Effective teachers plan and deliver structured lessons which incorporate a series of clear steps and transitions between them, and scaffold learning to build students’ knowledge and skills.
Strategy Overview:
What is it?
A lesson structure maps teaching and learning that occurs in class. Sound lesson structures reinforce routines, scaffold learning via specific steps/activities, and optimize time on task and classroom climate using smooth transitions. Planned sequencing of teaching and learning activities stimulates and maintains engagement by linking lesson and unit learning.
How effective is it?
The way teachers structure lessons can have a large impact on student learning. Some research shows student achievement is maximized when teachers structure lessons so that they: • begin with overviews and/or review objectives; • outline the content to be covered and signal transitions between lesson parts; • call attention to main ideas; and • review main ideas at the end (Kyriakides et al, 2013). A 2013 meta-analysis found an effect size of 0.36 when lessons are structured by summarizing main points, gradually increasing the difficulty level, and connecting to previous lessons (Kyriakides et al, 2013). There is no specific measure of the effect size of structuring lessons. However, a sound lesson structure contributes to effective scaffolding of student learning, which has an effect size of 0.53.
Considerations
It is useful to integrate structuring lessons with other High Impact Teaching Strategies. By coherently organizing teaching and learning, sound lesson structures create synergies between the strategies, cumulatively enhancing their effectiveness. Teachers must also consider sequencing and the pace of the curriculum.
This strategy is demonstrated when the teacher:
explains to students the steps in the lesson, including presenting learning intentions, explicitly presenting new knowledge, identifying planned opportunities for practice, outlining questioning techniques the class will use, and describing the assessment formats
makes clear connections between the learning goals, activities and assessment tasks
creates transparent, predictable and purposeful routines for students
identifies clear transitions between each step in the lesson
plans the sequence of steps to scaffold student learning
monitors student understanding and provides feedback
This strategy is not demonstrated when the teacher:
lesson structures keep changing, producing unhelpful unpredictability in the classroom environment.
This strategy is demonstrated when students:
understand the learning goals and success criteria
understand the lesson routine and confidently negotiate the sequence of steps/activities.
Examples that illustrate the strategy:
Example 1: 9th Grade Science
A Science teacher in a 9th grade metropolitan school is working with a mentor teacher to ensure their Plate Tectonics lessons are structured, succinct and aligned to the Science Understanding and Inquiry Skills standards. The teachers devise a lesson structure that ensures each lesson links to previous student learning, has clear learning intentions, details specific activities, and provides opportunities for assessment of learning. After gauging student prior knowledge through questioning, the teachers collaboratively set appropriate learning objectives and success criteria. They are presented as the lesson begins using acronyms: WALT (We Are Learning To) refers to learning objectives, and WILF (What I’m Looking For) refers to success criteria. The teacher sets clear expectations by defining WALT and WILF at the start of the lesson, ensuring students understand the lesson’s objectives and content. As the class moves through the activities, the teacher provides opportunities to measure student learning. Using Traffic Light questioning, students indicate their level of content understanding. The teacher has structured the lesson to allow time to work with the students requiring additional support. At the same time, those who indicate they have understood the concept are working on an extension activity. When students demonstrate a clear understanding of the concept they can transition to the next activity. At the end of the lesson, the teacher summarises and reinforces the main ideas, then poses a question to students in the form of an Exit Card. The teacher analyses their answers to assess whether they have grasped concepts well enough to progress in the unit. The lesson design reinforces routine through a scaffolded approach to learning informed by clearly identified goals and formative assessment. Time on task is optimised and student engagement maintained.
Example 2: P-12 Performing Arts
A Performing Arts teacher at a regional P – 12 school emphasises lesson designs with clear learning intentions and success criteria. This approach embeds a sequential structure students can rely on as they build skills and content knowledge. The scaffolded approach provides smooth transitions between activities, ensuring students build on prior knowledge, identify links between lesson activities, and can discern the relevance of the activities. In a Miming unit, lesson and unit structures are designed to scaffold student learning. Opportunities are created to build their improvisation skills, and to demonstrate competence against the achievement standards in the level 5/6 band. To begin, the teacher identifies students’ prior knowledge through questioning and a short performance. Students perform a short mime in front of a small audience so the teacher can gauge individual skill levels. The teacher then provides a brief overview of miming with worked examples. The unit’s focus then turns to skill development. Each lesson has clearly articulated success criteria – a set of activities scaffold the learning and explicitly address the learning intentions, with clear transitions linking to skills developed in previous lessons. Lessons are designed so students can participate in mime games and activities that furnish opportunities for self-assessment, peer feedback and teacher feedback. The teacher’s clear instructions assist all students to build skills. This scaffolding approach is intended to make learning visible and predictable, helping students to feel comfortable, prepared and capable of presenting a short mime by the end of the unit. The unit concludes with a summative assessment. Students perform a short mime in front of an audience, similar in design to the initial assessment activity. By comparing both performances, the teacher can assess and provide feedback on individual student growth and skill development
Continuum of Practice:
Emerging
The teacher identifies the learning goals, sets learning activities, and assesses student understanding.
