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INTERVENTION STRATEGY:Folding-In
Brief Description:This strategy utilizes peer tutors to work on fluency in basic math facts. It involves “folding in,” or slowly incorporating, unknown math facts to known ones.
Materials Needed:
- Preassessment quiz of math facts (a calculation probe would work)
- Blank index cards or other materials to create flash cards
Implementation: This strategy is designed to be implemented with pairs of peers. It can be facilitated by a teacher, paraprofessional or adult volunteer.
Preassessment Phase: To determine which calculation facts are known and which are unknown, students are administered a quiz in which they are asked to answer computational problems. The problems not completed or incorrect provides an indication of the facts that have and have not been mastered. This information may also come from a universal screener or progress monitoring. Flash cards are then made of both the students’ known and unknown facts.
Instructional Phase: The students are then taught to use peer tutoring to drill each other using the folding-in technique:
1.Each student selects seven cards from their pile of pre-assessed known facts.
2.Each student selects three cards from his or her pile of pre-assessed unknown facts.
3.The teacher informs the two students that they have 20 minutes to begin tutoring.
4.Students decide who will be the teacher first and who will be the learner first. The teacher of the pair presents the first unknown fact to the learner. The learner is required to write the fact on a piece of paper, say it to him- or herself three times, and then turn the paper over.
5.The teacher then presents a known fact, followed by the unknown fact, the first known fact, and another known fact. The unknown fact is presented sequentially in this fashion until all seven known facts have been presented and folded-in among the unknown facts.
6.The groups of eight facts (one unknown and seven known) are shuffled. The second unknown fact is then presented and folded-in among the other eight facts. This is repeated again for the third unknown fact.
7.If the student hesitates or is incorrect on any fact, the teacher instructs him/her to complete a brief correction procedure. The teacher tells him/her the correct answer and has him/her write the incorrect fact three times. The incorrect fact is then presented again to the learner.
8.When all facts have been folded in, the entire group of 10 facts is presented three times. Each time, the packet of index card is shuffled to prevent the learner from simply remembering the sequence of responses.
9.The final step is a test of the 10 facts that the students have practiced. On this test, a mark is placed on the unknown fact cards if a student is correct on this trial. When an unknown fact attains three consecutive marks, it is considered a learned fact.
10.After the test of the 10 math facts (approximately 10 minutes), students switch roles of teacher and learner.
11.The students graph the number of new facts learned each week.
Schedule for implementation: The suggested intervention schedule is approximately 20 minutes daily. Progress monitoring may be done either weekly or biweekly.
Variations: This strategy can also be implemented individually, rather than with peer tutors.
Research Summary & References:
The following sources may be consulted to learn the essentials and variations of this strategy:
Shapiro, E.S. (2004). Academic skills problems workbook (rev. ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.