Intervention Spotlights by Sally Busby

Maria Goldstein - Intervention Experience

2025-11-18 22:16:56 UTC

I used various UFLI resources and resources from TPT. It was nice how organized UFLI's resources were, and then I could fill in any spots with additional activities from TPT. The student needed support with consonant digraphs, so each session we focused on another digraph with a review of previous ones. I found that the student focused better when there was a regular routine to each lesson. We would often review the sound, read a decodable passage, write word chains and sentences, and complete a roll & read. There was some variation in activities, but it followed along those general guidelines. I noticed that the student paid attention with activities that involved being able to write on the whiteboard, so I gradually incorporated more of those to keep him engaged. Also, his favorite activity was the roll and read to practice. Something that I would do differently is in the first couple sessions I didn't read the decodable passage to him, and then realized I should start doing that. Something else that I would have done differently is when we were doing a consonant digraph word sort I would have only given 2 options of digraphs rather than 3 or 4 options. I believe that it was overwhelming for him to sort the digraphs, so it was a learning experience for the next time.

2025-11-19 01:49:50 UTC

Throughout these tutoring sessions I have tried a number of activities with my student. My student and I worked with CVC/VC words with various strategies. Some of the top activities my student enjoyed were the magnetic tiles, popcorn game, and whiteboards. With the magnetic tiles, she was asked to decode and encode CVC/VC words. With our popcorn game, she worked with high frequency words. Finally with our whiteboards we created word chains. What I would do differently is have all activities as hands on activities. My student is very engaged and focused when she has something in her hand, rather than just having flashcards. If she only had visuals, her engagement wasn't there entirely.

Abby Hamner

2025-11-19 19:07:58 UTC

During my recent tutoring sessions, I focused on helping a student strengthen their reading comprehension by using a “think-aloud” strategy. I modeled how to pause during a passage, ask questions, and make predictions, then invited the student to try it. I noticed that while the student was engaged, they struggled to verbalize their thinking without prompting. They often reverted to simply rereading the text instead of reflecting on it. If I were to do this again, I would incorporate more structured scaffolds—such as sentence starters or a visual checklist—to guide their thinking more independently and build their confidence before expecting them to apply the strategy on their own.

Intervention Spotlight - K. Hart

ks565_1 — 2025-11-20 18:23:31 UTC

I have used chunking with my student when reading passages or stories to practice and strengthen reading comprehension. I have seen that my student struggles when asked questions at the very end. They are doing a novel unit in class. If I wait to ask my student questions about the chapter at the end of the chapter, my student has trouble recalling. Therefore, I have been using the chunking method where we read aloud one paragraph at a time, and I will pause to ask my student to make a prediction or answer a question that has to do with the paragraph we just read. This helps them interact with what they just read and breaks it into smaller chunks. When we move onto the next paragraph and finish it, I will ask my question(s), and then say something along the lines of "Now, remind me, what .......?" referring back to the question answered about the previous paragraph. This repetition also gives more time for students to spend with the reading.

Intervention Spotlight - Shraya Rao

shrayarao — 2025-11-21 20:02:37 UTC

During my tutoring sessions, I often work on CVC worksheets provided to me by the classroom teacher. When a student gets stuck on a word, a technique I've been using is chunking. First, I'll write the word the student is struggling with on a whiteboard. Take the word "drop", for example. I'll write the first letter of the word ("d") on the board and ask, "What sound does this make?" I'll repeat for the rest of the letters. Next, I'll write "dr-" on the board, and ask, "What sound does this make?" Then, I'll do the same for "-op". Then, I'll have the student blend the two chunks ("dr-" + "-op") together. I've seen success with this method. I had one student who was really struggling to read a series of words independently -- there were two rows of words in the word bank. After using this method for the first row, the student was reading the words in the second row independently and without struggling. The one thing I'd do differently is, if these were my students, I'd gamify this activity. I don't think these worksheets are engaging for the students, even though they get to color in stars after reading a passage. I can see how tired they get a few minutes into doing the worksheet. I often ask my students before a session, "Are you ready to work?" The other day, one of my students answered, "I don't know." Since these aren't actually my students, however, I don't want to mess with the structure of the program in which I'm simply helping. For my future classroom, however, I'll be gamifying spelling activities to make them more digestible and engaging.

Intervention Spotlight

2025-11-23 23:53:44 UTC

For my student I tried something to help them with their reading comprehension. Which they have been struggling with. We do our tutoring at a library, so I had them pick out a first grade level book. Before we started reading, I let them know that I would be pausing them to ask "Who, What, When, Where and Why" questions. I also wanted them to work on reading out loud so that it would help with their prosody and fluency. I stopped them several times throughout the story and they had some trouble at first but we worked through it. Next time I think that I am going to have a book ready for them that has more dialogue and possibly switch off characters so that I and doing a little of the reading and them build on it from there with them having more and more reading parts.

