Explicit Instruction
Goal: Define Explicit Instruction and how it fits into an instructional plan
To Do:
Introduction
Objectives
Development
Conclusions
References
Objectives
Objective 2
Objective 1
Describe the elements of Explicit Instruction and what effective explicit instruction looks like.
Develop a plan to implement Explicit Instruction in your classroom.
What is Explicit instruction?
…a systematic instructional approach that includes a set of delivery and design procedures derived from effective school research…
Ideas that Work
“Explicit teaching is not just the episode within a lesson when information is presented; it involves chunking content into small components, guiding students’ initial attempts at working with that content and gradually releasing control into more open activities as students gain mastery. It is a teaching model that progresses from ‘I do’ to ‘we do’ to ‘you do.’"
…unambiguous and direct approach to teaching that incorporates instruction design and delivery.
Archer & Hughes, 2011
Explicit Instruction is not…
...lecturing or requiring students to complete endless worksheets.
...just “Telling”
...primarily teacher directed.
...just “We do”
Who is Explicit Instruction for?
Students across content areas, grade levels, and populations
Explicit instruction is necessary in teaching content students could not otherwise discover or when discovery is inadequate, incomplete or inefficient.
Elements of Explicit Instruction
Content
Design of Instruction
Delivery of Instruction
Practice
16 Elements of Explicit Instruction
CONTENT
1.Focus instruction on critical content.
2.Sequence skills logically.
3.Break down complex skills and strategies into instructional units.
DESIGN OF INSTRUCTION
4.Design organized and focused lessons.
5.Begin lessons with a clear statement of the lesson goals and your expectations.
6.Review prior skills and knowledge before beginning, instruction.
7.Provide step-by-step demonstrations.
8.Provide guided and supported practice.
9.Use clear and concise language.
10.Provide an adequate range of examples and non-examples.
DELIVERY OF INSTRUCTION 11.Require frequent responses. 12.Monitor student performance closely. 13.Provide immediate affirmative and informative (corrective) feedback. 14.Deliver the lesson at a brisk pace. 15.Help students organize knowledge. JUDICIOUS PRACTICE 16.Provide distributed and cumulative practice.
CONTENT
2. Sequence skills logically
3. Break down complex skills and strategies into instructional units.
1. Focus instruction on critical content.
Skills, strategies, vocabulary terms, concepts, rules, and facts that will empower students in the future are taught.
- Easier skills before harder skills
- High frequency skills before low frequency skills
- Prerequisites first
- Similar skills separated
Be aware of cognitive overloading, processing demands, and capacity of working memory.
DESIGN OF INSTRUCTION
4.Design organized and focused lessons. 5.Begin lessons with a clear statement of the lesson goals and your expectations.
6.Review prior skills and knowledge before beginning, instruction.
7.Provide step-by-step demonstrations.
8.Provide guided and supported practice.
9.Use clear and concise language.
10.Provide an adequate range of examples and non-examples.
On topic with no irrelevant digressions
Learning targets with success criteria
Interactive with retrieval practice
Model and Think Aloud
Scaffolds and multiple opportunities
Academic language and consistent
Concrete, visual or verbal
DESIGN OF INSTRUCTION
Lessons…
1. are ____________ and focused.
2. begin with a statement of ________________.
3. provide ______________ of prior skills and knowledge.
4. provide step-by-step _________________.
5. provide _______________ and supported practice.
6. use ___________ and ___________ language.
7. provide a range of examples and _____________.
non-examples
demonstrations
review
organized
lesson goals
concise
guided
clear
delivery OF INSTRUCTION
11.Require frequent responses.
12.Monitor student performance closely.
13.Provide immediate affirmative and informative (corrective) feedback.
14.Deliver the lesson at a brisk pace.
15.Help students organize knowledge
verbal, written, action
watch and listen carefully
close gap between students’ current & desired performance
be prepared, provide just enough thinking and response time, avoid digressions
concept maps, graphic organizers
Judicious practice
16.Provide distributed and cumulative practice.- Distributed practice (space practice)
occurs with teacher guidance with checks for understanding
studying or practicing a skill or skill set in sessions that are short duration and spaced over time
adding related skills that were previously acquired and practiced, in such a way that all of the skills are practiced together in one practice activity.
KEEP In Mind...
Teaching Skills
Initial Instruction
- I do it.
- We do it.
- You do it.
“Not all elements are necessary in all instructional situations, and not all all elements are used to the same degree for each skill or strategy taught.” - A. Archer
Teaching Strategies Initial Instruction
- I do it.
- We do it.
- We do it.
- We do it.
