How To Help Struggling Learners In Your Class

What do you do when your students are performing below state average in a certain subject area, like phonics and phonemic awareness?  One of the first things I would do is reflect on the instructional practices and activities I have been presenting and think about which elements were working for my students and which were missing the mark. I could use past assessments or assignments to detect any patterns of students not mastering a certain skill or concept. I could also reflect on whether my students have been successful in other academic areas in which I’ve used similar instructional practices and activities.

The next things I would do is take an inventory of my students and take note of their individual learning styles and preferences and well as any areas in which they struggle. It is important to know how each best learns and what would peak each of their interests as a means to create the most engaging environment possible. In Teaching As Jazz, Tomlinson and Germundson (2007) state the following: “From a student’s perspective, the keen interest of a teacher is an affirmation of personal worth. It is an invitation to learn-a bridge between security and the unknown.” Getting to know your students should not solely be to inform your instructional practices. Students are better, more motivated learners when they feel that their teacher cares about them as an individual and there is no better way to do that than to take an actual interest in who they are, what they like, and how they learn.

With this information gathered, I would then look at the curriculum and see what learning objectives the students are required to master and develop a plan which would include whole group and small group lessons and activities, as well as individual activities for those who need more intensive instruction in order to be successful.  Along with that, I would continually assess my students to make sure they were mastering their objectives or at least making progress. I would reflect on these assessments weekly and make changes to instruction and activities to best meet students’ needs. Brimijoin (2005) states the following: “Teachers with competence in differentiation use ongoing assessment to make proactive adjustments in content, process, and products.” I think the key word in this statement is proactive. The whole point of differentiating instruction is to find methods of instruction and assessment that keep students engaged and challenged enough to learn and show their learning. In order to make do that successfully, you’ve got to take time to reflect regularly and make appropriate changes to curriculum and activities on an ongoing basis.

One other step I believe we, as teachers, forget or don’t make time to do, is connect and talk with colleagues and team members. Each educator brings their own wealth of information, strategies, and ideas that could prove to be insightful and helpful in developing new ways for students to learn. Sometimes we, teachers, spend so much time trying to problem solve challenges in our classroom, in isolation, that we forget the answer to our issue could be right down the hall or next door.

My hope would be that student performance would improve vastly and the information that I learned through adjusting my instruction for this one subject would also inform my instruction in other subject areas, in order to give my students the best chance at overall academic success. And hopefully that academic success can create perseverance and self confidence within each student that will help them for many years to come in their educational journey. 

As a teacher of diverse students in a lower socio-economic area, one thing I tried never to take for granted was the amount of background knowledge and prior experience my students walked into my room with. I teach early childhood students and in order for them to master certain skills, they need to have a solid foundation of basic skills and knowledge. Because of the diverse culture of our school, I try to plan lessons and activities that leave space for me to include vocabulary, and basic knowledge and skill pre-assessment or pre-teaching that will be vital to students’ successful completion of the lesson. If I continue to teach material and skills and concepts that are too difficult because those basis skills or background knowledge is not there, then the students will feel frustrated and may not want to engage in the learning experience. Our job as teachers is to find ways to adequately challenge our students, not frustrate them. 

References:

Brimijoin, K. (2005). Differentiation and High-Stakes Testing: An Oxymoron

Theory Into Practice, 44(3), 254-261.

Tomlinson, C.A. & Gurmundson, A. (2007) Teaching As Jazz. Educational Leadership, 64(8), 27-31.