Thursday, July 21, 2011

Intervention Block

Hi all!  I know I haven't blogged in FOREVER.  The end of the school year got crazy...everyone warned me it would, but I didn't realize how busy things would get.  Next year I'll know better!  The good news is I made it successfully through my first year as a teacher and I've been enjoying a wonderful summer off.  I love it. Although I haven't been *just* relaxing as I signed up to be on a couple of teams for some summer planning to improve our school. They have been motivating and it's nice to stay in touch with everyone from school over the break.

We are working on changing our schedule to allow time for Professional Learning Communities (PLC's) and also an Intervention Block for each grade level.  I'm hoping everyone embraces the changes, because this could be very good for the students. I'm excited that we will finally have a consistent schedule for specials, which will allow our second grade team to meet and plan together daily. 

We haven't had an intervention block before, so I'm hoping to get some ideas to take full advantage of that time...share what you do at your school in the comments: Do you have an intervention block at your school?  How do you run it?  How long is it?  Daily?  Do you provide enrichment opportunities for students who do not need intervention - how do you handle that?  Do you share students amongst your grade-level to make groups? Give me all the details!!

14 comments:

Rachelle said...

Laura,

We just started PLC's 2 years ago at our school {which I love}. You have to be organized and have a great leader to really make it work.

We also do an intervention. We call it enrich and re-teach. We split our kiddos up based on an assessment that we've all given and then we decide who needs to go to enrich and who needs to go to re-teach. The school has 6 aides that will facilitate all of the enrich groups {but we provide them the lesson plans} and the teachers hold the re-teach groups.

:) Hope this helps!
-Rachelle
whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com

Cecelia said...

We have used block schedules for 3 years now. Our entire day is blocked in sections for literacy, science/ss and math. Before we started this everyone *even teammates, were doing something different than I was
We do not have any intervention teachers so the classroom teacher does it all.
In the morning, we run a half hour calendar and place all the first graders in two classrooms. Example: last year we had 6 first grade classes. Four teachers did intervention while two taught calendar. Each class was assigned one of the two calendar rooms and all but the kids who needed intervention went there. We did calendar in the rooms with smartboards and incorporate music, movement, math, literacy and science. I did it a lot b.c I loved it. I had 66 kids in my room and they were so engaged. I also enjoyed getting to know the entire first grade. You will love the bloakc schedule and hopefully it will reduce the amount of time the lower students miss out in the classroom.
Cecelia
http://ilove1stgrade.blogspot.com/

Rachel Lamb said...

We have had an intervention block for 4 years now. It has changed 3 times, but I think I am to a point where I like it. In the beginning we switched kids around to fit into specific needs groups for smaller ratios. Back then we had teacher assistants to lighten the load assigned to each grade. Now, we just have our team members. It is 30 mins when all our pull-outs leave. I use it in my room as enrichment. Last year I did lots of research type things. This year it will be my "theme" time. I think teaching with themes took away my focus!
Just found your blog! Cute and following!
Rachel
www.mrslambsclass.blogspot.com

Laura said...

Rachelle- Thanks for sharing what you do at your school. For your PLC's do you meet as a grade level? How often per week and for how long? I'm worried about keeping focused within the group and really getting things done / moving forward. Our leader tends to let everyone do what whatever they want, so I'm not sure that it will go as planned. :( It will at least be a step in the right direction though.

Cecelia – Thanks for the input of what you do with limited resources. We might have to look toward doing something similar in swapping kids amongst our grade level.

Rachel – I like the idea of doing enrichment with themes. We will have some pull-out happening during our Intervention block, but also will keep many that need some reteaching, so I'm not sure how I will facilitate it all. The activities for enrichment will need to be pretty independent, so they can work while I meet with small groups and individuals. Thanks for the reminder that it is a work in progress – I'm sure our school won't “get it right” the first time either, but will tweak it for several years.

Laura

Melissa said...

At my school we don't have an intervention block, instead we have tutors that either push in or pull out to run intervention groups. They usually work with students using a designed curriculum, such as Reading Rescue, which takes children all the way back to beginning letter sounds if necessary. It works really well for us. This way I can be teaching a writing lesson or conducting a science experiment with the children that are on level. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

At my school we have a pre-determined time that is our intervention block. It is a 30 minute time frame (daily) and doesn't necessarily match up with anyone else grade level wise. Last year, we implemented different centers into that block time while I worked with my intervention group(s). I do not have anyone else that comes into my room to help out- it's all on me. You could call it "Investigations" and each group is investigating something further based on their level and need etc and then it could be the last 5-10 minutes for journal time about what they investigated. As far as meetings and planning- we do most of that each day the hour before we get students in the classroom.

Primary Connections

Giselle Calejo said...

We have a 1/2 hour daily math intervention block. I currently have 4 students in my small group and the rest of the class plays math games or goes to math centers. Each class has its own small group.

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