As schools begin to refine and revise their continuums of support, there is a need to identify and differentiate between interventions, strategies and accommodations.
Interventions are meant to effectively bridge a gap for students, provided in addition to regular classroom instruction. Three things identify an intervention and differentiate interventions from strategies and accommodations:
- Provide targeted assistance focused on teaching a skill – unless the intervention is targeted on teaching a specific skill, it is unlikely to effectively address the student concern for which it is intended.
- Delivered by a highly qualified class teacher or another specialist – as interventions are established at tiers two, three and four, their increasing intensity requires higher levels of training and expertise. For an intervention to be truly impactful, it must be delivered by an individual trained to provide that intervention with maximum fidelity.
- Provides additional instruction for an individual or small group – the higher we go on the tiers of the continuum, the smaller the intervention groups should become. Maximum gain for the majority of interventions will happen for groups of students with a size of eight or less.
Access a template for evaluating if proposed/existing interventions meet the three criteria for an intervention – Examining Intervention Strategies – Template
Whereas interventions will be purposefully articulated at tiers two, three and four, strategies should be used primarily at tier two – the classroom level. Strategies do not need to meet the criteria established for interventions, but should focus as “what could work” for students. An organization of differentiated strategies, collected from teachers and shared in the continuum of supports, can become a valuable resource during a collaborative team meeting, when investigating all that could be done at the lower tiers of support. A myriad of effective, proven strategies to support students at the tier two level ensures the greatest point of impact for students is found in the classroom and in the hands of the classroom teacher.
In its most simplistic definition, we put accommodations in place to help students cope with any gaps that may exist limiting their success. For a student who has difficulty reading text, a text to speech accommodation may be beneficial. For a child who struggles with attention, fidgets may be effective to reduce distractions. Accommodations address gaps, but may do little to close those gaps. Although they are a valuable part of the overall picture of support for students, they must be balanced with interventions and strategies that strive to reduce gaps currently impacting student success. Like strategies, we believe accommodations must be organized and articulated primarily at the tier two classroom level.
Check out this continuum sample from a school that has effectively begun the delineation of interventions, strategies and accommodations in their behaviour continuum of supports.
Copyright 2022, A. Ghostkeeper - E.G. Wahlstrom School, High Prairie School Division, AB
Shared with permission.
In this sample, the continuum also identifies which supports are considered interventions, strategies and accommodations in their reading continuum of supports.
Copyright 2020, T. Jeske - Kildare School, Edmonton Public Schools, AB. Shared with permission.
Further discussion related to interventions, strategies and accommodations can be found in chapter seven of our book Collaborative Response: Three Foundational Components That Transform How We Respond to the Needs of Learners. Click on the link to find out how to order.
We wish you all the best as you strive to support the needs of your students!