Ensuring Success: Pre-Remediation as a Valuable Alternative

  • 04 May, 2024
  • 11 Comments

Teacher question:

I would love to know your advice on pre-teaching. My colleague does this for math instruction and has seen great gains. She teaches the whole group lesson for the day to those students she suspects of needing a double dose of instruction in small group before the whole group lesson is presented. She’s seeing great gains in confidence with these students during whole group instruction due to them having had this pre-teaching beforehand. What would this look like for ELA? I’m eager to try it, just not sure how.

Shanahan responds:

I know of no research on this scheme, but it is something that I have long recommended for certain Tier 2 programs. Recently, I heard from a middle school that had taken my advice on this matter. They wanted me to know of their big success with this scheme in terms of student learning and were looking to expand their efforts. (They sent me test scores and everything).

I think this approach could make a fine contribution within a classroom as well, at least under certain circumstances. In the past, I’ve not recommended this approach for classrooms, nor have I ever seen it in operation in the regular classroom. But I’m convinced that it could pay off.

Why do I think it could be beneficial?

First, and perhaps most important, it would increase the amount of instruction for some kids. This kind of time increase often results in learning gains, especially for students who don’t catch on as quickly as the others.

Another possible advantage is the one that you allude to. This gameplan alters the social fabric of a classroom in a way that can be productive since it puts the low kids on a more even footing with the higher achieving students. In my experience with Tier 2 versions of this, that can be very motivational. 

Think of how Tier 2 programs often work.

A classroom teacher recognizes that some of her students struggle to read the social studies book. They can’t keep up with the rest of the class and have trouble completing assignments because of their reading deficiencies.

Accordingly, this teacher refers those students for remedial assistance.

In response, the remedial specialist assesses them and if they test low enough qualify, they are provided a dose of pull-out teaching.

Let’s say that the students in question are fourth or fifth graders who read at a second- or third-grade level.

The remedial teacher will likely place them in a book or program supposedly appropriate to those low reading levels. That means that in the classroom, those kids will be taught with a grade-level social studies book, while in the remedial class, they’ll work with much easier books, books at those reading levels – and this work will probably include vocabulary study, fluency practice, and some form of guided or directed reading.

At some point the Tier 2 teacher will report that these students are making satisfactory progress.

And, what of the teacher who originally made the referral? She likely thinks, “What a waste of time!” These students, even if they have made progress in reading (perhaps going from a 2.0 to a 2.5 on the test) can now handle texts at the 2.5 grade level), still cannot read the social studies book. Those gains make nary a dent in these students’ inability to handle the grade level text. The students still can’t do the assignments, keep up with their classmates, or even read the content texts that were the original reason for referral.

The students’ thoughts on the matter should be considered too. In their case, they are often unhappy about the remedial work since it stresses their deficiencies and separateness to their peers. They might not mind this if the remedial work paid off with substantial gains, but that is all too rare. Moving from a 2.0 to a 2.5 reading level for 9- or 10-year-old students is barely noticeable progress and it certainly isn’t likely to enable those students to succeed.

There is just too big a mismatch between what everyone wants – educational success for the struggling students – and what is offered instructionally.

This pre-teaching approach to Tier 2 turns that situation on its head.

The students aren’t working on out-of-grade level texts, but with the actual texts that they need to read. They aren’t always lagging the other students but are instead always a step ahead.

The instruction they receive is not necessarily very different from what they would be doing with those second-grade texts. They are engaged in vocabulary work, guided reading, repeated reading, and so on – but those lessons have a perceptible payoff to the student since they focus on books that they need to read. In such a case, students can gauge the results themselves by considering what they are now able to do in their classroom. Instead of feeling unnecessarily isolated or segregated, the success this approach provides increases their ability to connect with classmates and more than compensates for the pull-out work.

Those meaningful payoffs are why I frequently recommend that approach for Tier 2 programs, especially in middle schools and high schools.

But it could payoff as a strategy for more effective classroom teaching as well even in the language arts.

As regular readers of this blog know, I often discourage small group instruction because of the inefficiencies it tends to introduce. However, I do say that if some students fail to meet the intended goals of a whole class lesson, teachers may want to follow up with additional small group work to get all students across the goal line.

Your colleague is taking a preventative approach, rather than my remedial one. I like her thinking on this better than my own. Although the overall approach lacks clear research support, there are studies showing that it is possible to use instruction to transform a text from frustration level to instructional level (e.g., Parker & Burns, 2014). That means that such pre-teaching – however and wherever it might be delivered, could have a real payoff in terms of student learning even within English Language Arts. Much comprehension instruction takes the form of guided reading practice with increasingly difficult text, and this approach would allow a greater percentage of students to benefit from such practice with more complicated texts than in the past. (That means that the pre-teaching would take place with the same texts the students were about to study in their reading class.)

I know some teachers would be afraid of this approach because of their desire to have those students work with “reading level” texts. Nevertheless, research reveals that such students can often make similar or better gains with more advanced texts, texts that in the past would have been deemed too difficult to support learning (Shanahan, 2019; Shanahan, 2020. The extra doses of teaching that you are asking about could be just the support those students need to make success possible.  

But what about the fourth-grade teacher who has students with the decoding skills of a first or second grader? Clearly, those kids would need some kind of explicit decoding instruction. Such decoding, however, isn’t content that would make sense for all fourth or fifth graders. This pre-teaching scheme only makes sense if it provides support for struggling students to get a jump on the grade level curriculum. It would not be useful for addressing important gaps that are not part of that grade level curriculum. That means as good an idea as I think this is, it isn’t appropriate in all cases, and it would not obviate the need for explicit help with that kind of learning problem.

