Reading Intervention In the Upper Grades

Reading Intervention in Upper Elementary

 Hey Friends! This last year, I switched to fourth grade. My group of students were on a variety of reading abilities. How I did ran my reading intervention  groups for fourth grade  literally made all of the difference in my students progress. My schedule was so jammed tight just like all of you. I knew I had to fit in intervention and had no IDEA how. My schedule felt so blocked and I was determined to figure out a way to have a separate intervention time. This is the BEST I could come up with. For me, the BEST intervention happens at a separate time than our regular reading block. I believe that intervention does not replace the guided reading instruction and they should be done cohesively. 

 

I would switch off between reading and math intervention, depending on my students needs. To start, I assess my students with running records to determine their instructional reading level. Once I determine their level and independent weaknesses, I determine which section the student would benefit the most from out of our intervention binder.  If I believe the students have a phonics deficiency, than I use this screener to pinpoint exactly where it is.  We had a variety of needs, like most of you. Some students needed to focus on word work and decoding strategies while others needed straight comprehension skills.  I also focus on each component of reading so that my students are able to continuously practice those skills. Even in the upper grades, students need to be able to understand why they are doing what they are doing. By teaching the five components of reading, you are giving students the foundation they need in order to be successful readers.

When students struggle with fluency, there are so many ways provided to practice. Through activities like "I Say, You Point" students practice difficult vocabulary/sight words in isolation. Fluency is so important because it helps students transition from just word recognition to comprehension. Once students can read the word accurately, with the correct expression and rate, they are able to cognitively begin to sink deeper into the meaning of the words within the text. Students have to be able to read words accurately, quickly and with expression in order to move on the next phase. That's why the Read It Right activities are so helpful. They give students the opportunity to practice similar words that they will come across in text.

One of the biggest struggles in third and  fourth grade, was getting students to think while read and activate their self monitoring strategies.  This is why I firmly believe it is imperative that we teach self monitoring strategies from the primary grades on up. 

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is probably one of the most skipped over components of reading. We often feel like once students are strong with phonics, decoding and fluency, then comprehension will naturally follow. However, we are forgetting that if students do not understand or have a deep connection to a word, they can not apply the comprehension strategies.  Research suggests that students need 12 organic interactions with a word before they truly understand it. So how to we increase our instruction in vocabulary while still hitting the other components? The first step is EASY. When you are teaching phonics strategies, do NOT just focus on the phonics feature. Be sure to address the words meaning and how it relates to every day life. Do not JUST teach vocabulary in isolation. Embed vocabulary in everything you do. 

Another way to increase vocabulary is to model for students how to use different words. I write down three or four words that I use ALL the time. I purposely think of DIFFERENT words or synonyms that mean the same thing to use instead. By showing students a technique for using different words, students can actually apply this idea. Students probably have four to five words that they use over and over each day, encourage them to make their own "replacement list". 

My students enjoy playing a game called "Word Detective". Students are given a card and have to offer clues to their partner in order for their partner to be able to determine the word. 

Figurative language is a skill that naturally opens the door to teaching vocabulary. 

What seems like an activity focus on spelling, can easily transition into a vocabulary experience. Encourage students to use different words in different scenarios. 

We had to really dive deep into the comprehension strategies and take apart the standards. 

I essentially need to reteach my student how to THINK while reading. Through interactive read alouds, guided reading and intervention time, I focused on explicitly teaching my students how to reading was thinking. Students need to understand the difference between word calling and reading at this stage. Often, they think because they can read such large words, that they are successful readers. As teachers, we need to continue to explicitly teach them so that they can take their awesome word calling skills and dive so deep into the text that they get lost.

Comprehension Anchor Charts 

Visual aides are so helpful even in a small group setting. There are several  ways to use these anchor charts. You could display them while teaching or have students create a guided reading or intervention notebook. They could keep the anchor charts to refer back to. This way, they always have a reference point if they need to refresh their memory, 

 So how do you get your students so deep into a text that they are LOST in it? How to you motivate those readers that are struggling? The key is your intervention time. You see, presenting the material in a different and engaging way is a #GAMECHANGER! 

