Why

“Teachers make content, skills, and concepts explicit by showing and telling students what to do or think while solving problems, enacting strategies, completing tasks, and classifying concepts. Teachers use explicit instruction when students are learning new material and complex concepts and skills. They strategically choose examples and non-examples and language to facilitate student understanding, anticipate common misconceptions, highlight essential content, and remove distracting information. They model and scaffold steps or processes needed to understand content and concepts, apply skills, and complete tasks successfully and independently.” Source

More: What and How

Click here for Iris Center's full explanation of explicit instruction including why we use it, what it is, and how to implement in the classroom. This resources also explains the connection between explicit instruction and systematically designing instruction. 

Introduction to Explicit Strategy Instruction - Video that explains the rationale for explicit strategy instruction, benefits for students, and how it is a student-centered approach.

Foundations of Explicit Instruction - Provides an overview of:  (1)  the elements  of  explicit  instruction,  (2)  the  underlying  principles  of  effective  instruction,  and  (3)  the  research  evidence  supporting  explicit  instruction. 

The Gradual Release of Responsibility Framework is an explicit instruction model that we know and use.  This link provides a reminder of the steps and offers several strategies to support.

Explicit Teaching Delivery - Provides an overview of the process and includes a checklist to guide the steps.

These two presentations below provide instructional strategies and lesson design elements that can be used or adapted based upon grade and content area.  Note that “direct instruction” and “explicit instruction” are often used interchangeably.

Presentation #1

Presentation #2