Reading and Math Intervention Services

Blog post written by: Cynthia Kuenzel (Reading Interventionist), Jessica Anderson (Groves Certified Interventionist) and Kaitlin Hamby (Math Interventionist)

The task of an interventionist at MELA is to give scholars another opportunity to practice and refine the skills that are being learned in the classroom so they are able to reach their learning goals.  We like to think of our time with scholars as “an extra scoop” of learning time to make sure that reading or math skills are firmly grasped, understood and can be applied to classroom work.   

Both the reading and math interventionist positions are new opportunities for the scholars at MELA this year.  Data from formal classroom assessments are used to identify those scholars who are in need of extra support in learning grade-level skills. Informal assessments and teacher recommendations can also be used. The interventionists work with the instructional coach and classroom teachers to understand the academic needs of a scholar. Once the needs are identified, the scholar can begin to work with the interventionist, usually in a small group with their grade-level peers.  Working with the interventionist is in addition to their work with the classroom teacher in whole group instruction and small group instruction: that “extra scoop”. 

Math - Ms. Hamby
As a math interventionist, I work with small groups of scholars on math concepts such as counting, place value, multiplication and division, addition and subtraction, fractions and decimals, and more. Scholars receive personalized instruction based on their individual needs. We work together to strengthen their math skills so that they can feel confident in the classroom as well as achieve their math goals! I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with many scholars at MELA each and every day. 

ELA (English Language Arts) - Mrs. Kuenzel 
Reading is a very complex task. To assist the children at  MELA in acquiring the skills necessary to be a reader,  I work in small groups on the grade-level reading skills that the scholars need more time to achieve. For kindergarten children, this has meant working on the letter names and sounds, a prerequisite for decoding words and beginning to read.  The younger elementary groups are working on quick recall of high frequency words and word families in addition to repeated readings of text. These repeated readings help improve the scholars’ automaticity, giving them essential practice in applying known skills. Increasing their automatic ability to decode also increases the comprehension of the text they are reading.  In the older grades, we work on increasing their reading accuracy and automaticity which also improves their reading comprehension.  The goal is always to help each scholar gain more reading skills and to see themselves as readers.

Groves Intervention Services- Ms. Anderson
MELA uses the Groves Curriculum to teach phonics to PreK, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, and 3rd Grade. As part of this curriculum, students are supported by having a Groves Certified Interventionist, Ms. Anderson. The Groves Interventionist meets with students one on one or in small groups twice a week and teaches out of the intervention manual for each grade level to help students that need an extra scoop of practice with their phonics skills. The Groves Interventionist also helps teachers with Aimsweb testing and does progress monitoring on Aimsweb with the students that they meet with.