Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching

by Zach Groshell

This book reaffirms the enduring importance of effective explanations at a time when "teacher talk" is often undervalued. Drawing on the science of learning, Zach Groshell explores essential techniques for showing, telling, demonstrating, modeling, and presenting so that even the most complex concepts become accessible to all learners.
Engage with the art and science of "breaking it down" to discover how a direct and explicit approach to teaching can significantly impact classroom success.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Teaching

112 pages, Paperback

Published November 26, 2024

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Zach’s “Progressively Incorrect” podcast, and I generally share his views on teaching and learning. I have always found him to be humorous and insightful. This book is INCREDIBLY short and contains extremely basic suggestions and information. I regret purchasing it.

[Alison Rini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super informative, well-organized, and quick read! So many simple to implement suggestions that will absolutely level-up my school. Highly recommend as a book study for any school looking for a jolt of actionable inspiration.

[Melissa Jameson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Common sense teaching grounded in cognitive science

I enjoyed reminded myself about good elements of teaching. I believe that the author has a strong grasp of how students acquire and process knowledge and skills. I think that this book swings back to the idea that direct instruction is a critical element of teaching students.

[Emily Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whoa. Shots fired. Kind of like his boldness. So many things he says are genuinely good advice. Just maybe a little…tyrannical?! Also, inquiry can coexist with a highly structured classroom. But mostly this is just a lot of good advice about strong pedagogical approaches in the classroom.

[Justus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book is targeted at classroom teachers (where the author's experience is) but it contains useful advice for anyone trying to teach children, whether they are tutors, homeschooling, or just parents trying to help out with homework.

The title of the book, and the early chapters, are about the superiority of explicit instruction over inquiry or "investigation" or the "Socratic method".

If I tell them, I narrated to myself, I will only take away their opportunity to discover it on their own. [...] I eventually had to come to grips with the fact that it wasn’t working out so well. Every time I tried to get my students to discover stuff, the only students who benefited were those who already knew a lot about the material.

The rest of the book is basically a grab bag of effective teaching techniques.

Some examples of what to expect: "When classrooms are highly decorated, time-on-task and learning decrease compared to more 'plain' classrooms." (The suggestion is to put them in a corner/wall that is out of sight when doing the main teaching.)

Overall (as a non-teacher but a parent who does a fair amount of tutoring/teaching at home) I found this quite good. Almost everything he mentions comes with a reference to a study, which was nice, though I haven't checked to see how high quality the research actually is, whether they've actually be replicated, etc, etc. Still it is a great step in the right direction and better than I've seen in most other education-related stuff which generally has zero to limited empirical anything backing it up.

There are a number of things non-teachers probably won't terribly useful. I doubt we're going to follow through on his recommendation to record our lectures to help improve our delivery (remove mazes, discontinuities, etc). Most probably aren't going to go in for choral response or buying mini-whiteboards. And so on.

But beyond whether they are immediately useful in your nighttime homework helping sessions, it also provides a decent framework to help you understand what a "good" teacher might actually look like for your kids, to help you move beyond "they seem nice and the kids like them, so they are probably a good teacher".

If you're actually a practising teacher, reading this feels like a no-brainer. Though if you've bought into inquiry-style I'm not sure he really does enough to convince you to give it up for more explicit teaching, which is probably the book's main weakness.

[Jessica Simek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could’ve read this book when I first started teaching. I wish someone had given me a book like this instead of the constructivist nonsense I was inundated with in college.

Throw away your Peter Liljedahl and Jo Boaler books and just read this! No matter how enticing discovery and inquiry based learning sounds, just ask yourself, “why would we expect a middle schooler to discover a process/formula a person with a PhD discovered?”

Just tell them already!

[Erin Bergin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great tool for educators who are sick of the trope of “educators as unprofessional” or “education must be pure entertainment”.

[Andi Heck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every teacher, every preservice teacher should read this book!

[Claire Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome resource for teachers! I read this for PL today and really enjoyed it. A quick and informative read packed with practical ideas. Student engagement ≠ entertainment ❗️

[Rachel Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in a few hours while taking notes so not a long read. After following the author on twitter and listening to some podcasts he participated in, I realized that direct instruction is a little different, and more involved, than I previously thought. I gleaned some good ideas and recognized some pitfalls that often entrap me. Now, if the snow will stay away so we can actually have school on a regular basis, I will be able to try more of his ideas in the classroom.

[Samuel Sadler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Groshell warns against trying "interesting" or "student-engagement" methods of teaching which make the teacher look dynamic but don't actually ensure learning. Often, you just need to explain clearly what you want to teach. He offers various methods of explanation.
Very helpful book on a practical level. Writing is a bit lackluster.

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a primary school teacher who works under an inquiry-based learning framework, it was interesting to read a book so ardently for the other side. The writing is snappy and engaging, validated various issues I have with the way I'm supposed to teach and gave me some practical tips that I was immediately able to visualise using in my classroom.

