Twenty third-grade teachers and their low ability reading group students participated in a naturalistic study to test how teachers' explanations during a year of reading instruction affected either metacognitive awareness or student use of strategies while reading. The 10 teachers in the treatment group were trained to be explicit when teaching low ability groups to use reading skills as strategies; the remaining 10 served as a control group. The first group was observed 12 times and the second was observed 6 times. The first hypothesis was that treatment teachers would provide more explicit explanations about how to use reading skills as strategies than the control teachers. The second hypothesis was that the low-group students of the treatment teachers would demonstrate more awareness of lesson content and of the need to be strategic when reading and greater reading achievement gains. Statistically significant results confirmed the hypotheses regarding explanation, awareness, and achievement; teachers were able to become more explicit in explaining reading skills strategies; students did respond to the explanations; and the explanations led to better achievement test scores. These findings indicate that explanation is important because it makes students more consciously aware of the content of their lessons. Also important are the possible linkages between explicit explanations, student cognitive processing of instructional information, and achievement. (References and eight appendixes providing the rating criteria and other measures used in the study are included.) (SKC)