We are rapidly coming up on the beginning of the school year and that means we need to get a game plan together! As a reading interventionist and specialist, I like to be prepped and prepared for that first day of school.
If you are a classroom teacher or have just taken a job as a reading specialist or reading interventionist, you may be wondering what in the world do I do for the first days of school?
You may not actually be teaching yet with the students, BUT there is so much to do to be prepared to teach when it is time to begin. Let’s get started with some ideas to make your back to school time get off to a great start!
* Prep, Print & Prepare Assessments
I try not to use the copier much before school begins, so the classroom teachers will have access to it. Once school begins, I can then prepare all my assessments. I like for my copies to be printed and stapled into packets that I can grab quickly. Or I have them uploaded to ESGI to make things even easier!
* Set Intervention Schedules
We have had to do scheduling a few different ways and the one that works best for us is if the interventionists set a schedule and give them out. Then teachers know what their intervention time is and there is not switching back and forth. The switching makes it hard on the classroom teachers. Also, decide what model you will be using that year- will you be pushing into classrooms or pulling out (my favorite)?
* Intervention Team Meeting
You may need to have a intervention team meeting to make decisions about the intervention calendar for the year, decide cut off scores or rules for which students will be served, who will be serving which grade levels, etc…. Make these decisions and have them recorded so there is no confusion once interventions begin.
* Set The Assessment Schedule
Set up your schedule for assessing students and notify classroom teachers right away so they can get this into their schedules. You may be doing the assessing or you may be assisting classroom teachers. Either way, best practice is for all to know when this will begin, who will be involved and then get started on it because it always takes a while to complete!
* Set Up Classroom
If you haven’t finished your classroom, squeeze in some time when students are out to recess or special classes. You can get in some good time to finish your room if students are not available.
* Schedule A Read Aloud Time
You may want to schedule in a read aloud time in the classrooms that you will serve so students can get to know you before you begin to pull students. This will make them feel more at ease during assessments with you or for when you being serving them during interventions.
* Analyze Data
After all the assessments are completed (and that in itself can be a BIG job!), you will now need to analyze all the data, check cut off scores and make your lists of students who qualify for teaching during intervention time.
Again, ESGI makes this so helpful by having all the data right there for you! I can pull up the scores, use my cut off numbers and make decisions quickly for who needs to be in intervention. This program over the years has saved me HOURS of time! I have used it for so many years that I can’t imagine having to assess without it.
Right now, you can receive a FREE 60 day trial and $50 off your purchase by using the code B1065!
* Notify Classroom Teachers & Parents
As soon as possible after creating your lists of students, you will need to notify the classroom teachers of which students will be receiving help and the times for this. Also, parents will need to be sent home notification that their child is receiving this help.
So as you can see, back to school is an extremely busy time for reading specialists and interventionists! So much to do and really only a small amount of time to accomplish it because you want to get them into your classrooms as quickly as you can so you can begin teaching. What can you add to our to do list?
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