Instructional Delivery

To gradually release responsibility is to equip students with what they need to be engaged and self-directed learners. On a day-to-day level, it means delivering lessons purposefully planned to incorporate four essential and interrelated instructional phases:

1. Focused Instruction: Preparing students for learning by establishing lesson purpose, modeling strategies and skills, thinking aloud, and noticing how students respond.

2. Guided Instruction: Strategically using prompts, cues, and questions to lead students to new understanding.

3. Collaborative Learning: Allowing students to consolidate their understanding through exploration, problem-solving, discussion, and thinking with their peers.

4. Independent Learning: Requiring students to use the skills and knowledge they’ve acquired to create authentic products and ask new questions.

From Better Learning Through Structured Teaching: A Framework for the Gradual Release of Responsibility, 2nd Edition by Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey