WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.660 This is The Reading Instruction Show. I am your 00:00:03.660 --> 00:00:07.900 host, as always, the genial one, Dr. Andy Johnson. 00:00:08.419 --> 00:00:13.500 Topic of today's podcast is direct and explicit 00:00:13.500 --> 00:00:17.980 instruction to teach skills in reading. Let's 00:00:17.980 --> 00:00:21.699 see if we can learn something today. Now the 00:00:21.699 --> 00:00:27.260 terms direct and explicit instruction is often 00:00:27.260 --> 00:00:31.079 used to sell products or to persuade state legislators 00:00:31.079 --> 00:00:37.579 to make bad decisions. So let's unpack direct 00:00:37.579 --> 00:00:41.780 instruction. What is it? Direct instruction is 00:00:41.780 --> 00:00:44.939 a structured form of teaching where students 00:00:44.939 --> 00:00:49.000 receive information directly from the teacher. 00:00:50.020 --> 00:00:53.100 Sometimes called the Elements of Effective Skills 00:00:53.100 --> 00:00:58.609 instruction, It's been around for years. Siegfried 00:00:58.609 --> 00:01:02.009 Engelmann has said to have quote invented unquote 00:01:02.009 --> 00:01:06.689 direct instruction in the early 1960s. He was 00:01:06.689 --> 00:01:10.609 working in advertising analyzing the type of 00:01:10.609 --> 00:01:14.590 input needed to maintain viewer retention. He 00:01:14.590 --> 00:01:17.650 applied what he learned there to the design of 00:01:17.650 --> 00:01:20.909 instructional programs and techniques for teaching 00:01:20.909 --> 00:01:27.120 children. In the late 70s, Madeline Hunter repackaged 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:30.480 direct instruction and put it in the form of 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:35.920 a lesson plan consisting of seven elements. Anticipatory 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:39.400 set, purpose, input, modeling, check for understanding, 00:01:39.519 --> 00:01:43.620 guided practice, closure. She described it as 00:01:43.620 --> 00:01:47.939 a scientific method for teaching. Sound familiar? 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:53.310 If it were followed explicitly, It was said the 00:01:53.310 --> 00:01:57.769 teacher was guaranteed to be successful and all 00:01:57.769 --> 00:02:02.909 students would learn. Imagine that. Well, every 00:02:02.909 --> 00:02:05.390 few years someone claims to have discovered direct 00:02:05.390 --> 00:02:08.990 instruction and repackages it into a commercial 00:02:08.990 --> 00:02:12.870 product or service. However, here's the thing. 00:02:13.909 --> 00:02:18.569 All good teachers use direct instruction in some 00:02:18.569 --> 00:02:23.319 form to teach necessary skills. You don't need 00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:26.259 special training or expensive products to do 00:02:26.259 --> 00:02:31.539 it. It comes in a variety of forms. So this podcast, 00:02:31.539 --> 00:02:35.099 I'm going to identify the basic elements of direct 00:02:35.099 --> 00:02:39.139 instruction. And these can be used to effectively 00:02:39.139 --> 00:02:44.219 teach a skill of any kind in any area. Remember 00:02:44.219 --> 00:02:47.960 when I was coaching wrestling, I was using direct 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:52.680 instruction. A purpose. starts with the first 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:55.560 one, a clearly defined purpose. This is usually 00:02:55.560 --> 00:02:58.659 put in the form of a statement or a single sentence 00:02:58.659 --> 00:03:01.819 that states exactly what it is you want students 00:03:01.819 --> 00:03:06.379 to learn. A clearly stated purpose defines the 00:03:06.379 --> 00:03:10.039 learning experience and provides focus for the 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:14.000 lesson. Everything that follows should support 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:17.800 the purpose statement. Direct instruction is 00:03:17.800 --> 00:03:21.840 purposeful. And here's the thing, even balanced 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:26.060 literacy teachers, and even whole language practitioners 00:03:26.060 --> 00:03:30.219 use very direct and very explicit instruction. 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:34.120 It's not something, it's not something magical 00:03:34.120 --> 00:03:38.060 that only structured literacy or science of reading 00:03:38.060 --> 00:03:43.020 people use. It's a pedagogical strategy. Everyone 00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:46.000 uses direct instruction. Alright, off on a tangent. 00:03:46.340 --> 00:03:48.979 Purpose is the first one. The second one is input. 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:53.310 The input is the specific information that students 00:03:53.310 --> 00:03:58.030 need to know in order to learn the skill. This 00:03:58.030 --> 00:04:01.069 would include a description of the skill, how 00:04:01.069 --> 00:04:05.990 to use it, and either modeling the specific steps 00:04:05.990 --> 00:04:10.969 or a demonstration with examples. The input should 00:04:10.969 --> 00:04:14.650 be well organized with a logical structure to 00:04:14.650 --> 00:04:18.639 enhance students' understanding. and using list 00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:22.279 or outline form as you're designing the lesson 00:04:22.279 --> 00:04:25.439 enables the sequence and structure of the lesson 00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:28.899 to be easily seen. This is both during the planning 00:04:28.899 --> 00:04:32.279 and the teaching of the lesson. All right, part 00:04:32.279 --> 00:04:35.060 of the input is the identification of procedural 00:04:35.060 --> 00:04:39.420 components with demonstration. If the skill involves 00:04:39.420 --> 00:04:44.199 several steps, like a study skill strategy, The 00:04:44.199 --> 00:04:47.319 skill should be introduced along with the specific 00:04:47.319 --> 00:04:50.879 steps. And a description should include what 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:55.100 it is, why it's used, and how it's used. Next, 00:04:55.660 --> 00:04:58.220 cognitive modeling is used to demonstrate the 00:04:58.220 --> 00:05:00.800 skill. Here, the teacher thinks out loud while 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:04.319 going through each step. For example, if I was 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:10.720 teaching a study skill strategy, The input would 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:13.500 be something like this. Boys and girls, we read 00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:16.779 informational texts different than stories. We 00:05:16.779 --> 00:05:20.699 use special skills called study skill strategies. 