The FIRST thing I teach my students is to always visualize themselves in the story as they are reading. How would YOU feel if this EVENT was happening to YOU? Has this ever happened to YOU? How did YOU feel? If students can make connections or thinking about how they can relate to the story, the comprehension will increase automatically. I taught my students how to fall in love with reading.  This encouraged the lower students to WANT to read and by wanting to read, their readability will increase.

    Here's a glance inside my guided reading lesson plans I used during guided reading time. I wanted this time to be different than intervention so that my students aren't bored and look forward to coming to see me! I needed standards based plans that I could easily use with each individual group's instructional reading level. These plans are written for a third grade level. I purposely schedule my intervention time separate from my guided reading time. Intervention is not an extension of guided reading. 

Now we will take a tour of the  fourth grade intervention binder

Each section has an anchor chart to review before teaching the skill.

We included passages levels N-P in this binder and are working on adding more!

Assessment is KEY to any instructional program, so we've included assessments for you to track your students progress.

 Teacher tips and instructional guides are included so that ANYONE can use these binders. We often have our paras or parent volunteers use the binders with one or two students.

I've included data sheets after each section so that you can track your students progress over time. 

Click below to see our Fourth Grade  Reading Intervention Binder 

Here's a look inside our Fifth Grade Reading Intervention Binder

Click the image below to check out our Fifth Grade Reading Intervention

Math Intervention in the Upper Grades

Math Intervention in Grades 3-5

 Upper Elementary

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Hey friends!

Math intervention can be a difficult time to plan. The best thing I've EVER done with my intervention block is to simply go back to the basics. Most students who struggle with math concepts, do not have a strong foundation in number sense. I would give my students place value blocks, and just call out numbers for them to build. Then, we would write the numbers in expanded and word form. Students need to see the numbers in different ways to learn how numbers change and get larger. 

Since switching to the upper grades, I wanted to take my Math Intervention for Primary grades  and bring the same concept with me.

For small groups,  our plan looks like this:  We start with a Review skill. This is a skill we've previously taught in the weeks before.  Next, we do a preview skill. This is a skill that we will teach in the next few months or so. This gives the students the chance to be exposed to the skill prior full instruction. Then, we dive into our current skill. We use our Math Intervention Binder for Fourth Grade to review, preview and teach our current skill. We just use a different section of it. There are 14 sections to this binder and it's always growing as my students needs are always changing! The teacher  pulls and sees every student. We have a para for 30 minutes and she pulls our bubble students. She uses the intervention binder as well and does a spiral review of the previous week skill. I will often have the para go back to place value, multiplication or division because those are foundational skills that students need to grasp in order to do just about anything else. Students need a daily and quick practice with a variety of skills if they are falling behind. I strongly feel like by having students practice a previously taught skill for spiral review, will give you the biggest bang for your buck. One way I do this is try to stay four weeks apart from the skill. This gives the kiddos a little time in between, but not so much that you need to completely reteach the lesson. For the beginning of the year, I try to spend a lot of time on place value (regardless if that's what my curriculum tells me). Students who do not have a strong number sense foundation, will eventually struggle!! So it's important to catch that NOW!

These place value mats help the kiddos to visualize and understand the number. I want my kids to know the term value. What is the value of the thousands place? I might ask. 

I love using the place value disks. They are super cheap and the kids LOVE them. You can find them HERE. 

This activity is something that I do in my small group table first, then it moves to centers a few weeks later. I print them on different colored paper so that it seems like it's a new activity. The kids always enjoy it so much!. 

Also, that's another reason why I'm constantly updating these binders because as I find new strategies that work for my students, I add them to see if they will help with your students as well!

In this section, the students work on number sense. 

Students have multiple ways to practice "building numbers". This takes the boredom out of math. Students are engaged and ENJOY it. They look forward to this activity every day and ASK for it. WIN WIN!

We also use the place value pages as a spiral review in math centers. 

We spend a lot of time practicing and reviewing place value nearly all year long! It's a big and important skill. Students have to grasp this skill in order to move into harder skills like decimals later in the year. To do this, expanded form is important. Start with the basics, and move into the larger numbers. The intervention binder is put together in building blocks. It starts smaller and works into larger numbers to allow the students to gain confidence and a strong foundation. 

