Supporting Struggling Students
Through Interventions
Teach the Children
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Five Steps to Developing a
Proactive Intervention Plan
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Identify mastery thresholds
Establish red flags
Develop formative assessments
Select appropriate interventions
Monitor your plan
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.
Mastery Target
Minimal
Basic
No Understanding
Mastery
Proficiency
Red Flags
• “Red Flags” are early-warning signals that
students are headed for a destructive
struggle and should be:
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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.
Case Study
• Read the following case study.
• Assuming that Principal
Mathers has no additional
resources to hire after-school
tutors, how can he best
address this problem.
Here’s How
• Read how Principal Mathers and his school
are confronting the question.
• Discuss how this aligns with your decision
to deal with the issue.
What is Effective Support?
Effective Support is….
• Ongoing
• Proactive
• Targeted
• Accelerative
• Learning-focused
• Monitored
• Managed by a teacher as
advocate
Effective Support is Not..
• As Needed
• Reactive
• Generalized
• Remedial
• Behavior-focused
• Random
• Imposed by a teacher as
adversary
Select Appropriate Interventions
• Interventions provide targeted tools to
address a specific concern signaled by a
red flag.
• The most effective interventions provide a
temporary learning support, are made
available on an as-needed basis, and are
removed when they are no longer
necessary
Consider Progressive Interventions
• Sequencing your interventions so that
they progress from least intensive to most
intensive gives you options for students
who continue to struggle in spite of early
supports.
• Progressive interventions help students
take ownership over their own learning.
Rules for Interventions
• Interventions should be seamless
and unobtrusive.
• Interventions should be designed
to get students quickly back on
track.
• Interventions should be
systematic.
Rules continued
• Interventions
temporary.
• Interventions
• Interventions
• Interventions
intensive
should be
should be minimal.
should be specific.
should not be labor
Monitor and Gradually Remove
Your Supports
• Use formative assessments to determine
whether supports are working.
• Decrease the amount of support you
provide for students over time.
• Increase the number of steps students
must complete on their own.
• Decrease the frequency of Support.
Instructional Intervention
Strategies Handouts
• The packet contains suggested
interventions teachers can use to support
struggling students.
• The key is determining when a student is
beginning to go into a destructive struggle
and to have an intervention plan in place
to provide them with immediate support.
• Intervention must be proactive!
Planning Interventions
• Interventions should be a part of the
lesson planning process.
• Assess what you are teaching and decide
what corrective actions will help get my
students back on track.
• Be proactive and have these ready to
implement the minute a student starts a
destructive struggle.
Questions?