade.

Explicit Reading Instruction: Important Features and Findings 3

 How do our students perform
in reading?
The 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress findings in reading were
recently released for students in grades 4 and 8 (National Center for Education Statistics
[NCES], 2011). This assessment focuses on reading for understanding and includes literary
and informational text with an emphasis on vocabulary knowledge. Students were required
to locate and recall information, integrate and interpret what they had read, and critique and
evaluate what they had read. Three achievement levels are noted on the assessment:
basic (denotes “partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for
proficient work at each grade”), proficient (“represents solid academic performance” with
“demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter”), and advanced (“superior per-
formance”) (NCES, 2011, p. 6). (Note: The term “below basic” is not defined in the report but
would be considered less than “partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are
fundamental for proficient work at each grade.”) The National Center for Education Statistics
(2011) reported the following findings for fourth graders:

• The average reading score was unchanged from 2009.

• Among students who scored below the 25th percentile, 74 percent were eligible
for free/reduced price school lunch.

• Among students who scored above the 75th percentile, 71 percent were white,
while 7 percent , 11 percent , and 8 percent were black, Hispanic, and Asian,
respectively.

• Only 34 percent of students scored at or above the proficient level with 67 percent
scoring at or above the basic level. Thus, 33 percent scored below the basic level.

• Students who reported reading for fun almost every day scored higher than those
who did not read as frequently; those who scored the lowest in reading reported
never or hardly ever reading.

The National Center for Education Statistics (2011) reported the following findings
for eighth graders:

• The average reading score was higher than in 2009.

• Among students who scored below the 25th percentile, 67 percent were eligible
for free or reduced-price school lunch.

• Among students who scored above the 75th percentile, 72 percent were white,
6 percent black, 11 percent Hispanic, and 8 percent Asian.

• Only 34 percent of students scored at or above the proficient level, with 76

percent scoring at or above the basic level. Thus, 24 percent scored below the
basic level.

• Students who reported frequent class discussions about something the whole class
had read scored higher than those who reported doing so less frequently.

4 SRA FLEX Literacy™

 These data speak to the importance of effective and efficient reading instruction
beyond grade 3. They also should help educators pinpoint specific deficit areas to strengthen
for students. Based on the NCES (2011) findings, it appears students need focused instruction
in reading literary and informational text. Further, these students need increased opportunities
to examine text with a critical eye, to discuss text within a whole-class setting, and to learn
important foundational reading skills so they may locate and recall important information,
integrate and interpret findings from what they read, and critique and evaluate text, viewing
it from various perspectives. Students also need to read more—simply reading more text is
associated with better reading performance.

What are best practices in reading instruction?

The congressionally-mandated National Reading Panel Report (National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development [NICHD], 2000) changed the direction of reading
instruction in our schools in grades K–3. Now a focus is placed on the five elements of
reading, including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension
(Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2006). Comprehensive core reading programs provided in
general education classrooms typically include these important elements.

Further, Biancarosa and Snow (2006) noted the importance of adolescent literacy
instruction in their Reading Next document for students in grades 4–12. This docu-
ment was followed by a practice brief by Boardman et al. (2008) describing the five
elements of reading for struggling adolescent readers, including word study, fluency,
vocabulary, comprehension, and motivation.

Comprehensive core reading programs provide a foundation for the response

to intervention (RTI) model. In RTI, an emphasis is placed on scientifically-based
instruction and programs in general education to ensure all students receive best
practices in reading. The goal is to prevent reading difficulties from occurring in the
first place. RTI was developed in part to avoid the negative aspects of the wait-to-fail
model of special education; given this model, schools are now providing comprehensive core
(Tier 1), strategic intervention (Tier 2), and intensive intervention (Tier 3) instruction and pro-
grams to better meet the needs of all students. Students can be qualified much earlier based on
their failure to respond to empirically supported interventions delivered with integrity in our
schools (Marchand-Martella, Ruby, & Martella, 2007). Progress monitoring and benchmark
assessments are key aspects of an RTI framework. If students are failing in this model, they
are assumed to have legitimate disabilities and are not considered “curriculum casualties.”
Interventions are targeted to address deficits in the five elements of reading for grades K–3
and 4–12.

