At East, we have three
different Teacher Based Teams. The third grade team consists of all third grade
teachers and focuses on both reading and math. The fourth grade language arts
team consists of teachers who teach language arts but may teach other subjects.
The fourth grade math team consists of teachers who teach math but may teach
other subjects. The fourth grade language arts team does not consist of any
teachers who also teach math, but the fourth grade math team does have one
teacher who teaches both language arts and math.
As you can imagine, the
intervention for these groups is organized in a different ways. Third grade students do not trade
between teachers for different subjects like the fourth grade students. Most
of the third grade teachers work with a partner teacher for which they might
share students in different subjects. For example, one set of partner teachers
chooses to share the responsibility of teaching science and social studies.
Another set of partner teachers break up math students into liked groups for
instruction sharing students in each other’s classes. Intervention is worked
out between partner teachers. Partner teachers look at data and divide students
up into groups that make sense for the focused skill. This makes things a
little different compared to the fourth grade Teacher Based Teams, because
third grade teachers have discussions about intervention more outside of
Teacher Based Teams than in Teacher Based Teams.
As stated earlier, fourth
grade teachers are divided up into a language arts team and a math team. These
teams discuss groupings for interventions and intervention planning during team
meetings. Two days a week students get intervention in language art and the
other two in math. The other day of the week is for all school assemblies while
teachers are in Teacher Based Teams. When students go to intervention, those
that need direct instruction go to their core teacher for that subject. Other non-core teachers work with students who do not need as much
intervention. These students are doing an independent activity that allows the
non-core teacher to intervene with students in the room who may need help in
their core subject.
Let me give you a
specific example. Let’s say it’s language arts intervention day. The language arts
teacher is working with a group of children who need taught in a particular
skill in a different way then originally presented. The math teacher across the
hallway has students in her room that are working on a language arts paper that
has been assigned to the students as reinforcement. The math teacher sees a few
students in her class that she wants to work with on a skill. She pulls those
students to a table and works with those students while the other students are
working on independent activities.
In addition, the music
teacher works with students two days a week to do an extension activity that
challenges students to think of a language arts concept in a different way. The
music/language arts small group is hand selected and changed frequently by the
language arts team. The language
arts team lets the music teacher know what skill to teach, but the music
teacher does her own planning. Two days a week the gym teacher goes into
classrooms and helps teachers with intervention. The music teacher and gym teacher are able to help with
intervention, because the whole school does intervention at the end of the
school day.
Before the next blog is
written, I will my Teacher Based Team notes from this year’s
meetings and the notes from our Teacher Based Teams. I am not sure what
direction this blog will go to next, but I feel it’s important to review these
document before deciding on a direction.
