In-order to evaluate and scaffold off a student’s existing academic progress, teachers must first assess the child’s knowledge in a specific area by selecting a universal screening. A universal screening is a design, tool, or procedure that screens or analyzes a student’s current performance.
Once placement has been established, the student is then placed into tiers based on their performance. Data collection tools are implemented to track student progress and monitor growth or regressions. Some teachers use iReady or iStation to assess and monitor trends while others use a variety of assessments such as formative, summative, curriculum based, norm referenced, and/or baseline assessments for academic progress.
When assessing students with disabilities, the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement (WJ), the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) and the Florida Standard Alternative Assessment (FSAA) for grades 2 and up are used to conclude academic levels of concern and how to support the student.
Presented and listed are data collection tools that specify existing levels of academic performance. For Data chats, bar graphs are great for students and parents to visually see their growth, their expected goal, and differences from the beginning to the ending of the year.
Implementation of 5 Academic Interventions/Strategies
Thinking Maps: Organizational tools can be used either for academics or behavior support which allows the student to organize and visualize written content. Maps are also time effective, used on assessments, used for various subjects, and are evidence based. Thinking maps can be used for sorting key details with main ideas, identifying science processes, comparing and contrasting and etc. There are 8 different types of thinking maps; circle, bubble, double bubble, tree, flow, multi-flow, brace, and bridge.
Response to Intervention (RtI): This is a 3-tiered process for academic or behavior support to help identify the student and their needs. The Multi-Tiered Support System or team also provides support in implementing skills and strategies to further enhance instruction. Instruction can be intensified through changing group size, duration, and skill. When RtI is used for academic instruction, teachers and students collaborate to tailor content based on the student's difficulty. For example, a student may have trouble with comprehension. The teacher first uses a whole group method for support, if that doesn't work, the teacher goes on to use a small-group setting. If after a few weeks that doesn't promote any gains, the teacher and the student ratio is lowered or a one-on-one setting is used to provide more intense instruction.
"Click and Clunk": This is a strategy to figure out the meaning of an unknown word. First, the student must identify the clunk, unknown words, then read the sentence or paragraph without the "clunk". Second, the student must reread before and after the "clunk". Third, the word must be broken apart and look for smaller known words. Fourth, prefixes or suffixes must be looked for within the word. After completing this strategy, the student will have a better understanding about what they read and have identified the "clunk'.
Repeated Reading: This popular strategy is a great way to increase fluency and comprehension in reading and review high-frequency words. Considering that it takes a student with special needs more time to grasp a concept, repeated reading can be done continuously to ensure the student understands, memorizes, or is reading with fluency.
Paragraph Shrinking: Shrinking is a strategy to summarize paragraphs. Shrinking is done in three steps; first introduce the topic and how to execute using relatable language. Second, explain to the student the "why" of paragraph shrinking. Third, use the gradual release model, I do, You do, We do, through explicit instruction, exemplify importance, and have the student apply the method.
Below is a gallery with associating videos that'll further explain what and how each strategy is executed.
