3 Key Ideas to Help Your Students Apply Intervention Strategies

How Can I Help My Student Apply Strategies to their Work? 

A speech pathologist shares 3 key ideas that can help you teach students to use  skills learned during the intervention process. 

"What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child." - George Bernard Shaw

Teachers struggle on a daily basis in the classroom with students who simply do not apply what they've been taught, in spite of a teacher's best efforts.  And, unfortunately, all of the drill and practice in the world sometimes does not accomplish the objective of a student applying what they've learned.

Here are 3 key ideas that have helped me achieve instructional carryover with students on my caseload. Feel free to apply these same concepts in your classroom.

#1:  Teach Students to Self-Monitor Their Own Performance

Self-Monitoring - A Big Word, An Even Bigger Impact
 

Simply speaking, self-monitoring is the ability for a student to determine whether or not they were able to create the target behavior, by observing themselves during their own performance of a task.  

What I've Learned in the Speech Room

Many students become dependent on the speech therapist for feedback during therapy. When asked whether a sound was produced accurately, students aren't sure.  They weren't "listening" to themselves, because they were caught up in the performance, the "doing".  The student has become dependent on an external barometer. 

Give the student a checklist, and ask them to check their own work, or otherwise rate their own performance.   As a teacher, the value of self-awareness cannot be over-estimated.  (Hint:  printed cues for the desired strategy or response can be critical to internalizing a new set of rules when teaching self-monitoring).

#2:  Focus on Teaching a Strategy in a Controlled Context

Exercise in Futility 

I recall observing a language-disordered 3rd grade student participate in an ILA classroom exercise. The activity required the student to respond to a number of errors in a written paragraph, including multiple mechanics, grammar, and spelling errors.  Unfortunately, the student was not able succeed at that exercise, because so many types of errors were introduced simultaneously. 

Use a mixed practice format to challenge students who've already mastered the rules and can benefit from mixed practice.  Control the context and present single rules at a time for students who have not mastered grade level content.

#3:  Accurate Practice Requires Specific Instruction

Learning How to Teach

I once supervised a graduate student who didn't understand the mechanics of speech production.  In one lesson, she instructed a 4th grade student to "say 'r' like a Pirate",  and followed with an enthusiatic pirate impersonation.   The student continued to produce the sound with the same errors.  If the student isn't successful at least 60% of the time, the instruction needs to be modified. 

Use scaffolding, reverse chaining, thoughtful prompts and cues, and direct instruction to share the process of discovery with the student.   Level practice exercises in the 60-80% success range.

#4:  Provide Opportunities for Distraction...or Less is More

Once a student has achieved a level of mastery within a controlled context, distraction provides a needed challenge within the context of less definition and structure - this is an often overlooked step in the process of teaching students how to independently apply a learned skill.

Drill Practice ad Infinitum

Consider this case:  a secondary student who doesn't generalize grammar skills to conversation, in spite of years of remedial instruction. The next step simply requires that we expand the student's use of the grammar rules to broad, less defined tasks.

Try the following strategies: 

• story retelling
• narrative format
• mixed rule practice
• self-monitoring using a student grading rubric
• printed cues
• tape recording with playback
• multiple practice trials

Cynthia Scott, M.A. CCC-SLP is a Speech Language Pathologist and educator in the central Minnesota area.  She can be reached at PhoneticResoucesLLC@gmail.com, or view her blog at ThePhoneticResource.blogspot.com  for other helpful resources.