SUPPORTING STUDENTS BEFORE AND DURING INSTRUCTION

“We spend a lot of time trying to remediate students who have failed

or are failing our classes. I often wonder why we don’t take that

energy we use addressing failure by doing what we can to prevent

failure in the first place.”

Mindsteps August 18, 2010

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Learning Targets

Participants will :

• understand how to interpret four types of data to better understand our students.• understand how to support your students

before and during instruction.

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How well do you know Susie?

• Susie scored a Level 2 on her 2007-2008 Grade 8 Reading EOG.

• Susie scored a Level 2 in sixth and seventh grades, but her elementary scores were consistently higher.

• Susie is the oldest of three children who are being raised by a single mother.

• Susie’s mother is a college-educated registered nurse.

• Susie hates to read, but she likes soccer.• For the past two years, Susie’s reading teachers

have used the Brain Buster EOG test-prep series.

Support Students Before Instruction• Pretest to obtain data on student background

knowledge. • Anticipate what students may find confusing.• Determine key vocabulary and pre-teach it.• Teach students learning skills needed to be

successful. (note taking, how to read text, etc.)• Select advance organizers for students.• Fill in missing background knowledge.

Supporting Students During Instruction

• Identify mastery-level baselines.• Establish “red flags.”• Develop ongoing assessment measures to

identify students with red flags.• Select appropriate student interventions for

red flags.• Monitor the effectiveness of each

intervention.

Mastery Baselines• Mastery is not a single point of success, but a

range of successful behaviors.• Mastery is determined by the teacher and what

the standards and curriculum say the students need to know and how well they need to know it.

• Mastery is determined by first looking at a grade baseline for assessments.

• Mastery is also determined through other items that may help you develop a fuller picture.

Red Flags

• “Red Flags” are early-warning signals that students are headed for a destructive struggle and should be:– very clearly defined– hard to ignore– trigger action– focused only on academic concerns, not student

behaviors.• Example: Students that miss more than 2 problems

on a 10 problem math test.

Ongoing Assessment Measures

• Should be developed to administer during instruction that will alert the teacher when a student triggers a “red flag.”

• Can be formative or summative.– Common assessments, small quizzes, homework,

performance task, etc.• Assessment data should be analyzed to

determine which students have “red flags.”

What do we want our students to

learn?

What do we want our students to

know?

How will we know they are learning it?

How will we respond when they

don’t learn it?

OBJECTIVE MASTERYBASELINE

ASSESSMENT MEASURE

RED FLAG BASELINE

RED FLAGS WORKSHEET

Select Appropriate Interventions

• Red flags are symptoms of failure.• Interventions:– address the root causes of failure.– provide a temporary learning support on as-needed

basis and are removed when no longer needed.– need to be progressive: Less to more intense as

needed.– must be immediate and cannot wait until the

student is failing.

Intervention Selection continued…• Interventions should:– get students quickly back on track.– NOT be punitive!– be seamless and unobtrusive.– be systematic.– be specific.– NOT be labor intensive.– be a part of the lesson planning process.

• Don’t allow students to fail!• Demand Mastery!

Examples of Interventions

• Conference with student• Good constructive feedback• Graphic organizers• Cheat sheets and cues• Mnemonic devices• Peer tutoring• Mandatory extra help• Task breakdowns

Red FlagsWhat are your red flags in this unit that tell you students are not being successful?

InterventionsWhat corrective actions will get students back on track?

Miss more than two on a 10 problem fraction test. Small group tutoring during daily remediation time.

Intervention Planning Worksheet

Subject What do we want our students to learn?

How will we know they are learning?(Be specific)

How will we respond when they don’t learn? (Be specific)

How will we respond when they do learn?(Be specific)

ELA NCSCOS Objective #:Essential Learning:

Math NCSCOS Objective #:Essential Learning:

Science NCSCOS Objective #:Essential Learning:

Social Studies

NCSCOS Objective #:Essential Learning:

Health NCSCOS Objective #:Essential Learning:

Elementary Instruction Planning Sheet

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Student Intervention Action Sheet Student: ___________________________________________ Concerns: _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________

Data Teacher Reflection Intervention Strategies and Planning

Demographics

Reflect on the data. What does it tell you about this student’s needs?

List and describe the interventions you will implement for this student.

Student Learning List standardized and classroom data.

School Processes Describe the school and classroom processes which affect this student’s learning.

Perception Describe how this student perceives his/her learning and learning environment.

Further Data Describe what further data is needed to intervene effectively.

Sheet developed by Jennifer Morrison, Art of Educating.