No matter what grade level, whether the student is in grades K–3 or 4–12, an instruc-
tional term appears repeatedly when it comes to how reading instruction should be provided.
This term is explicit. Explicit instruction will be described in detail in the sections that
follow.

Explicit Reading Instruction: Important Features and Findings 5

 What is explicit instruction?
Teachers have a profound impact on how much their students learn. “Although it
seems simplistic and obvious, teachers of reading ‘teach’; that is, students do not become
independent learners through maturation” (Rupley, Blair, & Nichols, 2009, p. 126). Students
do not learn simply by the passage of time—they must receive instruction. Teaching requires
carefully planned teacher and student interactions. Students qualify for reading remediation
because they are academically behind their peers. Their learning must be accelerated in order
for them to catch up, so teachers must do more in less time. The most effective and efficient
way of shortening the learning time for these students is through the direct and explicit teach-
ing of skills. Consider the following:

As educators, we all have the same goal: to help our students make the maximum
possible academic gains in a positive, respectful environment that promotes their
success and nurtures their desire to learn. One of the greatest tools available to us in
this pursuit is explicit instruction—instruction that is systematic, direct, engaging, and
success oriented . . . explicit instruction is helpful not only when discovery is impos-
sible, but when discovery may be inaccurate, inadequate, incomplete, or inefficient
(Archer & Hughes, 2011, p. vii).

Therefore, in explicit instruction, teachers become fully responsible for student learning but
gradually relinquish this responsibility to students as they become successful (Marchand-
Martella & Martella, 2009). Teachers program for student success and are intentional with
their instruction rather than leaving students to discover what to do on their own. Thus,
instruction “moves from teacher modeling, through guided practice using prompts and cues,
to independent and fluent performance by the learner” (Rosenshine, 1986, p. 69).

Definition
Explicit, or direct, instruction is “a systematic method of teaching with emphasis
on proceeding in small steps, checking for student understanding, and achieving active and
successful participation by all students” (Rosenshine, 1987, p. 34). Systematic instruction is
a key aspect of explicit instruction. It refers to a plan or logical sequence of teaching used to
decrease student confusion and errors. For example, teaching letter sounds in a specified and
logical order (e.g., separating the teaching of b and d and focusing on high-utility sounds such
as a and s among those taught first) is a hallmark of effective phonics instruction. When a
curricular program includes a detailed scope and sequence showing a logical order of skills,
systematic instruction is evident. That is, prerequisite skills are taught in a step-wise fash-
ion before more complex skills and strategies are taught. For example, reciprocal teaching
involves teaching skills in prediction, summarization, question generation, and clarification.
Each of these important component skills could be taught separately and then integrated into
a larger reciprocal teaching strategy for maximum benefit (Marchand-Martella & Martella,
2010). This approach would ensure that those students who need help the most could be
active participants in the learning process.

Explicit or direct instruction can also be referred to as “demonstration-prompt-

practice” (Stevens & Rosenshine, 1981), “antecedent prompt and test” (Martella, Nelson,
Marchand-Martella, & O’Reilly, 2012), or “I do, we do, you do” (Archer & Hughes, 2011). In
this type of instruction, students are shown how to perform a task before being expected to do
it on their own.

6 SRA FLEX Literacy™

 Lesson Planning, Lesson Delivery, and Lesson Assessment
Explicit instruction involves classroom experiences that move students from little to
no knowledge to mastery where students perform skills and strategies at high levels (Mar-
tella et al., 2012; Rosenshine, 2008). Explicit instruction involves careful lesson planning,
intentional lesson delivery, and aligned lesson assessment. Hunter (1982) and Rosenshine and
Stevens (1986) described the critical features of explicit instruction more than thirty years
ago. These critical features are shown in Figure 1 and include the following:

• Lesson Planning (learning objectives and prerequisite skills)

• Lesson Delivery (opening, model, guided practice, independent practice, and

closing)

