HO1
DIRECT INSTRUCTION
Reading
Introduction
Reflections/Questions
1. Explain the concept of congruence in
direct instruction.
Direct Instruction is a model for teaching that emphasizes a
teacher’s ability to teach to carefully formulated lesson
objectives. Lesson objectives take into account content
and/or skill to be learned, depth of learning (level of
cognition—Bloom’s Taxonomy), adopted curriculum and
standards. Teaching to these objectives requires teachers to
maintain congruence (complete match) between their actions
(providing information, asking questions, designing student
practice activities and providing feedback to student efforts)
and the lesson objective.
A major goal of direct instruction is the maximization of
student learning time. Many teacher behaviors found to be
associated with student achievement are in fact associated
with student time on task and student rate of success, which
in turn are associated with student achievement. Thus, the
behaviors incorporated into direct instruction are designed to
create a structured, academically oriented learning
environment in which all students are actively engaged
during instruction and are experiencing a high rate of success
in tasks they are given. Time spent by pupils in both these
conditions is referred to as academic learning time (ALT),
which is to be maximized.
Overview of the Model
The direct instruction model consists of five phases of
activity: orientation, presentation, highly structured practice,
guided practice, and independent practice.
Phase one is the orientation phase in which a framework for
the lesson is established. During this phase the teacher’s
expectations are communicated, the learning task is clarified,
and student accountability is established. Three steps are
particularly important in carrying out the intent of this phase:
(1) the teacher provides the objective of the lesson including
the level of performance; (2) the teacher describes the
content of the lesson and evokes prior knowledge and/or
experience from students followed by an explanation of the
relationship to the current lesson; and (3) the teacher
discusses the procedures of the lesson—that is, the different
parts of the lesson and students’ responsibilities during each
part.
2. What information would be
communicated to students from
effective lesson objectives?
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Phase two is the presentation phase, in which the teacher
explains the new concept or skill and provides
demonstrations as well as meta cognitive processes (think
aloud) and examples. If the material is a new concept, it is
important that the teacher discuss the characteristics (or
critical attributes) of the concept, the rule or definition,
illustrated by several examples. If the material is a new skill, it
is important to identify the steps of the skill with examples of
each step. (A common mistake is to provide too few
demonstrations.) In either case, it is important to convey this
information both orally and visually. Visual representation
tools (VRT) provide students a reference in the early stages
of learning.
Another part of this phase is checking to see that students
have understood the new information before they apply it in
the practice phases. Can they recall the attributes of the
concept that the teacher has explained? Can they recall the
number and list of steps in the skill they have just been
shown? Checking for understanding (CFU) requires that
students recall or demonstrate understanding of the
information that has just been presented. In structured
practice, they will apply it.
Highly structured practice (HSP) is phase three. The teacher
leads students through practice examples, working in
lockstep fashion through each step of the problem (skill) or
processing of definitions and key attributes (concept) as it
appears on the VRT. One way to initiate the lockstep
technique is to use an overhead projector, doing practice
examples on a transparency so that all students can see the
generation of each step or application of concepts. The
teacher’s role in this phase is to: 1) model the thinking
process (meta cognition) needed to accomplish the task(s),
2) demonstrate the steps or application of the concept(s),
3) ask questions to cause students to reprocess the thinking
required to accomplish tasks. The VRT is available for
student reference and to support teacher feedback. In
referring to it while working the practice examples, the
teacher is ensuring that students understand it so that they
can use it as a resource during guided practice. Another
common error is to move to phase four before students
experience success with highly structured practice.
3. Compare and contrast presentation
for a skill vs. a concept based lesson.
4. How does the teacher’s role change
when moving from Highly Structured to
Guided to Independent Practice?
Phase four, guided practice (GP), gives students the
opportunity to practice first as a total group and then on their
own while the teacher is still in the environment. Guided
practice enables the teacher to make an assessment of the
students’ abilities to perform the learning task by assessing
the amount and types of errors the students are making. The
teacher’s role in this phase is to: 1) monitor all students’
work, 2) ask questions that cause students to reprocess the
information from the presentation phase, 3) provide feedback
on students’ responses: reinforcing accurate responses and
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cuing or prompting students who are “stuck” or whose
answers are incorrect and/or incomplete and 4) re-teach
when necessary.
Independent practice is the fifth phase of the direct
instruction model. It begins when students have achieved an
accuracy level of at least 85% in guided practice. The
purpose of independent practice is to reinforce the new
learning to ensure retention as well as to develop fluency. In
independent practice, students practice on their own without
assistance and with delayed feedback. This can be done in
the classroom, if the teacher is not involved, but it can also be
done as homework. The teacher’s role in this phase is to
make sure the independent practice work is reviewed soon
after completion to assess whether the students’ accuracy
level has remained stable and to provide corrective feedback
for those who need it. An independent-practice activity can be
short in length of time and number of practice items;
however, it should not be a one-time venture. Five or six
practice sessions distributed over a month or more will
sustain retention.
