WEBVTT

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[Music]

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My name is Nell Duke.

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I'm a professor at
Michigan State University,

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professor of teacher education
and educational psychology,

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and I also co-direct a research
center here called the Literacy

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Achievement Research Center.

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The gradual release

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of responsibility is
a model that's been

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around for a long time.

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It was originally developed by
Meg Gallagher and David Pearson.

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And what this model says is

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that when we teach
something--in this case,

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comprehension strategies, but it
really applies lots of aspects

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of teaching--when we start
out, the teacher has a lot

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of the responsibility.

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The teacher is explicitly
teaching,

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and the teacher is
modeling the use

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of that comprehension strategy.

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So the teacher has a
lot of responsibility,

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and the students don't
have a lot at that point.

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But over time, what we
want to have is a release

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of responsibility so the
teacher is doing less and less

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of the work, and the student
is taking more and more

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of the work, more and more
of the ownership of applying

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that comprehension strategy.

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So that by the end

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of the gradual release the
student is independently using

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the strategy and
doesn't need support

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from the teacher at that point.

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And then the important middle is

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where the student
is applying it,

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but the teacher is still
there giving lots of support,

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lots of guidance,
lots of coaching.

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Now, it's not as
though kindergarten is

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when the teacher has
full responsibility

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and sixth grade is when the
students are off on their own.

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We go back and forth through
this model many times.

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So we're releasing
responsibility to students

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and then when we introduce some
more complex text, for example,

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we may have to start back

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up with the teacher
having more responsibility,

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or if we introduce a new genre,
we may need to start back

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up with the teacher
having more responsibility.

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But all along the way, what we
want to do is continually try

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to move the student
toward greater ownership

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and greater application
of the strategy.

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In terms of strategy
instruction,

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I notice that less effective
teachers will often make a big

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leap in their strategy
instruction.

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They'll explicitly
teach a strategy,

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and then they send kids
off to use it on their own.

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More effective teachers tend

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to be much more gradual
about the process.

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They'll explicitly
teach a strategy,

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but then they provide lots of
opportunities for kids to try

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out these strategies
with them as coach,

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with them as the
guide on the side.

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And in fact, studies
do show that students

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who show more growth
over the course

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of a school year are
often in classrooms

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where teachers do more
coaching, they're the guide

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on the side more of the time.

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Whereas, students who
show more typical patterns

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of growth have teachers
who do less

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of that really important
coaching step in their teaching.

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A teacher who uses
gradual release

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of responsibility will begin

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by doing a good explicit
explanation of the strategy.

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For example, the
teacher might say,

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"Good readers make
predictions as they read.

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They think about what's going
to happen next in the story.

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If you make predictions
when you read,

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it will help you
understand the story better."

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Then the teacher might
move on to a modeling phase

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where the teacher is
demonstrating how she herself

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makes predictions as she is
reading a text to the students,

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so that they can get a window
into what's going on in the mind

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of a good reader as
the good reader reads.

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The next step in a gradual
release is where the student

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and the teacher together
are going

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to be applying the strategy.

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For example, the students and
the teacher might work together

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to come up with two or three
predictions about what's going

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to happen in the story.

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The next phase of
the gradual release,

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the student has become
the primary reader.

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The student is the primary
applier of the strategy,

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but the teacher is there
to remind the student

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to use the strategy,
to guide the student

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as to how they might apply the
strategy, when it's a good idea

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to apply the strategy,
and so on.

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So the teacher's still there
playing a really important role

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as the coach or the
guide on the side.

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And then the last phase
of the gradual release

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in a classroom would be where
the teacher has kids off

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on their own actually
reading text independently

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and applying the strategy.

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And even there, the teacher
may have a bit of a role.

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For example, some
teachers I've worked

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with will make little bookmarks
for kids that remind them,

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"Don't forget to
make a prediction,"

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and the kids will
have those bookmarks

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as they are reading
independently.

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So even still there is a
little reminder at K-3,

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we do need to be kind of using
these mental habits as we read.

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[Music]