We started parent conferences this week and will continue into next week. We are wrapping up our first reading unit which means testing, testing, testing. This will be the first time this year the kids have seen a formal test booklet, which can be very intimidating to many of my kiddos. So I am breaking it down and testing over 5 days so they just get a little bit at a time. This usually helps their anxiety level go down.
This brings me to the topic of intervention. I have always found it frustrating and difficult to find the time during the school day to do "proper" intervention. Pulling a couple of kids for 5 or 10 minutes, never seems to do the trick. Well, this year the "magic" is happening in second grade at my school. We only have 2 second grade classes. Usually between our two classes we might have 6 kids that really need intensive intervention. This year, however, the story is different. We have about a third of our kids that are not at grade level. We knew we HAD to figure out how to consistently implement intervention. My team partner and I have finally figured out how to make it work for our kids.
Our reading program is California Treasures. The fifth day each week is an assessment and review day. We decided to combine our two classes for this time. My team partner takes all the kids that need intensive intervention for one hour, while I take all the other kids and review difficult grade level concepts or work on enrichment. That means every five days the kids are getting an hour of quality intervention! Also, the kids that need higher level instruction get their needs met as well. Now to take this to the next level, the sixth week of each Unit is review and testing. We are combining the kids each day that week for a total of 5 MORE hours of intervention! I am so excited about the possibility of huge progress for all these kids. We are progress monitoring all of them and hope to see some significant gains.
Here are some of the things I did with my group:
We reviewed main idea and details. The kids can never get enough exposure and practice with this concept,
We also wrote stories about Mr. Leaf from Amy Lemons Fall Literacy Centers. We are going to continue with the fall centers next week and I will post more pictures so you can see the kids at work. Have a great weekend everyone!