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Session 3. Supporting Pupils Who Find Learning Hard
Objective. Use explicit teaching, small steps and scaffolds that fade for pupils who find learning hard, and follow a clear observe-record-refer routine without labelling.
When a pupil is still stuck after the third explanation, the usual reaction is to explain again, louder and longer. A better move is to change how you teach: smaller steps, a worked example, a few words taught first, and a temporary support that you plan to remove. These are good teaching for everyone, and they are often the most effective help a pupil with a hard time can get. This session also gives you a clear route for when classroom changes are not enough.
Key ideas
Good teaching first
- The strongest support for pupils who find learning hard is high-quality everyday teaching in the ordinary class, not a separate worksheet.
- Explicit teaching: state the goal, show one worked example, practise together, then practise alone, and check often. Give new content in small steps.
- Pre-teach 3 to 5 key words before the lesson, and revisit them. Many difficulties with a task are really difficulties with its words.
Scaffolds that fade
- A scaffold is temporary. Examples: a checklist of steps, a worked example next to the task, sentence starters, a word bank, a partly filled table, or a picture plan.
- Plan a ladder from most to least support: full example, then half example, then checklist only, then nothing. Move down when the pupil succeeds twice.
- Keep the task's thinking demand. Support the reading, the writing or the memory around it, but let the pupil do the thinking.
Observe, record, refer
- Teachers observe and describe; they do not diagnose. If a pupil does not progress after several weeks of good teaching and scaffolds, record it.
- A useful record has a date, the task, what the pupil did, what support you tried and what happened. Add what the pupil does well.
- Share it with the parents first and then with the school leader or the school's support specialist, and ask for advice. Tiredness, hunger, hearing or sight can look like a learning difficulty, so these are for specialists to explore.
Try it in your next lessons
- Action: choose one task and one or two pupils; build a three-step scaffold ladder, teach with it for two weeks and fade it.
- Evidence: a student-work sample from before and one after, with the date and the support level written on each.
- Bring both samples to Session 4.
A scaffold ladder, most to least support
Explicit teaching in small steps
Explicit teaching has a recognisable rhythm. You say the goal, show one step done slowly while thinking aloud, do the next one together, and only then let pupils try alone, checking after each short stretch. For a Grade 4 word problem, the steps are read, circle numbers, choose the operation, calculate, check. This cuts the number of things a pupil must hold in mind at once.
Pre-teaching adds one more layer. Before the lesson, spend three minutes with a small group on the three to five words the text will use, with a picture or a gesture for each. Pupils then meet the lesson as insiders. Many difficulties with a task are difficulties with its vocabulary, and a word taught calmly beforehand removes a barrier that no amount of effort during the lesson can.
Scaffolds, fading and knowing when to ask for help
A scaffold is built to be taken away. Plan the ladder before you start: for a paragraph on cotton picking, step 1 gives sentence starters and a word bank, step 2 only the word bank, step 3 a three-word plan the pupil makes. Move down after two successes without the old support. If you never move down, the scaffold becomes a crutch and the pupil depends on it.
If after several weeks of clear teaching and scaffolds a pupil is still not progressing, move to observe, record, refer. Write dated notes: the task, what the pupil did, what you tried, what helped, what the pupil does well. Talk with the parents first, then with the school leader or support specialist. Tiredness, hunger, hearing and sight can all look like a learning difficulty, which is why specialists, not teachers, explore them.
Examples from the classroom
The word problem routine
Scene. Aziz teaches Grade 4 in Fergana. Eight pupils stall on word problems although they calculate well. He teaches a routine: read twice, circle numbers, draw a quick picture, write the operation. He shows each step on the board for three problems. After three weeks, six of the eight no longer need the checklist card. He talks with the school's support specialist about the other two.
Insight. Explicit steps, a scaffold that fades, and referral only when needed.
Three words before the text
Scene. Dilnoza teaches a Grade 5 reading lesson in Tashkent about the Navruz sumalak. Four pupils usually struggle with long texts. In a 3-minute pre-lesson group she shows three words with pictures: sumalak, wheat sprouts, stir. In the lesson, all four answer the first two questions correctly, and one asks a question about the text for the first time.
Insight. Pre-teaching vocabulary removes a barrier that effort cannot.
Notes before a conversation
Scene. Malika, Grade 3 in Bukhara, keeps a notebook page for one pupil who cannot yet read simple words after six weeks of extra practice. Each entry has a date, the task, what he did, what helped, and what he does well (he remembers stories). She shows the page to his mother and the school's deputy for teaching and asks for advice. No label appears.
Insight. Observe, record and refer with strengths included, and no label.
Common pitfalls
- Giving the pupil the answer through the scaffold so the thinking is done for them.
- Leaving a scaffold in place for months because moving down feels risky.
- Reaching for a label such as 'weak' or a medical word instead of writing what you saw.
- Waiting until the end of the year to ask for advice.
Build a Scaffold Ladder and an Observation Record
- Read the sample task and the two short pupil portraits in your Activity Kit (Grade 4 mathematics, a two-step word problem). Decide what the task asks the pupil to think about.
- Alone (10 min): write the pre-taught words and a three-step scaffold ladder for the task (most support, medium, least).
- In pairs (15 min): compare ladders, then write an observation record for one portrait (date, task, what was seen, support tried, what helped, strength). Replace any label with a description.
- As a group (15 min): role-play the 3-minute talk with a parent and then with the school's support specialist: what you say, what you show, what you ask. Agree on your own school's route for asking for help.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which scaffold supported the reading or writing without doing the thinking for the pupil?
- What changed in your record when you replaced a label with a description?
- What do the exit-ticket counts from Session 2 tell you about who needs a ladder first?
Reflect
- Which of your current supports do pupils still use after they no longer need them?
- What is your school's route for asking for specialist help, and does every teacher know it?
- Which pupil's strengths do your notes mention least?
Try it tomorrow
- Write a three-step ladder for one task you will teach this week.
- Pre-teach three words with pictures to a small group for three minutes.
- Keep dated notes for one pupil for two weeks and keep two work samples.
Further reading and links
Teach clearly in small steps, support with scaffolds that fade, and when progress stalls, observe, record and refer without a label.