Plan

Recommendation 1:
Reduce Instructional Group Size

Ask yourself: Is the instructional group size optimal for learning?

Consider providing small-group (two to four students) or one-on-one instruction if students do not make sufficient progress in larger groups.
Design effective instruction to occur within smaller groups to allow for the following:
- More individualized instruction
- More student response and practice
Carefully monitor student progress to determine whether the change in group size improves student outcomes.

Which students need more intensive intervention?

See example

Marcus, Jamie, Sandra, Elisa, Joe, Eugene, Julia

Teacher Think-aloud: I have six students in grades 1–3 who are not making sufficient progress, even though they receive supplemental intervention 2 days a week for 45 minutes each session in groups of eight. I’ve identified the most struggling students, according to their progress-monitoring data.

What are the instructional needs of these students?

See example

Marcus, Julia, Joe, and Eugene: Fluent with text reading but cannot remember what they read

Sandra and Elisa: Difficulties with word and text reading but have excellent oral listening and comprehension skills

Jamie: Difficulties with word reading, comprehension, and attention

Teacher Think-aloud: To identify the specific instructional needs of my students, I will refer to my progress-monitoring data.

Based on the information above, list the instructional focus of each group and the students who will participate.

See example

Group 1: Comprehension (Marcus, Julie, Joe, Eugene)

Group 2: Word study and text reading (Sandra, Elisa)

Group 3: Word study, comprehension, and self-regulation strategies (Jamie); because of Jamie’s very low reading ability and difficulties with attention, she will receive one-on-one instruction

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Recommendation 2:
Increase Learning Time

Ask yourself: Do you provide students with adequate instructional time?

Consider increasing the length and/or frequency of the intervention for students who have not responded to previous interventions.
- Intensive interventions typically vary in time from 30 to 120 minutes and in frequency from three times per week to two times per day.
- Provide two shorter sessions per day if scheduling or student engagement is a concern.
Consider increasing the duration of the intervention for students who have not responded to previous interventions.
- Students in kindergarten through second grade may achieve positive outcomes with interventions up to 20 weeks long.
- Students in the upper grades or those several grades behind may require much longer interventions.
When increasing the intervention length, frequency, and/or duration, consider the following:
- Student's current grade level and achievement gap
- Length and frequency of previous interventions
- Complexity of learning tasks
- Progress student makes, as determined by progress-monitoring checks
- Degree to which the intervention provider has been trained
Couple increased learning time with carefully designed instruction to do the following:
- Teach additional skills and strategies
- Provide additional practice opportunities with feedback
- Deliver more explicit, systematic, step-by-step instruction
- Monitor student progress to ensure that additional learning time increases student mastery of skills

What were the length, frequency, and duration of the previous intervention(s) for each student you listed for Recommendation 1?

See example

30 minutes on Monday (M), Wednesday (W), Friday (F) each week for 10 weeks

What will be the new length, frequency, and duration of each intervention group listed for Recommendation 1?

See example

Group 1: Comprehension (Marcus, Julia, Joe, and Eugene) — 60 minutes on M, W, F for 20 weeks

Group 2: Word study and text reading (Sandra and Elisa) — 60 minutes on M, W, F for 20 weeks

Group 3: Word study, comprehension, and self-regulation (Jamie) — 30 minutes in early morning and 30 minutes in early afternoon, daily, for 20 weeks

Teacher Think-aloud: Our school devotes 1-hour blocks daily to intervention, so I will increase the intervention time for groups 1 and 2 to 1-hour sessions 3 days a week for 20 weeks. This increase will double their instructional time. Because I am very concerned with Jamie’s reading ability, I will provide her with two sessions per day of 30 minutes each, 5 days a week for 20 weeks. (Two daily sessions may work better than one 60-minute session because she has difficulties with attention.)

I will need to carefully monitor the progress of these students to determine whether the adjustments to instructional time and group size (and instructional delivery) increase the students’ rate of learning.

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Recommendation 3:
Support Cognitive Processes

Ask yourself: Is instruction responsive to the cognitive processing difficulties of each student?

