DI webinar on building comprehension basics
What! You mean DI addresses comprehension, too?
The National Institute for Direct Instruction conducted and recorded a Webinar explaining in detail how Direct Instruction programs build language comprehension skills for young learners. NIFDI made the recorded Webinar available for free so that folks can learn how the DI approach addresses comprehension, see examples of actual parts of lessons teaching language skills that aid comprehension, and these methods correspond with the popular “science of reading.”
Kurt Engelmann,1 president of NIFDI, presented a heckuva lot of important concepts in the ~75-min Webinar that was held in the March 2026. He explained how the content fits with topics such as Phil Gough’s famous equation RC = D x LC, Hollis Scarborough’s famous rope, Betty Hart’s and Todd Risley’s Meaningful Differences study of language exposure, and hot topics about memory (spacing, interleaving, and so forth). But, that’s not all Kurt showed. There’s a shipload about the nuance of instructional design, about how the DI language program he used for illustrating the development of comprehension competence systematically and explicitly (and effectively) teaches that competence.
Here’s a link to the recording of “Science of Reading: Explicit Fundamental Language Instruction to Improve Reading Comprehension.”
Along the way Kurt provided some data about how well kids who get DI learn, but this Webinar is not some dry, rehash of familiar Follow Through results. Kurt focused on why and how to achieve those results. Don’t expect a lot of statistics. Expect clear explanations of what to do.
As president of NIFDI, Kurt unabashedly promotes DI in this video and in his other work. However, readers should understand that NIFDI is a not-for-profit organization. To be sure, NIFDI charges education agencies for its services; it has to have revenue flow to provide the continuing and intense support it provides to schools and teachers in the US and many other places on Earth.
I encourage readers who want to learn how to implement DI with fidelity to review the resources available at NIFDI.2 There are many that will be of use to teachers, parents, and others—even kids, but especially educational administrators.
Footnote
Kurt Engelmann is one of Zig Engelmann’s two sons that some Dear Readers may have seen in 1960s videos of Zig Engelmann teaching his (and Therese Engelmann’s) twin boys arithmetic. Looking at them now, it is clear that Kurt and his brother Owen were not stunted or made into automatons by getting DI at an early age!
Disclosure: I do not receive any kickbacks for recommending NIFDI or DI in this post. I have received financial support from NIFDI in the form of an honorarium and travel-accommodations reimbursement for delivering an address at a NIFDI conference in 2023.