Interventions
Check In“If I was worried that a student was struggling, after class I would immediately get off and quickly email them and/or email our school counselor and say, ‘Oh, could you check in with James? I’m really worried about him.’”
While strong instruction for the whole class is critical, some students may need interventions to help them stay on track to academic success. Interventions can be strategies, activities, or programs that help students meet learning targets. While remote learning presents some challenges to interventions, it can also offer some interesting new takes on tried and true approaches such as targeted small group instruction and differentiated instruction.
Guiding Questions
- What key modifications and accommodations can make trusted intervention strategies work in a remote or hybrid setting?
Professional Development Connections
- Interventions take many forms and can be collective (such as teacher “office hours”) and individualized (such as one-on-one outreach to parents or guardians). Teachers need both professional development on the key strategies a school or district adopts and the flexibility to add or adjust according to student responses to the interventions and changing needs.
| Strategies | Resources |
|---|---|
|
Modifying In-Person Strategies for Online It’s important to ensure that teachers adapt in-person strategies. For example, accommodations to whole group learning activities should include:
|
Accommodations, Modifications, and Intervention at a Distance (Educational Leadership) is an article that provides helpful steps schools can take to support students who have IEPs in remote-learning settings through modifications and interventions. Looking at Student Work Protocol for Remote Learning During COVID 19 School Closure (New Visions for Public Schools) is a ready-to-go tool for co-teachers to use twice a week that includes a step to determine skills for reinforcement. |
|
High Dosage Tutoring Research has documented significant gains using high dosage tutoring. Specifically, when a school provides frequent intervention (three times a week) with a strong teacher and a group of up to four students, students can make significant progress. These sessions may last a throughout the semester but they have also been shown to yield results when used short term for a week of vacation. While most research was done on face to face tutoring, there is emerging evidence that high dosage tutoring can work virtually as well. While high dosage tutoring is a regular strategy in wealthier communities, it is often not in reach for students in lower income communities unless organized by the school. |
This guide from the Annenberg Center provides more research and suggestions on how to implement high dosage tutoring to ensure strong outcomes. |