DistillED Playbook: Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction

What this playbook is

The Rosenshine Playbook distils Barak Rosenshine’s 10 Principles of Instruction into practical teaching routines that help teachers sequence learning clearly, check for understanding effectively, and support students to practise successfully.

Each principle is:

• grounded in well-established research on learning, memory, and effective instruction

• designed to make expert teaching moves visible and repeatable

• practical enough to use immediately in real classrooms

Like all DistillED playbooks, this guide is intentionally concise. It focuses on small, sustainable improvements to everyday teaching that compound over time.

This is not a theory-heavy textbook or a comprehensive framework. It is a focused, working playbook.

What’s included

The playbook brings together classroom-ready interpretations of all ten of Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction, including:

• Daily Review

• Small Steps

• Asking a Large Number of Questions

• Providing Models and Worked Examples

• Guiding Student Practice

• Checking for Understanding

• Obtaining a High Success Rate

• Providing Scaffolds for Difficult Tasks

• Independent Practice

• Weekly and Monthly Review

Each section includes clear explanations, classroom examples, and practical planning prompts to help teachers turn the principles into consistent routines.

Designed as a practical reference, the playbook supports lesson planning, in-the-moment instructional decisions, coaching conversations, and professional learning — without adding unnecessary workload.

This is not a scripted programme or a full school framework.
It is a concise, classroom-ready guide to instruction that aligns with decades of research on effective teaching.

Licensing

This resource may be used and shared for non-commercial educational purposes, with appropriate credit to Jamie Clark / DistillED.