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Routine 2: Comprehensive First Teach/Re-Teach

Instructional Focus: Strengthen understanding of grade-level texts by clarifying misconceptions and reinforcing key ideas and vocabulary so that students can more accurately interpret, explain, and use evidence aligned to the lesson purpose.

Use this routine when

You are noticing opportunities to refine how students select, explain, or connect evidence to the lesson purpose.

You want students to revisit a specific part of the text to deepen reasoning, clarify thinking, or strengthen explanations.

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: Clarify the Comprehension Re-Teach Intent

Review student performance from:

Recent formative assessments

Lesson tasks or written responses

HMH Program Activity Reports or Assessment Standards Growth Reports

Ask yourself “what patterns do I see in the data?” “which areas are most important to strengthen at this time? Articulate this clearly to establish intention.

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.

Select one primary comprehension focus for re-teaching (e.g., central idea, evidence selection, interpreting a key passage) based on your intention.

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, consider:

Instructional intent: Why is a comprehension re-teach needed at this point in instruction? What patterns in student work or assessment data indicate that students need additional support right now?

Instructional focus: What specific aspect of comprehension needs to be repaired or strengthened in order to advance the lesson purpose (for example, explaining evidence, interpreting a key passage, or clarifying a misconception)?

Lesson anchor: What specific text section, sentence, paragraph, or task should students revisit during the re-teach?

Desired student shift: How should students’ reasoning, explanations, or evidence use improve as a result of this routine?

Constraints: How will the routine remain embedded within the lesson flow, keep the text intact, and deepen understanding without over-explaining or reducing productive struggle?

Example:

I am using this re-teach routine to address patterns of confusion I noticed in student responses during the previous lesson. The instructional focus is strengthening how students explain and justify evidence in a grade-level text.

I want students to return to the paragraph that begins with “Despite the risks…” because that is where their thinking broke down. My goal is for students to slow down their reading, compare pieces of evidence, and talk through why one example is stronger or more relevant than another.

Design a short, engaging re-teach routine that fits naturally within the flow of the HMH lesson. The routine should keep the text intact, use discussion and guided questioning rather than explanation, and support students in repairing their reasoning without giving them the answers.

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 repairing comprehension based on recent work or observations?

Instructional focus: What comprehension understanding must be strengthened for students to meet the lesson purpose?

Lesson anchor: What shared text section or task should all groups revisit, even if the support structures differ?

Desired student shift: What improvement in reasoning, explanation, or evidence use should be visible across all groups?

Constraints: How will groups remain temporary, lesson-embedded, and aligned to grade-level expectations while varying levels of guidance and scaffolding?

Example:

I am planning a re-teach lesson focused on helping students better explain how evidence supports a central idea in the text. Based on patterns I have noticed across recent lessons and student responses, some students need more guided support with comparing evidence, while others are ready to evaluate evidence more independently.

Design targeted small groups embedded within this lesson that allow students to revisit the same text and instructional focus with different levels of support. Include a teacher-supported group, an independent or technology-supported group, and an accelerated group.

For each group, describe the instructional focus, the type of support students receive, and how the group’s work helps students strengthen their understanding of how evidence supports ideas. Ensure all groups remain aligned to the same lesson objective and maintain grade-level rigor.

Planning for Whole Group Instruction

Forming Targeted Small Groups

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