This book delivers practical, classroom-ready tools that strengthen instruction and directly boost student engagement and achievement. It shows how to teach concepts, facts, rules, and routines clearly and systematically-from cause-and-effect relationships to decoding, math problem solving, scientific processes, and productive learning behaviors such as attention and persistence.
You'll find step-by-step methods for organizing curriculum into coherent, connected units; designing lessons that move students from new learning to generalization, fluency, integration, and long-term retention; and establishing strong “learning readiness” at the start of every lesson. The book provides concrete scaffolds-Model–Lead–Test/check sequences, guided notes, worked examples, and structured practice-and demonstrates how to combine explicit instruction with inquiry in clear, 5-part lesson designs that make rigorous content accessible to all learners.

Martin Kozloff is the Watson Distinguished Professor at the Watson College of Education, University of North Carolina Wilmington. He has 50 years' experience developing, testing, and publishing curriculum and instruction in reading, research, special education, and college courses on instructional design.

James Stocker is an Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. His research interests include STEM education, academic interventions, behavior analysis, and precision teaching. In addition to publishing original research and practitioner-focused articles, he has served as a principal investigator and co-principal investigator on two National Science Foundation grants.