00:05:21.480 --> 00:05:24.899 Read and pause is one of these strategies. Here 00:05:24.899 --> 00:05:28.540 are the steps. Step one, read a paragraph. Step 00:05:28.540 --> 00:05:32.019 two, pause. Step three, ask, do I understand? 00:05:32.420 --> 00:05:35.879 Step four, review or resume. Now watch me as 00:05:35.879 --> 00:05:40.269 I demonstrate. That's the basic essence. to teach 00:05:40.269 --> 00:05:44.009 a study skill strategy or a skill, a procedure 00:05:44.009 --> 00:05:47.970 broken down into steps. Now what about identify 00:05:47.970 --> 00:05:52.029 with examples? Some skills such as letter sounds 00:05:52.029 --> 00:05:55.889 or recognizing letter sound patterns don't have 00:05:55.889 --> 00:05:59.550 specific steps like the short A vowel sound. 00:06:00.290 --> 00:06:03.290 In these cases, the letter sound or letter sound 00:06:03.290 --> 00:06:07.589 pattern is introduced along with many examples. 00:06:08.110 --> 00:06:12.170 For example, to illustrate, the short A lesson 00:06:12.170 --> 00:06:17.089 plan would include many examples of the CVC short 00:06:17.089 --> 00:06:21.709 A vowel words, of CVC short A vowel words. Students 00:06:21.709 --> 00:06:25.389 would then be able to practice reading them several 00:06:25.389 --> 00:06:28.069 times and the input would be something like this. 00:06:28.250 --> 00:06:31.949 This is the letter A. It's a vowel. It makes 00:06:31.949 --> 00:06:37.350 the A sound as in ha, at, m, an, la, a, fa, an, 00:06:37.569 --> 00:06:42.300 a. and specific information with lots of examples. 00:06:43.860 --> 00:06:47.480 The third part is guided practice, sometimes 00:06:47.480 --> 00:06:51.519 referred to as scaffolded instruction. This is 00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:54.500 where the teacher takes the whole class through 00:06:54.500 --> 00:06:58.920 each step of the skill several times. The goal 00:06:58.920 --> 00:07:02.740 is to provide the support necessary for students 00:07:02.740 --> 00:07:06.949 to use the skill independently. So here they 00:07:06.949 --> 00:07:11.110 use, apply, or practice the skill several times 00:07:11.110 --> 00:07:16.069 as the teacher monitors their performance in 00:07:16.069 --> 00:07:20.310 order to assess their level of learning. This 00:07:20.310 --> 00:07:25.350 is called formative assessment. Small group activities 00:07:25.350 --> 00:07:28.569 can be effective here because they enable the 00:07:28.569 --> 00:07:33.339 teacher to see many students simultaneously and 00:07:33.339 --> 00:07:37.120 to hear their thinking processes as they discuss 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:42.420 ideas with others. Guided practice is used with 00:07:42.420 --> 00:07:47.319 a gradual release of teacher responsibility. 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:52.879 This means that less support is provided each 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:57.600 time the skill is practiced until students can 00:07:57.600 --> 00:08:02.730 use the skill independently. And independent 00:08:02.730 --> 00:08:06.970 practice. Independent practice is practice of 00:08:06.970 --> 00:08:12.149 what students already know or can do. Students 00:08:12.149 --> 00:08:16.230 are practicing their learning by using or applying 00:08:16.230 --> 00:08:20.310 the new skill. Independent practice should be 00:08:20.310 --> 00:08:24.029 used to reinforce the skill that was just taught 00:08:24.029 --> 00:08:28.480 as part of input and guided practice. This should 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:31.720 not be used to challenge students or to get a 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:36.379 nice dispersion of scores. If successful, students 00:08:36.379 --> 00:08:40.000 should be able to complete independent practice 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:47.039 with 95 -100 % success ratio. Again, this is 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:50.639 practice of what has already been learned. This 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:54.059 is not the place to evaluate their learning. 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:58.679 But how do you know if they've learned, you say? 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:03.700 Well, there are other times and places to assess 00:09:03.700 --> 00:09:07.379 learning. That's not our goal here. If guided 00:09:07.379 --> 00:09:10.580 practice is done correctly, of course, you already 00:09:10.580 --> 00:09:14.960 have a good sense of this. And the last part 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:21.559 is review, revisit, and re -imply. Any skill 00:09:21.559 --> 00:09:26.559 does not happen in a single setting. Learners 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:30.820 must encounter new skills in a variety of situations 00:09:30.820 --> 00:09:35.019 and settings over time for mastery to occur. 00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:39.820 Good teachers revisit skills and review them 00:09:39.820 --> 00:09:43.100 and apply them at successively higher levels 00:09:43.100 --> 00:09:48.039 over time. They evaluate to document mastery, 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:54.120 not to catch. failure. Direct instruction. It's 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:58.159 used to describe, often, structured literacy, 00:09:59.019 --> 00:10:03.019 as if balanced literacy, and as if all teachers 00:10:03.019 --> 00:10:07.340 don't use direct instruction. Direct instruction 00:10:07.340 --> 00:10:12.340 is a pedagogical strategy to be used for some 00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:16.820 purposes. It is not a method. This has been The 00:10:16.820 --> 00:10:19.539 Reading Instruction Show. I am your host, Dr. 00:10:19.700 --> 00:10:20.200 Andy Johnson.