Support And Motivate Your At-Risk Students With These 4 Key Strategies

20th February 2023

One of the major shortcomings of today’s educational structure is that the relationship between students and teachers is easy to build but difficult to sustain. And since teachers cannot put their undivided attention to each and every student, most learners often feel at risk. These students often require someone to trust and communicate with their frustrations and complex lives outside the threshold of the school.

Thus, if you are looking for a way to supportat-risk students in your classroom, take a look at our curated tips.

What Is An At-Risk Student?

An at-risk student is a term used to frequently describe students who are struggling academically in a class. These students are prone to failing in classroom chores and hence dropping out eventually. The term also circumscribes students who face circumstances contributing to their homelessness, health issues, academic struggles, learning disabilities, disciplinary problems, and violence.

These factors related to learning can adversely affect the overall success and educational performance of the students. Moreover, they might be facing additional issues in terms of coping, making friends, and expressing themselves that you as a facilitator must take a closer look at.

Challenges Faced By Students At Risk

Source: www.powerschool.com

Many challenges are regularly faced by at-risk students throughout their school years. Here are a few notable ones:

• They do not always follow whole group lessons and instructions.
• Learning with the whole class makes them feel confused, defeated, and overwhelmed.
• They require someone to constantly boost their confidence and self-esteem.
• They expect to feel supported through their mistakes and look up to their teachers for help.

Fundamental Ways To Help Students At Risk

Source: www.researchgate.net

Here are some of the best techniques to support your at-risk students:

1. Prioritize Building Relationships

Fostering a healthy relationship with at-risk students can benefit them more than you ever imagined. Since for most of these students, interactions with administrators and teachers are often negative, when you approach them with a positive attitude, it heavily impacts them.

You should try to get to know them on a personal basis and learn about their hobbies and interests outside school. Developing a personal connection will make them open up to you and you can identify their strengths and weaknesses better.

2. Introduce Democratic Classroom

One way to make your students feel comfortable and let them know that their voices and opinions matter is by modeling a democratic classroom. This means that students will have a say in building classroom rules and the consequences for violating them.

They will also have options for how they would want to present their learning. Allowing the students to take ownership will make them more likely to abide by the rules, put across their assignments timely, and enjoy the classroom space happily.

3. Incorporate A System Of Login And Logout

This system was usually designed to decrease disruptive behavior and build a positive student-teacher relationship. But this is not the typical check-in and check-out that we usually follow. In this system students will have to meet their homeroom teacher when they arrive at school, the facilitator, in turn, sets their day by handing them a predetermined goal sheet and talking about the difficult areas that they might feel.

This check-in can take as much or as little time depending on the age and needs of the students. When the day ends, they will return to the same teacher to reflect on how their day went and take home something positive.

4. Communicate With Parents

Another great way to support at-risk students is by maintaining open communication with parents. This will allow the parents to be informed about their child’s daily activities and progress. To do this you can create a communication log that will have the check-in check it goa sheet of the students. You can send this sheet to the parents and have them sign it to ensure they have seen it.

You can also have a notebook. Write down quick notes about the strengths and weaknesses of the child. You can also have the students write their own thoughts. Leave space for the parents in your notebook so that they can write their questions or comment on their suggestions. Maintaining such a journal will be an easy way to maintain parent communication.

Are Your Students At-Risk?

Identifying, understanding, and teaching at-risk students can be a major challenge for educators. However, now you know there are positive ways to break past these barriers and foster learning. To know more about such learners and how to educate them, consider pursuing Counselling Courses in Singapore and dive deeper into the strategies to manage daily operations.