6 Ways to Polish Your Practice with Explicit Instruction

This spring, I had the incredible opportunity to attend Anita Archer’s 5-day Train the Trainers Explicit Instruction Academy. I left energized, empowered, and committed to bringing clarity and purpose to every instructional move I make. You can read my introductory blog Why Explicit Instruction Works: The Science of Learning here.

The heart of Dr. Archer’s work lies in six foundational principles that shape effective, research-based teaching. I don’t want this binder to be placed on my bookshelf and unintentionally forgotten. So, this blog is literally my frantically scribbled summary notes. I am capturing and organizing them here mostly for myself, but I thought I’d share them with you too. Here’s a brief overview of each principle—and most importantly, a tangible tip from Anita to help you “polish your practice.”

(Dr. Archer so graciously shared her materials, slides, research, and quotes and said we could go forth into the world and share with everyone we could. I am taking her up on that.)

1. Optimize Academic Learning Time

What It Means: Students learn more when they are actively engaged in meaningful academic work. Every minute counts. In fact, this is the best predictor of learning.

The nice thing about this principle is that it’s measurable! If you recorded your teaching day and went back with some honest evaluation, how many minutes are not academically purposeful? Studies show that in a 6-7 hour school day, only about 4 hours are academic. Play, breaks, and lunch are important too, but even a slight increase of academic time can have an impact on achievement!

💡 Polish Your Practice:
Embed learning into your brain breaks and transitions. Students can stand, move, and wiggle while reviewing content. Review math facts, states and capitals, or spelling patterns while washing hands and lining up.

2. Promote Success

What It Means: Success builds motivation. When students are set up to be successful (by building skills incrementally), they’re more likely to stay engaged and confident.

Target- 80% correct responses during initial instruction and 90-95% correct responses during independent work

“Success. Success. Success. Success is always the goal!”

💡 Polish Your Practice:
Instructional Practices that can increase academic success:

• Teach material that is a little challenging, but not too difficult

• Break complex skills into obtainable chunks

• Increase amount of instruction

• Provide organized, focused lessons with clear goals and learning outcome targets

• I DO, WE DO, YOU DO

• Use the Feedback Loop (P.E.C.- in the moment Praise, Encourage, Correct)

3. Increase Content Covered

What It Means: The more carefully planned, well-paced instruction we deliver, the more students learn. This doesn’t mean we go fast—it means we go efficiently.

💡 Polish Your Practice:
Ways to optimize content covered:

• Teach bell-to-bell

• Teach most critical content and leave out the obscure

• Teach things that can be generalized (vocabulary in context)

• Use instructional routines that are efficient and effective

• “Teach the Stuff, Cut the Fluff”

4. More Instructional Time with the Teacher

What It Means: The teacher is the most valuable instructional resource in the room. The more time students spend learning with you, the stronger the outcomes.

Small, flexible, targeted groups are important for differentiation, but the rest of the class is on autopilot. The younger the student, the less learning occurs during this independent time. Whenever possible, differentiate within your whole class teaching time.

💡 Polish Your Practice:
Audit one content area this week for independent time vs. guided practice time. Can you shift 5 minutes of “work alone” time into “work with me” time using whiteboards, choral response, or turn-and-talks?

5. Scaffold Instruction with Gradual Release

What It Means: Students need I do – We do – You do. Scaffolding makes learning stick and prevents unnecessary struggle.

Tier 2 and Tier 3 should have more We Do’s!

💡 Polish Your Practice:
Add one “We Do Together” checkpoint before every independent task. Phrase it like, “Let’s do the first one together, and I’ll guide you through it.” This simple step reduces errors and builds confidence.

6. Address Different Forms of Knowledge

What It Means: Students don’t just need facts—they need to know how, when, and why to use what they’ve learned.

Think:

declarative knowledge- what something is

procedural knowledge- how something is done

conditional knowledge- knowing when and where to use a skill

💡 Polish Your Practice:
Use the “When would we use this?” question after teaching a skill. For example, “When would we use this kind of sentence structure?” Or, “When would we break a word apart this way?” It builds metacognition and flexible thinking.

Final Thoughts: Small Tweaks, Big Impact

Each of these principles reminds us that explicit instruction is intentional, responsive, and always centered on student success. You don’t have to revamp everything—start small. Choose one “Polish Your Practice” tip to try this week. Reflect. Tweak. Repeat.

Remember, “How well you teach is how well they learn.” Let’s keep learning, growing, and refining—together.

References:

Archer, A. & Hughes, C. (2011). Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching . NY: Guildford Publications.