Chalk & Talk Top takeaways from Anita Archer on explicit instruction (abridged version of Ep 57)
Oct 30, 2025
Dr. Anita Archer, a leading expert on explicit instruction and co-author of a bestselling teaching book, shares invaluable insights from her 51-year career. She emphasizes the critical link between teaching quality and student learning. Archer explains the need for clear, explicit instruction, detailing its components like modeling, guided practice, and the importance of automaticity in foundational skills. Her strategies for engagement, including choral responses and structured partnerships, highlight how to effectively enhance classroom interactions.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Teaching Quality Determines Learning
- How well you teach equals how well they learn, so instruction quality directly determines student learning.
- Teach novices explicitly with clarity: lessons must be clear, concise, consistent, interactive, and include lots of practice.
Design And Deliver With Purpose
- Design instruction around critical content, break it into teachable chunks, and sequence demonstration, guided practice, and extensive practice.
- Deliver lessons with frequent responses, monitoring, feedback, and a brisk pace to maintain attention.
Prioritize Automaticity For Core Skills
- Prioritize consistent, efficient methods for core skills rather than offering many competing strategies.
- Move important knowledge (facts, letter-sound pairs, math facts) to automaticity through focused practice.