• Lesson Assessment (mastery, maintenance, and generalization)

Lesson Planning

Learning Prerequisite
Objectives Skills

Lesson Delivery

Opening

Guided Independent
Model Practice Practice
(Guide) (Monitor)

Closing

Lesson Assessment

Mastery Maintenance Generalization

Figure 1. Critical features of explicit instruction

Explicit Reading Instruction: Important Features and Findings 7

 Explicit instruction affects student achievement in a positive manner (Archer & Hughes,
2011; Hall, 2002; Carnine et al., 2010; Sabornie & deBettencourt, 2009) and is considered
“helpful to all students learning new skills and content, and is absolutely essential for strug-
gling or disadvantaged learners” (Archer & Hughes, 2011, p. 17). Lesson planning, lesson
delivery, and lesson assessment are described below.
Lesson planning. Two essential aspects of lesson planning are learning objectives
and prerequisite skills.
Learning objectives. Explicit instruction begins with the end in mind; that is, we
must know where we want our students to end up before we begin instruction. We ask our-
selves, “What do we ultimately want our students to do, and what is the most effective and
efficient way of getting them there?” Determining what we ultimately want our students to
do should be clearly linked to standards. Current best practices in instruction align what we
expect our students to learn with the Common Core State Standards (see
www.corestandards.org for more details).
The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what
students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to
help them. The Standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world,
reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college
and careers (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010, p. 1).
Focused reading standards include those for English language arts and literacy in history/
social studies, science, and technical subjects. Reading standards are grouped based on their
relevancy to literature, informational text, and foundational skills. Standards are developed
for students in each of grades K–5 and 6–12.
Aligning our instruction with the Common Core State Standards helps us pinpoint
the “big ideas” of instruction. Big ideas are the most important skills we expect our students
to learn. They are those skills that carry the most instructional horsepower—students can
use these important skills in a myriad of ways. For example, determining the main idea is
an important informational text big idea found in the Standards. Students are often asked to
pinpoint the “gist” of a sample of text, whether a student is reading one paragraph, several
paragraphs, or an entire chapter. Deriving a main idea appears on classroom, school, district,
state, and national assessments as well. These skills may serve too as the foundation for
more complex strategies such as SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review).
Once we have targeted the big ideas that align to the Common Core State Standards,
we can plan units (larger chunks of learning) and lessons (activities we hope to accomplish
in an instructional session). These units and lessons form the basis of a detailed scope and
sequence. A scope and sequence is a roadmap for learning, showing all the skills and strate-
gies we expect our students to learn over time. It determines the order of when skills are
taught; it shows the overlap of some skills with others; it ensures prerequisite skills (see
below) are mastered before they are folded into other skills or strategies. A scope and
sequence contains a horizontal and a vertical progression. A horizontal progression shows
the development of a single skill from initial instruction to student mastery and beyond
across lessons. A vertical progression shows the skills that appear in a single lesson.
Explicit instructional programs are built on the foundation of careful content analysis;
skills are pieced together to ensure a step-wise progression to expected outcomes or objec-
tives. Through this careful content analysis, we ensure that the most important skills are
taught. Sequencing guidelines are followed to ensure maximum student performance
(Carnine et al., 2010). These guidelines include (a) teaching preskills before a skill is pre-
sented, (b) presenting examples before introducing exceptions of a skill, (c) teaching high-

