Direct Instruction (DI) programs are designed so that students master small steps daily. A successful DI implementation takes advantage of the small-step design of the DI programs by ensuring that students are taught at their current skill levels continuously. Students who are placed at their current skill levels progress through the programs much faster and with a higher degree of mastery than students who are not placed at their current skill levels. A weekly conference call between the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI) and the school’s leadership team can help ensure that students are placed optimally in the programs and that problems of learning and instruction are solved in a timely manner.
The school’s leadership team and the NIFDI Implementation Manager (IM) and Project Director (PD) analyze performance data on each instructional group before the conference call. Then they discuss the performance of each instructional group, identify and prioritize problems of teaching and learning, and develop specific remedies to address the problems identified. Initially, the NIFDI IM and PD take the lead on the conference calls. The responsibility of the data analysis shifts gradually to the school as the school’s leadership team becomes more familiar with analyzing the data and solving instructional problems.
Every week, the NIFDI IM writes a summary of the call that describes the actions to be taken before the next call and designates who will take the actions. This conference call summary is divided into several sections that address the following:
The summary is sent to the school’s leadership team and district personnel who support the DI implementation. Each week, the conference call begins with a review of the status of items discussed on the previous week’s call to ensure that all problems are addressed in a timely manner and that all major accomplishments are recognized and celebrated!
IMPORTANT: A DI implementation can develop serious problems without regular, systematic problem-solving sessions even if a school is receiving extensive on-site coaching support from a DI consultant. Depending on a consultants' schedule, classrooms may not receive on-site support for several weeks, during which minor problems may develop into major problems. If a school regularly reviews the state of the implementation with NIFDI and takes systematic action to improve it, student performance has the potential to reach very high levels.
Individual student performance in Direct Instruction (DI) programs is dynamic. Some students outperform other students in their group. Other students have problems learning specific skills or concepts. An effective DI implementation adjusts instruction to facilitate student learning by providing more practice and support for students who are struggling and by moving students who find their current placement too easy to higher instructional groups. Knowing where and how to adjust instruction requires data. Schools implementing DI with the support of the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI) assure optional student success by making decisions based on observational data generated by NIFDI consultants or trained school coaches, and student performance data on student mastery and progress through the DI programs.
The NIFDI data analysis system provides a comprehensive look at the performance of all students in all DI subjects every week across a school implementing DI. The system requires relatively little effort on the part of teachers to record and submit the data for review by the NIFDI consultants and the school’s leadership team. To record student progress through the programs, each teacher writes down on
pdf
Lesson Progress Charts (LPCs)
the lessons covered by each instructional group that she or he teaches over the course of the day. To record student mastery, teachers write down on
pdf
Student Test Summary (STS) charts
the results by individual students of informal reading “check outs” and mastery tests, which occur every five to 15 lessons depending on the DI program. Teachers also record the results of daily independent work for students in the upper levels of the programs. NIFDI supplies copies of the LPCs, STS charts and
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Independent Work Summary sheets
for all teachers.
These data are reviewed by the school leadership team and sent to the NIFDI manager and director for review and analysis. Subsequently, a telephone conference between these parties is held to discuss the performance of groups and individual children in detail. The telephone conference helps direct the coaching efforts to the areas of greatest need.
IMPORTANT: Many problems with instruction and learning can be identified through in-class coaching, but NIFDI trainers and building coaches can only see a small proportion of the instruction that occurs daily in a school. Only by having data on the performance of every child and every instructional group can problems of instruction be identified and solved in a timely manner. And only by solving instructional problems in a timely manner can student performance be maximized for all students.
Throughout the year, the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI) provides staff development through in-service training sessions for schools implementing Direct Instruction (DI). These in-service sessions pick up where the preservice training leaves off by preparing participants to teach formats that appear later in the program and expanding on techniques covered during preservice. The NIFDI Implementation Manager initially conducts the in-services. The building coordinator and grade-level coaches (with the support of the NIFDI Implementation Manager) begin conducting training sessions after they have completed the first level of the coaches’ training program and gained some experience teaching the DI programs.
In-service sessions can involve just the teachers or aides teaching a specific level of a program, or they can involve the whole staff. The sessions may focus on a specific technique or format for a small group of teachers, such as a rhyming format, or on a more general topic for the whole staff, such as motivating students. In-services can last anywhere from 30 minutes to a whole day depending on the topic and the number of teachers involved. As with the preservice training, in-service training sessions usually focus on the direct application of DI techniques through simulated practice to ensure that teachers and aides can perform these techniques in their classrooms.
Session topics are based on student and staff needs, not on a predetermined schedule. Sources for session topics include classroom observations by the NIFDI Implementation Manager and the building’s coaching staff, teacher reports of student problems, and student performance data. Although there are some reoccurring in-service topics--like using specific praise effectively, teaching to mastery and providing appropriate think time for students to respond to tasks--the in-service sessions for each school are unique and designed to address problems specific to each situation.
IMPORTANT: An effective preservice training can provide a good start for a successful implementation of DI, but for teachers to be highly successful with the program, they should receive ongoing professional development throughout the first three years of implementation. Schools that receive in-service training sessions targeted at specific needs will be much more successful than schools that simply rely on an initial preservice training for professional development.
See also: Practicing
A common misconception is that Direct Instruction (DI) programs are easy to teach because they are composed of scripted lessons. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mastering the instructional skills needed to teach the DI programs is difficult. Preservice is the start of the learning process for teachers, teaching assistants and administrators to master these skills.
A thorough and timely preservice training in DI methods ensures that all teachers are prepared to start teaching DI effectively the first day of school. Within a few weeks of the start of school, a preservice training in DI methods lasting three to five days is provided on site to teaching personnel (teachers and assistants) and administrators. The preservice training focuses on the direct application of DI techniques through simulated practice. Preservice participants are given a program overview and are shown the rationale behind the lessons. More importantly, they learn the instructional skills needed to teach the specific exercises they will use with their students during the first few weeks of school. Participants learn DI presentation techniques (following the script, quick pacing, signaling) and monitoring and correction techniques (part-firming and delayed testing). They also learn additional procedures for assessing, placing and motivating students. Teachers receive individual feedback from the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI) trainer during preservice, and teachers are assessed by the NIFDI trainer on DI techniques on the last day of the session.
Sessions are offered for different levels of the program as the techniques for different levels differ radically. For example, the first level of the Reading Mastery program involves formats for rhyming and phonemic awareness that are not needed in higher levels of the program. For this reason, it is critically important that students are assessed accurately in the spring and that teachers attend the sessions on the specific program levels they will be using with their students.
A preservice training can be shared by more than one school if the schools are in close proximity to each other. NIFDI can also arrange large-scale trainings involving hundreds of teachers. Regardless of the size of the trainings, session sizes are kept small so trainers can devote sufficient attention to each participant.
IMPORTANT: An effective preservice training is a major prerequisite for a successful implementation of DI. If teachers are not fluent in DI presentation, monitoring and correction techniques, and if they are not familiar with the first lessons they will teach in the fall, their use of the DI materials will not be effective with students. Student success and progress will also be greatly impaired throughout the school year. Since re-learning DI techniques requires much more time and effort than learning the techniques correctly the first time, an effective preservice training can save schools much more time and effort as it provides a strong basis for initial success for teachers and students in the DI programs.
