recalls the information, the more dendrites sprout to connect new memories to
old, and the more efficient the brain becomes in its ability to retrieve that
memory or repeat the action. (Judy Willis, M.D.)
To me that simply says that students need to hear something over and over… and not only “hear” it but also practice it over and over for success! I have always enjoyed intervention time because you get to see the kiddos at their own comfort level (or right above it) and you see them blossom!
How does intervention block look at your school?
How do I start “intervention” in Kindergarten?
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!
Okay, review it all once more!
Alright, the first 8 weeks of school you will keep your own kiddos! You can utilize the effectiveness and stress-less KinderStart or option in your own ideas! After the 8 weeks you’ll sit down with your data and divide your students up into two sections. Those needing letter help and/or handwriting and those ready to start building words! Those needing letter help will go through Lettervention and those ready for word building will move into KinderWordBuilding!
I need more options!
If you are first grade teacher and/or second grade teacher I also have Firstievention and Second Grade Intervention! Both of those programs follow the same format an daily routine as KinderWordBuilding! Actually, a lot of kindergarten teachers will move their kids into Firstievention once they master KinderWordBuilding!
Tell me about management!
As I mentioned we switch our kiddos between the five classrooms. In our own room we say if you are going with Mrs. ___ go line up, Mrs. ___ go line up, Mrs. ____ go line up, etc. If you stay with me have a seat at the carpet. Then one teachers watches two rooms and another teacher travels the “train” of kiddos down the hall. Other that are going back will join in. We are actually split with 3 down one hall and 2 down another hall. If you are lucky to be next to another then even better! The students are to stand quietly outside the teacher’s door until she invites them in. After intervention block we all bring our intervention class to the restroom, the use the restroom, and the line back up with their homeroom teacher! We then all head to lunch! We have also done it where the kiddos line up with their intervention teacher after recess which is great…except for snow days, cold days, and rain days 😛
In closing…
I am most certain that I have left something out! If you have any questions or would like me to help you with your specific “set up” for intervention please always feel free to email me (littlemindsatworkllc@gmail.com)! If you have the opportunity to do a grade level intervention time I truly feel that you’ll LOVE it! We are the tigers so ours is Tiger Time and the kiddos love it and love the independent of switching classrooms as well!
A resource sale…
If you are in love with any of the intervention program I mentioned above and would like to get your hands on them….well then you’re in luck because they are all on sale through the end of JUNE!
Have a great week!
How long does your intervention time last? This sounds like a great idea!
It's supposed to be about 30 but with the initial transition to the classes it is 25 😀
Tara
So with the groups being fluid, when one student is ready to leave lettervention and move into kindervention, does the student just join in where ever the group is at or do you start a new group at the beginning? (Really hope this makes sense!)
That is an excellent question! We've dealt with it two ways! If it's just a couple kiddos we have placed them into the kindervention group and they were able to just jump right in! Every year though we have one lettervention class make it about jan-feb and then the entire group transfers over to kindervention! The teacher just starts the program from the beginning! I did that group two years ago! This past year I had the medium-high that were in Kindervention/Firstie through the whole year!
Let me know if that makes sense 😀
How do you manage the magnetic letters? Do you prep them for each lesson with the letters for that lesson or do the kids each have a container of all the magnetic letters?
I prep the letters the end of the week for the next week! 🙂 Some of my teammates would write the letters on the board and the kiddos would get their own 🙂
I also use lettervention, kindervention, and firstievention just in small groups. We have an intervention block already for 40 minutes and we have to use Readwell. However, I also have a title one assistant for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon. I am having them start with lettervention with my low flyers because there are so many this year. I think it will work out great and I don't have to keep giving them little activities to work on…it is all laid out for them. Thank you Tara!!
Eeek that is exciting!! Let me know 😀
Tara