8 SRA FLEX Literacy™

 utility skills before low-utility ones, (d) teaching easy skills before more difficult ones, and
(e) separating the teaching of similar skills to avoid confusion.
Prerequisite skills. Explicit instruction promotes errorless learning to the maximum
extent possible; that is, students are more likely to respond correctly than to make errors.
Rather than putting students in situations where they may not know how to perform a task,
we ask ourselves, “Do our students have the required background knowledge or skills need-
ed to learn this new information?” If they do not have the necessary background to begin
instruction, we cannot present new material in an effective and efficient manner. We must
attend to the details of instruction because they do make a difference in how the students
learn the information.
Think about the skill of blending sounds together to form a word. If students do not
know the individual sounds that comprise the word, they probably will not be able to blend
the sounds effectively. They will make needless errors. Errors get in the way of efficient
learning. They cloud students’ responding. When confronted with the same task in the fu-
ture, students will likely second-guess themselves as they perform the task. If students make
errors, we would not know if they need more instruction with blending or if they require
more practice on the individual sounds. We want to control instruction to the extent that we
can rule out other explanations; that is, if a student is having difficulty with blending, it is
not because he or she has not learned the sounds. He or she may need more repetitions in
blending or may need to be taught a strategy to identify what blending is and what it isn’t
(e.g., “Watch. I can sound this word out without stopping between the sounds like
this” or “This is what I hear you saying. m…a…n. But this is what I want to hear.
mmmaaannn. Now you try it without stopping between the sounds”).
In explicit instruction, a careful analysis of all skills that will be taught is
conducted to ensure students have the prerequisites or entry-level skills needed to learn
the new material in the targeted lesson. We do not ask students, “Do you understand
this?”, because it is not a direct test of whether or not the prerequisite skills are so-
lidified. Instead, explicit instruction includes carefully placed instructional questions
or practice opportunities where students can demonstrate their knowledge. Coyne et
al. (2011) refer to this instructional feature as primed background knowledge. This
type of prerequisite check allows teachers to verify the important background knowledge
needed to ensure success in the upcoming lesson. For example, if we ask students to describe
important details about characters and setting, they first must know what major and minor
characters are and what a setting is. Explicit instruction would include focused questions on
these important prerequisites. Again, we would not ask students, “Do you understand what
characters are?”, but we might ask, “What is the most important person in a story called?” or
“What is a setting?”
Prerequisite checks may review material covered in previous lessons, review home-
work completed the night before, check on the prerequisite skills needed for the upcoming
lesson, and/or reteach, if necessary (Hofmeister & Lubke, 1990; Sabornie & deBettencourt,
2009). When we review or reteach information, we pinpoint the areas that produced diffi-
culty. Students may have had difficulty on their homework, not responded in unison during
teacher questioning, or asked questions showing they were not firm on the skills. The best
approach is to use firming—have students say it like they know it. Firming involves repeat-
ing the task by showing students how to perform the skill and then requiring them to repeat
what was done. If students are firm on the prerequisite skills of the lesson, they will be more
successful in learning the new information to be presented during lesson delivery.

