The hourglass model for lesson sequencing is particularly relevant to lessons which focus on a language feature

i.e., grammar, functions/speech acts, vocabulary, aspects of pronunciation, and genre study).

This model doesn’t fit standard reading lessons so well (although the steps of pre-reading/activating background knowledge, skimming and scanning do have many of qualities associated with the top half of the hourglass), and while process writing may move from more inductive activities (braining storming and trying out organizational patterns) to more deductive activities (the revision process), this model doesn't claim that writing lessons are well-represented by this pattern.

In the hourglass model we begin by exploiting the Language Presentation (the dialogue, text, or whatever you use as the base to get the lesson going) as a piece of authentic discourse.

We listen to it, speak it, discuss it, maybe write it as a dictation —but we really let the students play with this piece of language as an entity in itself.

This helps students to acquire language because it uses comprehensible input, whose meaning is negotiated through the relatively unstructured process of "knowing it well" (see the Language Presentations and Highlighting link below).

We then go on to the

I. Highlighting Phase, which consists of the

(a) the Discovery Phase

(b) Explanation/Model Phase.

In the Discovery Phase the students make deductions about what the specific target language feature is, and how that target feature is used to solve communicative problems.

In the Explanation/Model Phase, students are given clear explanations or models of the feature and how it is used, so there will be no doubt what it is they will practice and why they are practicing it.

To appeal to a variety of learning styles and especially to respond to the needs of younger learners, we may want to use models of how the feature is used rather than explanations which can be very meta-linguistic (see the Language Presentations and Highlighting link below).

After the Explanation, we move on to the Practice Activities.

Practice activities move from very controlled activities (so that the students can master the form of the feature) to semi-controlled activities (so that students can still work with producing the correct form while at the same time having the opportunity to make limited communicative choices), to relatively uncontrolled communicative activities, so that learners can practice the language feature as they would in the real world.

The Inductive-Deductive Pattern:

With this lesson sequence, the beginning activities (the top half of the hour glass) tend to be inductive in nature (the students discover for themselves the language and what is interesting about it).

Then, beginning with the explicit explanation/model the lesson becomes deductive: the students have been given the rule/model and know they try to apply it in specific situations.

Thus, the inductive component helps make the lesson more meaningful and memorable, and the deductive component helps eliminate uncertainly and provides a clear basis for constructive practice.