You’ve taught a great lesson, but some of your students still require more practise. You want to organise some maths intervention tasks, yet you have to meet with that parent tonight, organise an assembly piece, or organise a Father’s Day gift. Sound familiar?
To have something ready-to-go that doesn’t require much prep or communication is ideal to help your students. That’s why I include the Tier 2 Intervention Tool in Mrs Rowntree’s resources, to give you a go-to-tool that you can use straight away. Whether you are using it with a small group of kids, 1-to-1, or whether another educator can work with students and know how to address common misconceptions is just gold. The intervention tools are aimed at developing foundational conceptual understandings required for each transferable skill.
An adaptable resource which is responsive to your students helps you make informed decisions flexibly. There are lots of ways to use this resource tool, including pre-teaching the maths ideas, working with a small group during the task, an educator working with a student after the task. You might choose to use the tool to help with goal setting for a student: I can portion halves equally on a number line, or I can plot 0 and 1 on a number line, or I can recognise that 0/2 is the same as zero parts, I can recognise that 2/2 = 1 whole…
With this tool teachers can take it and know how to teach the skill in a tactile, hands-on way to diverse learners. There is also an included progression of learning to aid stretch and review at the child’s pace. If a student is visually impaired the tactile use is helpful, however tactile activities are wonderful for many students! I always offer manipulatives for kids to learn with. Even when I’m working in the older primary years (Year 5 & 6). I find manipulatives helpful and make them easily accessible on each table.
When we don’t have time to develop mathematical skills, the children’s foundational conceptual understanding fails. This is detrimental to their maths progression! No wonder so many children find maths difficult later on; it’s because some of those important foundational skills have been missed along the way. When they are missed, that progress from visual to representative to symbolic is amiss.
Below is a copy of the Year 4 Lesson 1 Fractions Distance Freebie, Tier 2 Intervention Tool. No need to have anything fancy, all you need is some paper, a pencil, string, Blu Tack, some numbers if you like and a student. Take it away and give it a go tomorrow. Go to https://teachbuysell.com.au/store/Mrs-Rowntree for the resource or find out more at www.mrsrowntree.com.au.
Let me know how you go and leave a comment. What works for you for your maths intervention?
Mrs Rowntree 