"If at first you don't succeed, try another method."

• First, you must have an objective or goal as to what you want teachers to teach or students to learn. (e.g. The student reads a selected passage orally at 200 or more words per minute with 2 or fewer errors.)
  

• Secondly, you must have the necessary degree of order and organization. (e.g. The student attempts the task when asked or directed by the teacher.) No one teaches or learns well in the midst of chaos.
  

• Thirdly, you need a method of instruction that actually works. (e.g. In a reading exercise, the student sounds out words without stopping between the sounds.) If the student didn't learn, it is because the teacher failed to teach.
  

  
  
• Next you need an accurate and dependable form of measurement so that you can readily see the difference before and after the instruction and/or practice took place. (e.g. The student read 145 words from the selected passage in one minute with three errors.)
  

• Finally you need to provide practice until the new skill is well learned. (e.g. The student practices reading the passage aloud to the teacher at least once a day until the student reads 200 words correctly in one minute with no more than two errors.)
  

• Practice is of two types:
  –Directed practice under the watchful eye of the teacher to see that the learner is not making mistakes.
  –Independent practice where the learner practices alone to reach fluent levels of performance.

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