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Why Teachers Should Include Student Collaboration in the Gradual Release Model

By Christina Quarelli, Senior Curriculum Specialist

The gradual release of responsibility — or the I Do, We Do, You Do model — is a long-standing approach for successful instruction. It’s extremely effective and efficient, especially during foundational reading skills instruction.

I Do, We Do, (You Do Together, with My Help), You Do

Literacy thought-leaders Dr. Doug Fisher and Dr. Nancy Frey took it a step further. Their Gradual Release Framework maximizes student learning, making it more robust, recursive, and efficient. According to their publication, Better Learning Through Structured Teaching, Fisher and Frey identified four components in their Gradual Release Instructional Framework:

I do: This is focused, explicit instruction, where the teacher communicates the learning target, models, and explains.

We do: Where the teacher and students work together. The teacher’s guided instruction prompts, scaffolds and helps support students without rescuing them.

Collaborative Work: Students work on complex tasks together and the teacher is the facilitator, providing corrective feedback, additional prompts, and supporting that productive struggle.

You Do: The students individually apply the skill and demonstrate their understanding.

You’ll notice an important addition to the original model: Collaboration!

It’s a common misconception that the gradual release model for ELA instruction is linear and doesn’t require collaboration. However, to maximize learning, teachers could actually prioritize student-to-student collaboration, or “partner talk” first, and can even move fluidly back and forth between it and the teacher’s instruction. In fact, a classroom where students engage in a collaborative, complex task upfront, will automatically boost engagement and rigor.

The Role of Student Collaboration in the Gradual Release

As students become more proficient readers, more challenging skills & strategies start to take center stage. As they start to analyze texts to figure out what they mean or how they work, students will need to be able to tackle concepts such as text features, structure, and questions about the author’s craft. Navigating these questions can be quite a heavy lift for the teacher. So how can these skills still be transferred to the student in an effective way?

We can still gradually release these lessons and start with that powerful explicit, teacher-led instruction.

First, EXPLAIN.

Tell them what it is! Clearly define the skill in student-friendly verbiage. Every student should know upfront what they’ll be able to do. In fact, when students know what they’re learning, they’re more likely to actually learn it!

Next, MODEL.

Show them what it is by modeling how to do it and what success criteria look like. Teacher Think Alouds are perfect here. They model how a real-world reader would tackle this skill on their own and include “I and Why” statements such as “I know this, so I should know that.”

Then, GUIDED PRACTICE.

After I’ve told them what it is and showed them what it is, it’s time for guided practice of the targeted skill. This is a teacher-student partnership where the student voice is elevated. Teacher moves include supporting questions and scaffolds and guiding students to the correct answer without rescuing them.

Finally, APPLICATION.

The ultimate goal is for students to demonstrate understanding and apply the skill on their own. But, if we’re being realistic in dealing with complex texts and skills, they may not be ready yet. So, this is a great opportunity to incorporate collaborative work time or “partner talk”.

What is Partner Talk?

This is when the teacher will need to make a deliberate shift in their role from director of the show to a facilitator. Minimize teacher talk and lift student voice by focusing on corrective feedback, additional prompts, and supporting that productive struggle.

Giving students time for “partner talks” (or table talks) also provides a powerful diagnostic for the teacher. Having this observational data available at the moment of instruction allows instructional decisions to be made live based on current knowledge. So now, when the teacher revisits the instruction, they can truly personalize that I Do part of the lesson the next time they do it. In fact, there might be a group of students who already know the content and may need to compact out of the next lesson for an enrichment activity, giving all students the instruction they need right when they need it.

What is Homework Compacting?

Homework Compacting is providing students with only a few problems in a homework assignment. It allows students to sample the content without overwhelming them. Try this: Give your students the five hardest problems first. If they can do the five hardest problems, they can compact out of the lesson or the assignment!

If you want to boost the rigor while simultaneously collecting live data, provide regular collaborative opportunities within that gradual release model.

Take best practice and make it your practice, today!

Find more tips from Christina on translating education research to practice in this video series:

References

Fisher, Douglas, and Nancy Frey. Better Learning Through Structured Teaching: A Framework for the Gradual Release of Responsibility. 3rd ed., ASCD, 2021.

Christina Quarelli is a K-5 Curriculum Specialist at McGraw Hill. Christina, a former K–8 teacher of 18 years, holds a Master of Education degree in Educational Counseling and has worked as both a teacher mentor and instructional coach focusing on best practices for engagement and maximizing learner potential. Christina resides in Phoenix, Arizona.