Model Delivery
Before presenting and explaining new material, it is helpful to
establish a framework for the lesson and orient the students
to the new material. Comments and activities at the beginning
of a lesson are designed to clarify for the students the
purposes, procedures, and actual content of the subsequent
learning experience. Such activities are associated with
improved student engagement during the lesson and with
overall achievement. Orientation involves: introductory
activities that elicit all students’ relevant existing knowledge
(activating prior knowledge) and teach the objective of the
lesson; telling students about the materials they will use and
the activities they will be engaged in during the lesson; and
providing clear expectations for student outcomes.
Once the context for learning has been established,
instruction begins with presentation of the new concept or
skill. Students’ success in learning the new material has
much to do with the thoroughness and quality of the teacher’s
initial explanation. Effective teachers spend more time
explaining and demonstrating new material. Presentation
practices that facilitate learning include: (1) presenting
material in small steps (chunking) so that one point can be
learned at a time; (2) providing many, varied examples of the
new skill or concept; (3) modeling, or giving narrated
demonstrations of the learning task; (4) avoiding digressions,
staying on topic; and (5) re-explaining difficult points. From
research on concept learning we also know that when
teaching a new concept it is important to clearly identify the
characteristics (critical attributes) of the concept and to
provide a rule or definition (or sequence of steps in skill
learning). Finally, providing a visual representation of the
5. Summarize in your own words the
intent of orientation.
6. Explain the purpose of visual
representation tools (VRT) during
presentation and practice.
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concept or skill along with the verbal explanation assists
students in following the explanation and serves the function
of anchoring the learning. Later, in the learning process, the
visual representation serves as a cue or prompt.
7. List at least 3 effective strategies
Following the explanation/presentation, the teacher checks
for students’ understanding of the new concept or skill. A
common error is simply to ask students if they understand or
have any questions and then to assume that if no one or only
a few students respond, everyone understands well enough
to move on to practice independently. Effective teachers ask
more questions that check for student understanding than
less-effective teachers. Such questions call for specific
answers or ask for explanations of how answers were found.
Effective checks of understanding utilize simultaneous active
engagement strategies that allow the teacher to gage the
learning of all students. Appropriate wait time after asking
questions is essential to engaging the minds of all learners.
Effective teachers not only ask more questions, but they also
spend more time on teacher-led practice and on repeating
the new material they teach. Another aspect of effective
questioning for direct-instruction is ensuring that all students
respond—not just those who raise their hands. This can be
accomplished by simultaneous, frequent engagement of the
minds of all learners through a variety of active engagement
strategies, e.g. white boards, choral responses, think-pairshare etc. Asking questions within students’ “reach” a high
percentage of the time (75 to 90 percent) is another effective
questioning strategy.
when checking for understanding
(CFU).
Once the teacher has initiated a question and students have
responded, the teacher needs to give them feedback on their
responses. Research indicates that effective teachers do a
better job providing feedback than less effective teachers.
They do not let errors go uncorrected, nor do they simply give
the answers to students who have responded incorrectly.
They use techniques for correcting responses or they reteach the material. In addition, effective teachers maintain a
brisk pace. When they provide corrective feedback or reteach, they do it efficiently so that many practice opportunities
are provided. For example, when a correct answer has been
given, the teacher quickly affirms the correctness and asks a
new question. In the early stages of learning, when answers
may be correct but somewhat tentative, the teacher provides
knowledge of results and quick-process or academic
feedback. (“Good. You remembered that ‘i’ goes before ‘e’
when it comes after ‘c.’”) If an incorrect answer is careless,
the teacher provides corrective feedback and moves on. If
the incorrect response indicates a lack of understanding, the
teacher provides cues or prompts, such as referring back to
the VRT. It is important to probe responses for clarification of
student thinking to improve answers. Effective feedback is
academically oriented, not behavioral. It is also substantive,
i.e. it tells students what they have done correctly. Feedback
8. List 3 ideas you want to remember
about the teacher action of providing
feedback.
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may be combined with praise; however, it is important that
praise be deserved based on the quality of the response. The
major point is that the kind of feedback students receive
during structured practice has much to do with their later
success. Feedback helps students find out how well they
understand the new material and what their errors are. To be
effective, feedback must be academic, corrective and/or
affirming, respectful, and deserved.
The need for students to be given thorough explanations and
structured practice with feedback before they begin
independent practice seems obvious. However, it is clear
both from research and from classroom observation that
students are often asked to work from their texts or
workbooks without sufficient explanation and/or practice.
Students need to have a high degree of success when they
are engaged in conceptualizing or practicing skills. In order
for this to occur, they should move from highly structured
practice to guided practice only when they have achieved
about 85% accuracy on the highly structured-practice
examples.
