Intervention Groups Done Right | Zero Extra Prep Time

The thought of intervention groups can feel overwhelming and daunting–believe me, I know! I have been there, and when it became a requirement within my district to hold Tier 2 Intervention groups daily in every subject, there was mass hysteria amongst the teaching staff. But, once I freaked out for a bit, overcomplicated everything, and finally processed my new reality, I came to an enlightened realization: Keep it simple, keep it direct, and don’t reinvent the wheel. This realization is one that all educators must hold near and dear, and hopefully, these teacher tips and classroom management strategies that I applied to my intervention groups can help you, too.

Does it Really Make a Difference???

It is never too late to start intervention groups; whether you start at the beginning of the year, the middle of the school year, or right before state testing, the important thing is that you start! The first question that teachers often ask is, “Do intervention groups even make a difference?” I am here to tell you that when done effectively, they absolutely do! I found that with my 10-minute intervention group, I could clear up confusion, clarify topics, and give additional guided practice that students completely benefited from. I saw both my formative and summative assessment scores greatly improve, and when I got my state testing scores back, I was floored! Intervening daily closed the learning gaps and helped students to feel confident and seen. I wish I had started my intervention groups sooner! The way that I set up my groups gave me NO additional prep; the only thing I had to do was to be diligent with identifying students who needed help during my guided practice in class and work with those students in my intervention group. Let me break everything down for you. You can start your intervention groups tomorrow.

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Making Intervention Groups Work in the Real World

Let’s start with our time frame because that is often the first hurdle–there is never enough time! I listed the time I would typically allot for each section of my lesson during a 60 and 90-minute time block. However, if your class needs more time with modeling or guided practice, adjust the times to work for you; you know what is best for a particular class or topic. The main point I want to drive home with the time blocking is that your intervention groups should not exceed a 15-minute time frame; students just don’t have the bandwidth to fully commit and focus for longer than this amount of time. The other thing that is so crucial that often falls to the wayside during a busy school day is the closure of your lesson. Be sure to have time to come back together, review, and put a bookend to all the hard work you and your students have done that day.

60 Minute Time Block

• 5 minutes: Intro and Anticipatory Set
• 15 minutes: ISN(notes)/Teacher Model
• 15 minutes: Guided Practice (white boards, group work, think-pair-share, etc.)
• 15 minutes: Independent Practice/Intervention Groups
• 10 minutes: Review Independent Practice (not every single question), Closure, Exit Ticket

Now, a 60-minute block is not ideal; however, that is what a lot of us have to work with. That is the amount of time I had to teach math, reading, social studies, etc. If you have a longer block of time, that is ideal, but I wanted to show you that you can make this work with 60 minutes if needed. Remember that in the beginning, things might be a little clunky, and you will most likely not meet your time goals- that is okay!!! Stick with the schedule, and within two weeks, both you and your students will work through the period like a well-oiled machine. Consistency is key!

90 Minute Time Block

• 10 minutes: Warm-Up Activity/Review from Previous Day
• 10 minutes: Intro and Anticipatory Set
• 20 minutes: ISN(notes)/Teacher Model
• 20 minutes: Guided Practice (white boards, group work, think-pair-share, etc.)
• 15 minutes: Independent Practice/Intervention Groups
• 15 minutes: Review Independent Practice (not every single question), Closure, Exit Ticket

Notice that the intervention group time is still the same in a 60 or 90-minute block. Spending more than 15 minutes in an intervention group is not productive; your students will check out, and the rest of the class will get restless! What do you think? Is this something you can implement tomorrow?

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How do I know which students to pull for the group?

Who will attend the intervention group? This is the part of the intervention groups that can take the most effort. Your groups should be fluid; they should change daily. Granted, you will have students who pop into the group more than others, but your group should look different each day. As you are going through your guided practice, and students are conducting their “think, pair, share,” completing their group discussion on a topic, or sharing their individual whiteboard practice, you watch. You are doing what you would normally do–observe! As their teacher, you know which students are not grasping the concept and which students might be struggling with the topic that day; those are the students who attend your intervention group. Be sure that you are focusing on the lesson objective that you are teaching that day, not large gaps that students have within their learning (that will require a different kind of intervention). By making sure that students leave your class having mastered your lesson objective of the day, you are ensuring that there are NO FUTURE LEARNING GAPS. This makes things easier as you progress through the curriculum and builds your students’ confidence and their desire to learn more. Check out my Teacher Resources for a Step-by-Step guide to daily intervention groups.

What about the students who need more help and support?

