A strategy must cue both mental and physical actions. An absence of physical actions will make it difficult to evaluate application of the strategy and to monitor progress toward meeting the setting demand. When teaching the strategy, you need to ensure that all physical actions are supported by a clear explanation of the associated mental actions that need to take place. Information about the mental actions provide guidance related to decisions about the best way to meet the demand. For example, if a step in a paragraph writing strategy you are teaching cues students to outline their ideas before writing their first draft, then you will need to provide guidance on how to make decisions about what information should be included in the outline.
Students can use all the steps of an effective strategy in a limited amount of time.
A strategy must be performed in a relatively short time. Otherwise the self-instruction process involved in performing the strategy will be undermined, rendering the process ineffective. An effective strategy does not contain unnecessary steps or explanations. The number of steps and the amount of explanation in the strategy should be no more than what is needed to enable the student to learn the strategy and meet the setting demand. Unnecessary steps or trivial information increases the amount of information to be learned and remembered about a strategy.