Without good documentation, Student Support Teams are useless. Teachers should start with pinpointing the skill the student is having trouble with. Be specific, not vague. If a student can’t write an expository paragraph, don’t just write ‘writing’, write ‘organizing thoughts into paragraph form’. Being specific allows you to find academic intervention strategies appropriate for helping the student going through the SST process.
If ’organizing thoughts into paragraph form’ is the needed skill, then an academic intervention strategy the Student Support Team could use is a leveled writing system. Leveled writing uses small goals to allow students to feel success in the writing process and eventually be able to write full organized paragraphs and even essays.
Once the skill needed has been identified by the Student Support Team, and an appropriate academic intervention strategy has been chosen by the Student Support Team, they then have to decide how they will measure the academic intervention strategy. For example, if leveled writing has been chosen by the Student Support Team as the academic intervention strategy then it can be measured by the levels the student moves up. Leveled Writing can also be measured by the checklist it is graded by.
The Student Support Team then needs to decide what their first month, second month and third month goals are. There should be an SST meeting every month which is why the goals should be made by the month. For example, if the leveled writing system is the academic intervention strategy, then the first months goal could be to write a complete topic sentence with 3 listed facts. The second month goal could be to write a complete topic sentence and the first fact sentence with 2 listed facts. The third month could be to write a topic sentence, one fact sentence and elaboration sentences to go with the fact and 2 listed facts.
After the Student Support Team decides which goals are appropriate for the student over a three month period they need to make sure it leads to the accomplishment of the long term goal. In this case, it should be ‘write a complete organized paragraph’. The long term goal does not have to be accomplished in a three month period but progress does need to be made using the academic intervention strategy.
Monthly goals should be reviewed, and if needed changed, each month during the SST meetings. At each SST meeting the result of the months use of the academic intervention strategy needs to be documented. It is also a good idea to provide proof of the academic intervention strategy used and the results of it. Correct documentation and use of the academic intervention strategy whenever possible is what makes the Student Support Teams successful for student growth.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Leveled-Expository-Writing-System-867302 offers an academic intervention strategy for writing in the form of a leveled writing system. It also has the SST Measurable Goal Chart pictured above too. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/SST-Measurable-Goal-Chart-125321 Check it out!
Written by,
Kasha Mastrodomenico
http://www.socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com
kasha@socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico