School Kriah Remediation  Strategies, Targets and Ideas

School Kriah Remediation: Strategies, Targets, and Implementation

Effective remediation begins after comprehensive testing. Assessing the first three years of Kriah (reading) provides actionable data, incentivizes faculty to prioritize reading fluency, and allows for precise communication with parents.

Assessing Schoolwide Health: Data vs. "Gut Feelings"

In a typical classroom, approximately 75–80% of students will achieve reading automaticity regardless of the specific methodology, provided it is implemented consistently.

• The Benchmark: In a class of 25, you should expect roughly 6 students (25%) to require remediation.

• The Red Flag: If more than 25% of a class is struggling, the issue is likely systemic rather than individual. This data serves as a powerful "pain point" for administration, proving that the schoolwide approach—not just the students—needs adjustment.

Identifying the Right Support

Not all struggling readers require the same intervention. Statistically, only about 20% of the struggling group will find success through standard 1:1 tutoring alone. Many require specialized modalities, such as speech therapy, the LiPS program, or multisensory approaches. Scroll down for sstrategies.

Appropriating Resources for Maximum Impact

Schools often make the mistake of spending 90% of their resources on the bottom 10% of students—often without seeing results.

• The Bottom 8%: The two most profoundly struggling students in a class of 25 likely require more intensive help than a school’s limited resource room can provide.

• The Strategy: Be transparent with parents. Attempting to service these students with limited resources does them a disservice. These students often require private, external tutoring.

• The Focus: Direct school resources toward the remaining four students in that group. With 2–3 sessions a week using targeted modalities, these students can achieve significant breakthroughs.

Partnering with Parents

Early and frequent communication is vital. By providing "real numbers" and data-driven updates three times a year, the conversation shifts. It is no longer about the school "failing" the child; it is about a shared mission to get the child the specific help they need.

• For the "Serviceable" Four (in our model of 25/class): Inform parents that the school will provide internal remedial services to bridge the gap.

• For the "High-Need" Bottom two in our model: Offer to facilitate a private tutor at a bulk rate (by coordinating multiple students) or clearly explain that the child’s needs exceed school resources, necessitating external intervention for the child's own benefit.

Identifying Potential Root Causes for Struggling Students

1. Speech and Oral Proficiency

• The Issue: Students with even minor speech impediments often struggle with "oral success." This creates a bottleneck in mastering Aleph-Beis and blending, as they cannot accurately produce the sounds they are trying to read. The Solution: Implement programs focused on mouth formation and articulatory awareness (e.g., the LiPS Program or other multi-sensory phonetic approaches).Use the file "Doors" in the remediation folder below and watch the mouth if you suspect this.

• Multi-Sensory Integration - The "Ice Cream Effect." Just as the word "ice cream" triggers thoughts of cold, sweet, and sprinkles, learning should trigger audio, visual, and kinesthetic associations to strengthen neural recall.

2. Visual Efficiency and Tracking

• The Issue: Vision isn’t just about 20/20 clarity. Issues like binocular dysfunction or the need for prisms cause rapid fatigue. For these students, decoding nekudos (vowels) and letters is labor-intensive and exhausting. 

• Some indicators: Head Tilting/Turning: The student tilts their head to one side or turns their face so they are using only one eye to read  Finger Reliance: They cannot read without using a finger to track. If asked to remove the finger, they immediately lose their place or skip lines. Trouble with "Crowding": They can read a single letter on a flashcard perfectly, but if that same letter is inside a word or paragraph, they fail to identify it (Visual Crowding). The student reads the letter correctly but applies the vowel from the next or previous letter. See Eye tests in remediation folder

• The Solution: Incorporate visual prompts and anchors to reduce the cognitive load and assist the eyes in tracking and identification. For some kids this may require vision therapy, prism glasses.

