Evidence Based Instructional Practices & Strategies
It is critical that we utilize evidence-based instructional practices and strategies when providing students with SDI. Please take a few minutes to click on and review this non-exhaustive list of practices and strategies that are proven to be effective for our students in special education:
Instructional Practices
Instructional Strategies
Systematic & Explicit Instruction
Differentiation / Modification
Interactive Read Alouds
Scaffolding
Questioning
Spiraling
Corrective Feedback
Opportunities for Practice
Modeling
Whole group, small group, and 1:1
Prompting & Fading
Reinforcement
Questioning
Asking questions is an evidence-based practice that allows teachers to check for understanding, stimulate recall, activate prior knowledge, promote comprehension, and build critical thinking skills. As learning progresses, students answer questions presented by the adult leading the learning. This improved engagement allows students to build stronger connections to learning, and extended learning promotes generalization.
Video: Classroom Questioning - Teacher Questioning Techniques and Strategies
Interactive Read Aloud
When using the interactive read‑aloud practice, teachers read aloud from a selected text, and pause occasionally for meaningful conversation. Educators engage in explicit instructional practices during the discussion, including modeling comprehension strategies, providing vocabulary instruction, scaffolding skills for comprehension, and giving corrective feedback.
Video: How to Use Read Aloud Think Aloud Strategy in Any Content Classroom
Differentiation / Modification
Educators can meet each student’s specific and individualized needs by tailoring instruction, including the content, process, product, or environment. Personalized classroom instruction means students of varying abilities receive individualized challenges, which improves engagement and encourages independence.
Modified Curriculum Training
Opportunities for Practice
Providing students chances to practice what they’ve learned allows them to apply skills that are being taught as well as those that were previously learned. Giving ample opportunities to practice in different formats allows students of varying ability levels to demonstrate their knowledge and improves engagement.
Scaffolding
Instructional scaffolding is a process through which a teacher adds supports for students in order to enhance learning and aid in the mastery of tasks. The teacher does this by systematically building on students’ experiences and knowledge as they are learning new skills. These supports are temporary and adjustable, and as students master the assigned tasks, the supports are gradually removed. Scaffolding can be applied to
What is Instructional Scaffolding?
Reinforcement
Reinforcement is a foundational practice that is used with other evidence-based practices. Reinforcement describes the relationship between learner behavior and a consequence that follows the behavior. This relationship is reinforcing only if the consequence increases the likelihood the learner will perform the skill or behavior in the future.
What is Positive Reinforcement?
Reinforcement vs. Bribery
Prompting
Fading
Prompting is a strategy that uses gesture, verbal, visual, or physical assistance to help a student learn a new skill or behavior or to direct a student to the correct answer.
Fading strategies subtly reduce prompts over time, which prevents prompt dependency and promotes skill‑building and independence.
The Prompting Hierarchy Training
Prompting and Prompt Fading
Modeling
Modeling uses demonstration of a desired concept or behavior so learners can imitate it, which leads to acquiring the skill or behavior.
Video: Teacher Modeling
Explicit & Systematic Instruction
Explicit, systematic instruction, sometimes simply referred to as explicit instruction, involves teaching a specific concept or procedure in a highly structured and carefully sequenced manner.
Systematic Components
Explicit Components
During this carefully planned and sequenced instruction, the teacher:
- Presents lessons that build on one another, moving from simple skills and concepts to more complex ones or from high-frequency skills to low-frequency skills
- Breaks complex skills into smaller, more manageable chunks, a method also known as task analysis.
- Prioritizes and sequences tasks from easy to more difficult
- Scaffolds instruction by providing temporary supports (e.g., manipulatives, written prompts or cues)
During this highly structured instruction, the teacher:
- Clearly identifies the skills or concepts to be learned, which might include highlighting important details
- Connects the new content to previous learning
- Gives precise instructions
- Models concepts or procedures in a step-by-step manner and includes “think alouds”— the teacher verbalizing his or her thought process while demonstrating the concept or procedure
- Provides opportunities to practice, using the following scaffolded instruction sequence:
- Guided practice – Students and the teacher work problems together, with the students gradually solving more of the problem.
- Independent practice – Students work independently or in small groups to solve problems.
- Encourages the student to verbalize the strategy he is using to solve the problem and his reasons for doing so
- Offers specific feedback about correct and incorrect actions, followed by time to correct errors; includes reteaching and clarifying instructions
- Checks for and promotes maintenance
The Iris Center
Spiraling
Spiraling instruction is a teaching method that involves revisiting and building on concepts over time, rather than concentrating learning in shorter periods. It's based on the idea that students learn more each time they encounter a topic, and that revisiting concepts helps them retain information and think more deeply about the material.
Here are some characteristics of spiraling instruction:
- Revisiting: Students revisit concepts repeatedly, across grades and over time.
- Building on concepts: Students gradually build on concepts in complexity.
- Reinforcing: Students reinforce previously-learned concepts.
- Integrating: Concepts are integrated with other subject areas.
- Long-term memory: Spiraling helps students master facts, skills, and concepts long-term.
- Effective for all learners: Spiraling can be effective for all learners, including struggling learners.
