4+Teaching+Remedial+Classes




 * Teaching Remedial Classes

Definition of Remedial Student:** A homogeneous grouping of students who have had a trend of poor assessment grades and standardized test scores. This grouping results in a very negative segregation of lower achieving students.


 * Learner Characteristics:** Remedial students are typically receiving grades that are two or more levels below the average student within their age group or grade. Remedial students tend to be more absent and tardy than their fellow classmates and have a difficult time continually passing in homework. Many remedial students are extremely frustrated with their schooling due to failing or below average grades in past classes. It becomes a battle for most teachers to keep the remedial students' attention at all times and prevent the student from growing frustrated during a large work assignment. It is important to keep in mind that the homogeneous remedial classroom is not homogeneous at all. Every student comes into the classroom with a different set of problems, outlooks on school and past experiences that could have either had a negative or positive impact on them. Dr. Grace of UMF said that the most important aspect of teaching in a remedial classroom is making the students believe in themselves. If the students have success, they will feel good about themselves and do the work you ask them to complete. Dr. Grace also stated that it takes a special type of student teacher relationship to be able to receive the best results and growth.


 * Establishing your Management System:** Students that have been placed in a remedial setting may have been put there due to shorter attention spans, frequent absences and having a difficult time remembering. This is why it is important for you, the teacher, to spend more time explaining, reviewing and reminding students in your class about the expectations you have set in place. When establishing your management system, it is important to not assume students in your class understood everything you said the first day. Therefore it becomes important for you to administer formative assessments in regards to your expectations and continually remind the students through the first few weeks of classroom rules and guidelines.


 * Monitoring Behavior:** Keeping and orderly and well constructed classroom is of the utmost importance when teaching remedial students. You should sit in an area where every student is visible and at the first sign of trouble be able to quickly and swiftly deal with it. But it is important to try and minimize the attention brought to the student. Therefore, it is usually best to establish eye contact with the student, or go stand near s/he to convey to them that what they are doing is wrong. Dealing with the problem quickly makes it possible to contain the outburst and regulate the problem to just a few students.


 * Managing Student Work:** The best way to manage a students work in such a classroom is by providing constant feedback for the student. By giving the students grades and feedback at the end of each week, it makes it difficult for students to fall behind and allows you to monitor the student's progress effectively. The student receiving weekly grades allows them to take responsibility of their schoolwork and better understand the repercussions to not doing the work. It might also be suggested to put in a participation grade for your students. This almost forces each individual student to become more involved within the class.

Whitmore (1989) believes that the teachers who are the most effective with the remedial students are the ones that recognize each child has their own strengths and weaknesses. Teachers should be giving the students a chance to excel in the areas that they are well off in while simultaneously giving the student opportunities to improve in the areas they struggle in. Whitmore also believes it to be important for the teacher to present forth a classroom that is an extremely safe environment where students are taught that mistakes are part of the learning process.
 * Planning and Presenting Instruction:** There are three basic steps in effectively planning and presenting instruction to student within the remedial class. 1) Organize the instruction being presented into short fun activities that allow the student and teacher multiple opportunities to check for understanding. 2) Make it one of your main goals to present the instruction clearly to the students. 3) Do not create a lesson plan that requires an extended period of seatwork. Allow the students to get up, move around and experience all of their intelligences. The primary difficulty with using a plethora of instructional cycles is the pacing and transitions involved. It is key that you leave enough time for each instructional period to be completed with enough time to move onto the next one.