8 Ways to Use the I Do WE Do YOU Do Model to Boost Student Results

The I Do, We Do, You Do model is a popular and potent way to implement the fourth and fifth steps in achieving teacher clarity. And it is even more powerful when coupled with giving students feedback.

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I Do

In a nutshell, the I Do phase of a lesson involves you telling students what they need to know and showing them how to do the things that they need to be able to do. Research confirms that this is a powerful part of an effective and efficient learning process.

In more specific terms, it involves teaching strategies such as informing, explaining, modelling and providing examples. You can strengthen the impact of the I Do phase by using:

• Visuals (e.g. concept maps, cause-effect diagrams or Venn diagrams) to support your verbal explanations – sharing declarative knowledge
• Worked examples to share procedural knowledge

We Do

We Do is the second phase of the I Do WE Do YOU Do model. It involves doing tasks together. It is at this stage that you start to gradually release responsibility to your students.

For procedural knowledge. you can use faded worked examples on the board and have your students help you complete the missing steps. For example, when adding common fractions, orientating the reader in a persuasive essay, or simplifying an equation. Using faded worked examples works even better when you give your feedback on their attempts. This can be a simple as:

• Having students swap books
• Showing the class the answers with full working
• Students marking their attempts, adding in things they missed and altering anything they had wrong – possibly in a different colour

For declarative knowledge, you can:

• Retrieve (from memory) what was shared in the I Do phase as a class (e.g. a class concept map, a class set of notes) – you offer some assistance as needed
• Have students practice retrieving information individually – but you give them a partially completed map to work from. As with faded worked examples, this is more powerful when you give them feedback on their attempts (same steps as above).

You Do

The You Do phase of a lesson involves students practising (procedural knowledge) and retrieving (declarative knowledge) what you have taught them. Such practice and retrieval helps students to retain what they have learned and to become fluent with what they must know and be able to do.

• For declarative knowledge, students retrieve (from memory) and recreate what you showed them in the I Do phase (e.g. a concept map)
• For procedural knowledge,  students answer practice questions and complete all the steps themselves

In both cases:

• Students must do the work individually (generally, small group work is more effective after all students have achieved at least a basic mastery of the material)
• Feedback adds further improvements to their learning. While students do the work themselves, it is important that you monitor their efforts, check their understanding and offer feedback along the way.
• While not an explicit part of the model, it is worth noting that retrieval and practice has a far larger and more lasting impact when distributed over time.

Explicit teaching is important across a range of subjects. For example, see my article on How to Teach Writing to Adolescents.

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Shaun Killian (MEd, MLead)

Shaun Killian is an experienced teacher and principal with a passion for helping students to excel. He believes that assisting teachers to adopt evidence-based education is the best way to make this happen. Shaun is committed to bringing you practical advice based on solid research.