Intervention Strategies

SuccessMaker courses provide individualized instruction and help to students while they take sessions, but some students may require additional assistance. SuccessMaker reports help you monitor student performance and alert you to areas of difficulty. You can use report information to plan intervention strategies.

Contents

Developing an Intervention Plan
Steps for setting up a plan with a Sample Reports Analysis and Intervention Plan

General Strategies
Intervention strategies that apply across courses

Strategies for Reading Courses
Intervention strategies for the Foundations reading courses-Reading Readiness, Initial Reading, and Reader's Workshop

Strategies for Math Concepts and Skills
Intervention strategies for the Foundations math course

Developing an Intervention Plan

Follow these steps to develop an intervention plan:

Step 1: Review your program goals. Your intervention plan should align with your goals.

Step 2: Develop a schedule for printing and reviewing reports. Two critical reports for monitoring student performance and developing intervention activities are the Course Report and Grouping by Areas of Difficulty Report. It is recommended that you run these reports every two weeks.

Step 3: Use report information to identify students who need extra assistance in meeting program goals.

Step 4: Use report information and your knowledge of each student to develop appropriate activities that target areas of difficulty.

Sample Reports Analysis and Intervention Plan

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General Strategies

Use these strategies across courses and subject areas.

• Develop a motivation plan that provides students with positive reinforcement. Reward any improvement. For example, reward students for meeting daily or weekly goals. Keep students motivated throughout the year by regularly implementing new motivational strategies.



• Monitor students' performance at the computer, and provide on-the-spot intervention. Ask students to read a passage or exercise aloud. Try to pinpoint the problem by asking questions. When a student is experiencing difficulty with a concept, click a resource icon to pause the system, and explain the concept.



• Conference with students to see if they can verbalize where they are having problems.



• Use Course Reports to monitor each student's cumulative and recent performance. Provide assistance to students whose performance is outside acceptable range. (See Strategies for Reading Courses and Strategies for Math Concepts and Skills.)



• Use Grouping by Areas of Difficulty Reports to identify groups of students experiencing difficulty with the same skills. Group these students for direct instruction and practice.



• If a student is not reaching target goals for a course, increase the number of sessions the student is taking in the course.



• Use a reading specialist, resource teacher, paraprofessional, parent tutor, or peer tutor to work with students during classroom instructional time or computer time.
  



• Enroll a student in another SuccessMaker course that supplements the content of the course in which the student is having difficulty. Use the supplemental course's documentation to identify the scope of the content and components to use for intervention. For example, if a student is having difficulty with regrouping in Math Concepts and Skills, you can enroll the student in Math Corner, an activities-based course that uses manipulatives to explore math concepts. (See Strategies for Reading Courses and Strategies for Math Concepts and Skills.)



• Use the Custom SM Course Editor in Results Manager to customize a course to focus on areas of difficulty. For example, create a custom Math Concepts and Skills course that focuses on a particular strand in need of reinforcement, such as Addition or Division. (See Strategies for Reading Courses and Strategies for Math Concepts and Skills.)



• Use a teacher presentation station for small group or whole class instruction.



• Create worksheets for practice with problem skills. Create learning centers with games and activities that address problem skills.



• For course-specific intervention strategies, review course documentation, and see Strategies for Reading Courses and Strategies for Math Concepts and Skills.
  

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Strategies for Reading Courses

Use these intervention strategies to address areas of difficulty in Reading Readiness, Initial Reading, and Reader's Workshop.

Reading Readiness and Initial Reading

Use word lists from the course documentation to create word walls, flash cards, games, and puzzles.

Create a learning center with letter and picture identification games, alphabet blocks, and picture books. Include paper, crayons, and colored pencils for writing and drawing.

Use the Reading Readiness Activity Sheets and Initial Reading Activity Sheets to supplement course work. Create your own worksheets to address problem skills.

Observe students to determine if they are reading passages. Make sure students have adequate time to read passages or complete exercises. Use the enrollment options in Results Manager to adjust Time-Out Time and/or Passage Reading Time.