2025-11-25 01:10:38 UTC

Mostly, after the first two tutoring sessions, I noticed that my student was getting confused identifying "b" and "d". (My student is 4 1/2 years old) So, I got some "b" and "d" distinguishing worksheets together and focused mainly on this for a couple of sessions. I also introduced the idea of "Make your bed" to check if it is "b" or "d". The trick that really helped make it stick was "b" has a belly and "d" wears a diaper. Every so often he seems to have some confusion but not like he was having trouble before we spent the extra time practicing! I would probably check earlier to see if the "p" and "q" identifications are another problem to try and tackle them sooner than the RISE workshop has them in a later group. Just to make sure.

Interventions

annalisarouse — 2025-11-25 04:57:25 UTC

One of the best tutoring sessions I had was towards the end. I was working with an older student and she had been struggling with her writing, mostly in providing details in writing a summary. I have been working with her to improve her comprehension skills and ensuring that she is providing the necessary details. I was trying to find something creative to my student to start understanding the importance of detail. One of the last writing assignments we did, I gave her a prompt- she had to write a story that involved a cat, a duck, a magical hat, and a hut. She could write about anything as long as those four components were included. We started off with a graphic organizer to brainstorm ideas and then reviewed how stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Then with the help of her graphic organizer, she was able to write a story. I implored her write more details for her characters, her setting, and problem. She was able to understand the importance of details and how it can help the reader understand a story fully. This was a fun lesson for both me and the student. She was invested in the assignment, and was very focused. It was a good way to wrap up our tutoring sessions.

Intervention

hp118_1 — 2025-11-25 16:41:10 UTC

My tutoring sessions were with a 5 year old Kindergarten student and we've focused largely on phonemic awareness- learning letter sounds by using flashcards to say the letter name and then the sound. We use gestures for the sound to help relate the letters and their sounds and if they are voiced (where the can feel the vibration the sound makes) or unvoiced. We also make our fingers into a V shape for letter V and relate it to being like a V-Neck Shirt. I think the DIBELS assessment with her really helped me see which letters she still struggled with and I would probably try to assess that a little earlier on next time. I think I will incorporate more games to the lessons next time too, since practicing her letters and their sounds seems to be more fun for her when we have a game out (like bingo, match cards, etc.) We've also focused on CVC words and I noticed that she really like sounding out the words by using our arm to identify the first sound (onset) middle and final sound- then she realizes that she's spelled the word out (we spell it out on the white boards then too). I've found coloring in the first sound of a CVC word on the worksheets seems to be a fun task she enjoys. I always try to give 5 minutes of free draw time at the end of the session as a reward for working since she enjoys drawing with the white board and gives her incentive to work on the lessons with me.

2025-11-25 17:32:43 UTC

During one of my 1:1 intervention sessions, I worked with a second grade student on phonemic awareness. I tried using flashcards paired with gestures to help the student connect letter names to their sounds. For example, we made a “V” shape with our fingers to represent the letter V, which helped her remember it more easily. I observed that she was most engaged when the activity felt like a game she especially enjoyed bingo and matching cards. I also noticed that she responded well to using her arm to segment sounds in CVC words, which gave her a sense of accomplishment when she realized she had spelled the word correctly.

If I were to do this differently, I would incorporate more interactive games earlier in the sessions to keep her motivated and make the practice feel less repetitive. I would also plan to assess her letter-sound knowledge sooner, so I could tailor the activities more precisely to the areas where she needed the most support.

Intervention

2025-11-25 21:16:58 UTC

My student struggles most with CVC words that end with the blends -ft, -nd, -st, etc. he will combine them into one or two syllables when he says them. With my current situation of not being able to meet in person and rarely being able to video chat I have found it hard to emphasize these blends. However, what has worked for me and him is that we have been sending video recordings back and forth for us to watch when we need to so we can observe what the other one is saying and doing. This helps me so that I can observe his sounds and it helps him so he can listen to my tips and tricks when needed.

Intervention

2025-12-08 00:21:03 UTC

During my experience working with my 1:1 intervention, we were working on short vowel sounds. At the beginning of our sessions I had data that showed my student struggled to identify the short e and i sounds specifically. Some things I did were review vowel sounds, phonemic awareness drills, word chains, word practice, and decodable texts. We would also play CVC word match games on Blooket or use the UFLI Bingo games and Roll and Read. This has worked really well for me and I have seen a lot of growth in my student.