Academic Interventions That Really Work! Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org

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Academic InterventionsThat Really Work!Jim
Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
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Download selected PowerPoint Slides from this
presentation, as well as copies of handouts. View
links to recommended websites and view additional
intervention ideas mentioned during this
workshophttp//www.jimwrightonline.com/toledo.h
tml
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Workshop Goals

• In this workshop, we will learn about
• Effective components of instruction
• Ideas for motivating reluctant learners
• Classic techniques to improve instruction
• Behavior management strategies to promote
  learning
• Ways to promote study skills
• A sampling of reading interventions

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None of us is as smart as all of us.--Anonymous
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Any darn mule can kick a barn down, but it takes
a carpenter to build one.--Lyndon Johnson
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Curriculum Train
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Difficult-To-Teach Students

• Experience greater difficulty with learning and
  retention of information
• May also have behavioral problems
• Fall along a continuum, with some students
  showing more severe needs than others

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Difficult-To-Teach StudentsThe Numbers

• One in ten children in schools is classified as
  Special Education
• 3-5 of students may qualify for ADHD
• In 1998, about 40 of 4th grade youngsters fell
  below grade-level on a national reading test

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Difficult-To-Teach Students

• An increasing body of evidence supports the
  need for students with disabilities to be
  directly taught the processes and concepts that
  nondisabled children tend to learn naturally
  through experiences.
• --Office of Special Education Programs
• 21st Annual Report to Congress (1999)

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Teacher Circle of Accountability

• Identify students who need additional support

• Use research-based interventions to assist
  students

• Monitor these students progress on ongoing basis

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Solving Student Academic or Behavioral Problems
A Four-Part Model
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Building Blocks of Effective Instruction
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Big Ideas as an Academic Intervention
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Big Ideas As an Academic Intervention(Carnine,
1994)

• The notion of big ideas is roughly comparable
  to important ideas,knowledge, and concepts.
  Specifically, instead of teaching for coverage
  (i.e., exposing students to all the objectives of
  a lesson), only a few big ideas would be taught,
  but more thoroughly. It is better to do a few
  robust things well than lots of things
  poorlyp.346
• Example Fractions, decimals, ratios, percents
  all represent the concept of proportion.

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Instructional Hierarchy(Haring, et al, 1978)
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Instructional Building Blocks

• Instructional Hierarchy (Haring, et al., 1978)
• Acquisition
• Fluency
• Generalization
• Adaptation

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Learn Unit(Heward, 1996)
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Instructional Building Blocks

• Learn Unit (Heward, 1996)
• Academic Opportunity to Respond
• Active Student Response
• Performance Feedback

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Common academic trouble points

• Lack of instructional control in the classroom
• Independent seatwork
• Reading
• Homework
• Test-taking
• Student motivation

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How to Assert Academic Control in the Classroom
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Increasing Time Devoted to Instruction
Academic Learning Time
Allocated Time
Instructional Time
Engaged Time
Academic Learning Time
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Key Concept Behavior Stream (Schoenfeld
Farmer, 1970)

• Individuals are always performing SOME type of
  behavior watching the instructor, sleeping,
  talking to a neighbor, completing a worksheet
  (behavior stream)
• When students are fully engaged in academic
  behaviors, they are less likely to get off-task
  and display problem behaviors
• Academic tasks that are clearly understood,
  elicit student interest, provide a high rate of
  student success, and include teacher
  encouragement and feedback are most likely to
  capture student behavior effectively

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Ideas to Increase Student Understanding of
Instructions

• Write instructions on the board and deliver them
  verbally as well
• Have students write down, repeat, or paraphrase
  directions for assignments
• Complete a sample task item for the group or
  otherwise demonstrate how to perform the task

Source Gettinger, 1990
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Ideas to Increase Academic Learning Time

• Have all necessary work or study materials on
  hand in the room prior to the lessonUse student
  assistants to distribute and collect materials
  while the teacher monitors the transition
• Divide class up into teams. Time group
  transitions, awarding points or allow other
  incentives for the members of either team for
  rapid and appropriate transitions

Source Gettinger, 1990
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Adopt Interactive Teaching Style Encourage
Student Responding

• During group lessons
• Match difficulty level of question to ability of
  the student
• Have students respond chorally (younger children)
  or
• Ask question, give wait time, then call on
  individual student (older students)
• If a students answer is incorrect or only
  partially correct, assist the student by
  prompting or rephrasing the question so the
  student answers it correctly
• Ask students to comment or elaborate on answers
  given by other students
• During small group instruction or individual
  seatwork, circulate through room, checking in
  periodically with each student or group (visiting
  students at their desks minimizes student
  movementa good thing). Keep individual
  interactions short (30 seconds).

Source Gettinger, 1990
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Give Students Academic Feedback

• Students benefit from
• Specific, timely feedback about whether their
  response is correct or incorrect
• Ideas for approaching the problem or task in a
  different way

Source Gettinger, 1990
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Give Students Academic Feedback

• Students benefit from frequent feedback. Teachers
  can efficiently increase their academic feedback
  by
• Collecting short samples of student work often
  (e.g., collect individual paragraphs rather than
  waiting for a full term paper)
• Creating rubrics for students to evaluate own
  work
• Have students maintain own records of self-graded
  or self-evaluated work

Source Gettinger, 1990
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References

• Gettinger, M. (1990). Best practices in
  increasing academic learning time. In. A. Thomas
  J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school
  psychology-II (pp. 393-405). Silver Spring, MD
  National Association of School Psychologists.

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Helping Students to Complete Independent
SeatworkJim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
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Independent Seatwork A Source of Misbehavior

• When poorly achieving students must work
  independently, they can run into difficulties
  with the potential to spiral into misbehaviors.
  These difficulties can include
• Being unable to do the assigned work without help
• Not understanding the directions for the
  assignment
• Getting stuck during the assignment and not
  knowing how to resolve the problem
• Being reluctant to ask for help in a public
  manner
• Lacking motivation to work independently on the
  assignment

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Elements to Support Independent Seatwork
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Sample Reference Sheet Multiplication Table
Problem 8 X 7 ?
x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
3 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36
4 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48
5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
6 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 66 72
7 0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84
8 0 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 72 80 88 96
9 0 9 18 27 36 45 54 63 72 81 90 99 108
10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
11 0 11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88 99 110 121 132
12 0 12 24 36 48 60 72 84 96 108 120 132 144