The teacher explains the lesson structure, including timeframes for learning activities
Evolving
The teacher plans and delivers structured lessons that include reviewing previous lessons, signposting new content to be covered, explaining learning activities, and checking for understanding at the end of the lesson.
The teacher ensures the lesson’s steps are clear transparent and predictable for students
Embedding
The teacher assesses prior knowledge, signposts new content, and clearly explains the learning goals of the current lesson.
The teacher designs sequenced learning activities that scaffold the learning.
Teaching is adapted during the lesson in response to students’ understanding.
Excelling
The teacher ensures all students understand the learning intentions and success criteria.
The teacher reinforces routines, scaffolds new learning via specifically selected steps/activities, and uses smooth transitions to optimize time on task and classroom climate.
The teacher spontaneously adjusts instructions during a lesson to increase learning opportunities and improve students’ understanding.
In closing the lesson, the teacher reviews, clarifies and reinforces key points, and assesses student understanding.
Evidence Base:
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Milton Park, UK: Routledge.
Kyriakides, L., Christoforou, C. and Charalambous, C. (2013). ‘What matters for student learning outcomes: A meta-analysis of studies exploring factors of effective teaching,’ Teaching and Teacher Education, 36, 143-52.
Lemov, D. (2015). Teach like a champion 2.0: 62 techniques that put students on the path to college. San Francisco, USA: Jossey-Bass. • Marzano, R. J. (2007). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria, USA: ASCD.
Explicit Teaching: Effective teachers use explicit teaching to provide instruction, demonstrate concepts and build student knowledge and skills. In explicit teaching practice, teachers show students what to do and how to do it, and create opportunities in lessons for students to demonstrate understanding and apply the learning.
Strategy Overview:
What is it?
When teachers adopt explicit teaching practices they clearly show students what to do and how to do it. Students are not left to construct this information for themselves. The teacher decides on learning intentions and success criteria, makes them transparent to students, and demonstrates them by modelling. In addition, the teacher checks for understanding, and at the end of each lesson revisits what the lesson has covered and ties it all together (Hattie, 2009).
How effective is it?
Explicit teaching is effective in accelerating student performance. The aim is to teach generalizations beyond rote learning, and to sequence learning. In explicit teaching practice, teachers constantly monitor students’ progress towards challenging goals. The effects of explicit teaching are similar for students in all school settings. It also has the highest effect size for reading among students at every year level. It supports both low-level word-attack and high level comprehension.
Considerations
Explicit teaching is systematic and sequential. It directly supports guided practice using a series of steps. First, teachers are explicit about the learning goals and the success criteria. Teachers then demonstrate how to achieve them by modelling and providing examples. The final step is to provide students with opportunities to practice and to demonstrate their grasp of new learning. A high level of teacher-student interaction characterizes explicit teaching. Teachers actively support students to achieve success as they move through the learning process. Teacher feedback is critical. Teachers closely monitor student understanding and target further individual support when it is needed.
This strategy is demonstrated when the teacher:
explains what students need to know and be able to do by the end of the lesson or unit
uses worked examples to show students how to do something •
allows students sufficient time to practice what they have learned
guides student practice by monitoring their work and providing help when it is needed
reinforces the main points at the end of the lesson.
This strategy is not demonstrated when the teacher:
is didactic, using teacher-centered, uninterrupted monologue with few opportunities for students to be active in the learning
restricts class discussions and student input is discouraged
responds judgmentally to students’ attempts at problem solving activities rather than treating each attempt as an opportunity for further learning.
This strategy is not demonstrated when students:
understand the learning goals and success criteria
have access to multiple examples before undertaking the learning task
master the new knowledge and skills before moving on
receive feedback as needed.
