Many teachers will begin the year with some groundwork in filling gaps. Here are some ideas that can help:
- Do some pre-assessment at the start of the year or the start of a unit to determine where the gaps are, how wide spread they are among the students, and whether they are conceptual or procedural (recall and fluency). Conceptual gaps will require mini-lessons or work with models or looking at worked examples. Filling procedural gaps might focus more on practice and also worked examples.
- Start where the students are. Any time a student has fallen behind and we are trying to help them catch up, there is a tendency to want to accelerate the pace, or worry about lowering standards. If the path is a 10 mile race, 10 may be the ideal, but we can’t ignore all the steps in-between. Whatever the skill is - fraction operations, reading level, writing an essay - if the students are on mile 1, the first step is to finish that and start on mile 2.
- Break it down for them. To continue the race analogy, we can’t bring them to mile 6 or mile 10 simply by waiting there and congratulating the ones who make it. We need to give them encouragement and explicit guidance on the skills that are missing. Model, instruct, and give feedback on the skills they need to conquer the mile they are on.
- Make it an assignment, not an option. We sometimes want to “put it on their shoulders” as a way to motivate our students. Many of these students have already shown that they will make the wrong choice when given the option. Don’t provide practice sheets as an option “for those who want them.” Make them short, but make them required work.
- There are no perfect solutions. “Who is going to correct all of those practice sheets?” Who says you have to? In my classroom I sometimes felt overwhelmed with the piles of fraction practice sheets and cool-downs I had to go through… but I decided it was better for the students to do them than not do them, even if I didn’t look at every one. They received modeling and instruction, and yes, personalized immediate feedback would be ideal, but not a deal breaker. You can prioritize the students you know need help or look at every other or every third one - you will have to choose what seems right for you and your students.
But we know that developing skills takes time, and there are always students who struggle. Often it makes sense to provide resources and supports to bridge the gaps while skills are developing. This enables students to move forward and continue to build new knowledge while gaps exist. Bridging strategies often involve providing references for students including:
- Word walls or glossary pages can help with vocabulary
- Anchor charts and reference sheets can summarize big ideas and illustrate the connections between them
- Calculators, multiplication tables, and exemplars can provide support for students who struggle with computation
Again, we can’t just put the resources out there and hope or expect the students to use them. Plan time at the start of the year and/or unit to provide explicit instruction and practice on how to use the materials, and make it a short assignment, part of their classwork.
Sara Van Der Werf has a great blog that addresses supports for students.
By meeting students where they are, providing explicit instruction in the skills they need, and blending current and review material with supports and resources, we can go a long way to bringing students forward through these challenging times.