I don’t know about you, but the beginning of the school year always feels like constant drowning. It’s about now that I finally feel like I’m swimming to the surface. If you are anything like me, it’s sort of a relief, but a different kind of stress has popped up because now I know what these kids don’t know. OOF. Intervention, here we come!

What’s first?

There’s obviously going to be needs in both reading and math. But start with one. Once you get that down you can add another. 

I’m taking a page out of my CPR training handbook and “assessing the situation”, but instead of, “is it safe?” it’s “where is the biggest need?” It’s like laying everything you have out in front of you and seeing what needs to be done most (If you need help seeing where students need help, see my post on common core checklists for an easy way to keep track of student growth). For my classroom it’s spelling and decoding skills because these are building blocks for so many other reading skills.

Even with teaching 3rd grade this year, I’ve been pulling out some of my old favorites for filling the gaps that some of the kids have. These are some of my favorites because they are EASY. Let’s be honest, just because the chaos is over doesn’t mean I don’t want things to get harder!

First up: phonics flashcards. I give a quick assessment to see the need. This can just be a quick run through on the flashcards, a previous assessment you’ve done, or a quick check on paper (which is good to have for documentation purposes!). Depending on the needs of your students, you can choose the cards with the pattern colored or not. Send them home, work with them in class, and incorporate them into daily writing. Whatever you do- DO NOT teach your students to memorize them. That will not help them become a better reader and won’t help them in the long run.

Along with focusing on the individual phonics patterns, make sure students are practicing the patterns in context. Fluency strips are a great way for students to practice individual skills while also getting the fluency practice in. Do as a warm up or closing practice for intervention–students can read with partners or parent volunteers, or pull students for quick fluency checks. My favorite thing to do is with Seesaw: put the fluency strips together and have students record themselves reading them on seesaw. Then they can go back and listen to it themselves, and you have the recording of them reading for data and communication purposes.

Last but not least- nonsense words. What I’ve noticed in 3rd grade is that students have done A LOT of memorizing by now. Giving them words they do not recognize makes them actually decode them–giving them that extra practice. These cards are a fun way to make it into a game. I put colored dots next to each answer. I tell them the word to find, and they have to race to find the correct color. It’s really good for those letters that are so similar, and forces them to slow down and read them. You can pick out the skill you are working on with your students or use it as a review.

Intervention can be super overwhelming, but it doesn’t all have to be done at once. Sometimes it feels like as teachers we have to do it ALL RIGHT NOW. But we don’t. Take everything one step at a time and it will be easier the more you figure it out.