Examples that illustrate the strategy:
Example 1:
An inner city primary school has endorsed a whole school approach that encourages teachers to target writing mechanics. This emphasis encouraged a group of teachers in an English Professional Learning Community to interrogate their student achievement data on writing. Developing explicit teaching lesson segments quickly became the focus of PLC meetings. They decided to use an explicit teaching framework for a collaboratively designed model lesson plan – an approach that assisted all PLC members to learn more about explicit teaching techniques. The broad learning intention they adopted was that students will know how, and be able to, write an introduction. Their planning first focused on how to clearly demonstrate to students what they need to know and how to do it. They collaborated on designing a persuasive writing lesson plan that explicitly taught and modelled how to write an introduction. The model lesson plan opened with explanations of the learning goals and success criteria. It moved on to explicitly teach the structure of an introduction, clearly naming and explaining all the components. The next step was for the teacher to present varied exemplars demonstrating what a good introduction looks like. The model plan’s next step was to check students’ understanding, and clarify misunderstandings before students embarked on guided practice. The plan built in time to closely monitor individual student performance in guided practice activities, and to provide feedback. The plan noted possible support strategies that may assist students. The model plan then progressed to whole group practice and individual practice, again with close performance monitoring. Drawing on their learning from working together to fashion a model lesson plan, PLC members constructed lesson plans appropriate to the year levels they teach. Teachers collected student feedback about the lessons based on explicit teaching practice. At PLC meetings they discussed the feedback, which was very positive. Students said they were able to focus on a specific goal for the lesson, they felt assured they had the knowledge and skills required to achieve the goal, and they felt confident about independently completing the task.
Example 2:
After introducing a History research project to a middle school Humanities class, the teacher recognized most students were struggling with bibliography writing skills which had been addressed in Year 7 but obviously needed revision. In response, the teacher planned a lesson that used explicit teaching to scaffold students’ knowledge and competence in how to reference sources consulted during their research. The teacher commenced the review lesson by presenting the learning goals and success criteria, taking time to establish students’ prior knowledge and connecting that knowledge to the new project. A class discussion followed about how students can find information for their research projects from many sources, such as the internet, books and television programs. The teacher then explained the importance and function of taking notes from each source during the research phase. She used explicit teaching to show students how to reference various information sources. The teacher modelled notetaking and bibliography writing, pointing out key features of each and how they related to achieving the learning goals and success criteria. She then provided students with source material examples so they could practice creating their own references. As the teacher monitored students’ progress, she ensured they had opportunities to seek feedback. The review lesson was concluded by checking for understanding, again modelling aspects of referencing as required, and asking her students to provide further examples necessary. In the next History lesson students returned to the research project. They applied their knowledge from the review lesson, along with the skills they had worked on. The teacher checked students’ progress as they worked in class, making sure they recorded source information correctly. For this Year 8 class, explicit teaching was effective in scaffolding student learning, and ensuring all students had the skills necessary to complete the research project in line with the learning goals and success criteria.
Continuum of Practice:
Emerging
Teachers know what students should know and be able to do by the end of the lesson. Teachers explain new knowledge and skills. Teachers plan learning activities that enable students to demonstrate their understanding.
Evolving
Teachers make the learning intentions clear before students undertake the learning task. Teachers explain new knowledge and skills, and model how to apply them in practice. Teachers plan learning activities and assessment tasks that enable students to practice their skills and demonstrate their understanding.
Embedding
Teachers clearly explain the learning intentions and success criteria before students undertake the learning task. Teachers provide worked examples and assess student understanding before students independently practice their skills and demonstrate their understanding. Teachers monitor individual students and provide feedback.
Excelling
Students can articulate the learning intentions and success criteria. Teachers provide worked examples and opportunities for guided practice. They check for understanding before students engage in independent practice. Teachers closely monitor individual students’ progress and offer targeted feedback as needed. Teachers conclude the lesson by reinforcing the main points to consolidate the learning, and to support students to apply their learning in new contexts.
Resources:
Triad Monthly Professional Development PowerPoint
Teach Elementary - 3 instructional strategies with pros and cons for each
For the Teachers - Step-by-step ideas to incorporate movement, groups, sharing of ideas, etc.
Facing History & Ourselves - strategies to create student-centered learning
Instructional Playbook - a PDF of instructional ideas with a checklist for each
Better Lesson - ready-to-use strategies with step-by-step instructions
Evidence Base:
Archer, A. L. & Hughes, C. A. (2011). Explicit Instruction: Effective and efficient teaching. New York, USA: Guilford Press.
Evidence for Learning: Teaching and Learning Toolkit – Australia. http://evidenceforlearning.org.au/the-toolkit/
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Milton Park, UK: Routledge.
Liem, G. & Martin, A. (2013). ‘Direct instruction.’ In J. Hattie and E. Anderman (Eds.), International guide to student achievement (pp. 354-356). New York, USA: Routledge.
Moss, C. and Brookhart, S. (2012). Learning targets: Helping students aim for understanding in today’s lesson. Alexandria, USA: ASCD.