National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII): Literacy Sample Lessons, Mathematics Sample Lessons and Behavior Strategies

This series includes video examples and tip sheets to help educators and families in using the NCII reading and mathematics sample lessons to support students with intensive needs. These lessons provide short instructional routines to encourage multiple practice opportunities using explicit instruction principles. The videos and tip sheets describe how educators can use the sample lessons to support instruction in a virtual setting, how educators can share these lessons with parents, and how parents can also implement the lessons to provide additional practice opportunities.

NCII provides a series of reading lessons to support special education instructors, reading interventionists, and others working with students who struggle with reading. These lessons, adapted with permission from the Florida Center for Reading Research and Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, address key reading and prereading skills and incorporate research-based instructional principles that can help intensify and individualize reading instruction.

NCII developed a series of mathematics lessons and guidance documents to support special education instructors, mathematics specialists, and others working with students who struggle with mathematics. These lessons and activities are organized around six mathematics skill areas that are aligned to college– and career-ready standards, and incorporate several instructional principles that may help intensify and individualize mathematics instruction to assist teachers and interventionists working with students who have difficulty with mathematics. The lessons may be used to supplement mathematics interventions, programs, or curricula that are currently in place. However, these lessons by themselves would not constitute an effective mathematics intervention.

This tools chart presents information about academic progress monitoring tools. The following three tabs include ratings on the technical rigor of the tools: (a) Performance Level Standards, (b) Growth Standards, and (c) Usability.

Progress monitoring is an essential part of a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) and, specifically, the data-based individualization (DBI) process. It allows educators and administrators to understand whether students are responding to intervention and if adaptations are needed. In addition, these data are often used to set high-quality academic and behavioral goals within the individualized education program (IEP) for students with disabilities.

Parents and families are critical partners in supporting students with intensive academic and behavioral needs. It is important to recognize that every parent and family member is different, with varying levels of knowledge and comfort with school; they may not consider their involvement in the school in the same way that the school perceives it.

All behavior serves a purpose or function—typically to access or avoid something. Thus, it is important to figure out the function of a student’s behavior to develop a plan with likelihood for success.

This tools chart presents information about behavior progress monitoring tools. The following three tabs include ratings on the technical rigor of the tools: Performance Level Standards, Growth Standards, and Usability.

This content is designed to support faculty and professional development providers with designing and instructing pre-service and in-service educators who are developing and/or refining their implementation of explicit instruction, intensive intervention in reading, intensive intervention in mathematics, and behavior support for intensive intervention.