Strategic Intervention Model

SIM: An Evidence-based
Academic Support Approach

Dr. Ginger Blalock, Consultant,

REC 6 Transition Project
Education-Transition Consulting LLC
 STRATEGIC INTERVENTION
MODEL
 Multifaceted approach to help students
in upper elementary, middle, high
school, and higher ed to become
independent and successful learners
 Why? Research in classrooms showed that
preteens/teens were low achieving, did not
generalize learning, had narrow social skills –
i.e., did not problem solve for academic,
social, or self-management tasks
More…
 SIM consists of both learning strategies
(for students) and content enhancement
routines (for teachers)

 Why? Research showed that teachers used

traditional methods with increasingly less
payoff (eg., remedial, study skills) or
increasing costs (eg., tutorial, compensatory),
thus poor (i.e., nonstrategic) learners were
set up to fail
 Learning Strategies viewed as cognitive
behavior modification, integrating
metacognitive strategies with behavioral
supports
 Why? Each approach by itself doesn’t have
the payoff that a combined approach does –
all learners benefit from BOTH structure,
stimuli, and reinforcement along with self-
questioning, transformational language, and
meaning connections
Analysis of a Learning Strategy
Mnemonic device (self-teaching, triggers memory)
3 simple steps (aids memory)
Self-questioning
Read a paragraph. Transformational language

Ask yourself what were the main idea and details.

Put the main idea & details in your own words.

Each step begin with an action or behavior (covert or overt)

Triggers what to do (stimuli)
Simple, easy to follow
 Based on 30 years of extensive
classroom research, by team at
University of Kansas

 Headed by Don Deshler, with research lead

Jean Schumaker, visionary Gordon Alley,
preservice researchers Ed Ellis and Keith
Lenz, and inservice researcher Fran Clark
(among many others since the beginning)
LEARNING STRATEGIES
 Teach students how to approach an academic or a
social task

 Teach students how to learn and perform

independently

 Are not basic or study skills but more a series of

problem-solving steps

 Only 1 or 2 might be considered core curriculum but

only in a short-term, intensive sense
 EXAMPLE LEARNING
STRATEGIES
 WORD IDENTIFICATION STRATEGY – students
decode and identify unknown multisyllable words in their
reading materials.
 PARAPHRASING STRATEGY – read short passages,
identify the main idea and key details, and rephrase
those in their own words.
 VOCABULARY STRATEGY – learn the meaning of
new vocabulary words using powerful memory-
enhancement techniques.
 FIRST-LETTER MNEMONIC STRATEGY – identify lists
they need to learn, generate a label or title, select a
mnemonic device for each set of information, create a
study card, and master the set for recall.
More Learning Strategies
 FUNDAMENTALS IN SENTENCE WRITING
STRATEGY – learn the basic requirements of a complete
simple sentence, how to identify major parts of sentence
(subjects, verbs, prepositions, infinitives, and adverbs)
 PROFICIENCY IN SENTENCE WRITING STRATEGY –
recognize and write 14 sentence patterns within simple,
compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences.
 ERROR MONITORING STRATEGY – independently
detect and correct errors in written work and develop
personal strategies to avoid errors.
 TEST-TAKING STRATEGY – learn to allocate time and
order to test sections, focus on directions, use mnemonic
devices, make informed guesses, check their work, and
approach test-taking proactively.
A little depth with the strategies
 8 instructional stages that help cement learning (half
require mastery):
 Pretest & gain commitment to learn

 Describe (when/where, steps to use)

 Model (show what its use looks like)

 Verbal rehearsal (automatic level)

 Guided practice with feedback

 Independent practice with feedback

 Posttest and commitment to generalize

 3 phases of generalization (orientation, activation,

maintenance) with feedback
A little depth (cont’d) . . .

Self-contained modules with:

 Instructional lessons, detailing how to
prepare, what to bring, what to discuss
 Instructional cue cards
 Student practice materials
 Student assessment materials
 Record-keeping materials
PARAPHRASING STRATEGY
(RAP)
3 steps:
1. Read a paragraph.
2. Ask yourself, what were the main idea and
details in the paragraph?
3. Put the main idea and details in your own
words.

Significantly aids comprehension and

memory.
RAP (cont’d)

 Cue cards teach couple of strategies for

identifying main ideas (first sentence in
paragraph, repeated word or phrase)

 Criteria for “paraphrase” also taught:

one general idea per passage, important
information, complete thought, etc.
Sample Passage to Apply RAP

Neighbors were shocked to find that their next door

neighbors were actually husband and wife
instead of grandmother and grandson. Maude
and Harold Newman’s next-door neighbors
described a nice but quirky pair who seemed to
greatly enjoy their garden, their animals, and
each other and who kept odd hours. Neighbors
along the street also reported no apparent
employment for either and an unusual sense of
fashion and home decoration.
RAP (cont’d)
 Go through the 8 instructional stages.
 First 4 stages best done in small group, but
other configurations very possible.
 Next 4 stages can be individualized, self-paced.
 Stage 4 (verbal rehearsal) starts the mastery
criteria necessary to proceed to next stage.
 Working through to Generalization Stage very
important for real application later
SENTENCE-WRITING STRATEGY
(PENS)
4 steps to follow:
1. Pick a (sentence) formula.
2. Explore (think of) words to fit the formula.
3. Note (write down) the words.
4. Search and check:
- subject-verb agreement
- capitalization, punctuation

