Phase III
Guided &
​ Independent Practice

Objective 1: When given an existing lesson or skill, participants will develop an appropriate guided practice component.
Objective 2: After developing the guided practice portion of a lesson, participants will develop the independent practice portion of a lesson.

Picture
As students move from skill development, to guided practice and finally to independent practice, the teacher gradually releases responsibility for the learning to the student. By the independent practice phase of the lesson, the teacher has fully released cognitive responsibility, providing feedback as necessary and appropriate.

Introduction:
Watch this brief video to get an introduction to the gradual release model and see what guided practice and independent practice look like in action.

Instruction:

Creative Commons License
"Gradual Release" by Erica Cardey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Guided Practice & Independent Practice: Bulletproof Definitions

View the slides below, then take the Self-Assessment to test your knowledge of Guided and Independent Practice. 

Lesson
Wrap Up:
  • Guided and Independent practice involve the gradual release of the cognitive load from teacher to student. 
  • Guided practice involves modeling and feedback at each step in the skill being taught.
  • Independent practice occurs only when the guided practice indicates that students are ready to execute the skill independently.
  • Independent practice takes place in the classroom and involves immediate feedback from the teacher.

Complete the Check for Understanding: