Last year my job description was changed from a literacy coach in which I mentored and worked with teachers in the classroom, modeled lessons, team taught, worked with small groups of students in the classroom as teachers observed, to that of an "interventionist" in which I now work pretty much exclusively with small groups of students in my office. I am not a big fan of this work because although I can move these kids, if I don't change teacher practices, then I am just going to have the same number of students - only the faces will change. Often the work that is wanted from me is to increase data scores as well. So if I am working with kindergarten students, this means increasing their letter and sound fluency. Last year I did do this, but I got very frustrated constantly doing just letter and sound activities day after day. Both the kids and I got bored with it and I felt that I should have certainly been doing more with literacy. This year I was determined to incorporate more with reading as well as cover the basics of alphabetics even with the short time I had with them. The challenge was going to be even tougher as far as the boredom factor was concerned because I am currently working with ALL kindergarten children and have eight intervention groups!
I am really happy to say that I have managed to incorporate oral language skills, letter & sound fluency practice AND a daily story with comprehension strategies every single day and the time I have with each group is generally around 20 - 25 minutes. I have also figured out a schedule that doesn't drive me crazy! The first week I was doing the same lesson eight times and I WAS going crazy. After that I knew I had to do things differently! I came up with five different activities (although I have eight groups - I work with five teachers - two teachers have two groups) - and chose five different books. I do a different activity and read a different book to each group (except for the two groups that come from the same teacher - I do repeat that lesson twice) so that I am doing something different and reading a different book every time a new group comes in. This keeps me sane! The next day I just move the activity down to the next group and rotate through each activity and book for five days until every group has done each activity and heard every book. This is actually a great plan because I have a full set of activities and books for a full week! So - what IS it that I do? Click on the K-2 link above to find out . . .:-)
