Math Intervention Instruction

pacent — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:52:37 +0000

We frequently work with teachers that ask us about the best use of instructional time for lower level students (1 – 2 years below grade-level) that receive an extra hour of mathematics each day. We have developed an approach called the “Pacent Direct Support” model that we think is the best use of this instructional time. As teachers, when we were first asked to teach this class, we had no pacing and no curriculum. Even though we lacked resources, we had ideas about how to use this time. We knew we wanted to target specific pre-grade level skills required to meet the daily objectives in students regular math class and give students extra practice on concepts where they had shown they need more help. We knew that there were things we didn’t want to do because we felt it wasn’t the best use of this extra hour. We didn’t want to take a one hour, grade level class and lengthen it out for 2 hours – this approach wouldn’t target the lower grade level skills that students needed to be successful on their current grade level content. We also did not want to turn this extra hour into a “study hall”, where students were given extra time to do their homework. Once again, this approach didn’t allow for instruction on the lower grade-level skills needed and did not put the students in a better position to be successful on their current grade level lessons. We also were hesitant to use a lower grade level curriculum that wasn’t aligned to what we were doing in our grade level classes. We were concerned if we addressed concepts in our support class that didn’t have anything to do with what we were doing in the students’ regular math class, we could overwhelm the students with multiple math concepts that they struggle with, and most importantly, not put the students in a better position to be successful immediately in their core class.

The Pacent Direct Support model has 3 goals 1) Focus on the pre-requisite skills needed to be successful with new grade level instruction 2) Identify problem areas from previous instruction and re-teach the specific areas with which students have struggled. 3) Pre-teach skills that will give lower level students an advantage on future instruction. In our program, the week we teach 2-step equations with integers, we identify integers as a key pre-requisite skill we want to focus on in our support class. If grade level focus is to solve 2-step equations then reviewing operations with integers, fractions, and decimals will support student success with this concept.. Our approach is to teach 2-step equations in their core class and then focus on the pre-grade level skills in the support class. We also want to give these students some strategic instruction on prior week’s concepts. In many Pre-Algebra programs in the week’s leading up to 2-step equations, students will be asked to evaluate algebraic expressions. Students frequently need more practice with this concept to fully comprehend and we felt support class was a good place for this extra practice. We advocate that teachers look at student work from formative assessments to identify the specific areas where students may have struggled with this concept and focus on those mistakes. Rather than reteaching the entire concept, we felt the best use of time was to focus on the specific skill that students have shown they need help with rather than reteach the entire concept. The last goal is to pre-teach either pre-requisite skills for upcoming concepts or provide an early introduction to upcoming concepts. If a Pre-Algebra team is solving 2-step equations in the upcoming week, and is graphing 2-step equations the following week, we may want to spend some of our support instruction getting ready for the upcoming unit.

Our overall goal with the Pacent Direct Support model is to take strategic lower-level students, give them an extra hour of instruction that will put them in a position to be successful in their grade level courses either that day or the following day. We have attached a power point presentation that illustrates our approach in further detail. Thanks for reading.

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Math Clash

pacent — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:19:17 +0000

Check out this cool game our coach Benito Dimas came up with to work on integer rules.
MATH CLASH

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Come visit us…

pacent — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:12:44 +0000

We are going to be at the CMS conference in San Diego this weekend as well as the CMC conference in Asilomar. Come by our booth to say hi.

come visit us at Pacent Learning Solutions