“Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions. ” Edgar Cayce

Many educators, who have attended my workshops concerned with simplifying small-group, differentiated instruction in mathematics using the Tabor Rotation Framework, have submitted questions. Before the year is over, my goal is to respond to as many of these questions as possible. These teachers came to me with measuring cups waiting for answers…here come some possible solutions.

One middle school teacher asked, “How do you offer remediation or additional help for students during a week of instruction?”

Great question! This question reveals the teacher’s desire to stop reteaching to the entire class just because a few students are struggling with the concept or ask a question during the whole-group portion of the class. When schools are looking for answers of how to best meet the needs of all of their students, this question is always asked. During a recent Tabor Rotation training, one high school teacher made an interesting observation. He said, “I’m spending too long in my whole-group lesson because I feel guilty if I don’t stop and explain everything to every student who has a question. I should have felt guilty boring the majority of students who did understand and were just sitting there.  I need a timer!”

If you plan for student diversity, then you don’t need to feel guilty at all! A simple response to this question is to use readiness groups. During independent practice time, a teacher may pull a guided readiness group to teach skills or concepts which were not understood by some of the students. Teachers should think of a different way to explore the concepts than the ones previously used with those students. If more time would benefit the approaching level students, then the teacher could pull an additional readiness group for ten minutes during another independent practice time.

If you use the Tabor Rotation Framework, every week includes readiness grouping for all students on Days 4 & 5. If more assistance is needed, a readiness group could occur on Monday when the leaders and co-leaders are in the Leadership Academy and the rest of the class is involved in independent practice.  If still more time is needed, then the components of Rotation Days 2 & 3 can be abbreviated slightly to give an extra ten minutes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Want a more sophisticated explanation of how to plan for assisting the learners who need it? First, if a teacher believes that differentiated instruction is a student’s bill of  rights, then all students will receive additional assistance. The Tabor Rotation Planning Framework plans for EVERY student in a room to have small-group guided instruction at least twice a week.

Let’s review how a teacher may offer additional help for all students. [See the Basic Tabor Rotation Planning Guide] Days 4 & 5 of the Tabor Rotation Framework for simplifying small-group, differentiated instruction in math are devoted to Readiness Grouping. After pre-assessment and Clipboard Cruising, the teacher determines who is above level in their understanding of the week’s skills and concepts, who is on level, and who is approaching level for the week’s skills and concepts.

Example of Above-Level, Master Assistance: An Algebra class is studying how to graph a linear equation. Their teacher gave a pre-assessment four weeks before and determined that 2 of his students understood the concept completely. He followed this pre-assessment by giving them the 10 hardest problems from the unit and asking them to explain their thinking. They showed understanding at the concrete, the representational, and the abstract level. These two students met with the teacher first on Day 4 to explore how to graph an inequality. The students were asked to share the “connections” they made between the two types of graphing in the Mathematician’s Circle that week.

Example of On-Level, Expert Assistance: The second group of students was given the same pre-assessment as the rest of the class. The teacher noted that these students were familiar with the vocabulary needed to graph linear equations and knew how to use a coordinate graph, but were unfamiliar with the procedures for creating a graph of a linear equation. These students explored the weekly concepts through varied modalities. They made more meaningful, real-world connections during the Whole-Group Mini-Lessons devoted to the regression models for the amount of cereal they ate per day and the amount of pen ink two classes in the school used.

The activities at the Tabor Rotation Stations provided hands-on experiences in understanding linear equations. In the Manipulative Station the students worked in pairs to graph the points of a floor-sized linear equation. In the Games Station they competed to see which set of partners was first to find the points on the graph. In Teacher Time, the teacher began the exploration of slope of a line. In the Application Station, students reviewed how to change Plain English into Math Talk and use the Math Talk to write equations and inequality statements.

The teacher used all the information obtained via Clipboard Cruising, a type of formative assessment, to determine who had understood the concepts at an expert level but could use more experience in a guided math group based on their interest and learning style. The teacher uses the week’s activities from the Games and the Manipulative Station to review the concepts and ask higher-order questions while playing.

Example of Approaching-Level, Novice Assistance: The third group of students showed some prerequisite skill gaps after taking the pre-assessment. The teacher met with the students on Day 1 to “front load” some of the needed information for the week. However, some of that group have struggled with mastery of the week’s skills and concepts. After being exposed to the concepts in at least 3 different ways, they are still unable to answer some of the on-level questions.

The teacher thinks about the interests, learning styles, and achievements of this group before beginning the guided, small-group instruction. The teacher begins the at-promise or novice group instruction (often called intervention or remediation) by playing a part of a game from three weeks before. They do this for about 2-3 minutes. The teacher does this because he understands how the brain learns best. His students will learn more about the concepts which challenge them if they begin with something which makes them feel successful—see a Student Snowball of Success blog post [https://glennatabor.com/2010/09/a-snowball-of-success/].

The small-group, guided math instruction for the Novice group continues with the teacher using a computer program to show the steps for graphing a linear equation. As they observe each step, the teacher stops for discussion.  The teacher realizes that more time is needed, so will call this group for a second time the next day, Day 5.

“How do you offer remediation or additional help for students during a week of mathematics instruction?”

This post suggested many ways to help students–ways which are easy and have proven to be highly successful. Every student has the right to meet and exceed their potential. When a teacher believes this and follows a plan of action to realize this belief, his students can quote Buzz Lightyear,

“To Infinity and Beyond!”