It is important that as teachers our focus is not on how much material we cover but on the quality of learning that takes place in our classroom. If we are to maintain this focus on student learning, we must know when to move forward and when to clarify or provide additional instruction. One way this can be accomplished is by looking at the level and type of intervention required for most students to master a concept. 

Most of the time when we think about intervention, we envision students being separated from other students and presented with individual or small group instruction to re-teach or emphasize a topic to bring those students’ mastery level back to that of the rest of the class. While this is a form of intervention, intervention should occur in other forms and at multiple levels based on assessment of students’ needs. 

The lowest levels of intervention occur naturally and fluidly within the day to day organization and function of a teacher’s classroom. In its simplest form, intervention occurs when a teacher employees a simple redirect or leads a student’s answer in the direction that the teacher wants student thinking and discussion to go. The teacher must constantly be assessing and providing redirection to students through questioning and quick, in-class activities that will allow the teacher to know which students have and have not mastered a topic. This process may lead the teacher to a conclusion that a lack of mastery as a whole indicates the need for additional whole-class instruction or may lead the teacher to grouping of students that allows peer tutoring or additional small group instruction by the teacher along with enrichment for others. All of this intervention takes part in the classroom as part of the normal instruction cycle and is a response to simple assessment and examination of results. For more thoughts on assessment, see my article, Quick Assessment and my post entitled, Assessment with Purpose. 

Until a predetermined level of mastery has been meet by the class as a whole, the teacher will continue to employ in-class assessment and intervention strategies until a targeted mastery level for the group is met. In this way, the intervention strategies become the center of instruction and the driver for moving forward to the next topic. This first level of intervention is crucial in ensuring a high level of mastery for all students and will ultimately determine the pace and quality of instruction. 

When a student group as a whole has met a targeted mastery level, there may still be individual students who require additional, scheduled intervention time during the school day at the next level but the first level of assessment and intervention will determine when a class will continue with additional learning targets. In this way classroom instruction becomes intervention centered and student mastery becomes the key determining factor of pacing instead of time spent on the learning target.