Your students aren’t doing so hot with something you’ve already taught them. It’s to a point where they really need to “relearn” it. A review won’t cut it. Perhaps, it’s a newer topic they need more time to grapple with, or maybe it is a old topic they’ve forgotten. You’re stumped and need some help with your catalog of reteaching strategies. No worries! I got you!
Brain Dump and Chalk Talk
The first thing I like to do is some type of brain dump. A brain dump is where I ask the students to tell me everything they know about a particular topic. Then I will write all of these things on the board for the class to see. This helps me to gauge what they already know and what’s missing.
A chalk talk is where I give the students the same prompt, to tell me everything they know about a topic and they walk up and contribute to the board. They can do this by writing on the board, or by bringing a post it up to the board. It’s called a chalk talk, because back in the day, it was actually chalk. In digital teaching I do this with a Google Doc where all kids can contribute in real time.
In some way you will need to preassess what your students needs to have retaught. This can be done by evaluating test data, classwork and homework responses and simply asking the students what and how much they are understanding.
Reteaching Strategies
When it actually comes to reteaching, you want to do your best to weave the old content into your current content. When you do this, you will compromise less time and stay on your planned pacing. If you have All Star Planned your course, this is really easy to do because your connections have already been made. You can take the free All Star Planning Masterclass to learn more about my planning methods.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Let’s say my students need to be retaught about valence electrons (outermost electrons in an atom). When I teach bonding, I will make sure to talk about the different properties of the elements based on their valence electrons. As I teach that metals lose electrons, and nonmetals gain them, I will take a few moments to reteach valence electrons as opposed to assuming they already know it.
Reteaching Activities
- Flat out teach it again. Either do a full or a mini lesson to recover the content and give it a fresh set of eyes.
- Have a student teach it. This can be done for the whole class or in small groups with a student teacher. I’m sure there are some students who got the material the first time around. This is a great opportunity for the students to learn the material in a new way, and in a new voice.
- Refresh their memories with a trail of probing questions. You can start with information the students likely know and travel along a path of questions that will get them to uncover the material using their own prior knowledge.
- Use new content to teach the old content. Teach this lesson as if the students have no background information, even though they should.
- Assign some reading or a Youtube video for homework. Then come in and talk about what was learned when you all return to class.
You can get a printable list of my reteaching strategies to keep at your desk (there’s one or two more on the list). This way when you plan, you will have all of these tools at top of mind.
