A lesson on teaching students how to develop the skill of 'explain' better

I get my best ideas when I’m out walking or running (when my knee isn’t messed!). And while out this weekend I was thinking about why Saturday is my favourite day and how that would be great content to help students begin to learn how to ‘explain’ better. So here’s what I have for you today! (Also, um, Botox for those forehead lines might be in order.)

The skill of ‘explain’ is in almost every curriculum and in every grade. When the skill of ‘explain’ appears in our curriculums, that is the way it is asking students to demonstrate their understanding of the content. The skill ‘to explain’ is not an easy one and it needs to be explicitly taught to students. In addition, students need to be given time to practise the skill with our support. 

A word of caution - don’t rush! Developing strong explanations takes time. The more comfortable you become with the success criteria the more innovative you will be able to be in designing tasks that support student learning. You don’t have to focus on all parts of the criteria all the time. You might want to spend a whole week just on developing strong reasons and not add the specific details until the next week. Students have the whole term and/or year to develop this skill. As you move through your content, you are continuing to provide time, instruction, practice and support for them to get better at explaining. 

Here is a lesson you could try with your students tomorrow. In reality, it’s probably a multi-day lesson. Even better!

Step One - Identify ‘explain’ in the curriculum 
Identify the content you are currently teaching and see where (or if) it asks students to explain. 

Step Two - Develop the success criteria for explain
Develop the success criteria for the skill ‘explain’. Success criteria describes very specifically what successful attainment of the learning looks like. We can develop success criteria by using our curriculum, research and our professional judgement. 

Step Three
Co-create the success criteria with students. Co-creation is a critical first step in helping students to understand the criteria. One way to do that is through example/non-example. Once the success criteria for the skill has been co-created, you never have to do this step again with this group of students. 

(When co-creating success criteria, you do not need to use subject specific content. Skills transcend grade and subject.)

Prompt:
Name an event you would like to attend and explain why you would like to attend that event. (Use any prompt you want!)

Use the strategy Think-Pair-Share. Ask students what makes the second example stronger. One way to get their ideas is once they share to the table group, have them put their best three ideas on a sticky note. One idea per sticky. Those sticky notes can be brought up to the front of the room and start to be sorted into the criteria. Once sorted, groups can be named based on the success criteria above.

(Students will inevitably provide ideas that are not part of the criteria we are looking for. They might say something like, ‘It has good grammar’ or ‘the second one is longer’. While these are true points, it is not what we are looking for to develop ‘explain’ so we can acknowledge those ideas and then park them to the side.) 

Step 4 - Introduce without content
Now that you have the success criteria, you can start to work with the skill ‘explain’ with your students. You can provide a new prompt and demonstrate how you would answer it. Tip! When you demonstrate a skill or concept with your students, don’t practise it beforehand. This will help your students see how you use critical thinking to work through your ideas. 

Prompt: Name your favourite day of the week and explain why it’s your favourite day.

Demonstration: (do live and reference the success criteria as you go)

Now, let the students try it. You can quickly check for understanding and see where adjustments might need to be made. Students could work in collaborative groups or independently. 

Step 5 - Introduce with content
When you think students have had enough practice without content, bring in your subject specific learning. 

Possible prompts:
Science: Use the particle theory of matter to explain why a puddle disappears on a hot day.

English: Explain why the author chose to write in first-person.

Geography: Explain why solar panel powered equipment can mitigate the negative impacts of fracking.

Step 6 - Continue to develop over time
Now that you have the success criteria for the skill ‘explain’ and you have co-created it with students, you can continue to work with it all year as ‘explain’ appears in your curriculum. We can support students by always going back to the success criteria and providing feedback and adjusting instruction based on the parts of the criteria they need the most support with. 

Bye for now,

Lori

Let’s chat in the comments…If you have questions about this, ask me!

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