Read exercises or passages to a student, or have a peer or parent tutor read with the student.

Provide direct instruction in comprehension strategies and opportunities to apply the strategies in a variety of reading materials.

Use the Custom SM Course Editor in Results Manager to customize a course to focus on an area of difficulty. For example, create a custom Initial Reading course that focuses on comprehension by isolating these strands: Word Comprehension (WC), Sentence Comprehension (SC), and Passage Comprehension (PC).

Enroll students in First Adventures Bookshelf, a literature-based beginning reading course, for additional practice in phonics and word study skills in context. Use the Classroom Activity Guide for First Adventures Bookshelf to find activities for small group and whole group instruction and for additional practice at home.

Enroll students in Reading Adventures Primary, a literature-based reading course for grades 1-2. Use the Custom SM Course Editor to create a custom course that addresses problem areas: Choose A Book for additional reading practice; Word Study for help with learning about words; or Find A Sound for additional phonics practice.

Enroll students in Discover English, a reading course for ESL students. Use the Custom SM Course Editor to create a custom course that addresses problem areas: Reading Vocabulary Strand for word study; the Letter and Phoneme Awareness strands for phonics practice. Use the Classroom Activity Guide for Discover English to find activities for small group and whole group instruction and for additional practice at home.


Reader's Workshop

Use word lists from the course documentation to create word walls, flash cards, games, and puzzles.

Create a learning center with games and activities that address problem skills. Include a wide range of books for free reading and paper, pencils, and crayons for writing and drawing.

Assign Reader's Workshop Worksheets to address problem skills in the Word Meaning (WM) strand, or create your own worksheets.

Observe students to determine if they are reading passages. Make sure students have adequate time to read passages or complete exercises. Use the enrollment options in Results Manager to adjust Time-Out Time and/or Passage Reading Time.

Read exercises or passages to a student, or have a peer or parent tutor read with the student.

Provide direct instruction in comprehension strategies and opportunities to apply the strategies in a variety of reading materials.

Use the Custom SM Course Editor in Results Manager to customize Reader's Workshop to focus on an area of difficulty. For example, create a custom course that focuses on comprehension by isolating these strands: Passage Comprehension (PC), Interpretive Comprehension (IC), and Literal Comprehension (LC).

Encourage students to use the Glossary when they encounter words they do not understand.

Enroll students in Reading Adventures, a literature-based reading course for grades 3-6. Use the Custom SM Course Editor to create a custom course that addresses problem areas: Enhanced Passage, A Closer Look, and Learn a Strategy for comprehension and Enhanced Passage, Learn a Strategy, and Words to Know for word study. For skills instruction, enroll students in the Skills Model.

To develop or strengthen the application of reading strategies and critical thinking skills, enroll students simultaneously in Reader's Workshop and Reading Adventures or Reading Investigations, a literature-based reading course for grades 6-8.

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Strategies for Math Concepts and Skills

Use these strategies to address areas of difficulty in Math Concepts and Skills.

Create a learning center with flash cards, worksheets, textbooks and workbooks, games, and other activities that treat math skills. Include activities, such as matching games, that provide practice with math terms and concepts. See the Reference Manual for Math Concepts and Skills for an alphabetical list of words and abbreviations in the online glossary.

Create a problem solving learning center that features a "Problem of the Day." Include math tools and manipulatives. Encourage students to contribute their own "problems of the day."

Display math terms, formulas, and facts charts in the classroom.

Provide manipulatives for students to use at the computer, or enroll students in Math Corner, an activity-based course that uses manipulatives to explore math concepts.

Assign Math Concepts and Skills Worksheets to address problem skills in the Addition (AD), Division (DV), Multiplication (MU), and Subtraction (SU) strands, or create your own worksheets.

Use the Custom SM Course Editor in Results Manager to customize Math Concepts and Skills to focus on an area of difficulty. For example, create a custom course that provides additional practice in addition by isolating the Addition (AD) strand.

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