Explicit Reading Instruction: Important Features and Findings 9

 Lesson delivery. When we deliver explicit lessons, five aspects must be included.
These aspects are opening, model, guided practice, independent practice, and closing.
Opening. Before initial instruction begins, we should provide a clear lesson opener.
This lesson opener should motivate students to attend to the lesson. It includes three parts.
First, we should gain students’ attention to motivate them to learn the skill. Gaining attention
can be accomplished through interesting video or film clips, focused discussion about the
topic (e.g., “Let’s talk about what we know about the Depression”), simple directives to alert
students to the task (e.g., “Turn to page 19 in your interactive reader, and we’ll read aloud
the story about Helen Keller”), or mini-activities that provide a basis for initial instruction
(e.g., “Read the poem to yourself, and then we’ll discuss it”). The key is to gain students’
attention for what they are about to learn. Second, we should communicate the goal of the
lesson. The goal of the lesson is what students will learn after participating in the lesson
activity. Wording may be as specific as “The goal of today’s lesson is to learn how to sum-
marize” or “Today, you’re going to learn how to summarize.” These statements help students
focus on the content of the lesson. They know what they will be learning. Sometimes, past
learning is connected to the goal. For example, “You’ve learned how to generate literal ques-
tions. Today, you’re going to learn how to generate inferential questions.” Third, we should
ensure students know the relevance of the lesson. This relevance may be pointed out specifi-
cally for students (e.g., “Knowing past, present, and future tense helps us understand when
something takes place. We use different verb tenses when we write about when something
happens”). Lesson openers set the stage for learning. They get students engaged and thinking
before the new information is presented.
Model. The hallmark of explicit instruction is a clear model of what students are
expected to learn. A model is the strongest level of teacher support. Coyne et al. (2011) refer
to modeling as establishing conspicuous strategies. Archer and Hughes (2011) refer to this
part of the lesson as “I do.” During the model or “I do,” we should provide a demonstration
of the skill along with an explanation of what is being done, often referred to as a think-
aloud. In this way, students not only see how to do something but hear about it as well. We
might use a catchy teaching tip to help students remember what to say or do. This tip should
be said using student-friendly language. For example, to teach students how to summarize,
we could use the GIST strategy. We could say and write the three parts of the gist (“Remem-
ber, find whom or what the passage is mostly about; find what is the most important thing
about the whom or what; and put the two together in 12 words or less”). Many examples of
developing a gist would be shown and explained to the students to make sure the complete
range of possibilities is covered. Wording may include such statements as “Watch as I show
you,” “My turn to show you,” “Listen,” or “Watch me.” We should be careful to control how
much information is provided in the model; if the task appears too complex, it is far better
to break the skill down into parts that are taught separately. We should always be mindful of
what the students can handle from an instructional perspective. If not, students will experi-
ence instructional overload. They will make increased errors during guided practice.
Guided practice. Following the model, we must provide students opportunities to
respond while we guide them in those responses. In guided practice, the teacher provides
a moderate level of support, serving as a guide for the students. This guided practice is
also called prompted practice (Meese, 2001), guided rehearsal (Sabornie & deBettencourt,
2009), or the “we do” of instruction (Archer & Hughes, 2011), because students are actively
participating in the learning (“Let’s do some together”). Guided practice links the presenta-
tion of new information with independent practice in a process called mediated scaffolding.

10 SRA FLEX Literacy™

 Mediated scaffolding ensures that the response opportunities are carefully controlled to
promote maximum student success. At first, students may be asked to complete only part of
a skill or one trial. Over time, the support is faded, allowing students a chance to complete
the entire skill or multiple trials. Lower-performing students may require more scaffolding;
higher-performing students may require less assistance. If the model was clear and unam-
biguous, students should complete the response opportunities with few, if any, errors. If their
responses are correct, students should be validated. Specific praise typically pairs a positive
statement with whatever the student said or did. For example, “Yes. That is the correct main
idea of the paragraph” is specific to the task as contrasted with “Good job.” If students say
or select an incorrect answer, it is viewed as a learning opportunity. An error means that their
learning is not firm. For any error, we provide a quick and immediate error correction pro-
cedure. This error correction procedure usually includes a “my turn, your turn” format. We
show the students what to do and may remind them of the teaching tip they learned, using
the word “remember” followed by the tip. Next, we ask the students to try it on their own.
Finally, we provide a delayed test to ensure they can perform the skill after a short amount of
time without our help.
The key to effective guided practice is to have students practice the skill over
multiple lessons with careful guidance. Once successful in guided practice, the students
move to independent practice activities.
Independent practice. After guided practice, we should give students opportunities to
practice the skill on their own, without guidance from the teacher. During
independent practice, the least amount of teacher support is provided; the teacher
monitors the students as they practice on their own. According to Hofmeister and
Lubke (1990), “The transition from guided practice to independent practice should
not occur until students are at least 80% successful in their guided practice” (p. 61).
That is, students should not receive independent practice opportunities until they can
demonstrate success with the teacher. We must still actively monitor student perfor-
mance and reteach if necessary during independent practice (Sabornie &
deBettencourt, 2009). Again, if our modeling was clear and unambiguous and we
provided practice opportunities of sufficient quality and quantity, then students
should complete independent practice opportunities with high levels of success. According
to Engelmann (1999), at the end of a lesson, students should be “virtually 100 percent firm
on all tasks and activities” (p. 6).
Independent practice opportunities should be aligned to what was modeled and
practiced. Error correction procedures again follow a “my turn, your turn” format. Less
explanation is typically needed during the “my turn” portion of the error correction.
Homework can be assigned during independent practice if students are successful in
the classroom. Successful performance means at least 90 percent or higher on independent
practice activities; of course, 100 percent is best. A. Martella (2009) provided a high school
student’s perspective on the use of homework. She noted three important points to con-
sider that prove helpful in assigning homework even for younger students; these points are
based on a foundational paper on homework by Cooper, 1989. First, homework should be
sent home only after students have mastered the information (as previously noted). Second,
homework should not exceed two hours per night (recommendation is no more than ten min-
utes per night per grade level). Finally, homework should not be assigned before a test day.
Closing. After independent practice, there should be a brief review or statement of
what was learned during the instructional session (“You learned how to summarize using

