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One of the primary reasons why students struggle in math is often that the fast-paced curriculum chosen for you leaves little room for students who require more time to understand a concept. This issue is compounded by the lack of early intervention in math skills, which creates a spiraling effect as students move up the grades. Therefore, it’s important to incorporate frequent math intervention in your classroom to address this problem.

So, what do you do when you have a class full of students where some are on or even above level and some may not be ready for what you are teaching? You cannot take class time to review skills from previous years (and honestly, not all students in your class will need that) but you need to do something. You need to bring math intervention into your classroom frequently… at least 2-3 times per week. If you have a math intervention program set up in your school, and a math interventionist, great! But, that does’t mean that should be all the intervention your students receive.

How can you make math intervention work in your classroom? Here are 6 tips.

1. Track student progress. Knowing what your students are struggling with is the first key to unlocking the intervention puzzle. Not all students will need intervention. Some students always will. Keeping detailed records of student scores will help you determine who needs what.
2. Provide explicit and systematic instruction. Require students to explain their thought process, give them guided practice, feedback and frequent spiraling. When delivering content to the entire class you are speaking to all students. When providing intervention you are speaking only to those who didn’t get it the first time around. You know they have been exposed to the skill(s) already so they have some background information. Your instruction should focus on exactly what they are missing.
3. Focus on BASIC skills. Yes word problems (see below) and multi-step problems are important but the basic skills are essential. A student will not be able to solve even simplest word problem if they don’t have a toolkit of basic skills to pull from. A student cannot be expected to solve multi-step equations if they cannot solve a single step equation… or know how to combine like terms. A student cannot be expected to add rational numbers if they cannot add fractions. See where I’m going with this? Sometimes you may need to spiral back…. all the way back to the basics.
4. Provide intensive focus on solving word problems and evaluating mathematics situations in real world scenarios. This seems to go against the step above but hear me out. For many students, they feel as though they’ll “never use this” so they don’t see the value in trying to understand. Fortunately for teachers in the middle grades, most of what you teach WILL be used in the future in some way. You can deliver basic integer problems using a football field or checkbook – basic fraction skill using cooking… the more you make them see that they’ll need that skill at some point, the more likely they are to try. And let’s be honest, saying “this will be on the test” is really not a good way to get them hooked.
5. Allow to work with visual representations / math manipulatives whenever possible. The digital world is amazing but many students still desperately need to put their hands on things when learning. Provide fraction tiles when possible, let them flip around shapes for transformations, build composite figures… the more they can “see” it the more they will hopefully be able to get it.
6. Spend a small amount of each intervention session building basic fact fluency. Consider taking the last 3-5 minutes of each intervention session to spiral back to fact fluency. Depending on the grade you teach and the level of your students it could involve you firing off double digit addition problems. Maybe you can go through a quick list of integer facts. Show graphs and ask students to visually identify the slope. Even struggling Algebra students should get a dose of basic skills.

By incorporating these tips, you can provide effective math intervention in your classroom, ensuring that all students have the foundational knowledge they need to succeed in math. Remember, every student learns differently, and it’s essential to provide tailored instruction to help each student reach their full potential.

Do you have any tips to add to this list? Share them in the comments if so!

If you would like to see a sample of the grade level intervention binders/programs I have to offer, please enter your email address below and then check your email!

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Being an interventionist is hard. Harder than many people think. From the outside, an interventionist “has it easy.” You probably have an office instead of a classroom. You work with small groups of students instead of classes of 20 – 30. You go to a lot of meetings instead of spend time in the classroom. You don’t have the pressures of testing, parents and administrative evaluations hanging over your head.

Truth is, all of those points I mentioned above are nothing more than misconceptions. Yes, you probably have an office instead of a classroom. But that office is filled with data, research materials, books and resources to help students and teachers grow. Yes, you work with small groups of students instead of large classes, but those students are always struggling learners. You rarely get to work with the children who excel. The students you work with are constantly cycling, so you also rarely get to form quality relationships with them. Yes, you go to a lot of meetings that sometimes pull you from the classroom, but those meetings can be long – and let’s face it, full of lots of data. You’d rater be working with the students. And pressure? Let’s talk about pressure. If you aren’t performing, you could easily be removed from your position. The test scores of the students you work with won’t reflect on you on paper – but they will in the eyes of the teachers and the admin in your school. You were put in this position to help students succeed. To help them grow. To help them overcome and fill in gaps from YEARS past.

The good news? Being an interventionist can be incredibly rewarding when done right. When everything aligns and intervention works like it was designed to, everyone grows. Everyone succeeds and everyone can see their own unique purpose = students and teachers alike.

Here are six habits of effective interventionists :

1. They know their purpose. It can be easy to let the opinions of others dictate how you feel about your own job.
   Effective interventionists have a solid understanding of why they were put in their position and how they are going to best serve the teachers and students in their building. They work hard to achieve the goals they have set for themselves and the growth goals they have set for the students they work with.
2. They plan. Each day as in interventionist is different. Effective interventionists have solid plans. They know exactly who they are going to work with each day and what they are going to do. They stick to the plans. Obviously, things pop up and plans can change – but adjustments should be made in the best interests of the students. Having an intervention binder is huge for planning. Binders allow for interventionists to keep track of who they are working with, how those students are progressing and provide a wealth of resources to use on any topic in their intervention area.
3. They know their students. As I mentioned above, the students an interventionist works with constantly change. Effective interventionists need to know every single student they work with – or may work with in the future. They are not an stranger to any child. They are visible in the classroom, in the hallways and around the school. The struggling students are their “niche market” so those students are the ones an interventionist really needs to get to know the most. Interventionists who span multiple grade levels have a tough job here – but it is a job worth doing well.
4. They know their teachers. Some teachers like to work alone. Some like to co-teach. Some plan really well for an interventionist who comes to assist and some fly by the seat of their pants. Effective interventionists know their teachers. They know what each teacher is comfortable with. They work with them, and their teaching styles, to provide the support needed to the proper students while not stepping on the toes of the classroom teacher.
5. They use and generate data. Constantly. Effective interventionists are probably data hounds. They have to be. Data is constantly coming in from assessments and it is important for that data to not only be generated, but used. Since intervention is for the purpose of working closely and intensely with students who are struggling, it is important for interventionists to make their decisions based on data. Which students get pulled for intervention? That decision comes from data. Which skills are worked on next week? That decision comes from data.
6. They constantly re-evaluate their goals and schedule. The number one goal of an effective interventionist should be to help students grow and help them improve their scores. This means revising your schedule as students grow out of the range for intervention services. Ramping up intervention sessions as testing approaches. Working with more teachers if more classes seem to be struggling – or fewer if more seem to be succeeding.

If you are stepping into a new intervention position this year – congratulations! You have such an opportunity to make a huge difference. Never forget the purpose of your job. It’ll be tough for sure, but you’ve got this!

If you would like to download free samples of all each grade level intervention binder, fill out the form below!

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