... which doesn't mean I necessarily agree with the author. I haven't read or listened to anything by him outside this book, so I don't know how representative it is of his views as a whole, but the idea that education is just filling children with knowledge hasn't been popular for a long time now. Educators now work on teaching children how to learn, because there won't always be someone better informed around to "just tell them". We teach them how to approach a new topic, analyse their existing knowledge, develop questions, investigate, research, synthesise information, look for patterns, evaluate evidence and all sorts of other things.

It seems that when it comes to education, people love to be polemical about their pet theories and educational trends, when the real answer - as with many other things in life - is that a mix of strategies will help the best. Sometimes it's important that kids are taught the known facts straight off ... and sometimes it's OK for them to struggle and maybe not come to as complete an understanding as they would have with adult guidance, as long as they're developing other skills along the way.

[Isaac · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good resource for those starting their work as teachers, or for those who constantly embrace the next fad, only to be surprised that it still doesn't lead to the outcomes they wanted. Zach provides an accessible selection of direct didactic methods, allowing you to pick and choose those that match your style. As Zach rightly begins, modern teaching has fallen prey to the idea that engagement (which many just use as a synonym for fun or doing something, anything, even if it's ultimately busy work) is the primary goal, but this is incorrect - our primary goal is to educate. The focus must be on delivering a robust curriculum in a clear, accessible and replicable way and using some of these strategies will probably help you, if you haven't been using them already.

[Jean Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I hope that, the next time you find yourself ‘facilitating’ a class of students who have ‘productively struggled’ far past their limits, and the devil on your shoulder keeps whispering, ‘They’ll only learn it if they discover it for themselves,’ you will give the devil a flick and just freaking tell them” (98)..Many of us learned that explicit instruction/direct instruction is a terrible thing to do to kids. But it turns out that was inaccurate information. Not only does it have a place in education, for many things it is the most efficient way for students to learn material (and avoid cognitive overload). This short book explains how to do it well. Dr. Groshell also hosts two excellent education podcasts, The Direct Instruction Podcast and Progressively Incorrect.

[North Landesman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A helpful, practical book full of "this would be good to try on Monday" type of information. I found the parts on choral response, careful use of scaffolding and worked examples, emotional design, stories, erroneous examples, and the use of distractions in multimedia especially useful and interesting for a practicing teacher. This book is all about doing what we already do as teachers a little better. After being in a long "professional development" rut, this short, well written, and useful book helped bring me out of it.

[Monica Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the author did a great job of explaining the benefits of direct modeling for kids, especially in a time where “exploratory learning” is so leaned on. I think some of the foundations for a strong learning culture were a bit redundant, but agreed that these must be in place to have a strong culture where you can directly model skills for kids. A good book to read especially if you are hesitant ab the benefits of directly modeling in the classroom

[Ernest Kincaid · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great, short read. Succinct and explicit, appropriately enough. As others have said, this book gives me something to do right now, today, in my classroom, that I know will make an impact. As a special education teacher I already knew this and I already teach like this, so this was affirmation and inspiration wrapped up in a small package. One I could read in a couple weekends to help me get through my first semester teaching middle schoolers. ¡Phew!

[Beth Hawks · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you know a teacher who is going into their first year this fall, give them this book by Zach Groshell to read over the summer. It's straightforward, practical, and evidence-based. At 97 pages, it's long enough to say what it needs to but short enough to not be intimidating.

[Gregory Pedersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best teacher prep/instructional coaching books that I’ve ever read. It is short and concise without sacrificing quality research-based facts. I loved it.

[Corina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is simple but necessary. I wish that curriculum designers would heed Groshell’s advice so individual teachers don’t have to build all of these things into their lessons themselves.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for college of education preparation classes and current educators.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I needed this 20 years ago.

[Ryan Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

great, easy read. practical, applicable, and should be a read for educators, coaches, and anyone teaching kids.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found some useful gems in here. This book is quick and to the point, which I appreciate.

[Nisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific concrete strategies

[Kristen Iworsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any teacher.

[Lefum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Changed the trajectory of my teaching and made absolute sense. Follow the science!!

[Douglas Allard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of the negative comments on this book have to do with length. From the start, the author noted that this was an introduction into this topic and sites MANY other books and articles for further reading. What more to people want? Teachers are the worst audience sometimes!

Anyway, this book is full of usable way to design explanations, lessons, and other classroom techniques to help students learn. Each method is based off of what science tells us about learning.

Other detractors have attacked this work as being anti-inquiry learning. Clearly, the author reasons (many times) that inquiry design is useful, but shouldn’t be the way students learn. That inquiry models can be used for students to show their leaning.

Lots of good stuff here. Would recommend for both veteran and new teachers.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don't have to be a teacher to learn from this book. I'm a mother of small minds, who has wondered what the most effective way to teach and communicate with my children may be. Zach Groshell gives lots of tools and examples (backed by research) on how to effectively engage with children. While he focuses mostly on the classroom settings the key principles are easily adapted to everyday life lessons as well as how to engage in a teaching/mentoring relationship in the workplace. I thoroughly enjoyed this quick, but impactful read!

[Sarathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book underscores the importance of direct instructions for novice students, which no longer seems to be the norm in formal educational settings. The simplicity and directness of this book makes it easy to understand. Recently implemented some of the teaching strategies from this book in my classrooms and I have already seen some changes!