References

Parker, D. C., & Burns, M. K. (2014). Using the instructional level as a criterion to target reading interventions. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 30(1), 79-94. https://doi.org/10.1080/10573569.2012.702047

Shanahan, T. (2019). Why children should be taught to read with more challenging text. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 44(2), 17-23.

Shanahan, T. (2020). Limiting children to books they can already read. American Educator, 44(2), 13-17, 39.

 

LISTEN TO MORE: Shanahan On Literacy Podcast

Comments

See what others have to say about this topic.

Liz May 10, 2024 12:40 PM

Lelie Laud, would you elaborate on practice strategies, following pre teaching, please?
Liz

Lynn Moses May 04, 2024 02:11 PM

I do private reading remediation. When I start in early grades with a student, I am sometimes moving faster than the classroom teachers. I have had teachers comment previously on the benefit they see in classroom when students have covered the material previously with me. I believe there is both a knowledge and confidence impact.

Jeannie May 04, 2024 03:02 PM

Preventive (N.B.) measures like this could be called "premedial." The payoff pays off (N.B.) up front.

Leslie Laud May 04, 2024 05:21 PM

This is an old idea definitely worth revisiting! With the recent rise of interest in knowledge building, there have been misunderstandings.

The role of knowledge in reading comprehension is significant. The more we know, the better we read. However, there is no way to feasibly build all the knowledge students would need to know enough about all topics to see ELA scores rise - though this in no way diminishes the importance of bring in content knowledge whenever we can.

Fortunately, the more important question is - How do we build knowledge? That is where pre-teaching seems key.

In the latest meta by Peng Peng et al., 2023 (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/00346543231171345) - They found that when we pre-teach content, then introduce and practice strategies - the learning is greater than if we did not pre-teach content on that topic. This is a win win. Teaching knowledge without a focus on how to best use the most powerful strategies too does not raise outcomes. However, pre-teach content, introduce and practice strategies that students can use to learn more about that content. This will help you reap the benefits of both stronger content learning and helping students gain mastery of strategies so they can use these to further their content learning.

Jackie May 04, 2024 05:33 PM

Pre-teaching works well with one of the tenets of ESL—keeping instruction at the students' age-cognitive level. If they have been through pull-out instruction using lower-proficiency texts that target the classroom teacher's upcoming learning goals, they are much less likely to encounter or cause frustration in the classroom. They know what the issues are and will try to discuss them with the class. That oral interaction itself—expressing opinions, listening to questions, negotiating meaning—develops the confidence and language skills they need for their reading skills to improve.

Wap3comm May 05, 2024 12:55 PM

This is what I do in my newcomer program, currently with 2nd through 5 th grades. We have put together a program that covers the vocabulary and grammar needed to learn through unit studies, pairing a story and science or other knowledge that would be covered in all of the grade levels. This means when they see it again they are ready to participate in a meaningful way; meaningfully being the key word.
In our district, we have become fascinated with “differentiation” which seems to mean keeping students together is the priority.

Lisa May 06, 2024 03:55 PM

I am in support of a pre-teaching approach for tier 2 students. This would be especially helpful for low-level readers before a math class. I am an intervention teacher for reading and math and my focus is addressing gaps in learning, usually from the previous grade level or two. If the teacher is responsible for the pre-teaching material, what are some examples of how this time is found within a packed school day? Thanks.

Erica May 06, 2024 06:50 PM

Preteaching provides many learners with the schema necessary to fully engage in Tier 1 intstruction. In a remediation scenario, a student may be lost for 90 minutes and then provided with 30 minutes of support to catch up. A preteach model provides a learner 30 minutes of support so he/she has the tools necessary to fully engage in 90 minutes of instruction. It is the same 120 minutes with the possibility of very different outcomes.

Timothy Shanahan May 08, 2024 02:26 PM

Lisa--
There are usually a number of places time for this kind of teaching can be identified in reading. Often, teachers are working with multiple small groups that aren't really necessary (grouping on text level in grades 2 and up). Or teachers devote big chunks of time to things that have poor learning payoffs for these older kids -- shared reading, independent reading, etc.). The point of this kind of teaching is to make sure that what you are teaching is getting through to everyone -- it needs to be done purposefully, strategically, not as just one more thing to do.

tim

Matt May 08, 2024 02:42 PM

Tim, in your reply to Lisa's comment, you mentioned that shared reading doesn't have much of a payoff for 'these older kids'. Can you elaborate on what you mean by shared reading here? And when you say 'these older kids', do you mean struggling readers or all older readers?

Timothy Shanahan May 08, 2024 05:57 PM

Matt—
Shared reading refers to adults reading to kids and I was referring to grades 2 and up. Many teachers reduce the amt of instruction to read to the kids. Personally I would read to kids regularly (I always did) but not as reading instruction. Nothing wrong with reading to kids for specific instructional purpose (modeling a strategy) but those instances are occasional.
Tim

What Are your thoughts?

Leave me a comment and I would like to have a discussion with you!

Comment *
Name*
Email*
Website
Comments

Ensuring Success: Pre-Remediation as a Valuable Alternative

11 comments

One of the world’s premier literacy educators.

He studies reading and writing across all ages and abilities. Feel free to contact him.