Rethinking Intervention

40 Conversations I 6 Big Takeaways

Reflection and Discussion Guide for Takeaway 4:

Moving forward into new content with support will
advance learning more than stopping and going
back.

1. Watch the video here.

2. Review the lessons learned from Takeaway 4

● Pushing forward into new learning while being thoughtful about the extra support students
with unfinished learning will need relevant to that content is more successful than “stop and
go back.”
● Understanding what just-in-time supports a student may need requires a deep understanding
of how children learn that particular content, and what might be load-bearing walls to the
new concepts.
● Focusing on student strengths and assets and using those to build learning will lead to more
progress than focusing on deficits and gaps. The language we use reinforces the way a
community comes to think.

3. Reflect and discuss

After watching the video, answer these questions on your own or in a learning group:
1. For teachers:
a. What factors lead you to want to “stop and go back”? When have you made that
choice in the past? Are there examples where you believe going back was the right
approach? Are there examples where you wish you had handled things differently?
b. What are the load-bearing walls in the topic you are teaching next?
2. For leaders:
a. How can you develop your own content knowledge so that you can help your
teachers identify load-bearing walls?
b. Does your culture encourage teachers to stop and go back or push forward? What
messages do you send that might be creating an expectation about what you want
teachers to do?
3. What would it look like to amplify students’ strengths as opposed to gaps? What asset-based
language can you use in your next department or staff meeting to shift the narrative?

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4. Dive deeper with these resources
● EdResearch for Recovery published this brief last summer to answer the question: Which
areas should schools prioritize for intensive academic intervention and what strategies are
most effective?
● This document from NGSS outlines the progression of disciplinary core ideas across grade
bands, while highlighting the core science ideas of the standards.
● The coherence map from Student Achievement Partners illustrates how the math standards
are related and includes a sample task for each standard.
● This report from Student Achievement Partners examines the research base for literacy
accelerators, as well as the intersections for equitable personalization.
● This article from Inside HigherEd digs into the evidence on the effectiveness of co-requisite
approach to unfinished learning.

If you know of other great resources centered on high expectations for all learners, please
contact us so that we can share them.

5. Take action
Here are ideas for how leaders can use time, energy, and resources to support this theme:
● Foster a culture focused on advancing student progress as well as students’ assets and
strengths.
● Build teacher and leader content knowledge to understand the discipline as well as the best
approach to unfinished learning, both up front in training and embedded in ongoing planning
and coaching.
● Ensure curriculum design and implementation plans (e.g., scope and sequence) reflect the
best of what we know about how to think about unfinished learning for that discipline.

About the Rethinking Intervention series

In spring 2020 we launched the Rethinking Intervention project—a series of conversations with
education leaders, researchers, and practitioners—in order to think deeply about what drives and
challenges “intervention” and how we can accelerate student learning after many months away
from school. Now we’re sharing what we learned in a video series built around six big takeaways:

1. Relationships and learning are inseparably connected.

2. What teachers expect of their students influences what students expect of themselves.
3. Students engage and learn best from work that is challenging, relevant to their lives, and
helps them understand and impact the world.

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4. Moving forward into new content with support will advance learning more than stopping
and going back.
5. Even a great plan will not work for all students; continuously monitoring, understanding, and
meeting needs will.
6. The way teachers support students mirrors the way leaders support teachers .

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