Explicit Reading Instruction: Important Features and Findings 11

 the GIST strategy. Remember, find whom or what the passage is mostly about; find what
is the most important thing about the whom or what; and put the two together in 12 words
or less”). This brief statement might be followed by a description of what will be learned
tomorrow (“Tomorrow, you’ll practice using the GIST strategy”). Students might be thanked
for their participation as well during the lesson closing.
Lesson Assessment. When we assess explicit lessons, three aspects must be consid-
ered. These include mastery, maintenance, and generalization.
Mastery. We should assess students’ performance during guided and independent
practice to determine if students are learning and if reteaching is needed. Generally, we
gauge our success as teachers by the performance of the lowest-performing students in the
group; if they have mastered the material, we can be confident that others have mastered
the information as well (Watkins & Slocum, 2004). Before moving to independent practice,
students should be at least 80 percent correct during guided practice (Hofmeister & Lubke,
1990), virtually 100 percent correct on information taught in a current lesson, and at least 90
percent correct on skills taught earlier in the program (review opportunities) (Engelmann,
1999).
Maintenance. Maintenance checks provide review opportunities to ensure students
do not forget how to perform the skill. These may occur once a week for several weeks,
fading to once every two weeks, and then once a month. Coyne et al. (2011) refer to this
type of maintenance check as judicious review. Maintenance checks should be 90 percent
correct or higher. If performance does not reach this level, reteaching is needed.
Generalization. Generalization checks are conducted to determine if students can
transfer their newly learned skills to novel situations or examples. Students may be asked to
show what they know on assessment probes that mirror standardized tests, apply their skills
to novel text, or expand on their skill knowledge in unique ways (e.g., develop a book cover
that illustrates major and minor characters and the setting of your novel after mastering those
story elements). Performance should be at least 80 percent correct; if generalization has not
occurred, specific teaching is needed to ensure skill transfer occurs. Unlike “train and hope,”
explicit instruction is programmed for instructional success. That is, when mastery is dem-
onstrated based on relevant skills (e.g., aligned to Common Core State Standards), transfer
should occur.

What is and isn’t explicit instruction?

Some consider explicit instruction to be a simple strategy, because the teacher just
needs to show students how to do something and then ask them to do it. However, as we
have shown, explicit instruction is far from simple. It requires a careful analysis of skills
and the prerequisite building blocks that ensure success. Explicit instruction requires atten-
tion to how a lesson is opened, how the skill is taught, how guided practice opportunities are
provided and how successful students are, how students respond during aligned independent
practice opportunities, and how students maintain performance over time and in general-
ization probes. Explicit instruction works because of its careful attention to the details of
instruction. It is not trial-and-error learning, discovery, exploration, facilitated learning, or
some other teaching approach where teachers assist or facilitate student learning; rather the
teacher’s “direct actions have a direct and instructional influence on students’ learning”
(Carnine et al., 2010, p. 5).
We can determine if a lesson is explicit or not by examining teacher wording in the
lesson “script.” Explicit programs are more likely to use phrases such as “My turn,” “Watch

12 SRA FLEX Literacy™

 as I show you,” “Listen and watch,” “This is how you do _____ ,” and “Let’s do some
together.” As you have now learned, explicit programs and instruction require teachers to
model or show students how to do something, provide students with practice and feedback,
and include independent activities for students to practice on their own.
If students are expected to find answers on their own without previous instruction, the
lesson is probably not explicit. Phrases such as “encourage children to explore,” “challenge
children by saying,” “help children focus by,” “work with children to build an understanding
of,” “help them discover by,” and “facilitate learning by” are used in nonexplicit programs.
In this approach, teachers serve as facilitators. They provide questioning strategies to lead
students as they explore; error corrections may include “Try again” or “Do you think that
makes sense? Let’s see.” Explicit instruction is much more efficient in that it attacks the
error and fixes it immediately. Errors are seen as teaching procedure errors; we do not blame
students for their lack of skill performance.