Greatly improves grammar, complete

and varied sentences.
PENS (cont’d)

Cue cards teach components of a

complete sentence:
1. Start with a capital letter
2. Have end punctuation (. ? !)
3. Have a subject (S)
4. Have a verb (V)
5. Make sense
S V .?!
Practice with a Sentence Formula

Simple Sentence Formulae:

 SV
 SSV
 SVV
 SSVV
Compound Sentence Formula:
 I, c I
 Teach Fundamentals in Sentence
Writing first, in order for students to
acquire basic grammatical skills
 Students eventually learn 14 different
sentence formulae, from SV to I,cD
 Students progress from identifying parts
of sentences to choosing them to
generating them
CONTENT ENHANCEMENT
ROUTINES

Techniques for repeated use in

classrooms that open up access to the
content for ALL students
 EXAMPLE CONTENT
ENHANCEMENT ROUTINES
 COURSE ORGANIZER ROUTINE – teachers plan so
students see “big picture” of a course, how units fit
within it, and can navigate the course well.
 UNIT ORGANIZER ROUTINE – introduces the big ideas
of a unit, how they relate to prior and future learning, and
how information is organized; helps document learning.
 LESSON ORGANIZER ROUTINE – opens and builds a
lesson in which students see main idea and lesson’s
organization, relate it to background knowledge, and
understand lesson’s tasks & demands
 CONCEPT MASTERY ROUTINE – helps students
master a key concept within the curriculum using
examples and non-examples and a structured process to
define it.
CONTENT ENHANCEMENT
ROUTINES (cont’d)
 CONCEPT ANCHOR ROUTINE – helps students
master a difficult new concept through analogies and
students’ prior knowledge.
 QUALITY ASSIGNMENT ROUTINE – 3 phases of
planning, presenting, and evaluating help teachers
improve the quality of assignments given and
completed.
 FRAMING ROUTINE – shows students the
relationships among main ideas and the essential
details related to them.
 LEARNING EXPRESS-WAYS FOLDERS – facilitates
open communication between teachers and individual
students through targeted use of folders.
A little depth with the Routines…

They depend heavily on evidence-based

strategies such as:
 Priming and building on student background
knowledge
 Graphic organizers
 Ongoing student engagement
 Small and large group interaction while able to
assess individual accountability
 “Permanent” models
Concept Anchor Routine (cont’d)
Concept Anchor Routine

 Uses a known concept to help learners

grasp a difficult-to-learn new concept
 Works across any content area
 Teacher needs to guide students to
select known concepts that can work
fairly easily (eg., learning the parts of the
eye is like learning the parts of a
camera)
Content Literacy Continuum = RtI

 Level 1: Enhanced content instruction

 Level 2: Embedded strategy instruction

 Level 3: Intensive strategy instruction

 Level 4: Intensive basic skill instruction

 Level 5: Therapeutic intervention

Level 1 – Enhanced content
instruction
= mastery of critical content for ALL
regardless of literacy levels

I.e., using a research-based core

curriculum found to be appropriate for all
your learners, teaching it with fidelity,
and continuously monitoring (and acting
upon) each student’s progress
Level 2 – Embedded strategy
instruction
= routinely weaving strategies within and
across classes using large group
instructional methods

Eg., teach Paraphrasing Strategy to entire

class as a useful lifelong tool that helps
them grasp and remember content in
hard-to-remember subjects
Level 3 – Intensive strategy
instruction
= mastery of specific strategies using
intensive-explicit instructional sequences
– 4th grade and above

Eg., teach Sentence Writing Strategy to

small group of students who need
troubleshooting to complete assignments
adequately
Level 4 – Intensive basic skill
instruction
= mastery of entry level literacy skills at the
PreK-3rd level (decoding, fluency, …)

Eg., pull student(s) out for intensive,

relentless instruction of core skills over
short term (2 months – 1 semester?),
using evidence-based curriculum
Level 5 – Therapeutic intervention

= mastery of language underpinnings of

curriculum content and learning
strategies

I.e., intensive, perhaps short-term

language therapy
Other SIM Offerings
 Motivation strategies
 Team collaboration strategies
 Building learning communities
 Communication strategies between teachers
and students
 E-learning opportunities
 Summer and regional conferences
 Many other emerging works based on
extensive, school-based research
WANT MORE?

 For more information, go to

www.ku-crl.org

 For training in New Mexico, contact:

Ginger Blalock blalock@unm.edu
Kristi Noel kknoel@comcast.net
(plus have info on group in El Paso)