Recently I was visiting with colleagues and the conversation about math intervention came up. When I asked how their math intervention went last year. Nobody wanted to talk. After digging a bit further, several openly admitted that they didn’t feel like they were doing math intervention to its fullest potential.
Our conversation then turned to why this was true. We came up with these top three challenges.
Top 3 Challenges:
#1 Time Constraints: Teachers have a set curriculum to cover within a limited time frame, making it challenging to dedicate extra time to assess individual student needs comprehensively.
#2 Classroom Size: Large class sizes make it difficult for to provide interventions to individual or small groups of students. This leads to potential difficulties in identifying those who need intervention. Many times a teacher doesn’t even have the space to conduct an intervention and monitor the engagement and behavior of the other students.
#3 Limited Resources: Not only do teachers have limited time to assess each student thoroughly, but in many cases they also lack the resources and/or the training for conducting detailed diagnostic assessments. Which can make it challenging to identify specific needs accurately.
So how do we as teachers begin to overcome these challenges?:
First, as a teacher you need to give yourself some credit. While you may not know specifically what skill a student is lacking, you do know which students are struggling. Start with that small group of students and assess them on a specific skill, like double digit divisor long division. Have students gather around a table each with their own long division problem. As they work the problem, you will be surprised at what you will discover. Calculate and Clean is a resource that I use often for just this purpose. In truth, I don’t just have just the students that struggle come to the table, I have all students come to the table and demonstrate their mastery of a particular skill like double digit divisor long division.
Based on my experience, you will able to easily identify errors the students are making. Sometimes all they need is one quick redirection from you and they are able to complete the task. Yes, it can be that simple! And, guess what? You have intervened! You have successfully provided an intervention for that child. And, that intervention worked! After of 20 years of teaching 5th grade math, I have found this to be true with the majority of students I intervene with using this structure. By doing this, I am also be able to identify those students that need a more explicit intervention. These are the students I will need to intentionally set aside a small block of time and work with them one on one. I generally try to do this at the end of a class period and for no more than 10 minutes. Why such a short time? Remember, these students already have a negative mindset when it comes to math. By working with them for a few ‘Power Minutes’ the students will be more likely to stay engaged with the work you are asking them to do. So far, we have addressed resources and even time constraints, but what about the other students? You know…the ones that seem to lose their minds when you are working with a small group? Make no mistake, the teacher will need to develop expectations and procedures, teach those expectations and procedures and consistently hold your students accountable.
Suggestions:
When I have a small group working with me at the table. Give each student their own problem, dry erase marker and cloth. Then as soon as a student demonstrates they can complete the skill, send them back and have another student come to the table. By keeping it flowing in this manner, students have less time to get off task because they could get called to work with me at any time. Also, I have found the perfect activities for those students to be engaged in are either Boom Cards or a math game. When intervention is set up this way, my struggling students feel less like struggling students and maybe…just maybe…more like math rock stars! Still not convinced? Try my Rounding to the Nearest Whole Numbers Calculate and Clean Intervention resources for free.
