from Terry Hayek
When students struggle in school, it can be for a variety of reasons.
From their understanding of content and their literacy skills to their level of engagement with behavior and organizational issues, to the actions of teachers, to the proverbial “things going on at home,” the possibilities are insanely endless. The following 8-step process is a valuable tool for me as a teacher, so I thought I’d share a version of it here in hopes it might help you. Not only was it helpful for me to see what strategic responses I had available as a teacher, but it was also helpful for the students to know what to expect.
It was also valuable in teacher conferences and in discussions with district people during reviews when they wanted to know how I “reacted to non-mastery” (other than re-teaching the same content in the same broken form with the same ineffective strategies that failed the first time.)
As you can see in the image below, this functions as a kind of hierarchy. The first step is the broadest and most powerful and works for the largest number of students. The second step is a little narrower and was not needed nearly as often as step 1, and so on to step 8, which was needed for very few students. This model works effectively in grades 8-12, although I have never used it in elementary.
See also 25 self-directed reading answers for fiction and non-fiction
The goal of diagnostic training
It is important to keep in mind the purpose of this process – diagnostics. what’s wrong What is an outage? What gets in the way of learning or students proving what they actually know?
No matter what process, model, system, or flow chart you use, as long as you have something designed and documented, you can use and refine it accordingly, protecting you from knee-jerk reactions to non-mastery such as repeating, speaking louder/faster/slower, keeping students after class, calling home, giving poor grades, having them partner with “good students”, giving them most of the answer, etc.
Diagnostic teaching: An 8-step process for helping struggling students
1. Ffundamental curriculum & unit design
In diagnostic teaching, your first response should also be the broadest and most powerful. In this case, this is how you design your curriculum and instruction card, card by card, lesson by lesson, lesson by lesson. Each of these parts should have built-in devices that automatically—without any action on your part—respond to struggling students.
In short, spiral big ideas and power standards continuously throughout the year so that students access the learning objectives and standards a half-dozen or more times, in different guises and forms. Provided students are reading somewhere near grade level and completing most of their work—and that work is in their zone of proximal development—this alone can be incredibly effective.
To achieve this, consider an approach to curriculum mapping and instructional design that prioritizes. Standards for power, helix, transfer and Bloom’s Taxonomy all of which are extremely useful in teaching and learning. The school year is a marathon, not a series of academic sprints. You have nearly a full calendar year’s worth of students. Design learning experiences around a handful of “big ideas” and power standards that have been practiced over and over and at varying levels of “cognitive intensity.”
Whether you use Bloom’s Taxonomy, depth of knowledge, TeachThought Taxonomyor any other, the idea is to be able to structure and frame instruction for a diverse set of learners will work. Obviously, this concept probably deserves its own post, but in general, if students don’t “get” a standard (or learning objective) in November, that’s okay because they’ll likely see it again in December, February, and April.
Summary
In short, map the curriculum and design units in a way that preemptively plans for struggling students from the beginning. If that’s not enough until you diagnose the problem? Go to step 2.
2. Complete any missing or incomplete tasks
The next step in diagnostic training is related to individual tasks. If students don’t complete the work—the “practice”—they can’t improve. This means that all graded work (not all graded) will need to be revised until they reflect “mastery”. Again, this is a whole post in itself – what is mastery, what do we accept as evidence, etc.
However, the idea is for each student to complete each task. If they I didn’t do it or he couldn’t finish the job, you need to know what was – can’t or can’t. Once you know, you can answer more precisely.
If they just haven’t – well, the next step is obvious. do it
If they couldn’t? Your next step will be to clarify the instructions – make sure their poor performance is not a matter of misunderstanding what the task is asking of them. If appropriate, you can also highlight each heading – make sure they have seen it, read it and can understand it.
Just as above – iwell no, I would clarify; if they’re confused, adjust the rubric so it “meets them where they are”—right in front of them with a pen so you’re both on the same page. If this is not enough to diagnose the problem and the problem is correctable without major changes, you can contact the home for help with the assignment and rubric. (Note – be careful here. Be specific about why you’re calling home; you don’t want a student to be “in trouble” when they just need help.)
