Musings from a middle school reading specialist. I encourage my students to read, talk, write, and have fun!
I parent two amazing young-adult daughters with my husband of 30+ years.

January 22, 2013

New Intervention

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Last week was crazy at our house.  My husband finished up a long-term contract, my daughters took finals, and I continued to assess students and carry around a few pounds ton of stress.

This week I'm starting a new, research-based, large group, tier 3 intervention.

Hooray?

I'm not there yet.


I keep telling my principal, "It's not that I don't think this intervention is worthwhile.  I'm just concerned that I'll deliver it the right way."

I was feeling good this year.  I've finally become more comfortable with the tiny group intervention program that I use with 1st-4th grade.  I was really understanding all the goals behind it.  Now there's something new for our 4th and 5th graders.

On Wednesday afternoon, I will switch rooms with a colleague, balance a heavy book of teacher-talk and student prompts, juggle a document camera and presentation software, and guide nine students into unknown territory.

The intervention trainer promised that we will not be fans of the program for a solid six weeks.  
We will be tired.  We will want to give up.

Great.

Time to pull on my sneakers and try my best.

It's what we ask of our students every day.

8 comments:

  1. Chris, this intervention (like all other new projects, ideas, change, etc.) will start slow but will become a program that you will excel in. I guess I'm surprised with the intervention trainer's promise. To me, encouragement would have been a better way to get you started. Good luck.

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    1. Judy - I'm glad the trainer was blatantly honest with us - it's tough to juggle all the components and keep your place in the book. She did hand us "Dumbo feathers" (a little sticky note) to help us, and she gave us great training. I'm thankful for that!

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  2. Change is never easy, especially when this new intervention program is so different than what we believe in the area of literacy and learning as a whole. But this is the world we live in as resource and intervention specialists. Sometimes we have to do things differently to meet the needs.

    And you said it best, what do we expect from our students? Their best.

    Let's imagine jumping in with excitement ("This is going to look and sound different than what we are used to, but we can do it!") and following through because it's researched-based ("Let's try it this way and we can do it together!") and we already know it's not going to be easy at first ("Try your best! I know you can do it! Stick with it!")

    I know you can do it. You can make a difference!

    By the way, I'm loving the new look of your blog! This is something I would totally pick out! :)

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  3. I hope you will le us follow you "pilot" trial fo thuis large group Tier 3 intervention! On that Tier, I am mostly doing VERY small group or 1-1 but I do like the idea of having every possible trick up our sleeve!

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  4. Yikes...I'm kind of glad that we are backing off a little this year. And I'm glad. But you didn't hear it from me :) XO

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  5. All the best to you on your intervention journey! Maybe I should also bless you with perseverance? I hope that there will be future post to tell us how this journey is working out.

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  6. What happens after the six week mark? How do the students change at that turning point?

    Good luck to you Chris. You're in for an adventure.

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  7. Congratulations in accomplishing the beginnings already (your training). It will be an adventure & you'll be able to model what facing challenges are all about with the students. I hope you post about it further so we can hear more what you're doing. Thanks!

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