During the "I do" step, what should a teacher focus on?

During the "I do" step, a teacher should focus on modeling and explaining concepts clearly. This stage is foundational in the gradual release of responsibility model, where the teacher demonstrates the skill or concept with clarity and precision. The goal is to provide students with a clear understanding of what is being taught, allowing them to see the process and hear the language that accompanies it.

Effective modeling involves not just demonstrating the skill but also articulating the thought process behind it. This helps students understand the rationale and strategies needed to tackle similar tasks independently later on. By explicitly showing how to approach a problem or concept, the teacher lays the groundwork for students’ understanding, which will be built upon in subsequent stages of instruction.

In this structured approach, other options like encouraging student-led discussions or facilitating peer-to-peer learning typically occur in later stages, where students can engage more actively with the material and each other after they have received modeled instruction. Assigning group projects is also an interactive method that would follow the initial modeling, allowing students to collaborate and apply what they have learned with guidance from the teacher.