An Intervention Update and Small Groups



Of course I can't leave anything alone too long....I have revised, no-- tweaked my intervention a bit this year due to many reasons, which is a whole new blog post.  I have a few extra hands helping me out this year so I wanted to be very efficient in what I was planning for them to do, as well as documenting it and their progress (or lack of :/).  Originally, I used my Intervention Planning sheet to plan the intervention groups, as well as to let helpers know who they were working with and what they were to do with each student/group.  Then there is a place to check off if the group is done--meaning they don't need that help anymore.  They were expected to jot down notes on my individual intervention student sheets about the progress (that were kept in my Intervention Tub).  Well, I found a few things wrong with this system--There is no room for notes on the planning sheet, some helpers were just checking it off as done after one time, it took longer to take the individual notes than expected, and I was not keeping up with checking on their progress as well as I should have because the notes were going straight into individual student files.  I wasn't looking at these on a regular enough basis.

So, onto my new plan!  I still use my planning sheet as seen above, but it is for my use only.  I then came up with a document for my helpers to use that has a space for explaining the intervention, as well as a place to write individual notes on each student and the date that they worked with them.  I added a spot that lets them know if this is an individual activity or a group activity. 

This is much easier for me to check on on a regular basis.  I then transfer the notes and intervention dates to the individual student intervention sheets.  This makes me a lot more accountable, as well as aware of what other people are doing with my students.  These are now kept in a binder for easy access.  

**On a side note, I use these sheets as well when I pull students for interventions--either the same or different than what I have my helpers doing.

I still use my Intervention Tub for interventions as well.  It is where I keep supplies needed for the interventions--student files now keep flashcards, papers that need to be corrected, as well as documents used for interventions for that individual student.

This new system seems to be working quite well for me so far....


 

Now, onto small group reading--We have a lot of help during our small group reading time.  So, my students are out with various teachers and teacher's aides every day.  We switch every two weeks, so it takes quite some time for me to see all of my students.  I am obsessed with control and with all this help, I am NOT in control.   To help with this, I came up with a quick checklist for all the reading group instructors to quickly fill out about their groups so I (and the other classroom teachers) can have an idea of how the groups are going.   This helps communicate progress, as well as help decide whether or not students move up reading levels. These are filled out during the second week of rotations.  There are 3 of us classroom teachers that share students for reading, as well as teacher aides for reading groups--in all there are 9 of us.  It can be difficult keeping on top of your students as readers when there is that many people involved and that many sheets to go through.  So after these progress sheets get turned in, they are used by classroom teachers to make the new groups for the following week.  Then I look over them and document the notes made about my kids.  I made a separate document to keep track of those notes since the progress sheets include students from other classrooms.  As I explain all this it sounds like so much paper work--which it is, but it helps me keep track of everything and I feel better informed of where my students are at without having to look it up.

 The individual small group reading sheet can also be used to see reading behaviors/patterns that may need to be addressed in future reading group and/or a small intervention group with other students struggling with teh same behaviors.  All too often reading groups are based on level, and not behaviors or strategiesso this is a great way to help look at reading groups a bit differently.

 If anything catches your eye, these new sheets are part of the updated Intervention Notes {FREEBIES} at TpT.  I included the pdf document, as well as the PowerPoint/word documents so you can edit them as needed.  Just click on the following link to download them all.

        NEW Intervention FREEBIES here!

To read my other posts about interventions, please see THIS post.