Interventions

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Interventions
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General Considerations When Selecting
Interventions

• Research/evidence-based
• Targeted to student needs
• Sensitive to cultural differences
• Level of acculturation and stage of English
  language acquisition

ELL
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Guiding Questions in Planning Interventions
Auditory Attention and Memory

• Does the student attend during instructional
  times?
• Is lack of attention due to fatigue because of
  overload of working memory?
• Is lack of attention due to environmental
  factors?
• Are there any pertinent medical issues? Has
  hearing been checked?
• Does the student remember information given
  verbally from day to day?

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Interventions Auditory Attention and Memory

• Provide opportunities for the student to learn
  how to
• repeat sentences through strategies such as
  chunking
• rephrase/retell
• rhyme and use songs to remember classroom content
  (math facts, historical events, etc.)
• connect auditory information through
  visualization, mnemonics, etc.

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Guiding Questions in Planning Interventions
Listening Comprehension

• Can the student demonstrate understanding of
  academic content and/or novel information
  presented orally?
• Can the student answer questions when given a
  visual cue, choices, scaffolded content?
• Can the child demonstrate that he/she understands
  age appropriate vocabulary and basic concepts?
• Can the child demonstrate that he/she understands
  how sentence structure can change meaning?
  (Example The boy was hit by the girl. vs The
  boy hit the girl.
• Does presentation method make a difference in the
  childs ability to respond? (Example Visual or
  kinesthetic rather than auditory.)

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Guiding Questions in Planning Interventions
Listening Comprehension, cont.

• Can the student follow one and/or multiple-step
  directions?
• Is the student able to follow directions
  presented orally without visual cues?
• Does he/she improve with visual or auditory
  cues?
• Is the student an English Language Learner?
• Refer to stages of language.
• Recommend instructional strategies, such as SIOP.

ELL
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Interventions Listening Comprehension and
Following Directions

• Explicitly teach listening strategies
• Eyes on speaker within cultural norms
• No talking
• Quiet hands and feet
• Ask for repetition
• Teach strategies such as repetition,
  identification of key words, summarizing
• Provide sheltered instruction and implement
  vocabulary-building strategies

ELL
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Guiding Questions in Planning Interventions
Grammar and Syntax

• Does the student use age appropriate grammar?
• A typical 1st grader may say mouses instead of
  mice, but this would not be age appropriate for a
  5th grader.
• Is sentence word order appropriate and do
  sentences make sense?
• I want juice, please. vs. Juice I want,
  please.
• Word order may be appropriate in the native
  language but not in English. Student may need
  modeling and direction to understand English
  grammar/syntax.
• Does a students writing reflect the grammar and
  syntax of oral expression?
• Does the student over generalized grammar rules?

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Considerations for English Language Learners

• Consider that errors may be differences NOT
  disorders due to primary language structures.
• Consider the importance of providing frequent
  opportunities to practice syntax structures with
  peers and adults.

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Interventions Grammar and Syntax

• Explicit teaching of word order for different
  sentence types
• Daily oral language activities
• Sentence strips words rearranged into correct
  order
• Grammar games such as Build-A-Sentence or Making
  Sense with Syntax
• Translate oral expressions into written form
  (Example develop a 2-part story plan and create
  grammatical sentences for the parts or develop a
  story with a problem and solution and write the
  story with appropriate grammar and syntax.)

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Guiding Questions in Planning Interventions
Vocabulary Development

• Does the child know common words and/or concepts?
  
• Does the student misuse words, for example, call
  a hat a mitten?
• It is common for ELL students to not know the
  correct words for objects or concepts.
• Is the student able to learn new content area
  vocabulary?
• Does the student have trouble recalling content
  area vocabulary?
• Does the student interpret figurative language
  literally (e.g., idioms, jokes, metaphors,
  sarcasm)?
• Resource Bringing Words to Life (author Isabel
  Beck) - robust vocabulary instruction that
  emphasizes the importance of instruction that
  expand upon a students vocabulary base,
  especially for ELLs.

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Interventions Vocabulary Development

• Explicitly teach word meanings in authentic
  contexts.
• Use words in context and provide daily exposure
  to new vocabulary words.
• Pre-teach new vocabulary before content area
  lessons.
• Use graphic organizers to build vocabulary
• Teach how to provide a description when unable to
  come up with word.
• Dont limit the teaching of vocabulary to having
  students look up dictionary definitions.

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Resources

• Longman English Dictionary Online
  (www.idoceonline.com) - provides definition, word
  in sentence, word in pictures.
• Word Wizard from Scholastic (www.scholastic.com
  and enter search terms Word Wizard and English
  Language Learners)
• Teaches cognates - words that are similar in both
  languages
• Teaches idioms
• Reinforces repetition - read it, hear it, see it,
  say it
• Builds academic vocabulary
• Use of a dictionary can help build alphabetic
  knowledge and self-reliance on it as a resource.

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Guiding Questions for Planning Interventions
Social Language

• Does the child respond to greetings from peers
  and adults?
• Does the child engage in reciprocal
  conversations?
• Does the child stay on topic or does he/she
  immediately introduce a topic of interest to
  him/her?
• Does the child respond appropriately to nonverbal
  cues and body language from others?
• Note An ELL student may not respond because of
  his/her stage of language acquisition.
  Scaffolding may need to be provided that is
  appropriate to the students language proficiency.

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Interventions Social Language Development

• Implement social skills programs
• Cue students to respond to greetings
• Teach students to observe and respond
  appropriately to body language and facial
  expressions of conversational partners
• Teach students stay on topic of conversation and
  to shift topics appropriately
• Have students turn to a partner for
  content-related conversation (Buddy Talk or Pair
  Share strategies)

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Narrative Skills in the Classroom

• Students are asked to
• share stories or retell stories to demonstrate
  reading comprehension
• predict or hypothesize
• express their opinions
• state main ideas or themes from stories and texts

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Guiding Questions in Planning Interventions
Narrative Skills

• Can the student retell or create a simple story
  with a clear beginning, middle, and end?
• Can the student make predictions and draw
  inferences?
• Can the student ask and answer questions in the
  classroom setting?
• Can a student provide a response to a reading
  selection and explain his/her thinking?
• Can a student provide the explanations needed for
  comparing and contrasting?
• Note You cannot expect proficiency in these
  skills if student is non-English proficient or
  Limited English proficient. Additional supports
  will be needed.

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Interventions Narrative Skills

• Sequencing activities such as arranging picture
  cards to illustrate a story or stating the steps
  for an activity
• Explicitly teaching narrative structure including
  the beginning, middle, and end
• Using graphic organizers for oral presentations
• Having student provide a sequential retell to a
  story

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Teacher Read Alouds

• Students listen to aural content and learn to
  extract the important information.
• Applies to any content area material - not just
  stories
• Students learn to visualize the information.
• Scaffolding may include the use of
  visuals/pictures that support the text being read
  aloud.
• Effective teacher implementation of read alouds
• Pre-teach vocabulary
• Have students draw, write, or respond orally to
  what is being read
• Ask questions about the content being read
• Make connections to prior knowledge and
  experience (e.g., picture walk)

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30 Second Conversation

• Target students who have weak oral language
  skills
• Take 30 seconds each day to engage them in
  authentic conversation
• This is one of the most powerful interventions
  for developing oral language skills.
• This strategy is effective with all students, but
  essential for students with limited oral language
  skills. The 30 Second Conversation strategy is
  effective for enhancing social language skill,
  but also for building content area concept
  vocabulary and understanding.
• (The Talking Classroom, Judi Dodson 2008)

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