Have you ever tried to learn a new skill, but didn’t catch everything the first time you were taught? What did you do?
I recently had to replace some pieces in my dryer. Half way through the process, I found myself running to YouTube to try and remember which pieces do what, and what I actually needed to remove… and HOW!
Math is a complicated skill, and it’s natural for students to not grasp EVERYTHING the first time around. That’s why a RETEACH is so important.
I once was frustrated with my students’ scores on a test, and returned it to them with the graceful instructions to ‘correct your mistakes’ to recoup the missed points. A struggling 6th grade students sarcastically replied, “So if we didn’t know it yesterday… why would we know it today?”
How deep her words cut!
THE RETEACH
Your remediation stations are designed to RETEACH students a skill that they have not yet fully understood (or to accelerate your students who have grasped everything and are moving on to more difficult subject matter).
In the last post, we created an outline of skills that your students need to know to accomplish the grade level task. In this post, we are going to focus on Step 1: giving your students a RETEACH that will help them grasp the material they have not yet mastered.
Since your students will be working in different stations all at the same time, it is imperative that each stations’ reteach can run without you giving the instruction.
My favorite way to deliver this instruction is through an online video like MathAntics, LearnZillion, etc. I don’t use Khan Academy much for this section because I want the tutorial video to explain the steps, and Khan Academy is more guided practice. Regardless, I try to find two short videos (less than 5 mins each) that will teach the subject matter to the student in a way they can understand.
If you cannot find two videos OR your classroom does not have the technology for all students to be on a device at the same time, you should have a teaching worksheet or the corresponding pages in the textbook which you will assign the student to read – as the RETEACH.
HOW TO DELIVER
Jumping ahead to the implementation, just so you can plan with the finished product on mind. On the DAY 1 of your remediation stations, your students will be working in different stations within the outline you created last week. Each student will watch a video OR read from the workbook / worksheet to learn the material. This should take every student 10-15 minutes.
While they are watching the video, or reading the material, they are going to take notes that they will be able to refer to throughout the station to help them do their work.
I do recommend that you spend some time teaching your students how to take notes.
On the next two days, your students will PRACTICE the skill, with IMMEDIATE feedback. Which we will go over in the next post.
HOMEWORK
For now, you have A LOT of work to do. Your one skill probably has between 3 and 6 stations, each requiring 2 short, tutorial videos.
So start scanning the internet for two short videos on each skill. For now, copy and paste the website addresses onto a Word Document or an Excel Spreadsheet. At the end of this series, I will show you how to create a place for your students to easily access these links.
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Free Tutorial Video on How to Implement Learning Stations into YOUR Class
