4 Ways to Reinforce Reading Interventions in the Classroom

Many students attend Reading Interventions in a small group setting: whether it's a Title 1 Reading Intervention or Special Education Intervention. I cannot stress how important it is that what's being taught in a reading intervention group be reviewed and reinforced in the general education classroom. 

I know that classroom teachers have so much on their plates and the list of things they have to do seems to get longer everyday. BUT there are a few ways to make reviewing intervention materials quick and (relatively) painless!

1. Folders that go back and forth between the General Education Classroom and Intervention Groups. 

In my school, the Reading Specialist and I send blue folders back and forth between outr group and the classroom teacher. There is a pocket in the front. When students have had a chance to review materials in the classroom, the teacher changes the card from red to green. After group, we change it back to red. 

Since I teach a lot of groups using Reading Mastery and Corrective Reading, I am able to put the finished workbook page in the folder. Each page has the words or stories we've read. As students get higher in Reading Mastery K, I make copies of the Decodable Books and put those in each folder. I also use put Reading Mastery Seatwork sheets in the folder for EVEN MORE practice when students have a hard time participating in Core Reading. 

2. Review Templates

A one-page, or half-page review sheet of words, sounds and phonics skills is a great way for classroom teachers to reinforce skills taught in intervention groups, easily and efficiently. I use these Reading Mastery K: Review Templates for my Reading Mastery groups. It is a lot of work to create on the front end, but then you have those templates for years to come. There will be another group next year that is in that same Reading Curriculum. So having a Review Template ready to go will make re-teaching intervention group material that much easier!

3. Buddy Reading

During CAFE Daily 5, students can read intervention materials with a buddy. It works even better if you have more than one student in the same intervention group in a classroom. Students in the same intervention group can "read to a partner," with their review materials. I know a great teacher that even pulls those kids together and reinforces Intervention skills during their small group time. She even goes so far as to pull spelling exercises and word sorts of her own, working on the same sounds as a part of their writing group. 

4. Word Sorts and Games

If you already have Review Templates, this is really easy to do. You can make a memory game, with 2 copies of a template. You can have students sort words from their word lists by phonics skills or letter sounds. (You could also use the Words Their Way sort that corresponds to that sound or pattern). 

A few years ago a Reading Specialist introduced me to the game OOPS! And now it's my favorite word review game. To make OOPS! follow these steps: 

•Cut up template and make into a card deck. (Or use popsicle sticks in a cup. I use that most often.) Put in several cards that say OOPS!

•Students pull words and sounds out of the deck. They have to read the word correctly to keep the card.

•If someone gets OOPS! They have to put all their cards back in the deck.

•Students can play until someone gets a certain number of cards, or for a set number of turns. Whoever has the most cards wins.

Games and sorts may sound like a ton of work, but keep in mind that if you make them one year, you can always use them the next year. Chances are that you will have students in that same intervention curriculum next year. 

The Number One Rule of Review Is: Keep it Short!

When we review/re-teach a skill, we are looking at 10 minutes of good quality review. This is a second dose, not the initial introduction to the skill. The reason for this is simple: many students struggle with memory issues. Particularly if they have a Learning Disability. In order to move a new skill over into Long-term Memory, we need to make sure that students see it more than once in a day. A solid dose during intervention, plus additional exposure in the classroom. It's even more fantastic if skills taught during intervention are imbedded in other skills taught in the General Education classroom: Like spelling sorts and small group reading focus. That way students see the same skill repeatedly through out the day, but not in isolation or just in reading group. That helps students to generalize what they are learning in group to what is happening in the classroom.