No two students learn at the same pace. In your classroom, you will likely have several students that master material quickly, while the majority of your class will learn at the general pace you might expect. However, there will be a select few students that experience difficulty keeping up with the class. Watch for students that do not seem to take much learning away from your lessons or who started kindergarten with an obvious learning deficit; for example, a student that has never been in a preschool classroom may be at a disadvantage compared to his classmates. Keep an eye on each of your students so you can spot trouble areas before they become a major problem.
If you want to adequately help students improve their performance, make time for remediation activities. These can be executed during recess periods or after school, but you will need the permission of the parents. To ensure that your remediation activities are successful, devote specific time to one student or a very small group of students experiencing similar issues. Targeting the problem is imperative in helping students stay on a level playing field.
Once you have started a student on a series of remediation activities, keep close tabs on how their progress is changing in relation to the class. Some students will require only a few extra lessons to get over a specific learning hump, while others may require constant support from the teacher to succeed. You will be able to tell which student is which as you push through your activities and work one on one with each individual student. Ideally, every student that participates in remediation activities will see better grades and higher academic confidence.
There are as many ways to help struggling students as there are students to help. You can try simple sound substitutions for basic phonics (substituting the “ah” sound in “cat” for an “oh,” for example), reading books together, singing songs about the alphabet or specific words, repeating activities from class with more instruction and personal attention, having students rhyme one word with another, or substituting new words with similar meanings. Often, the only thing you need to do to help a student is spend a little extra time walking through their problem area.