Whole Group, Small Group, and 1:1
Students can practice in whole‑group, small‑group, or one‑on‑one settings. In a whole‑group setting, educators can teach a topic or model a new concept to the entire class, or students can have a discussion as a whole class. When using small groups, students can work with each other or the teacher plus other students. And in one‑on‑one settings, students learn individually from a teacher. Individual settings can include interaction with the teacher providing specially designed instruction (SDI) to meet the specific learning and pacing needs of the student.
Implementing the Modified Workshop Model in the High School Resource Classroom
Corrective Feedback
Corrective feedback is critical to the learning process and goes beyond simply providing information about whether or not an answer is correct. Instead, the teacher provides feedback about an error that was made, highlighting what was incorrect and offering guidance on how to improve or fix it, aiming to enhance the student's understanding and future performance.
Video: Strategies for Providing Effective Feedback
Evidence Based Instructional Practices & Strategies
Kim Smith
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Transcript
Evidence Based Instructional Practices & Strategies
It is critical that we utilize evidence-based instructional practices and strategies when providing students with SDI. Please take a few minutes to click on and review this non-exhaustive list of practices and strategies that are proven to be effective for our students in special education:
Instructional Practices
Instructional Strategies
Systematic & Explicit Instruction
Differentiation / Modification
Interactive Read Alouds
Scaffolding
Questioning
Spiraling
Corrective Feedback
Opportunities for Practice
Modeling
Whole group, small group, and 1:1
Prompting & Fading
Reinforcement
Questioning
Asking questions is an evidence-based practice that allows teachers to check for understanding, stimulate recall, activate prior knowledge, promote comprehension, and build critical thinking skills. As learning progresses, students answer questions presented by the adult leading the learning. This improved engagement allows students to build stronger connections to learning, and extended learning promotes generalization.
Video: Classroom Questioning - Teacher Questioning Techniques and Strategies
Interactive Read Aloud
When using the interactive read‑aloud practice, teachers read aloud from a selected text, and pause occasionally for meaningful conversation. Educators engage in explicit instructional practices during the discussion, including modeling comprehension strategies, providing vocabulary instruction, scaffolding skills for comprehension, and giving corrective feedback.
Video: How to Use Read Aloud Think Aloud Strategy in Any Content Classroom
Differentiation / Modification
Educators can meet each student’s specific and individualized needs by tailoring instruction, including the content, process, product, or environment. Personalized classroom instruction means students of varying abilities receive individualized challenges, which improves engagement and encourages independence.
Modified Curriculum Training
Opportunities for Practice
Providing students chances to practice what they’ve learned allows them to apply skills that are being taught as well as those that were previously learned. Giving ample opportunities to practice in different formats allows students of varying ability levels to demonstrate their knowledge and improves engagement.
Scaffolding
Instructional scaffolding is a process through which a teacher adds supports for students in order to enhance learning and aid in the mastery of tasks. The teacher does this by systematically building on students’ experiences and knowledge as they are learning new skills. These supports are temporary and adjustable, and as students master the assigned tasks, the supports are gradually removed. Scaffolding can be applied to
What is Instructional Scaffolding?
Reinforcement
Reinforcement is a foundational practice that is used with other evidence-based practices. Reinforcement describes the relationship between learner behavior and a consequence that follows the behavior. This relationship is reinforcing only if the consequence increases the likelihood the learner will perform the skill or behavior in the future.
What is Positive Reinforcement?
Reinforcement vs. Bribery
Prompting
Fading
Prompting is a strategy that uses gesture, verbal, visual, or physical assistance to help a student learn a new skill or behavior or to direct a student to the correct answer.
Fading strategies subtly reduce prompts over time, which prevents prompt dependency and promotes skill‑building and independence.
The Prompting Hierarchy Training
Prompting and Prompt Fading
Modeling
Modeling uses demonstration of a desired concept or behavior so learners can imitate it, which leads to acquiring the skill or behavior.
Video: Teacher Modeling
Explicit & Systematic Instruction
Explicit, systematic instruction, sometimes simply referred to as explicit instruction, involves teaching a specific concept or procedure in a highly structured and carefully sequenced manner.
Systematic Components
Explicit Components
During this carefully planned and sequenced instruction, the teacher:
During this highly structured instruction, the teacher:
The Iris Center
Spiraling
Spiraling instruction is a teaching method that involves revisiting and building on concepts over time, rather than concentrating learning in shorter periods. It's based on the idea that students learn more each time they encounter a topic, and that revisiting concepts helps them retain information and think more deeply about the material. Here are some characteristics of spiraling instruction:
Whole Group, Small Group, and 1:1
Students can practice in whole‑group, small‑group, or one‑on‑one settings. In a whole‑group setting, educators can teach a topic or model a new concept to the entire class, or students can have a discussion as a whole class. When using small groups, students can work with each other or the teacher plus other students. And in one‑on‑one settings, students learn individually from a teacher. Individual settings can include interaction with the teacher providing specially designed instruction (SDI) to meet the specific learning and pacing needs of the student.
Implementing the Modified Workshop Model in the High School Resource Classroom
Corrective Feedback
Corrective feedback is critical to the learning process and goes beyond simply providing information about whether or not an answer is correct. Instead, the teacher provides feedback about an error that was made, highlighting what was incorrect and offering guidance on how to improve or fix it, aiming to enhance the student's understanding and future performance.
Video: Strategies for Providing Effective Feedback