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  1. What do you do for students who arrive with significant academic gaps?
  2. How you will identify them?
  3. How you will you know you have made a difference?

This post highlights a recent discovery that will help  address question 1, that is a book written by Suzy Pepper Rollins,   Learning in the Fast lane, 8 ways to put ALL students on the road to achieve academic success.


Suzy argues that we spend too much time focussing on  filling the gaps rather than  moving forward. In otherwords we spend far too much time remediating rather than accelerating students.
 "instruction that aims to catch up lagging students or fix all their past problems ends up providing classroom experiences that are not compelling, rigorous, or engaging. Such instruction may inadvertently widen rather than close achievement gaps."


How do students feel?
sourced from http://cpl.org.nz/Our-services/Accelerated-Literacy-Learning-ALL/Northern-region


A colleague  likened this to someone falling off a boat while out on the harbour sailing. If someone who can't swim falls overboard , you don't jump in and teach them to dog paddle while the boat sails away, you haul them aboard and teach them to dog paddle as you keep sailing.

Acceleration comes with the usual logistical challenges - which students, who will teach them and when will we do this. Acceleration in this context is meant to be an enriching experience for students and  designed to encourage thinking, build vocabulary and scaffold missing pieces as they learn alongside their peers.



Learning in the Fast Lane is an essential guide that identifies eight high-impact, easy to use, research-based instructional approaches that will help you
  1. Generate thinking, purpose, relevance and curiosity
  2. Clearly articulate learning goals and expectations
  3. Scaffold and practice pre-requisite skills
  4. Introduce and practice key vocabulary
  5. Apply the new concept to a task
  6. Regularly assess and provide feedback (ie: formative assessment)







    More...


    read the first chapter of Learning in the Fast Lane  online here .

    listen to a podcast with Suzy Pepper Rollins  here


     watch a webinar  here

    Check out the effect of some of the evidenced based strategies that form the pedagogical basis for the Learning in the Fast Lane model here. An effect size of 0.4 or more is considered significant.


    Get Learning in the Fast Lane from Kohia Teachers Centre Bookshop


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