I love summer. Summer is a great time to engage with Educators and hear their concerns about their classroom instruction -- while also laughing and relaxing to the beat of the summer clock. Almost endless.
Quite often, I am asked about the latest buzz -- which isn't really new in the world of education -- Explicit Instruction. This type of instruction may seem boring and tedious -- when treated as a keynote and/or lecture from the Ferris Bueller days. So, let's be clear -- that is NOT true explicit instruction. And as the conversation turns to if it is best for students, I will always say: "It's not IF, it is when."
When is it best for students? Anytime. As long as we can agree that explicit instruction is not a lecture -- it is interactive instruction provided by the teacher with consistent engagement from the students. My Edu-Hero Dr. Anita Archer has shared this work for years with remarkable success. Dr. Zach Groshell has a resource Just Tell Them (mentioned on the blog) singing the same praises. As students enter our classroom, most of them do not have the prior knowledge or skills necessary to access the grade level content. This is when teaching & learning are truly FUN - how do we model, question, discuss, engage, and reflect with students while providing specific feedback all while teaching at a "perky pace" and ensuring students are retaining the content?
Admittedly, my early years included quite a bit of inquiry and discovery learning - not in and of themselves bad, but definitely NOT the best for students struggling to comprehend, understand, decode, and analyze. I love Stephanie Stollar's guidance on this issue during a summer workshop at Wabash Valley Education Center: If students are novices, they deserve explicit instruction. When they are experts, they are ready for inquiry. At first, my early training roots once again questioned the notion, until the doom & gloom of Genius Hour entered my mindset. Not pretty.
Two things will never change -- everyone has an opinion in education. And no one will ever know everything. But please, please, please - let's stop the myth that explicit instruction is boring. Correctly implemented, it is engaging brain work for everyone involved.
*If you have not read Explicit Instruction by Dr. Anita Archer, do so. Or check out Dr. Zach Groshell's book Just Tell Them.
**Please also note: Direct Instruction (upper case) is not the same as direct instruction (lower case). Check out Direct Instruction: A Practitioner's Handbook.
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