What are the stages of learning?

Explicit instruction is an important part of the five stages of learning. These learning
stages include acquisition, proficiency, maintenance, generalization, and adaptation
(Gargiulo & Metcalf, 2010).

Acquisition Proficiency Maintenance Generalization Adaptation

Acquisition Stage
The acquisition stage is when students are first learning a skill. In this stage
of learning, assessment scores typically range from 0 percent to 80 percent (Gargiulo &
Metcalf, 2010). Students have little to no knowledge about what they are learning and need
strong teacher support (Meese, 2001). As previously stated, explicit instruction is the most
effective and efficient way we can promote student learning. When explicit instruction is
delivered during acquisition, errors are diminished, and the chances of future maintenance
and generalization of the skill are enhanced. The acquisition stage focuses on teaching the
skill; thus, emphasis is placed on the model, guided practice (guide), and independent prac-
tice (monitor) aspects of lesson delivery. At the end of the acquisition stage, students’
responses should be highly accurate, usually 80–90 percent correct (Wolery, Bailey, &
Sugai, 1988). The completion of the acquisition stage does not ensure the fluent performance
of the skill nor the ability to generalize to different situations. Therefore, once the acquisition
stage is completed, students progress to the proficiency stage of learning.
Proficiency Stage
In the proficiency stage of learning, students practice the skill until they are fluent or
automatic in their responding (Gargiulo & Metcalf, 2010; Meese, 2001). Students become
proficient when they learn to respond quickly given repeated opportunities to practice the
skill on their own. This quick response typically begins to occur after students have demon-

Explicit Reading Instruction: Important Features and Findings 13

 strated skill acquisition during independent practice. We should provide practice opportuni-
ties including drill-and-practice and timed trials on targeted skills. Students may repeatedly
read a story to improve their reading speed, for example.
Maintenance Stage
The maintenance stage of learning involves periodic practice and review opportuni-
ties to ensure skill mastery over time following independent practice. According to Meese
(2001), “As students become proficient with a new skill or concept, teachers must help them
retain the material over time” (p. 178). Students do not need instruction in this stage of
learning. We should provide homework, seatwork, or review activities to keep students prac-
ticing and familiar with the task. Students must have opportunities to continue to perform
the skill over time; if not, the skill may atrophy (Gargiulo & Metcalf, 2010).
Generalization Stage
The generalization stage requires students to use their skills in novel situations. This
stage of learning is also referred to as the transfer of learning (Gargiulo & Metcalf, 2010).
We should survey what students will be expected to do in the future. We could include
assessment examples that require extended skill application such as what might be found on
standardized tests. Further, we could have students use their skills with novel or expanded
stories using more complex text.
Adaptation Stage
The last stage of learning is the adaptation stage where students “categorize, make
decisions, see relationships/analogies, analyze, estimate, compare/contrast, show flexibility,
and identify items that are irrelevant” (Gargiulo & Metcalf, 2010, p. 237). Students learn to
expand or extend their knowledge to do these higher-order thinking skills. At this stage,
students should reflect or think about what they are doing and connect their learning to
previous experiences (Gargiulo & Metcalf, 2010). They complete critical thinking activities
where they are required to compare and contrast stories, dig deeper into text meaning, and
analyze literary and informational text as they complete, for example, book reports or story
maps.

