## Characteristics of Effective Structured Literacy Instruction

1. **Explicit**. The teacher tells the student what they want the student to know. They explain a concept directly, demonstrate its use, support students through initial application, and provide practice exercises for mastery.

2. **Systematic and Cumulative**. The teacher explains new concepts in relation to other elements, building one skill on what is already known. Instruction follows a planned scope and sequence of skills that progresses from easier to more difficult.

3. **Multimodal**. Lessons involve a variety of hands-on techniques. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are often paired with one another to foster multimodal language learning across the board.

4. **Diagnostic and Responsive**. The teacher uses student response patterns, diagnostic skill surveys, and progress monitoring assessments to adjust instructional goals, pacing, presentation, and amount of practice given.

5. **Multilingualistic**. A comprehensive lesson will address and weave all the layers and systems of language together, like the strands of the well-known "reading rope."