Remedial Instruction Programme for Year 4 students

7 Effective Remedial
Instruction Strategies
7 Effective Practices of Remedial Instruction

• Provide clear instruction of literacy components

• Support learners to explicitly develop their communicative competence
• Embed visual and verbal resources in lessons, to support student learning
• Encourage peer-assisted learning opportunities
• Build on students’ home language, culture, and social experiences
• Assess language and literacy challenges, and monitor progress
• Encourage collaborative small-group learning opportunities

(Adapted from National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2017)

7 effective practices of RI – What, Why, How
• Provide clear instruction of literacy components

What is it?
Explicit instruction is a way to teach skills or concepts to students using
direct, structured instruction. It helps make lessons clear by modeling for
students how to start and succeed on a task and giving them ample time
to practice.

How to do this? Why do we do this?

• Identify a clear, specific objective.
• Break the information into chunks.
• Model with clear explanations.
• Verbalize the thinking process.
• Provide opportunities to practice.
• Give feedback.
• It makes higher-order thinking and
inquiry-based learning easier.
• There’s less load on memory.
• Helps students with short attention span
• It allows various degrees of practice
• Allows you to collect and analyse data

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7 effective practices of RI – What, Why, How

• Support learners to explicitly develop their communicative competence

What is it?
Communicative competence does not only refer to a language user’s
grammatical knowledge but also social knowledge. It is important to know
when to use language accurately and appropriately in order to reach
communication goals.

How to do this?
Why do we do this?
• Contextualize speaking tasks to
• Activates students' interest to
students' daily life
communicate ideas
• Provide opportunities for students to
• Helps students to express thoughts
engage in role play and information
and opinions
gap activities
• Basic life skill
• Include letter writing, note-taking
and summarizing tasks
• Provide opportunities for group and
individual presentations
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7 effective practices of RI – What, Why, How

• Embed visual and verbal resources in lessons, to support student learning

What is it?
The use of various methods to help make core content understandable,
manageable and actionable throughout the course of the lesson.

How to do this? Why do we do this?

∙ Use short videos, visuals, and graphic • Help students make link between
organizers pieces of information
∙ Scaffolding with vocabulary • A memory aid
∙ Use verbal interactions that clarify • To increase students processing
content. e.g. defining words in opportunities
context; asking right-there questions;
coaching; and conducting
whole-class, small-group, and
partner discussions

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7 effective practices of RI – What, Why, How

• Encourage peer-assisted learning opportunities

What is it?
Peer-assisted learning is when students are paired with their
classmates regardless of their levels – with the goal to help each other to
learn.

How to do this? Why do we do this?

• Assign pairs of different levels and get
the more able student to support the
other
• Students to maintain a coach-coachee
relationship
• Pairs are changed frequently to
ensure students work on a variety of
language skills
• Helps foster a trusting and safe
learning environment
• Allows students to take
ownership of their learning
• Helps students build their
interpersonal, leadership and
communication skills

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7 effective practices of RI – What, Why, How

• Build on students’ home language, culture, and social experiences

What is it?
The way a student learns and responses in the classroom, has so much to do
with his/her culture and social experiences at home. Therefore, for a student to
learn holistically it is important to draw from their experiences and exposure to
life.

How to do this? Why do we do this?

• Provide opportunities for students to
share about their home life
• Use supporting materials that are
culturally contextualized
• Get the parents involved
• Attempt to understand students
home language and make links to the
language skills being taught
• Breaks down barriers in learning
• Creates a positive learning
environment
• Emotionally prepares students for
a better learning experience
• Allows students to make sense of
learning

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7 effective practices of RI – What, Why, How
• Assess language and literacy challenges, and monitor progress

What is it?
Assessments in remedial classrooms are vital to identify the learning
blocks students are experiencing and how best to support them in order
to progress. It also helps teachers evaluate the effectiveness of their
instructions/teaching.

How to do this? Why do we do this?

• First decide the type of assessment
to administer (RCA Tool)
• Based on findings, refer to the RI
Toolkit and select the appropriate
activities to support the student
• Monitor student progress (AfL Tools)
• Helps the teacher teach
effectively
• Helps student's breakdown
learning barriers
• Supports students' progression
• Enhances students overall
learning experience

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7 effective practices of RI – What, Why, How

• Encourage collaborative small-group learning opportunities

What is it?
The use of small groups to promote student learning. Students are
encouraged to share ideas and help each other learn while sharing
resources and their discoveries.

How to do this? Why do we do this?

• Establish groups and assign roles
• Set clear goals and expectations of
given tasks
• Differentiate tasks
• Assess each group on their own
merit
• Allows remedial students ample
time to learn at their own pace
• Shared learning responsibility
• Provide students opportunities to
communicate
• Students are exposed to diversity

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Acknowledgements & References

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2017) Promoting the Educational Success of Children and
Youth Learning English: Promising Futures. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
<https://doi.org/10.17226/24677>