In my teaching life so far, "intervention" has always meant "a time to meet with a kid outside of class." For me, that always seemed to be basically a waste of time. What can I do for a kid in forty minutes that I couldn't do in two months?
I'd use SBG. I'd say, look, you've got seven standards that you haven't mastered. Let's do two a week for the next month. Let's meet on Monday during lunch, and I'll tutor you in those skills. Let's reassess on Thursday. And every once in a while a kid would pull it together, but most of the time he would stop coming, or he wouldn't be able to study on his own, or he would still be getting lost on the new material as he's reviewing the old stuff...
Last year I basically begged people on twitter to show me a better way, and Frank Noschese sent me a document that made a small, but important difference in the way my interventions went. The most important part of that doc was the second line of this table:
After reading this, I immediately stopped going over old material with kids, and instead spent our time prepping them for the upcoming week's lessons.
The theory is simple. In a weekly session, it's usually unrealistic to help a kid learn large swaths of material that they're struggling with. But it is totally realistic to help a kid understand tomorrow's class. That just requires a little bit of foresight and the careful selection of examples. And if the kid gets Tuesday's class, then they've got a decent shot at Wednesday. And we can build an area of strength for this kid, and that will be our start.
I don't want to paint too rosy a picture here. By the time you've got a regular intervention with a kid, it's often going to be rough going. Still, looking ahead worked much better for me than looking back.
I appreciate your emphasis on looking ahead. By spending the majority of time and energy on the recent past, students who struggle have difficulty mastering current material. So, the next test will be another major challenge. This sets up a cycle of failures rather than finding a way for a student to succeed and build on some success.
ReplyDeleteExactly. You need some way to break that cycle for the kid, and we might as well start with today's class.
DeleteIf you can combine this with a flipped classroom approach (which can be done for a course or just targeted skills/techniques) then you might just have a shot at both outcomes.
ReplyDeleteFlipping wouldn't work so well for the sort of student I'm imagining, I think.
DeleteI really like Robyn Jackson's work. It always seems to make sense to me in my philosophy and in the reality of the day-to-day classroom. Her Never Work Harder Than Your Students is one of my favorites. I have also found that intervention is much more successful when you pair shoring up targeted foundational skills with previewing upcoming material. For adolescents, the ability to access material with the group as it is taught can change their whole mindset about math.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've been meaning to check out her book for a while. Maybe this is the push that I need!
DeleteYes, yes, yes. Being proactive and teaching "ahead" for students who struggle...I teach high school math as well as in-home private tutoring for students from 2 neighboring high schools. Those three students blossomed as soon as I taught them coming concepts ahead of in-class instruction. It was phenomenal, to the point of changing their testing results and their attitudes overall.
ReplyDelete