What is the research base for the use of explicit

instruction?
Numerous reviews and meta-analyses have reported the effectiveness of explicit
instruction. For example, Swanson (1999) conducted a meta-analysis of intervention outcomes
for children and adolescents with learning disabilities (LD). Large effect sizes (ES) (using
Cohen’s 1988 criterion of substantive findings—.80 or higher) were noted for word recogni-
tion when direct (explicit) instruction was used (ES = 1.06) and for reading comprehension
when direct (explicit) instruction was coupled with strategy-based instruction (ES = 1.15).
Swanson (2001) also reported the best model for instructing students with learning disabili-
ties after completing a meta-analysis of the research literature on effective teaching. Explicit
strategy instruction including explicit practice, strategy cues (think-aloud models), and elab-
oration (explanations) was shown to have the largest effect size (ES = .84). Further, Vaughn,
Gersten, and Chard (2000) reviewed findings of research syntheses funded by the Office of
Special Education Programs and the National Center for Learning Disabilities. They noted,
among other findings, that “making instruction visible and explicit is an essential feature

14 SRA FLEX Literacy™

 of effective interventions for students with LD” (p. 108). Further, these authors noted that
“teachers need to plan and reflect on their instruction to assure that it is explicit and intensive
so that students with LD are not robbed of valuable learning time” (p. 111). Finally, Kavale
and Spaulding (in press) conducted a mega-analysis (a meta-analysis of other meta-analyses)
of effective instructional practices and calculated the following mean effect sizes: direct
(explicit) instruction .93; systematic instruction 2.18; drill and practice .99; feedback .97;
strategy-based instruction .98. These elements are seen in explicit instructional programs.
Explicit instruction was consistently identified as an effective practice in the National
Reading Panel Report (NICHD, 2000); Armbruster et al. (2006) noted the importance of
explicit instruction in their discussion of research building blocks for teaching children to
read. Explicit instruction was noted as important for all areas of effective reading instruc-
tion for students in grades K–3. Further, Swanson and Deshler (2003), Biancarosa (2005),
Biancarosa and Snow (2006), Boardman et al. (2008), and Kamil et al. (2008) reported the
effectiveness of explicit instruction for those students in grades 4–12 when it came to teach-
ing important skills in such areas as word study, fluency, vocabulary development, and text
comprehension.
Vaughn and Linan-Thompson (2003) answered the question, “So what is special
about special education for students with LD?” Their answer, again based on a thorough
review of the research literature, noted “students with LD benefit from explicit and system-
atic instruction that is closely related to their area of instructional need” (p. 145). Burns and
Ysseldyke (2009) examined the frequency with which evidence-based practices were
used with students with disabilities. They found direct (explicit) instruction was the
most frequently used instructional methodology in their survey of special education
teachers and school psychologists. No matter what research synthesis was reviewed,
“the conclusions were clear: Explicit instruction should be a consistent mainstay
of working with students both with and without learning difficulties” (Archer &
Hughes, 2011, p. 17).

SUMMARY
Large percentages of students in our country are failing to learn to read at
high levels. This skill deficit affects these students for the rest of their lives. Explicit instruc-
tion was cited as the most effective and efficient way of shortening the learning time for
students. Explicit instruction is considered a systematic approach of teaching that proceeds
in small steps, constantly checks for student understanding, and achieves successful student
participation. It is also called demonstration-prompt-practice, antecedent prompt and test,
or “I do, we do, you do.” No matter what label this type of instruction is given, students are
shown how to perform a task before they are expected to do it on their own.
Effective and efficient explicit instruction includes three key aspects. These
include lesson planning (learning objectives and prerequisite skills), lesson delivery (opener,
model, guided practice, independent practice, and closing), and lesson assessment (mastery,
maintenance, and generalization). Explicit instruction may be considered simple, but it is
deceptively so. Explicit instruction is complex in its attention to instructional detail. It can
be distinguished from nonexplicit approaches where teachers serve as facilitators, guiding
students in the learning process.
Explicit instruction is an important factor in the stages of learning. These stages in-
clude acquisition, proficiency, maintenance, generalization, and adaptation. Finally, without
a doubt, the research base is strong for implementing explicit instructional practices with
students with or without learning difficulties.

Explicit Reading Instruction: Important Features and Findings 15

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