How To Assist An Underachieving Student
The teaching profession presents many challenges. One of the most common and most challenging situations to deal with can a student who has great potential but for whatever reason struggles to achieve academically when you know they are capable. Here are some of the ways to assist them.
1. Ask Questions That Inspire Thought
First of all, you should rethink the way in which you communicate with the child who’s struggling. You need to look at ways in which you can ask better questions and provoke a reaction from them. Ideally, the aim should be to really make them think and to consider the question that’s in front of them. Independent thought and inquiry is the key here.
2. Teach Perseverance
Teaching kids to persevere when they’re faced with a challenge or with something that they don’t understand right away is very important. Teaching perseverance is not easy but it will be rewarding in terms of the outcomes it’s able to generate. If they give up at the first sign of a challenge, that’s obviously not going to be good for them in terms of what they’re able to achieve.
Other Teaching Resources:
How to Get a Student to Own Their Behaviour
What Are Logical Consequences?
How Listening To Students Improves Student Behaviour
3. Suggest Out of Class Learning Opportunities
Sometimes, kids just need to put in a little extra time and energy into a subject in order to understand it better. Places like ABCmouse offer a range of learning opportunities that can be explored, and they can be very beneficial when related to a topic that a child might be having particular difficulties with at school. So you might want to point them towards these resources.
4. Find New Ways of Keeping Students Interested and Motivated
If a child isn’t willing to show an interest in the subject that they’re meant to be focusing on, it can be difficult to help them out. That’s why it’s up to you as their teacher to keep them motivated in these things and to keep them feeling motivated to keep pushing forward and learning new things. It’s not always easy, but you have to find the approach that works best for each student.
Other Teacher Resources:
How To Make Differentiation A Breeze
8 Simple Ways To Differentiate The Curriculum For Your Students
5. Discuss Difficulties One on One
If you’re struggling to fully understand why a child is falling short in a particular area, it’s important to take the time to discuss this with them and get to the bottom of any problems that are present. One on one tasks can often yield the best results, as long as you’re asking the right questions and getting them to open up about why they’re struggling. You can then change your approach to suit the student’s needs.
Assisting a student who’s struggling to reach their academic potential can be really tough. There are often no shortcuts or easy answers, but if you put in the time and effort to develop new approaches, you can sooner help them get to where you know they’re capable of being.