KINDERGARTEN STEP BY STEP- {EDITION FOUR} INTERVENTION

At my school each grade has a set intervention block which is 30 minutes.  They are set times that the entire grade level participates in.  They also do not overlap with other grade levels so that the title staff can assist in each grade level for that 30 minutes (and then extra time slots through the day).We have 5 teachers per session but this would work with even 2 teachers, etc!  We eventually divide the students five ways and disperse them into each of our 5 classrooms.  However, we do not start this until late September- early October.


How do I start “intervention” in Kindergarten?

If you are a kindergarten teacher then you know that first month to two months is a vital time but a fragile time!  I wouldn’t recommend switching your kids that early.  They are still learning routines, procedures, and really still getting to know you!  Those first 8 weeks of school during our 30 minute intervention block we use my program called Kinder Start!

KinderStart is a 8 week teacher scripted curriculum!  The program is broken down into three areas; oral story telling, phonemic awareness, and phonics!  For the storytelling portion the students are introduced to Brisket!  Brisket goes on a new adventure each day and the kids get to listen in and answer simple recall questions!  Following the storytelling is phonemic awareness!  For phonemic awareness the students are introduced and practice: rhyming, syllables, onset-rime, segmenting, and blending!  The final section is phonics! Here the students work on letter sorts, alphabet, color words, and more!  Please note this section is not for letter name/ sound introduction!  The students are introduced to basic phonics concepts!

Here’s Brisket!!!

 

Again, everything needed to implement KinderStart is included within the packet!

Again, KinderStart is what I use for the first 8 weeks before my students start switching for intervention time!  Also included in KinderStart is a phonemic awareness assessment tracker!  This will be vital for me later when I go to choose my intervention groups!

Okay, It’s time to start.  How do I divide up my students?

After the first 8 weeks of KinderStart it is now time to divide up the students into their intervention group.  However, first I’d like to mention that these groups should always be viewed as “fluid.”  At any point in the year the students can be moved and placed into a new group.  In the past I have seen this mainly when we place them into a “lower” group and they take off like a rocket and need moved up!  We never want to hinder them either way…with it being too easy or too hard!  Move them around to a place where they will be successful!

When choosing how to divide your students you need to first decide what groups are available.  I have done those needing intensive letter id/sound help (that’s the kiddos needing handwriting too) and those that are ready to start building words (that’s the kids that know about 90% of their letters/sounds).

Now just like I mentioned the students can be fluid so can your groups!  Every year we start with 3 letter groups and 2 word building groups.  By the end of the year we have 1 letter groups and 4 word building groups!  That’s the goal…we want to move them from the letter group to the word building group (and beyond).

To get an initial idea of which group the students belong in I always start with a letter id assessment!  You can grab this freebie assessment tracker HERE.

As I mentioned above I also use the phonemic awareness tracker from KinderStart to gauge my student’s overall success in beginning of kinder concepts.  I then make a list of my students and place them under the column I feels sets them up for success!  I made two headers: Lettervention and KinderWordBuilding!  This will let me know if they need to go through an intensive letter program or they are ready for word building.  A word of caution!  Don’t be fooled by the term “word building.”  When KinderWordBuilding starts the students are presented with about 6 letters on their board.  Let’s say they have p, h, c, t, m, a on their board.  If you say build the word “cat.”  Most likely if they are comfortable with letters/sounds they can do that!  If they are missing just a handful of letters/sounds I am still confident they will be successful in KinderWordBuilding!

Okay, so I have my two list of names and so do my fellow team teachers.  We compare list and decide from there how many letter groups we need and how many word building groups we will have!  We then take it a little further for the word building groups and break them down again into a medium and high!  We know we have word builders and then we have kids that have been word building and reading for a couple years!

We have our groups!  Now What?


Alright, you have your list of names and how many of each program you’ll be teaching (Lettervention or KinderWordBuilding).  Now you need to decide what teachers are teaching what.  In my building we have a teacher that is beyond AWESOME with those low babies…she willingly takes them on and works wonders on them!  I would open it up to your team and see what they prefer!  We all know that we we are enjoying what we are teaching the students are only going to benefit more! At our school Title does pull students during this time but it’s maybe 10 students.  The rest of the students are still with us… that means your intervention group is still the size of an average classroom!  But trust me it still works!

You have your groups, the teachers know what they are teaching, and now it’s time to get acquainted with the two programs I think you’ll fall in love with!  Lettervention and KinderWordBuilding!

Let’s start with Lettervention!  Lettervention is a VERY systematic program!  When I say very I mean it!  The plans will looks similar because that’s the point!  These low babies don’t need bells, whistles, flips, and fluff….they need nuts and bolts!  They need repetition and consistency!  Lettervention also uses a ton of “repeated language.”  This simply means that the teacher will use the same phrases over and over again… “What letter is this. Yes, this is a t.  T says…/t/.  What letter is this?  Yes, T, t, /t/”

You can listen to me ramble about Lettervention HERE!

For Lettervention you would invite the students to the carpet as you begin the lesson.  During the handwriting portion they could do that at the carpet with a lap board or have them return to tables!

Lettervention dedicates two days per lowercase letter and capital letter!  I would recommend that you teach two letters per week and use Fridays for assessment or review of the letters taught thus far!  With Lettervention is a huge part!  I have included a handwriting template that can simply be placed into a sheet protector! 

 

Up next is KinderWordBuilding! KinderWordBuilding is a 20 week literacy intervention program!  There are actually 15 built in assessment days so the program is 115 academic days!    The program makes its way through short vowels, mixed short vowels, digraphs, mixed digraphs, double ending consonants, long vowels, and mixed long vowels!  You can read more extensively on KinderWordBuilding at THIS post.

 

 

 

Watch a KinderWordBuilding lesson below!