We like to think of education as the road to equality. It should be that one place where background doesn’t matter and equal chances abound. But that’s not entirely true, is it?
Weaker learners start every lesson behind the rest of the class. Where everyone else is at the starting line, they start meters behind. When the signal is given to start, they are given the impossible task of catching up to their speedy classmates. Is this fair? Of course not! Can we do something about this? Yes, yes we can! In this blog entry, I will share my own experiences with evening-out the playing field for my weaker learners. How I did it, and how well it worked.
Before I get to the actual practice of pre-teaching, however, I’d like to backtrack a little bit and look at the multi-store model of memory, otherwise known as the Atkinson-Shriffrin memory model. In this model of learning, new information comes in through the senses. We see, hear, feel, smell, or taste something new. Once the information has made it past our natural filters, we give it our full attention in the short-term memory. We prod at it, shift it around, play with it, research it, discover it, and what we think we want to remember, we move into the long-term memory.
At that point, we’ve learned something. However, the real learning takes place when we retrieve the information at a later date and use that information again. The more often we retrieve and use the information, the deeper the learning that takes place. It becomes automated.
Weaker learners need extra chances to retrieve the given information, and this is where pre-teaching comes in. Pre-teaching is an instructional strategy that involves teaching concepts or skills before the actual lesson takes place. Pre-teaching works because it introduces weaker learners to the material ahead of time. During the actual lesson, they are then in the modus of recognizing the new material, instead of seeing and learning it for the very first time. They are retrieving the information from their long-term memory, creating the first roads for automization of the content. This evens out the playing field for these learners who often need more time to automate information retrieval.
Pre-teaching also gives them a more even footing on a social basis. Instead of being behind the class, they can see eye-to-eye with their peers, joining in fluently and with self-confidence. There is a lot to be said for this!
In my own experience, I saw learners move from massive learning deficits to being on par with their classmates. They went from being lost, confused, misbehaving learners to children who joined in eagerly, happily and confidently. All it took? Fifteen minutes a week of pre-teaching.
Every week, I would take small groups of children and teach them something short, and something new. Sometimes, I knew we would be learning a new game in the lesson. New games are fun, but also tricky for weak learners, since they have to focus on two things at once: how to play the game and how to apply the new language in that game. Therefore, if we were going to be using a new game, I made sure to teach and practice the game with this group of students ahead of time. That way, when the game was introduced into the lesson, these learners would recognise and remember the game and be able to focus more attention on applying the language. We also always focused on the new words, either with simple flashcard games or with attributes, often combining the new words with gestures to help anchor their learning ‘in their bodies’ with a bit of Total Physical Response. This combination of new games with new words worked really well for these learners.
There are lots of things we can do in our pre-teaching, but I will focus on the quick and easy sorts. Whatever you end up doing, it’s good to find a way that works well for you and that you can keep up throughout the year. Maybe you will pre-teach children during a regular work session for the class, or adopt an older or stronger learner who can demonstrate the new words a day in advance of your lesson.
In short: keep it simple, and keep it fun! Decide what you will teach: new words, new work forms, or a simple combination of both. During the lesson, notice when your learners keeping up and give them a compliment for how well they are doing. Success feeds success!
amyklipp 