AVReading Newsletter November-- Direct, Explicit Instruction
Teaching is one of those complex systems where it is really difficult to hold everything you need to know in your head at once. As a consequence, we sometimes forget elements and need to be reminded. Some of that memory decay is the result of drift. In other words, elements that are really important for teaching one year of students might be a little less so the next. But then, over the course of time, we might forget that element all together—or at least forget why that element might be important in the first place. That has been my experience with the idea of direct and explicit instruction. It is the practice of being very specific and clear with our lessons. It involves breaking the new skill into smaller steps, and then intentionally demonstrating those steps as simply and visually as possible. ...