- We do it.
- You do it.
Application of the Elements of
Explicit Instruction: Instructional Routines
Passage Reading Procedures
- Read-Aloud: teacher reads passage aloud
- Silent Reading: reading without speaking the words being read
- Choral Reading: orally reading in unison
- Cloze Reading: students read only specific words aloud OR fill in missing words in a passage
- Partner Reading: students read aloud to each other
- Whisper Reading: students whisper read to the teacher
Think Aloud
How: When showing students how to apply strategy, tell students what you are doing. Make your thinking public to reveal the strategic processing you are using, i.e. do a think aloud of what is going on in your mind. Why: Students who learn and think differently often don’t know how to begin a task or what to do when they’re stuck. Thinking aloud gives students access to the self-questions, self-instructions, and decisions that occur as a problem is solved.
Planning tips
- A good think-aloud is brief description of key actions with consistent language that makes it easy for students to remember.
- Script how you will verbalize your thinking. You don’t need to write out everything, but it’s important to have your most important points planned out.
- Think of places where students might get stuck. Plan how you’ll verbalize working through those tricky spots to pre-correct misconceptions.
Think Aloud
Write a great headline
Contextualize your topic
We better capture visual content. Visual content is associated with cognitive and psychological mechanisms. Things enter through the eyes; the first image is what matters. We associate visual content with emotions.
Write a title here
Write a great subtitle here
You can create an outline to synthesize the content and use words that will stick in your audience's minds.
Show enthusiasm, flash a smile, and maintain eye contact with your audience: 'The eyes, chico. They never lie'. Leave them speechless.
If you are going to present live, we recommend that you train your voice and rehearse: the best improvisation is always the one that is most practiced!
Write a great headline
3,840,235€
Write a great subtitle here to provide context
Write a title here
20XX
20XX
20XX
20XX
20XX
Surprise
Plan
Design
Communicate
Structure
Write a great subtitle here to provide context
Write a great subtitle here to provide context
Write a great subtitle here to provide context
Write a great subtitle here to provide context
Write a great subtitle here to provide context
03
Structure your content
Sections like this will help you organize
VS
WOW Presentation
Boring Presentation
You know a presentation is WOW when you keep your audience's attention, everyone absorbs the information you’ve shared, you turn interactivity and animation into allies, and you hear the applause of the audience.
You know a presentation is boring when you see that drowsiness takes over your audience, no one has understood anything you’ve said, you hear the snoring of your audience, and there is so much text that not even an image can fit.
+ INFO
+ INFO
Write a great headline
90%
of visual information is better assimilated.
50%
of our brain is involved in processing visual stimuli.
+12k
And the data will be recorded in your brain
Use tables and infographics
Contextualize your topic with a subtitle
Summary
Contextualize your topic with a subtitle
They allow for content synthesis
Help break the monotony
Illustrate what you want to tell
Through a scheme, to tell everything in an orderly manner.
With calmness and conciseness. Summarize the content.
Show enthusiasm! Breathe deeply and share what you came to say.
Tell stories by themselves
They are an aesthetic resource
Keep the brain awake
Managing your voice. It is your best companion.
After practicing a lot. The best improvisation is the one that is worked on!
Maintaining eye contact with your audience. 'The eyes, chico'.
Conclusions
Measure the results through Activity and analyze how they interact with your content with a premium plan.
Use interactivity and animation. They are your best allies to engage the content.
Prioritize the information to capture attention.
Plan your strategy and set achievable goals.
+ INFO
+ INFO
+ INFO
+ INFO
References
Web links
Bibliography
Plan the structure of your communication.
- Use this great space to write your sources of information. Citing where you got the info is always a plus.
Prioritize it and give visual weight to what is primary.
- APA Standards (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association) are essential when citing bibliography.
Define secondary messages with interactivity.
Establish a flow through the content.
- This is a series of guidelines for citing any type of project: thesis, reports, presentations… Whatever it is!
Measure the results.
- These references include information about the author, publication date, title, and source.
- Here’s a small guide: Arial or Times New Roman font, 12 pt, line spacing 2.0, left-aligned and not justified.
Questions?
Thank You Very Much
First Last
Use this space to briefly describe your team: what you are called and what you do.
With Genially templates, you can include visual resources to leave your audience speechless. You can also highlight a phrase or specific piece of information that will be etched in your audience's memory, and even embed external content that surprises: videos, photos, audios... Whatever you want!
Visual content is a cross-cutting, universal language, like music. We are able to understand images from millions of years ago, even from other cultures.