3. Limited Comprehension

• The Issue: When a student presents with a developmental IQ deficiency or cognitive delay, the challenge is often that the abstract nature of Nekudos (vowels) and the mechanical process of blending feel disconnected from reality. The Solution: Use repetitive drilling paired with physical motions. Adding a kinesthetic element helps bridge the gap between abstract sounds and concrete meaning. For a neurotypical student, 10–20 repetitions might lead to mastery. For a student with a developmental deficiency, it may require 100–200 repetitions. This is not "boredom"; it is the necessary process of building a permanent neural pathway that doesn't rely on active, taxing thought. 

4. Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)

• The Issue: A student may have perfect hearing but struggle to process what they hear. This can manifest as difficulty distinguishing phonemes (e.g., hearing "bid" vs. "bad") or issues with auditory memory and integration.

• The Solution: Refer to specialized audiologists who can diagnose and provide targeted interventions for processing speed and sound discrimination.

Key Explanations: Why These Matter

• The "Phonological Loop": Speech and auditory processing are the bedrock of reading. If a child cannot distinguish or produce a sound accurately, they cannot map that sound to a written letter (grapheme).

• Cognitive Load Theory: Students with vision issues aren't "lazy"; they are using 10x the energy just to keep the letters from moving on the page. By the time they identify the letter, they have no mental energy left for blending. Blending is a high-level executive function. A student must: Identify the letter.Identify the vowel.Retrieve the sound. Hold that sound in "storage." Repeat for the next syllable. This issue can apply in part to all struggling students. Practicing open sounds can help them tremendously. Once that is mastered, when you come to words strategies such as backwards chaining,

• Neural Pathways: Multi-sensory learning is effective because it creates "redundancy" in the brain. If the visual memory of a letter fails, the physical "muscle memory" of the motion associated with it can act as a backup to trigger recall.

The "Spiral of Disengagement": Understanding the Trajectory

Why Early Intervention is the Only Intervention

When a young boy loses the "map" of how to learn, boredom isn’t just a nuisance—it’s a defense mechanism. Once a student internalizes the belief that they cannot succeed, they begin a predictable descent from the classroom to the hallway, and eventually, out the door.

The Breakdown by Grade

• 1st Grade: The Subtle Shift The foundation cracks. The boy struggles to grasp the material and begins "acting out" in small ways. At this stage, a firm look or a quick reset from the Morah or Rebbe still keeps him in line, but the underlying struggle remains unaddressed.

• 2nd Grade: The Half-Hearted Effort The mindset of "I can’t" begins to take root. He puts in 50% effort; the other 50% is spent spacing out or misbehaving. Compliance is often driven by the Rebbe’s "shout," but internally, his self-esteem is eroding and his impatience with the classroom environment is growing.

• 3rd Grade: The Hallway Resident The narrative is now fixed: "It’s too hard, and I’m just not a learner." He is now frequently sent out of class. Parent meetings begin, but if the child is "surviving" without causing a crisis, the school passes him to 4th grade as a "favor" to the parents.

• 4th Grade: The Unofficial Assistant The child is now fully "turned off." To keep him from disrupting class, he is sent to run errands for the Menahel, the secretary, or the bus service. He is in the building, but he is no longer a student.

• 5th Grade: The "Locker" Phase He has become a fixture in the back of the room—what some Rebbeim call a "Locker."

  • The Quiet Locker: If he can stay under the radar, he survives the system while quietly hating every moment of learning.

  • The Squeaky Locker: If he has ADHD or lacks a "poker face," his behaviors become "unmanageable." He is asked to leave, leaving the parents to scramble for a school that will accept a "difficult" boy.

The Solution: Identification & Advocacy

We can stop the "Locker" phase before it starts. By identifying these red flags in 1st Grade through proper testing and assessments, we can change the story.

Whether the solution is prism glasses, speech therapy, targeted tutoring, or medical support, early intervention doesn't just fix a grade—it saves a Neshamah. When we give a boy the tools to learn, we give him the ability to thrive in the mainstream and rediscover his own potential.

Much Hatzlacha,