Have you heard of Explicit Instruction? If you have, great! If you haven't, it may be time to find out more about it, and how it can help you to improve learner comprehension. Explicit Instruction, or EI, can be especially useful to know about when teaching adults with learning difficulties.
To begin, what is EI? A brief description by LINCS describes EI as:
- structured
- systematic
- flexible
- responsive to the needs of adult learners
- research-based
It is called explicit because it is a direct approach that outlines how to plan and deliver instruction. Are you curious what that looks like? I am looking for your ideas of a lesson topic that I will use as the basis for an EI lesson plan. Send me your topic ideas, and I will select one to develop into a plan. I will share this plan with you here, and hope to get your feedback on how using EI can help with your lesson planning and delivery, especially with struggling learners.
Thanks for joining me in this experiment!
Mike Cruse
Disabilities in Adult Education Moderator
michaelcruse74@gmail.com
Comments
Thanks for doing what you can to highlight this crucial instructional framework! As an Adult Literacy Coordinator, this is the single most important teaching strategy that I train my tutors to use. If every teacher just embraced the accountability inherent in the EI framework and the philosophy, "If the student hasn't learned the teacher hasn't taught," the world would be a far different and better place.
As with most techniques designed to make learning easier for those with disabilities, employing this framework benefits all learners and is just plain good instructional practice. I look forward to seeing the experiment unfold!
One lesson idea: Academic vocabulary instruction for learners in ABE classes whose first language is not English.
Thanks for your suggestion, Josh. I will use it as the basis for the content of my lesson. Below are the six components of the EI lesson planning template we are using in the course.
1. Gain Attention:
2. Statement of Lesson Objective/s:
3. Reasons to Learn:
4. Connect to Prior Knowledge:
5. Review/Check for Prerequisites:
6. Pre-teach Vocabulary:
I am curious what you - and others reading this - think about what would make an effective attention grabber for the topic of Academic English with Adult English Language Learners? I would also like to hear your thoughts on what you would use to connect to prior knowledge with adults who may not have been in school in their native country in many years, or whose disability impacts their ability to quickly and easily recall prior knowledge?
Thanks,
Mike Cruse
Disabilities in Adult Education Moderator
michaelcruse74@gmail.com
I want to share a lesson plan introduction, which I wrote for the LINCS Explicit Instruction pilot course that I'm currently taking. The template used here was created by Juliana Taymans, who is the facilitator for the course. I'm curious to hear your feedback on this. Would this work as an introduction for your students? How can it be improved, or expanded upon for your population of learners?
Explicit Instruction: Planning Your Lesson Introduction
Time
Lesson Introduction Notes
Materials
2
mins
Gain Attention:
Read out loud a few sentences that might be spoken by a doctor or nurse,
“I need 4cc’s of ______ drug in the NICU, STAT!”
Ask learners to explain what you’re saying in their own words? When they are not sure about the meaning, ask what makes it is difficult to understand.
Several sentences taken from medical shows or texts that use vocabulary specific to the medical field.
1
min
Statement of Lesson Objective/s:
SWBAT use academic math vocabulary to read, speak, listen and write as a proficient math learner.
None
2
mins
Reasons to Learn:
Learners need to understand academic math vocabulary to understand math directions and reading problems, and communicate their problem-solving process to others.
None
5
mins
Connect to Prior Knowledge:
Ask learners to think of 2-3 words that they may use at work, in English or another language, that the average person not in their job field would not know.
Ask for a volunteer to share a word and what it means.
Next, explain that math is its own language, and communicating about math also requires learning the language to talk about mathematical concepts and thinking.
None
10 mins
Review/Check for Prerequisites:
Use Pictionary to demonstrate a math concept and encourage learners to share the vocabulary that they know/use in English.
For example, draw several squares and circles on the board. Next, use another color to draw an enclosed shape around the like shapes.
There will be one shape around all of the squares and another shape around all of the circles. Invite learners to say the word(s) which describe what you have shown them. They are likely to say words like: “groups, things alike, same”. When time runs out, say, classify. Explain that the word classify is a term used to collect like (same) things into groups. Provide other examples as time allows. Learners who do not have the language to express these words/phrases will need more individual scaffolding, or pre-teaching, to help them access the content.
Minute timer
White board/Markers