Students receiving Tier II Intervention support are placed in small groups according to the skill deficit to allow them additional time to respond, practice and receive feedback. The groups are fluid and should be adjusted as instructional priorities for each student changes. The strategies listed below are a limited number of strategies that can be used to meet the needs of the students and should be supported by data collection, frequent monitoring, and data-driven decision-making.
Intervention in Middle and High School should include these major components:
Vocabulary Instruction: Just like with reading instruction, vocabulary instruction should involve cognitive skills instruction. We want students to draw on their background knowledge, be metacognitive as they encounter new words, notice things about words, predict and infer their meanings, question the use of specific words analyze words and parts of words, make judgements about the selection and use of certain words, and evaluate theirs' and others' use of words. Instruction should include opportunities for students to work with words in multiple ways, including identifying synonyms and antonyms, looking for roots and using cognates, and connective new words to known words.
Fluency Practice: Fluency Develops as a result of many opportunities to practice reading with a high degree of success. Therefore, your students should practice rereading aloud and independently texts that are reasonably easy for them-that is, texts containing mostly words that they know or can decode easily. In other words, the texts should be at the students' instructional or independent reading level. In middle and high school, this will and can occur during repeated close readings of the text.
Comprehension Instruction: Effective comprehension instruction is instruction that helps students to become independent, strategic, and metacognitive readers who are able to develop, control, and use a variety of comprehension strategies to ensure that they understand what they read.
Writing Instruction: Begins with clear and deliberate planning and includes explicit instruction, modeling, guided practice, scaffolding, and collaboration between the teacher and student. The instruction should also include student engagement and motivation to write daily.
Foundational Skills Reinforcement and Extension
Fluency intervention: Continued focus on fluency development through timed reading, choral reading, and reader's theater.
Vocabulary expansion: Targeted vocabulary instruction using Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes.
Decoding support: For students with persistent decoding difficulties, provide explicit instruction in morphology and structural analysis.
Comprehension and Analysis
Close reading groups: Intensive focus on specific texts, analyzing text structure, author's craft, and evidence-based claims.
Think-aloud modeling: Demonstrating how to think critically about text, question, and infer.
Graphic organizers: Using visual tools to support comprehension and analysis of complex texts.
Writing
Writing workshop: Small-group instruction on specific writing skills, such as argumentation, narrative writing, or research writing.
Feedback and revision: Providing targeted feedback on writing and supporting students through the revision process.
Grammar and mechanics support: Addressing specific grammar and mechanics challenges through explicit instruction and practice.
Key Considerations for Tier 2 Supports
Data-driven: Use assessment data to identify students who need Tier 2 support and monitor their progress.
Intensive and explicit: Provide focused instruction with clear explanations and modeling.
Small group: Offer instruction in small groups to allow for individualized attention.
Progress monitoring: Regularly assess student progress to determine the effectiveness of interventions and make adjustments as needed.
Collaboration: Work closely with classroom teachers to coordinate instruction and ensure consistency.