Did you know that Genially allows you to share your creation directly, without the need for downloads? Ready for your audience to view it on any device and promote it anywhere.
Did you know that Genially allows you to share your creation directly, without the need for downloads? Ready for your audience to view it on any device and share it anywhere.
Did you know that Genially allows you to share your creation directly, without the need for downloads? Ready for your audience to view it on any device and share it anywhere.
What you read: interactivity and animation can turn the most boring content into something fun. At Genially, we use AI (Awesome Interactivity) in all our designs, so you can level up with interactivity and turn your content into something that adds value and engages.
Explicit Instruction
Cynthia Ryan
Created on October 13, 2025
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Transcript
Explicit Instruction
Goal: Define Explicit Instruction and how it fits into an instructional plan
To Do:
Introduction
Objectives
Development
Conclusions
References
Objectives
Objective 2
Objective 1
Describe the elements of Explicit Instruction and what effective explicit instruction looks like.
Develop a plan to implement Explicit Instruction in your classroom.
What is Explicit instruction?
…a systematic instructional approach that includes a set of delivery and design procedures derived from effective school research… Ideas that Work
“Explicit teaching is not just the episode within a lesson when information is presented; it involves chunking content into small components, guiding students’ initial attempts at working with that content and gradually releasing control into more open activities as students gain mastery. It is a teaching model that progresses from ‘I do’ to ‘we do’ to ‘you do.’"
…unambiguous and direct approach to teaching that incorporates instruction design and delivery. Archer & Hughes, 2011
Explicit Instruction is not…
...lecturing or requiring students to complete endless worksheets.
...just “Telling”
...primarily teacher directed.
...just “We do”
Who is Explicit Instruction for?
Students across content areas, grade levels, and populations
Explicit instruction is necessary in teaching content students could not otherwise discover or when discovery is inadequate, incomplete or inefficient.
Elements of Explicit Instruction
Content
Design of Instruction
Delivery of Instruction
Practice
16 Elements of Explicit Instruction
CONTENT 1.Focus instruction on critical content. 2.Sequence skills logically. 3.Break down complex skills and strategies into instructional units. DESIGN OF INSTRUCTION 4.Design organized and focused lessons. 5.Begin lessons with a clear statement of the lesson goals and your expectations. 6.Review prior skills and knowledge before beginning, instruction. 7.Provide step-by-step demonstrations. 8.Provide guided and supported practice. 9.Use clear and concise language. 10.Provide an adequate range of examples and non-examples.
DELIVERY OF INSTRUCTION 11.Require frequent responses. 12.Monitor student performance closely. 13.Provide immediate affirmative and informative (corrective) feedback. 14.Deliver the lesson at a brisk pace. 15.Help students organize knowledge. JUDICIOUS PRACTICE 16.Provide distributed and cumulative practice.
CONTENT
2. Sequence skills logically
3. Break down complex skills and strategies into instructional units.
1. Focus instruction on critical content.
Skills, strategies, vocabulary terms, concepts, rules, and facts that will empower students in the future are taught.
Be aware of cognitive overloading, processing demands, and capacity of working memory.
DESIGN OF INSTRUCTION
4.Design organized and focused lessons. 5.Begin lessons with a clear statement of the lesson goals and your expectations. 6.Review prior skills and knowledge before beginning, instruction. 7.Provide step-by-step demonstrations. 8.Provide guided and supported practice. 9.Use clear and concise language. 10.Provide an adequate range of examples and non-examples.
On topic with no irrelevant digressions
Learning targets with success criteria
Interactive with retrieval practice
Model and Think Aloud
Scaffolds and multiple opportunities
Academic language and consistent
Concrete, visual or verbal
DESIGN OF INSTRUCTION
Lessons… 1. are ____________ and focused. 2. begin with a statement of ________________. 3. provide ______________ of prior skills and knowledge. 4. provide step-by-step _________________. 5. provide _______________ and supported practice. 6. use ___________ and ___________ language. 7. provide a range of examples and _____________.
non-examples
demonstrations
review
organized
lesson goals
concise
guided
clear
delivery OF INSTRUCTION
11.Require frequent responses. 12.Monitor student performance closely. 13.Provide immediate affirmative and informative (corrective) feedback. 14.Deliver the lesson at a brisk pace. 15.Help students organize knowledge
verbal, written, action
watch and listen carefully
close gap between students’ current & desired performance
be prepared, provide just enough thinking and response time, avoid digressions
concept maps, graphic organizers
Judicious practice
16.Provide distributed and cumulative practice.- Initial practice
- Distributed practice (space practice)
- Cumulative practice
occurs with teacher guidance with checks for understanding
studying or practicing a skill or skill set in sessions that are short duration and spaced over time
adding related skills that were previously acquired and practiced, in such a way that all of the skills are practiced together in one practice activity.