Using the mini anchor chart helps with a variety of ways. It helps give kiddos that real world application plus the visual format is a huge bonus for some kids. I will often copy the anchor charts and let the kids keep them in their math folder or notebook. 

In the geometry section, we work with symmetry, angles, lines, rays, points and more!

Division can be such a hassle in fourth grade. The kids get practice with partial products, the box method, traditional method, long division, base ten strategy, and more. 

Reading Intervention

Hey! I wanted to share with you some different strategies we used this past year for reading intervention. My Reading Specialist and  I worked together to create a series of Reading Intervention Binders  to help our teachers with reading intervention. There are SO many strategies and ways to do intervention, but it makes it so much easier having a program to follow. We use this binder during our intervention time and at the beginning of each guided reading lesson. We focus on word work, phonics, sight words and vocabulary first. Then, each binder moves into fluency and comprehension. They are designed so you can use them with a variety of reading levels. I am a firm believer in a separate intervention time every day. I usually do this during the last 15 minutes of every day. It's challenging, but it is so powerful to revisit those struggling readers outside of your normal reading block.

One thing we tried to do was provide a variety of ways to reach your students. Each binder includes assessments so that you can see which part of the binder will most help your students. We use Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark System in order to track our students progress. I give the benchmark once a grading period, but do informal running records in between.

Here's how often we are required to give informal running records:

Standard Running Record Form 

Running records are a great way to determine a students weakness in a quick fashion. The most important component is analyzing the running record! 

We use the following chart for our first grade students as they progress through their reading levels:

The intervention binder is designed to start at the basic level for each grade level.

All of the binders address the components of reading and the literacy continuum.


Word families are a great way to introduce students to decoding skills while teaching vocabulary at the same time! Our Word Families Binder is designed for the Kindergarten- Second Grade classroom! Students who are struggling with decoding should start with word families because they are easier to decode. We begin with short vowels and then move into digraphs/blends.

 Here are a few pictures from our First Grade Reading Intervention Binder

   

 Students have the opportunity to build vocabulary through learning synonyms and antonyms.

Decoding is an important skill that can hinder a students reading ability. These pages were designed to help students segment and blend words together.

We've got all components covered! Fluency passages are also included.

The first grade binder includes preprimer, primer and first grade sight word activities.  My students love using these pages. They are designed to be no prep but still effective. I often use these as morning work or as a warm up to our intervention lesson. I've also used them in our writing groups. Students have to create sentences based on these words. Students need repetitive practice with familiar words. A few weeks after I've assessed my students, I'll give them these words again and have them practice them in different ways. That way, students show a higher level of mastery. Sometimes students seem like they know the words because we've "skilled and drilled them". That's why I like to revisit previously taught words or skills about  a month later, so I can be sure they've developed a deeper understanding.  We often think of spiral review so much in math and sometimes forget that reading requires spiral review as well!

For this activity, we use it in several different ways. One way to is have the students place a marble or counter in the box next to the sentence you say. The other is to have one reader read a sentence out loud and have the other students move their counter to the correct sentence. To do this, I simply print two sets of the same page and spread them out. It should work out to where the student next to them has a different page. 

Sight word three in a row is a favorite! After I use these pages in small group instruction, I place them in a student binder at a reading station. The students know exactly how to play the game since we've practiced it in small groups. The other great thing about this is that words change and increase in difficulty so the students aren't just using the same two game boards over and over again. All of the binders have these activities, the words are just more difficult. 

I prefer to do my reading intervention time separate from my reading block. I like to do this because I want my students to practice reading all day long. We should consider ourselves reading teachers all day long. When we have a large amount of students below grade level,  I always try to take a mental inventory of how much print they are exposed to. We cannot change what happens when they leave our rooms each day, however, we can expose them to as much print as possible when they are under our care :) 

As with any intervention system, assessment drives instruction. Use your benchmark or diagnostic data to determine where your students need the most help! I LOVE chatting about data, so feel free to e-mail me or message me on Facebook about your specific needs! 

Here are the binders in pictures:

2nd Grade Binder

 

Word Families 

Third Grade

Fourth Grade 

Fifth Grade

Click here to download the reading development chart and running record forms.