High Quality Instructional Routines

Overview

Instructional routines are tasks enacted in classrooms that structure the relationship between the teacher and the students around content in ways that consistently maintain high expectations of student learning while adapting to the contingencies of particular instructional interactions (Kazemi, E., Frank, M., & Lampart, M., 2009). Perhaps, a better way to think about instructional routines is through the lens of sports. In sports, there are what is referred to as standard plays. Instructional routines in teaching are standard plays for classroom learning. If everyone on the team (i.e., students) knows the play, the the game (i.e., instruction) runs more smoothly. However, in sports, plays (i.e., instructional routines) have to be adjusted due to various challenges or difficulties the team encounters. Coaches (i.e., teachers) during the game find themselves making adjustments on the fly due to information, data, and ideas that emerge from their team on the field, or in terms of teachers, from their students in the classroom. Listed below are research and evidence-based instructional routines assembled to support classroom instruction and student learning. Adopting these instructional routines enables teachers to accommodate a wide variety of learning styles and student needs when teaching literacy (i.e., reading, writing, speaking and listening). This list is not exhaustive, but intended to provide teachers with examples of routines to implement.

High Quality Instructional Routines

Explicit, Systematic Instruction. Explicit (direct) and systematic instruction refers to a planned and logical sequence of teaching literacy, proceeding in small steps and checking for student understanding before moving to the next step. Teaching should follow a scope and sequence based on a logical order of writing and reading skills, progressing from basic to more complex and toggle between for writing, whole to parts and parts to whole. Effective explicit instruction teaches prerequisite skills needed to learn new skills.
Gradual Release of Responsibility (I, We, You). This model gradually releases responsibility to students for independently using a skill or strategy. At the first instructional stage (I do it), the teacher presents the skill to students and uses modeling and think aloud (See below). At the second stage, (We do it), students practice the skill as a whole group or in small groups. The teacher guides this practice and provides corrective feedback to students. At the last stage (You do it), students practice the skill independently. Students require different amounts of practice and degrees of support in order to reach independent use.
Provide Models and Use Think Aloud. Teachers should demonstrate how to perform a task or skill, along with an explanation of what is being done, before expecting students to do it on their own. Modeling and thinking aloud lets students see and hear how to apply the skill or complete the task. This is also referred to as meta-cognitive modeling. Meta-Cognitive Modeling occurs when teachers are being explicit in their thinking about how to start their writing, how they decide what to do first and next. For example, brainstorming topics, how many characters to include, the setting, or should they to start an expository, persuasive, or argumentative essay with a quote, a question, an anecdote to hook the reader.
Use a Multisensory Approach. Multisensory teaching presents information to students in a way that uses multiple senses to learn literacy skills (i.e., visual, auditory, tactile-kinesthetic). Teachers should use visuals, objects and manipulatives, color-coding, saying and repeating, actions, and movement whenever possible.
Differentiate Instruction and Provide Scaffolds. Differentiated instruction entails designing instruction to suit individual student needs rather than using a standardized approach to instruction that assumes all students will learn to write (or read) the same way. Scaffolding is a hallmark of differentiated instruction. Scaffolding is assistance offered by a teacher to support learning a writing (or reading) skill that a student is initially unable to grasp independently, and then removing the assistance once the skill is learned. There are several types of scaffolds: teacher scaffolding, content scaffolding, task scaffolding, material scaffolding.
Oral Academic Conversations and Verbal Discussions. Academic conversations are sustained and purposeful conversations in which partners take turns talking, listening, and responding to each other's comments, thoughts, and ideas on topics. Students support their conversation with evidence, information, examples in order to support both their partner's and own understanding and analysis. Academic conversation aid in reading comprehension and develop transferable language skills to writing.
Written Conversations. The practice of written conversations was first introduced by Burke (Short, Harste, & Burke, 1996). This practice involved children pairing up and passing paper and pencil between them to “chat” about a variety of topics: their weekend, favorite pets, areas of study, or opinions on things they have read as a class. Although the process may appear to be a simple activity, this dialogic-inquiry activity offers so much more. Written conversations provide a way for students to have open and honest dialogue and at the same time be actively involved in the learning process. Written conversations have some similar qualities to dialogue journals, but the big difference is that dialogue journals usually have delayed feedback, which occurs over time. Written conversations, in contrast, provide immediate feedback, much like instant messaging or online chats. Most often written conversations are done between students. The importance of interactions between students has been minimized (Johnson, 1981), but now interactions are recognized as a vital piece in the classrooms (Salomon & Perkins, 1998; Chi, 2009).
Conferring with Documentation. Conferring involves having a conversation with students about their writing (and reading). Conferring always has a clear purpose and predictable structure. Conferring can be used to inform instruction, monitor student growth, and provide students feedback on their understanding of skills and content taught as evidenced in and by their writing.
Strive for Automaticity through PractIce and Review. When students learn a writing (or reading) skill at an automatic (mastery) level, they have learned it so thoroughly that they can use it with little to no conscious attention. Significant guided practice, repetition, and spiraling back to review previous skills are critical to achieving automaticity.
Data Driven Instruction. Teachers should use formal and informal assessment data to inform instructional decisions. It is important to monitor progress (on a frequent basis) which students are reaching benchmark goals or demonstrating mastery of a standard and which are not. Teachers should use data to determine which skills need more explicit instruction and practice, how to group students for instruction, and which may need supplemental intervention instruction beyond what is provided to all students.
Provide Opportunities for Success. When teachers challenge students beyond their ability or readiness to learn a new writing (or reading) skill, the result can be low self-confidence and a willingness to participate in learning. When teachers introduce a new skill, they should start with simple examples. gradually adding more challenging tasks. It also helps to include practice with some previously learned skill along with newer, more challenging tasks so that students can experience some success.