Do I need teaching experience to deliver explicit instruction?

No — that is what the scripting is for. The reading guides put the model, the questions, the checks and the reteaching paths on the page, so the method's burden sits in the material rather than in the parent's training. Read a guide in full before paying; if you cannot picture yourself teaching from it, believe that.

Is explicit instruction just lecturing at my child?

No. The model is show, do together, do alone — with the child responding constantly and the parent checking at each step. In a 45–55 minute reading lesson the child's own reading, blending and writing carry most of the time.

Where does the 'I do, we do, you do' pattern show up?

In reading, every scripted lesson moves from the parent modeling sounds to blending together to the child reading and writing alone. In math, every Building Number Sense lesson runs explicit modeling, guided work, independent application, word problems and review — the same arc, all six grades.

Is there research behind this?

Yes — Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction summarizes unusually consistent findings on modeling, small steps, checking and review, and the IES practice guide recommends explicit instruction for early reading skills. That research supports the practices; it has not evaluated Faith Schooling specifically.

How we teach

Explicit Instruction in Christian Homeschooling

Explicit instruction means the teacher shows before the child tries, and checks before the child moves on. This page explains the model, the research behind it, and how Faith Schooling scripts it so a parent with no teaching degree can deliver it on an ordinary morning.

Updated 4 October 2026 · Sources read 5 September 2026

Faith Schooling reading curriculum — From the Faith Schooling curriculum

What explicit instruction means

Explicit instruction is teaching in which nothing essential is left to be discovered by accident. The teacher states what is being learned, models it — thinking aloud, so the child hears the reasoning and not just the answer — then works examples with the child, then watches the child work alone, checking at each step before adding the next. Teachers know the shape as 'I do, we do, you do.'

Its opposite is not creativity; it is inference. Discovery has an honored place in a child's day — but a five-year-old should not have to infer what sound a letter makes, and a seven-year-old should not have to guess what the small 1 above the tens column means. Some knowledge is simply told, well.

What the evidence shows

Barak Rosenshine's 'Principles of Instruction' distilled decades of classroom and cognitive research into practices with unusually consistent support: begin with review, present new material in small steps, ask many questions and check every student's understanding, provide models and worked examples, guide practice, obtain a high success rate, and revisit material weekly and monthly. The Institute of Education Sciences' foundational-reading practice guide likewise recommends explicit instruction in the early reading skills specifically.

The standard caution applies here too: this research validates the practices, not any one publisher's execution of them. What a curriculum can honestly claim is that its lessons are built on this shape — and then open its pages so you can check.

Where it appears in Faith Schooling

In reading, every lesson in the teaching guides is scripted end to end: the skill stated, the sounds modeled aloud, blending done together, then the child reading and writing alone while the guide tells the parent what to watch for. In mathematics, every Building Number Sense lesson runs the same published arc — explicit modeling, guided work, independent application, word problems, and review — in the same order every time, all six grades.

The scripting is the homeschool-specific part. A classroom teacher internalises this model across years of training; a parent gets it by reading today's page aloud. That is a deliberate transfer of the method's burden from the adult's expertise to the material's design, and it is why the guides — all 3,530 pages of them in reading — can be read in full before you pay anything.

Read a complete reading teaching guide The Building Number Sense lesson arc

One lesson, step by step

A Grade 1 reading lesson, 45 to 55 minutes in one sitting: a calm start and prayer; phoneme work aloud; the new pattern modeled and blended together; the child reads a decodable passage built only on patterns already taught; a short timed drill; written application; and the spaced-review card box to close. Each step exists because a step before it was checked — the child never reads the passage before the pattern is secure, never drills what was never modeled.

The predictability is the point, for the child as much as the parent. When the shape of the lesson never changes, all of a child's attention is free for the content — which is the practical meaning of 'small steps with a high success rate.'

How checking works

Checks for understanding are printed, not improvised: a daily exit ticket ends each lesson, a weekly mastery check with parallel forms ends each week, and advancement follows the mastery rule — 90% or better across five or more sessions on different days. When a check fails, the guides route back to reteaching with a different explanation, because repeating the identical words louder is not a method.

What explicit instruction does not mean

It does not mean lecturing — a six-year-old is answering, building, blending and writing every few minutes, or the lesson is failing at its own rules. It does not mean discovery, discussion and wonder are banished; it means they are not load-bearing for the code and the algorithms. It does not require a teaching degree, a classroom or a screen.

And it is not the whole of an education. Explicit instruction is how Faith Schooling teaches skills — decoding, handwriting, arithmetic. The parts of a child's formation that are caught rather than taught, prayer and character among them, run on a different engine, and we do not pretend the lesson script supplies them.

Authors and method — who writes these lessons

Common questions

Do I need teaching experience to deliver explicit instruction?: No — that is what the scripting is for. The reading guides put the model, the questions, the checks and the reteaching paths on the page, so the method's burden sits in the material rather than in the parent's training. Read a guide in full before paying; if you cannot picture yourself teaching from it, believe that.
Is explicit instruction just lecturing at my child?: No. The model is show, do together, do alone — with the child responding constantly and the parent checking at each step. In a 45–55 minute reading lesson the child's own reading, blending and writing carry most of the time.
Where does the 'I do, we do, you do' pattern show up?: In reading, every scripted lesson moves from the parent modeling sounds to blending together to the child reading and writing alone. In math, every Building Number Sense lesson runs explicit modeling, guided work, independent application, word problems and review — the same arc, all six grades.
Is there research behind this?: Yes — Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction summarizes unusually consistent findings on modeling, small steps, checking and review, and the IES practice guide recommends explicit instruction for early reading skills. That research supports the practices; it has not evaluated Faith Schooling specifically.

Sources

Rosenshine, B. (2012). Principles of Instruction: Research-Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know. American Educator — checked 2026-09-05
Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse — Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade (Practice Guide) — checked 2026-09-05