KEEP In Mind...
Teaching Skills Initial Instruction- I do it.
- We do it.
- You do it.
“Not all elements are necessary in all instructional situations, and not all all elements are used to the same degree for each skill or strategy taught.” - A. Archer
Teaching Strategies Initial Instruction- I do it.
- We do it.
- We do it.
- We do it.
- We do it.
- You do it.
Application of the Elements of Explicit Instruction: Instructional Routines
Passage Reading Procedures
Think Aloud
How: When showing students how to apply strategy, tell students what you are doing. Make your thinking public to reveal the strategic processing you are using, i.e. do a think aloud of what is going on in your mind. Why: Students who learn and think differently often don’t know how to begin a task or what to do when they’re stuck. Thinking aloud gives students access to the self-questions, self-instructions, and decisions that occur as a problem is solved.
Planning tips
Think Aloud
Write a great headline
Contextualize your topic
We better capture visual content. Visual content is associated with cognitive and psychological mechanisms. Things enter through the eyes; the first image is what matters. We associate visual content with emotions.
Write a title here
Write a great subtitle here
You can create an outline to synthesize the content and use words that will stick in your audience's minds.
Show enthusiasm, flash a smile, and maintain eye contact with your audience: 'The eyes, chico. They never lie'. Leave them speechless.
If you are going to present live, we recommend that you train your voice and rehearse: the best improvisation is always the one that is most practiced!
Write a great headline
3,840,235€
Write a great subtitle here to provide context
Write a title here
20XX
20XX
20XX
20XX
20XX
Surprise
Plan
Design
Communicate
Structure
Write a great subtitle here to provide context
Write a great subtitle here to provide context
Write a great subtitle here to provide context
Write a great subtitle here to provide context
Write a great subtitle here to provide context
03
Structure your content
Sections like this will help you organize
VS
WOW Presentation
Boring Presentation
You know a presentation is WOW when you keep your audience's attention, everyone absorbs the information you’ve shared, you turn interactivity and animation into allies, and you hear the applause of the audience.
You know a presentation is boring when you see that drowsiness takes over your audience, no one has understood anything you’ve said, you hear the snoring of your audience, and there is so much text that not even an image can fit.
+ INFO
+ INFO
Write a great headline
90%
of visual information is better assimilated.
50%
of our brain is involved in processing visual stimuli.
+12k
And the data will be recorded in your brain
Use tables and infographics
Contextualize your topic with a subtitle
Summary
Contextualize your topic with a subtitle
They allow for content synthesis
Help break the monotony
Illustrate what you want to tell
Through a scheme, to tell everything in an orderly manner.
With calmness and conciseness. Summarize the content.
Show enthusiasm! Breathe deeply and share what you came to say.
Tell stories by themselves
They are an aesthetic resource
Keep the brain awake
Managing your voice. It is your best companion.
After practicing a lot. The best improvisation is the one that is worked on!
Maintaining eye contact with your audience. 'The eyes, chico'.
Conclusions
Measure the results through Activity and analyze how they interact with your content with a premium plan.
Use interactivity and animation. They are your best allies to engage the content.
Prioritize the information to capture attention.
Plan your strategy and set achievable goals.
+ INFO
+ INFO
+ INFO
+ INFO
References
Web links
Bibliography
Plan the structure of your communication.
Prioritize it and give visual weight to what is primary.
Define secondary messages with interactivity.
Establish a flow through the content.
Measure the results.
Questions?
Thank You Very Much
First Last
Use this space to briefly describe your team: what you are called and what you do.
With Genially templates, you can include visual resources to leave your audience speechless. You can also highlight a phrase or specific piece of information that will be etched in your audience's memory, and even embed external content that surprises: videos, photos, audios... Whatever you want!
Visual content is a cross-cutting, universal language, like music. We are able to understand images from millions of years ago, even from other cultures.
Did you know that Genially allows you to share your creation directly, without the need for downloads? Ready for your audience to view it on any device and promote it anywhere.
Did you know that Genially allows you to share your creation directly, without the need for downloads? Ready for your audience to view it on any device and share it anywhere.
Did you know that Genially allows you to share your creation directly, without the need for downloads? Ready for your audience to view it on any device and share it anywhere.
What you read: interactivity and animation can turn the most boring content into something fun. At Genially, we use AI (Awesome Interactivity) in all our designs, so you can level up with interactivity and turn your content into something that adds value and engages.