Your daily intervention groups should focus on the lesson objective of the day, possibly the lesson objective from the day before ONLY. Students who have larger gaps in their learning need explicit intervention at a different time. Whether that is during a study hall time, a specified intervention block, during pull out time with a special education teacher, or any other time during the day/week that can be devoted to teaching skills from earlier in the year or a different grade level. If you think of the image of the intervention triangle, daily intervention groups would likely fall under tier 1 or tier 2, depending on the topics that were covered. A tier 3 intervention needs to happen at a different time than general instruction. Talk with your team to brainstorm solutions for when these tier 3 interventions can take place; keep in mind, this group of students is the minority and will likely be small, hopefully, that will help in finding a dedicated intervention time for these students. In the end, all students will benefit from daily intervention. If you are lucky enough to have a teacher on campus who solely focuses on interventions, be sure to meet with them and schedule help from that teacher as well. You can create a deep dive intervention group, consisting of the same students who need to master the same skill that might not be at grade level; I would meet with this group during the fifteen-minute “homeroom” time and try to work through some different concepts/standards. It wasn’t much, but the consistency of meeting each day helped those students–any time you can offer will help!

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What am I supposed to teach my group?

I know what you are thinking: What am I supposed to do in these groups? Don’t reinvent that wheel! You will be using the independent practice (math problems, comprehension questions, grammar practice, etc.) that the rest of the class is completing while you are holding your intervention group. There is no need to create something new; use what you have already prepared. This will save you time and will keep the students in the intervention group on track, and they won’t miss any assignments. You will go through the independent practice with the group, giving extra explanations, guiding them through whatever they need help with, and answering any questions the intervention group students might have. You will likely not finish the independent practice while in the intervention group, but you will clear up confusion and give much-needed support, leaving students ready to complete their homework and start a new lesson the next day. Use what you already have!

Here are some examples of independent practice that will also be utilized in your intervention groups:

Math practice: word problems, computation problems, graphing, etc.

ELA/Reading: comprehension questions, identifying the elements of literature, character analysis, graphic organizers, etc.

Writing: grammar, transitional phrases, topic/conclusion sentences, outlining, etc.

Science: writing a hypothesis, comparing/contrasting, cycles and graphic organizers, charting of data, etc.

Social Studies: summarizing, comprehension questions, time lines, comparing/contrasting, etc.

The key to making this intervention group work is to use what you already have. You will make accommodations for the group as you, but you don’t need to create something different. Because you are focusing on filling the gap that exists for the learning objective that day, using the work that correlates to the lesson makes perfect sense. You can do this!

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DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT!

There is one more thing that you must do when conducting intervention groups–document! Documenting your intervention groups creates valuable data that special education teachers, administrators, and you (the teacher) can utilize to help students continue to grow. Again, keep it simple! I would have a spiral notebook for each class or subject labeled “Intervention Group.”

Here is how I would organize my notebook (check out my Teacher Resources for a visual):

• New Page Every Day
• Date
• Lesson Objective
• Independent Practice Activity (which worksheet, questions, or staple the assignment to the page)
• Student Names
• Jot down names during your lesson, modeling, or guided practice.
• Place a star next to the names of students who have mastered the concept by the end of the group.
• Place a check mark next to the names of students who need more intervention.

Each day, I would turn to a new page and write the date and my lesson objective at the top. As I was going through guided practice with the class, I would write down the names of those who weren’t quite grasping the lesson objective on the spiral notebook page for that date. During my intervention group, I would write down the independent practice activity we worked through (being sure to list the problems/questions we completed). You can make this even easier on yourself and simply staple the assignment to the page, staple the page that you were working through, modeling with and guiding students with (more amazing documentation). Next to the students’ names, I would place a star (mastered skill) or a check mark (needs more intervention) to indicate their performance and the possible need for further assistance. That was it. By noting students who needed more assistance, I was able to circle back to those students at another moment in the day, assign them support/practice via learning software, or check in with them before the start of class the next day. My administrator loved the documentation; it provided great data to other teachers, and it was very valuable when speaking with parents. I was able to tell a student’s parent how often they had received small group interventions and ease their mind about keeping learning gaps to a minimum. Documentation is such a valuable tool, and this system is a no-fuss way to collect important data.

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Give intervention groups a try! It will be a little rocky at first, and your timing will likely be off (you will probably run behind), but once the students get with the flow of your new lesson schedule, things will run smoothly. Once you implement this structure in every aspect and stick with it, you will wonder how you ever taught a different way. Happy teaching!