Summary
The big ideas here are completeness and clarity. Students either need to complete the work so you can diagnose, or you need to clarify what to do and why so they can actually complete it.
Mark uncompleted tasks as “Incomplete” instead of “F”
clarify the instructions
highlighting/clarifying rubrics
offer a differentiated rubric
you may need to contact parents for support
Still struggling? On step 3 above.
3. Differentiate grades by unlearned standards
The next step in diagnostic teaching is to differentiate assessment based on any number of factors – assessment format (MC vs. essay, etc.), background knowledge, etc. Same complexity, depth, etc., just a different kind of assessment.
Summary
Grade the same standard(s) with a different grade
If this is not enough, go to step 4.
4. Isolate and prioritize standards of excellence
While above you are simply providing an alternative form of the same assessment, step 4 allows you to break things down further so you can pinpoint the issues more precisely. This means you will take an assignment, exam, project, etc. and you will change it significantly. Not to make it “simpler”, but for diagnostic reasons. You try to find the barrier to students’ understanding and remove it.
Three ideas? Reduce the number of standards being assessed at once, reduce the number of steps in the assignment, and/or prioritize which standards you are most interested in and start from there.
Summary
reducing # standards
decrease # of steps
prioritize and isolate standards of excellence
If this is still not enough for the student to be successful, step 5 can help.
5. Select new materials/resources that include a more transparent illustration of the standard
This one is a little simpler. Choose a problem, chart, poem, novel, app, or some other resource that makes the “lesson” or learning objective as transparent as possible. Reduce the need for students to analyze, evaluate, make critical judgments, etc. Of course, they should be able to do these things, but remember that this is a troubleshooting process. Most students will never get to step 5.
You don’t teach here, you diagnose.
Summary
Reduce and simplify!
6. Daily use of the exit chart by students
You can download an example of a daily exit chart of ours TeachersPayTeachers Store.
By the time students get to step 6, you’ve already responded in five other ways. At this point, you may need to involve yourself, the student, and their family in a bit of trivia. You need a daily snapshot of how the student is interacting with the content. One important goal here is to put the student “on the clock,” so to speak. This will help you see if the problem is motivation, organization or something purely academic.
One way to clarify this is to use something like a daily exit chart, which can also help communicate home what is happening in the classroom.
Summary
Create a daily chart to bring teacher, student and parents together on one page.
7. Setting student goals and monitoring progress
The next step, if steps 1-6 are not enough, is to establish individual goals – whether they are content-related or not is up to you and the student. But together you set goals and monitor progress on a daily or weekly basis – and hopefully in a way that the student and family at home can either support or manage on their own.
8. Support systems outside the classroom
If none of the above works—no amount of modification, differentiation, personalization, or communication can help students successfully master the content in your classroom—there may be other issues beyond your control, including simple things like organizational issues to more complex literacy issues, learning disabilities, and more. This is where referrals, training, school-level RTI or other functions may need to come into play.
Summary
At this point, the student will benefit from outside support to help you diagnose what is going on.
Organizational skills
1-to-1 training
ESS/RTI, ECE, Others
Conclusion
The big idea behind diagnostic teaching is to illuminate and remove barriers to student understanding. When students have problems, you need to be able to systematically identify and correct them. It’s probably not much different from what you’re already doing. However, there may be a slight change in practice.
This is not about good grades, high-level thinking, compliance, or even understanding. Rather, the goal is to establish a model of diagnosis—of diagnostic learning—so that you shift your focus from teaching and reteaching to systematic, guided diagnostics of barriers to academic performance.
It’s a seemingly small but important shift from thinking like a driver or manager to thinking like a doctor or scientist. Another benefit? Helping students and parents see the process so they can start doing the same.
Diagnostic Teaching: Figuring out why your students are struggling
