Math intervention can be overwhelming as a classroom teacher when you don’t have a special education teacher to help you. How can you help your students that need extra help? What should you do for math intervention? Let’s look at math intervention and activities that you can do without having a pullout.
What is math intervention? In the simplest terms, math intervention is a way to help students who are behind in math. These are typically students who are one or two grade levels below their current grade level. However, for many educators, the meaning of math intervention is the support provided to students who are two or more grade levels behind in mathematics. Some schools offer dedicated classes—frequently with fewer students and classroom teacher—to support students who would benefit from intensive math intervention. But we don’t all have this luxury of a pullout or dedicated class. So what do you do without a pullout?
Let’s look at the three tiers of math intervention. How do we address them in the math classroom? What can you do to help your kids?
Tier 1
Students receive instruction within their core classroom. This is for all students. A strategy to try with your whole class is a math facts quiz. This quiz will look different for each grade level. The quiz itself should have questions about grade level math facts your students should know. Do a weekly quiz on 15-20 facts. I’ve done this on Early Release Wednesdays and it works well for kids to practice key concepts and skills to get them up onto grade level. This helps students practice their math fluency as well.
Tier 2
Students receive supplemental intervention through differentiated instruction. This support can be given in the classroom with supplemental aide or in groups of students with differentiated assignments. A strategy to try with your Tier 2 kids is scaffolding notes. Some students may not be able to take notes on their own, so by scaffolding the process you’re providing a framework for students to learn how to take notes. You can do this with foldables or Cornell notes, but having a framework ready to go to give students support can be helpful in the learning process.
Tier 3
Students receive intensive intervention that occurs in the core classroom. This support can be given to students who need a lot of support. A strategy to try with this small group of students is to have a teacher station. This station will look different for each grade level. The teacher station itself should allow kids who need support to come sit at a table with you, the teacher, and be able to get additional support for that math topic. This can be done in conjunction with a math stations day in your classroom where all the other students not receiving the tier 3 support are working individually or in groups on their own assignments.
3 Things to Remember about Intervention
First, All students have different learning needs. What works for one student may not work for another, and what works for a particular math skill or problem may not work for another. Moreover, the supports that your students need may look different depending on classroom capacity or the organization of specialized intervention support within your school or district. Feel free to try the ideas I’ve mentioned and adapting them to your individual students. Lastly, remember that intervention does not replace best practices. You should still be doing your lessons and teaching first, before doing these interventions. Interventions are supplemental.
Math Intervention Workshop
A complete workshop for making math intervention work for you and your students. This quick and easy 40-minute workshop will give you tips, strategies, and resources to develop a math intervention plan to meet the needs of all your students. Save your energy and get a clear proven plan for effective intervention.
Included are:
- On-Demand 40-minute video workshop ($40.00 value)
- Training guide, Math Intervention Project with editable version, Secret Tips, and much more ($10.00 value)
- PD Certificate (1 hour)
Sign up for the Math Intervention Workshop today here!
