What to focus on in pre-teaching sessions

To decide what to focus on in a pre-teaching session, you need to consider the barriers for your selected learners and what will allow them to access the content in the class lesson. The pre-teaching session is there to address the barriers the learners might have in accessing the content of the lesson, not to avoid them struggling in the lesson. The assumption is that all the children could struggle with the content in the lesson and we are considering the additional barriers that certain learners might have in accessing this struggle. Often this is about ‘hearing the whistle’, being ready to engage in the class lesson from the start.

So much time is wasted at the beginning of a lesson if a child starts behind. When other children have a better understanding of a concept, they immediately start making progress. One child spoke of feeling muddled while everyone else knew what they were doing. It strikes me that the gap is widened at the very beginning of lessons, before teacher intervention, because the playing field isn’t level for children with shaky prior knowledge – Y6 teacher.

Having a sneaky preview of the lesson gives me a head start and if I didn’t have that I wouldn’t be ready – Y3 child

So we know what’s going to happen before we actually do the lesson, it’s like it’s much easier for us. It’s a bit like a secret that we know – Y2 child

It is not about replicating the class lesson. Focussing on one thing when pre-teaching makes it more effective.

In the next step, you will watch a video demonstration of course educators Carolyn and Stefanie planning their pre-teaching session.

To decide what to focus on in a pre-teaching session, you need to consider the barriers for your selected learners and what will allow them to access the content in the class lesson.