Explicitly teach students to use self-regulation strategies (e.g., self-questioning, goal setting).
- Introduce the strategy and discuss how it will be useful to students.
- Model the strategy through "think-alouds."
- Help students memorize the steps in the strategy.
- Support students as they practice the strategy (guided practice).
- Provide time for independent practice.
Support students as they use self-regulation strategies.
- Monitor students’ use of self-regulation strategies.
- Determine what strategies students use to solve problems and provide feedback as necessary.
Teach students to use memory-enhancement strategies, including the following:
- Note-taking
- Rehearsing information aloud
- Mnemonic devices
- Graphic organizers and other text organizers
Provide process-directed feedback that is:
- Specific to the task or process
- Helpful for students in linking their behavior to outcomes

How will you support students' cognitive processes within each intervention group?

See example

Group 1: Comprehension (Marcus, Julia, Joe, and Eugene)

• Explicitly teach the students to self-monitor while they read (e.g., identify when text does not make sense to them, identify words they don’t know that prevent comprehension of the sentence or passage)

• Incorporate graphic organizers for students to complete and refer to while they read (e.g., recording predictions or questions about the text before they read, generating story maps, recording information to generate a main idea)

Group 2: Word study and text reading (Sandra and Elisa)

As Sandra and Elisa work on increasing their accuracy with word and text reading, I will help them set goals and chart their progress.

Group 3: Word study, comprehension, and self-regulation (Jamie)

Because Jamie is working on improving word reading, fluent text reading, and comprehension, I will use a combination of the self-monitoring and goal-setting strategies used in groups 1 and 2. I will also help Jamie with improving her attention by teaching her ways to self-monitor her behavior.

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Recommendation 4:
Intensify Instructional Delivery

Ask yourself: Is your delivery of instruction sufficiently intense to meet the learning needs of struggling students?

Provide explicit instruction.
- State the purpose and learning goal of the lesson.
- Provide models with clear, detailed explanations.
- Use pictures, graphics, manipulatives, or "think-alouds."
- Provide guided practice opportunities.
Provide systematic instruction.
- Break down tasks into smaller steps.
- Break down instruction into simpler segments.
- Use step-by-step strategies.
- Provide temporary support and then gradually reduce that support over time.
Provide multiple opportunities for student response and feedback.
- Offer individual practice opportunities to all students.
- Use frequent student response to monitor student understanding.
- Provide feedback that relates to student goals and effective completion of tasks.
Use process-directed feedback with students.
- Provide feedback that is clear and precise.
- Communicate which aspects of the task students perform correctly.
- Connect feedback directly to student actions and learning goals.
Provide corrective feedback to students after task completion.
- Model the task or correct response.
- Provide immediate feedback for discrete tasks (e.g., spelling a word).
- Provide feedback after a short delay for complex tasks (e.g., writing a paragraph).
- Provide additional time to practice tasks that were done incorrectly.
Incorporate independent practice after students begin to develop mastery of a new skill.

How will you intensify and differentiate instructional delivery within each intervention group?

See example

Group 1: Comprehension (Marcus, Julia, Joe, and Eugene)

I will provide explicit instruction on strategies for monitoring comprehension by modeling my use of them with think-alouds to demonstrate each step, provide group practice with teacher support, and provide specific feedback on tasks students do well and those that need improvement.

Group 2: Word study and text reading (Sandra and Elisa)

I will provide explicit, systematic instruction on word study, making sure that I introduce letter/sound rules and combinations in a sequence that makes sense and builds from simple to complex. I also will provide many practice opportunities for applying letter/sound rules and combinations to word and text reading. Sandra and Elisa may also engage in partner reading activities that allow both girls to practice, monitor, and provide feedback on fluent reading of words and text.

Group 3: Word Study, comprehension, and self-regulation (Jamie)

I will use the same instructional practices mentioned above for Jamie because she needs instruction in word study, fluent text reading, and comprehension, but she will most likely need to spend more time on each skill and engage in more practice activities than the other students.

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Plan | Intensive Interventions: A Teacher’s Toolkit

Planning Worksheet: Considerations for Intensifying Interventions

Recommendation 1:Reduce Instructional Group Size

See example

See example

See example

Recommendation 2:Increase Learning Time

See example

See example

Recommendation 3:Support Cognitive Processes

See example

Recommendation 4:Intensify Instructional Delivery

See example

Planning Worksheet:
Considerations for Intensifying Interventions

Recommendation 1:
Reduce Instructional Group Size

Recommendation 2:
Increase Learning Time

Recommendation 3:
Support Cognitive Processes

Recommendation 4:
Intensify Instructional Delivery