Tier 2- Classroom Activities

 

  Part 1 in Tier 2 Activities for the Classroom or Universal Strategies

Recently, I've been trying to make for classroom activities to target some of the common language goals. Now, in a perfect world, speechies would give the teachers the activity and they would carry it out- but I don't live there! I get it, teachers are busy! So when we go to them and say here is some more stuff for you to do and take data on - they want to hit us!! I totally get that! The way I Do Tier 2 Activities is to provide the activity and model it for the class (or small groups while the teacher works with other students) and then I leave the Activity for the teacher to follow up and do it again with her class. The teacher can take data if she has certain kids in mind who are struggling on a specific target or not :)The goal is to get the activity out and have follow up on it.  Baby steps :)

According to RtI
"Tier 2: Targeted Interventions

Students not making adequate progress in the regular classroom in Tier 1 are provided with increasingly intensive instruction matched to their needs on the basis of levels of performance and rates of progress. Intensity varies across group size, frequency and duration of intervention, and level of training of the professionals providing instruction or intervention. These services and interventions are provided in small-group settings in addition to instruction in the general curriculum. In the early grades (kindergarten through 3rd grade), interventions are usually in the areas of reading and math. A longer period of time may be required for this tier, but it should generally not exceed a grading period. Students who continue to show too little progress at this level of intervention are then considered for more intensive interventions as part of Tier 3."

** I live in Canada and we don't have the same rules as Americans may have.


For my first activity I found this Melissa & Doug Complete the Picture. They have different background scenes like a barn, ocean garden, empty plate, etc. I pair students into groups of 2 or 3 and then I have the students talk about the picture and different things that can go with the picture. After they have discussed  it, then they can take turns drawing on the sheet. 

Here are some questions you can ask to get the kids talking.**What would you see in a barn? What animals would live there? What could have our store in the barn? Where do you find a barn? I use these questions as conversation starters and get the kids talking about all of the vocabulary associated with their picture. Remember this isn't question period but more of a conversation going so it's more natural. 

 

I love that this paper pack is open ended so you can really go in any direction you want. There are many different scenes in this pack so you can have everyone use a different background and then tell the class what they found that associated with their background scene.

This is a really easy idea to use with kindergarten or grade 1. Some of the students I serve have severe language delays so this is a good place to start for vocabulary- you may want to use it with a different group :) 


Easy, Peasy!