Session Flow · A single lesson of 30-90 minutes; independent practice may continue after the session.

Madeline Hunter's Lesson Design (ITIP)

Madeline Hunter's lesson design, part of her Instructional Theory Into Practice (ITIP) programme, is a seven-element structure for direct instruction. It was widely adopted in US schools in the 1970s and 1980s and remains a common template for skills-based lessons.

When to use Madeline Hunter's Lesson Design (ITIP)

When teaching a well-defined procedure or skill that learners must perform correctly, such as a tool, a protocol or a technique.

How Madeline Hunter's Lesson Design (ITIP) works

Use the seven elements as a sequence for a skills session where there is a clear right way to perform a task. Place checks for understanding and guided practice before any independent work.

Phases of Madeline Hunter's Lesson Design (ITIP)

  1. Objectives: Decide exactly what learners should be able to do by the end. This steers every other choice in the session.
  2. Standards: Make clear what good performance looks like and how it will be judged, so participants know the target.
  3. Anticipatory set: A short hook that focuses attention and links to prior experience before new input begins.
  4. Teaching (input, modelling, checking for understanding): Present the content, demonstrate it, and check understanding before moving on, for example with quick questions or thumbs up.
  5. Guided practice: Participants try the skill with the facilitator close by, giving feedback and correcting early.
  6. Closure: Help learners pull together what they learned, ideally in their own words, to consolidate it.
  7. Independent practice: Learners apply the skill on their own, within the session or afterwards, to build fluency and retention.

Key principles

  • Teaching is a series of deliberate decisions
  • Check understanding before practice
  • Move from guided to independent practice
  • Make the objective and standard explicit

Best for

  • Procedural and technical skills
  • Compliance and safety training
  • Novice learners
  • Teachers and trainers new to lesson planning

Considerations

  • Critics describe the model as mechanistic and overly prescriptive when used as a checklist for every lesson.
  • A Napa County follow-up study found little evidence that ITIP training improved student achievement.
  • Less suited to exploratory, open-ended or dialogic sessions.

Attribution & sources

Developed by Madeline Hunter, 1970s (codified in Mastery Teaching, 1982)

Primary source

Design a session with Madeline Hunter's Lesson Design (ITIP)

METODIC builds a complete Madeline Hunter's Lesson Design (ITIP)-based session — methods, timing, worksheets, and facilitator guides — in minutes.

Try METODIC free