Title: Reviving Reteaching - Educational Leadership
Headings: Art and Science of Teaching / Reviving Reteaching
Art and Science of Teaching / Reviving Reteaching
When to Reteach
Introducing New Content
Reviewing Previously Taught Content
Tried and True
KEYWORDS
Requesting Permission

Content: Introducing New Content
When introducing new content, the teacher should continually monitor students' levels of understanding to determine whether immediate reteaching is necessary. For example, the teacher might periodically ask students to use various hand signals: Thumbs up means they understand the new content, thumbs down means they don't, and thumbs held horizontal means they understand some parts and are confused regarding others. Teachers can also use student response or voting technologies—commonly referred to as clickers —to determine students' perceived understanding. Students rate how well they understand specific content; these ratings are transmitted electronically to a PowerPoint slide or an interactive whiteboard. Teachers should design questions that address key aspects of the new content; an incorrect response would indicate severe misunderstanding. For example, if students in a science class could not answer the following question—What is the role of hypotheses in the scientific method?—they would clearly be missing essential information. One strategy that greatly facilitates reteaching is to present the content in small increments;