This week's question is "How will you respond if or when my child struggles in class?"
(In a future post I will share the things I do to challenge those students who rarely struggle!)
At Mar Lee School we have many interventions in place to support students who are having difficulty meeting our benchmarks. Let's look at a few of the areas where second graders might need support and how we deliver that support.
Reading/Writing/Language Arts: Many times students come to second grade with the skills necessary for reading and writing success. The foundational skills are there, but students need help putting it all together. Mrs. Meeder is our Title 1 teacher, and she works with a small group of our second graders for thirty minutes every day. The students she takes may change from time to time depending on the skill area we are targeting. We are so lucky to have her!
RTI or Bearcat Block is a time when our second grader spend work with peers of similar reading ability to learn skills tailored to their needs. Bearcat Block meets for 20-30 minutes a day, four days a week. Students who have met most of our reading benchmarks are involved in enrichment activities during this time.
Math This fall I have met with each student to determine areas where they may need support in math. I use the Math Recovery cumulative screener to measure student understanding of number order, place value, addition, subtraction, and early multiplication skills (such as creating equal groups and skip counting). After learning where students may need help our aide Mrs. Aden works with students on the foundational skills necessary for mastering our second grade benchmarks.
Behavior For some students academics come easy but learning how to function in a classroom is difficult. All students can earn ten points a day toward a weekly behavior reward. Points are earned for following our five school wide expectations. Our September goal is for students to earn 80% of their behavior points, but as the school year goes on that percentage increases. When I detect that a behavior issue is going to prevent a student from achieving our weekly behavior goal I create specific behavior goals for that student. Some behavior goals might be:
This allows students to focus only on improving specific behaviors, and allows me to provide lots of positive reinforcement when students make improvement! It is rare that students need to stay on a specialized behavior plan for more than a month.
(In a future post I will share the things I do to challenge those students who rarely struggle!)
At Mar Lee School we have many interventions in place to support students who are having difficulty meeting our benchmarks. Let's look at a few of the areas where second graders might need support and how we deliver that support.
Reading/Writing/Language Arts: Many times students come to second grade with the skills necessary for reading and writing success. The foundational skills are there, but students need help putting it all together. Mrs. Meeder is our Title 1 teacher, and she works with a small group of our second graders for thirty minutes every day. The students she takes may change from time to time depending on the skill area we are targeting. We are so lucky to have her!
RTI or Bearcat Block is a time when our second grader spend work with peers of similar reading ability to learn skills tailored to their needs. Bearcat Block meets for 20-30 minutes a day, four days a week. Students who have met most of our reading benchmarks are involved in enrichment activities during this time.
Math This fall I have met with each student to determine areas where they may need support in math. I use the Math Recovery cumulative screener to measure student understanding of number order, place value, addition, subtraction, and early multiplication skills (such as creating equal groups and skip counting). After learning where students may need help our aide Mrs. Aden works with students on the foundational skills necessary for mastering our second grade benchmarks.
Behavior For some students academics come easy but learning how to function in a classroom is difficult. All students can earn ten points a day toward a weekly behavior reward. Points are earned for following our five school wide expectations. Our September goal is for students to earn 80% of their behavior points, but as the school year goes on that percentage increases. When I detect that a behavior issue is going to prevent a student from achieving our weekly behavior goal I create specific behavior goals for that student. Some behavior goals might be:
- I listened when others were talking.
- I stayed in my own space.
- I used my work time wisely.
This allows students to focus only on improving specific behaviors, and allows me to provide lots of positive reinforcement when students make improvement! It is rare that students need to stay on a specialized behavior plan for more than a month.