Video: Interventions (Prevention) at the Beginning of Kindergarten
When and how I find the time to prevent reading disabilities
I’ve always handled the interventions in my kindergarten classroom, even long before RTI, Tier I/II/III, and interventions were a thing. If kids weren’t learning the letters and sounds, then I had to find a way to provide a little extra (and different) instruction for them. I’ve been doing it the same for years and it’s been effective; the biggest difference in how I used to do it and how I do it now is that I actually have some assistance in the form of an intervention teacher. I choose to do the interventions myself (makes sense; I’m a pro at getting kids to learn letter names and sounds) and have the intervention teacher working with the remaining students so that I can focus on my one-on-one instruction.
By the way, at the kindergarten level, I like to think of these as prevention rather than intervention. I am not intervening—as you would with an older student—because the student is way behind and has possibly been labeled dyslexic. Instead, I am intervening to try to prevent the student from falling behind and being labeled.
Here are the basics on how I do interventions to help you “get the picture.”
I have Quiet Time in my daily schedule every day right after lunch for 35 minutes. The lights are off and I play relaxing music. At the beginning of the year, the students lie down and rest. A few fall asleep. My aide takes her lunch break. As the weeks pass, this morphs into students working on their Chrome books, doing either Core Lexia 5 (personalized literacy learning) or Dreambox (personalized math).
An intervention teacher comes in and supports the students with their Chrome book learning. She helps them enter their usernames and passwords, keeps them on task and focused, and helps move them along when they get stuck on a level.
I keep an eye on all the students, but most of my attention goes to the students I am working with one-on-one during this time. I usually have nine students and I try to get to all of them during the 35-minute period. It might not seem like much time, but doing it day after day after day really pays off.
Watch the video!
I love seeing this in action! Thank you! Do you mix capital and lower case letters you work on with the students? Also, are your clues on the back of the cards pictures of your key word students associate with the letters? Did you make your own cards?