Beginning-of-Year Math Intervention Assessments: What I Look For & Why It Matters
The beginning of the school year can be busy. There are schedules to create, students to get to know, materials to organize, and intervention groups to plan. When students need math intervention, it can be tempting to jump right into instruction as quickly as possible. However, I have found that spending just 15–20 minutes learning how a student thinks about mathematics can save countless hours of ineffective instruction later. Before I begin intervention lessons, I want to understand what students already know, what strategies they are using, and where their mathematical understanding begins to break down. As a math intervention teacher, I assess my Tier 2 and Tier 3 students in grades K–4 individually. Depending on the student, I may complete the assessment in one sitting or split it into two shorter sessions. The goal is not to overwhelm students with a long assessment. The goal is to gather enough information to determine the best place to begin instruc...