9. Agree or disagree with this
statement. Justify your answer.
“If students answer questions
accurately during the presentation
phase of DI, it indicates they are
ready for independent practice.”
In the average classroom, students spend a large percentage
their time working alone on tasks. If this large amount of time
is to be productively directed toward learning, students need
to remain engaged in the learning task. What is most
conducive to engagement is being well prepared, by the
teacher’s presentation and by teacher-led practice. Practice
that is directly related to the presentation and that occurs
right after teacher-led practice facilitates student
engagement. Effective teachers also circulate while students
are working, monitoring students and providing needed
feedback.
Practice Theory
The “heart” of direct instruction is practice; three phases of
the model deal with practice under varying conditions of
assistance. The literature emphasizes six principles to make
practice effective.
The first principle is shaping. The goal of all practice is the
ability to perform a skill independently and without error.
When the principle of shaping is adhered to, the teacher
moves the student through practice with different levels of
assistance: highly structured, guided, and independent. This
practice progression is designed to provide appropriate
support until student independence is achieved. The three
levels of practice function in the following manner. When the
students are first introduced to a new skill or concept, the
teacher leads the group through each step in working through
exercises. This lockstep method ensures that few errors are
produced in the initial learning stages, when memory is most
vulnerable to remembering incorrect practice and when errors
reinforce incorrect information. After lockstep or highly
10. Restate the underlined sentence in
your own words.
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structured practice, the students practice while the teacher
monitors (guided practice). During this time the teacher
provides corrective feedback for any errors produced as well
as reinforcement for correct practice. When students are able
to practice with accuracy, they are ready for independent
practice—that is, for practice under conditions when
assistance is not available in the environment. This last step
in the practice progression occurs when students are
performing the skill independently with minimal error.
The second principle is the need to monitor the initial stage
of practice because incorrect performance at this stage will
interfere with learning. Students need corrective feedback to
prevent incorrect procedures from becoming embedded in
their memories. Immediate corrective feedback (that is,
information on how to perform correctly) will reverse
misconceptions early in the instructional process. It also
reduces performance anxiety because students practice with
the assurance of immediate feedback. In addition to catching
incorrect performance in the early stages, it is also important
to reinforce correct performance. This gives students the
knowledge of results that stabilizes the new learning more
quickly.
11. Explain how frequent, simultaneous
active engagement strategies (see pg. 4
first paragraph) support the 2nd
principle.
Having students achieve at least an 85% level of accuracy at
each practice level before going to the next level is the third
practice principle. Paying attention to accuracy rates
ensures that students experience success and do not
practice errors.
The fourth practice principle deals with the length of each
practice session. Research indicates that, on the whole, the
more a person practices a skill, the longer it takes him or her
to forget it. The general principle guiding the length of time
recommended for practice is: Short, intense, highly motivated
practice periods produce more learning than fewer but longer
practice periods. For example, with younger students, short,
5- to 10-minute practice sessions interspersed over the day
or a series of days will be more effective than long, 30- to 40minute sessions. Older students are able to handle longer
practice sessions, but, for them also, many short sessions
with clear feedback about progress is more effective.
The fifth principle is distributed practice, or multiple practice
sessions spread out over a period of time. Without practice to
reinforce it, 80% of new information is forgotten within 24
hours. With periodic reviews spread out over an extended
period of time, such as four or five months, nearly all new
information can be retained. A common mistake in instruction
is to deal with a topic, end the topic, and never review the
information or skills again until a “final examination.” The
important material needs to be reviewed regularly.
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The sixth principle addresses the issue of optimal amount of
time between practice sessions. Practice should be massed
and distributed to be effective. The general guideline is that
practice periods should be close together (massed practice)
at the beginning of learning; once learning is at an
independent level, the practice sessions can be spaced
farther and farther apart. Thus, guided practice sessions
should occur immediately after new learning has been
introduced and should continue frequently until independence
is achieved. When this has occurred, independent practice
sessions can be distributed farther apart, that is, I, 2, 6, and
then 15 days apart.
12. Explain the sentence “Practice
should be massed and distributed to be
effective?”
Summary
The term direct instruction has been used by researchers to
refer to a pattern of teaching that consists of teachers’
explaining a new concept or skill to a large group of students,
having them test their understanding by practicing under
teacher direction (that is, controlled practice), and
encouraging them to continue to practice under teacher
guidance (guided practice.) Effective use of several teaching
strategies is essential in high quality delivery of this model
including questioning, checking for understanding, active
participation and the use of cues, prompts and feedback.
Direct instruction delivered by powerful use of these
strategies results in enhanced learning and higher
achievement for all students.
Adapted and revised from Models of Teaching by Bruce Joyce, Marsha Weil with Emily Calhoun
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