Explore

Routine 1: Pre-Teach for Text Access

Instructional Focus: Prepare students to access the lesson text and task by intentionally pre-teaching essential vocabulary or a key concept so that language or knowledge demands do not interfere with meaning-making during instruction.

Use this routine when…

You want to prepare students to engage more confidently with upcoming lesson texts and remove barriers to access without reducing text complexity.

You are anticipating specific language or knowledge demands that could distract from meaning-making during reading.

You want to protect instructional time during the lesson for discussion, analysis, and higher-level thinking.

Planning Note: This routine may be implemented in whole group, small groups, or both depending on instructional intent, time, and student need.

Planning for Whole Group Instruction

Step 1: Identifying the Pre-Teach Focus

Before using any tool, decide:

What will most likely prevent my students from accessing this text?

Academic vocabulary?

A key concept or background knowledge

Select:

2–3 high-impact vocabulary terms, or

One key concept essential to the lesson’s purpose

Step 2: Using HMH Assist as a Thinking and Design Partner

Use the shared prompting structure outlined in

Crafting Strong Prompts for Instructional Routines⁠

to develop a prompt aligned to this routine’s instructional focus.

When developing your prompt for this routine, consider:

Instructional intent: Why do students need preparation before reading this text now?

Instructional focus: Which vocabulary or concept is most likely to block access?

Lesson anchor: What upcoming HMH text should the routine prepare students for?

Desired student shift: How should student access improve without pre-solving meaning?

Constraints: How will the routine remain brief, preparatory, and embedded in the lesson?

AI support tip: Leverage the voice feature within ChatGPT or CoPilot to “brain dump” your thoughts and form them into a clear statement of intention.

Example:

I have identified the following [vocabulary words or conceptual knowledge] as essential for students to understand before reading [the upcoming HMH text.]

Design a brief, creative pre-teaching activity that explicitly introduces this [vocabulary or conceptual knowledge] and actively engages students in using it through speaking, movement, or quick writing. The activity should prepare students to encounter these ideas in the text without fully explaining how they function in the passage.

Ensure the activity can be implemented within the flow of an HMH lesson and sets students up for successful meaning-making during reading rather than replacing the cognitive work they will do with the text.

You should always review all AI outputs. From there, refine prompts, revise generated activities, and make final instructional decisions to ensure alignment with students, texts, and instructional goals.

Forming Targeted Small Groups

Step 1: Analyze Data

Using HMH Reports Dashboard:

Review available report data (e.g., Program Activity Report, Assessment Standards Growth) to identify patterns related to the lesson’s purpose.

Identify students who may:

Struggle to access the text or task

Demonstrate partial understanding or misconceptions

Be ready for deeper application or extension

Group students based on patterns of need aligned to the lesson’s purpose, not overall proficiency.

Teacher-Supported Group

Students who need your direct support to access the lesson’s purpose.

Provide modeling, guided practice, and feedback.

Focus is on removing barriers while maintaining rigor.

Grouping is temporary and data-driven.

Independent Group

Students who can apply skills independently with aligned tasks.

Tasks reinforce the lesson’s purpose.

Work is structured and purposeful, not remedial.

Independence does not mean lower-level work.

Accelerated Group

Students ready for greater cognitive demand.

Tasks deepen reasoning, precision, or evidence use.

Focus is on complexity and sophistication, not more work.

All tasks remain aligned to the lesson’s purpose.

Step 2: Leverage the HMH Assist to for Integration into Lesson Plan

Use the same shared prompting structure to design lesson-embedded small groups. When forming small groups, the instructional focus and lesson purpose remain the same. What changes is the level of support and pathway students receive.

When developing your prompt for small groups, consider:

Instructional intent: Which students need additional or different support with this routine right now, based on data or observation?

Instructional focus: What remains constant across all groups in order to advance the lesson purpose?

Lesson anchor: What shared text, task, or aligned materials should all groups work from?

Desired student shift: What should improve in student thinking or work across groups, even if the pathway differs?

Constraints: How will groups remain temporary, lesson-embedded, and aligned to grade-level expectations?

Example:

I am planning a pre-teach lesson to prepare students for an upcoming HMH lesson. Based on patterns I have observed in prior, related assessment data, students will benefit from different levels of support with [insert vocabulary, concept, or language demand].

Create targeted small groups embedded within the pre-teach portion of this lesson with different levels of support with [insert vocabulary, concept, or language demand]. Organize groups to include a teacher-supported pathway, an independent or technology-supported pathway, and an accelerated pathway.

For each group, describe the instructional focus, the type of support students receive, and how the group’s work prepares students to engage successfully with the upcoming lesson. Ensure all groups are aligned to the same lesson objective and preserve the cognitive demand of the core instruction.

Planning for Whole Group Instruction

Forming Targeted Small Groups

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ··· in the right corner or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.