Scheduling a reading intervention block

A reading intervention schedule decides who gets extra reading instruction, when, for how long and with whom. Built well, it gives every struggling reader a daily dose of instruction without taking away core reading. Built poorly, it pulls students from the lesson they most need and leaves specialists with gaps and overlaps.

This guide is written for principals, coordinators and the teachers who build the master schedule with them. It walks through the steps with one fictional elementary school and one student, then covers the progress checks that tell you whether the schedule is working. The instruction itself is covered in the reading intervention guide for students with IEPs.

What you need before you start

• Screening results for every student, so you know how many need intervention in each grade.
• IEP service minutes for every student with reading goals. The IEP states the frequency, location and duration of services, and the schedule must deliver them.^[2]
• A staff list with who can teach intervention and when each person is free.
• The core reading block times for each grade. These are fixed points you schedule around.
• Room availability, since small groups need quiet spaces.

Step-by-step: building the block

Step 1: Fix core reading first

Write each grade's core reading block onto the master schedule before anything else. Intervention is added to core instruction. It does not replace it.

Example. Ridgeview Elementary puts core reading at 8:45 for kindergarten and grade 1, 9:30 for grade 2, and 10:15 for grades 3 to 5. Each block is 90 minutes.

Step 2: Stagger a grade-level intervention block

Give each grade one 30 to 45 minute block when all its students are in intervention or enrichment at once. Stagger the blocks so the same specialists can serve each grade in turn. Schools call this "WIN time," "flex time" or "tier time."

Example. Ridgeview sets 30-minute blocks: kindergarten at 12:30, grade 1 at 1:00, grade 2 at 1:30, grade 3 at 11:15, grade 4 at 11:45 and grade 5 at 2:00.

Step 3: Size the groups from screening data

Count how many students need each level of support in each grade. The What Works Clearinghouse guide on reading intervention describes small-group instruction on a few foundational skills, typically 3 to 5 times a week for 20 to 40 minutes, for students below the screening benchmark, and more intensive daily instruction for students who do not respond.^[1]

Example. Grade 2 has 72 students. Screening shows 14 need targeted support and 6 need intensive support. That is 3 groups of 4 to 5 for targeted support and 2 groups of 3 for intensive support.

Step 4: Match staff to intensity

Put the most trained staff with the students who are furthest behind. Special education teachers and reading specialists take intensive groups. Trained paraprofessionals can run targeted groups from a teacher's plan. Classroom teachers take enrichment or a targeted group.

Example. During grade 2's 1:30 block, the special education teacher and the reading specialist each take an intensive group of 3. Two trained paraprofessionals and one classroom teacher take the targeted groups. The other two classroom teachers run enrichment.

Step 5: Add time for students with IEPs

Students with IEP reading services may need minutes beyond the shared block. Add a second session, often during a non-core period such as science or social studies rotation, and record it carefully so the student's access to those subjects is weighed by the IEP team.

Example. A student with 300 minutes a week of specialized reading instruction gets the 30-minute grade block plus a second 30-minute session daily.

Step 6: Build in progress checks

Schedule probe days inside the block. Use the first 10 minutes of one session a week for intensive groups and one every two weeks or month for targeted groups. The same WWC guide recommends monitoring students in targeted intervention at least once a month.^[1]

Worked example: one student through the schedule

Leo is a fictional 2nd grader at Ridgeview with an IEP for a specific learning disability in basic reading and reading fluency. His IEP lists 300 minutes a week of specialized reading instruction in a special education setting.

His day.

His IEP minutes are met: 150 plus 150 is 300 minutes a week. He never misses core reading. The second session falls during a rotation the team agreed he can shorten twice a week, with science content covered through read-alouds.

His data, first 8 weeks. The teacher probes Leo every Monday at 1:30, using an unpracticed grade 2 passage, before the lesson starts.

Leo gained 14 words correct per minute in 8 weeks, about 1.75 words a week. His goal of 70 words correct per minute by the annual review needs about 0.8 a week from here (28 more words over the remaining 36 weeks). The schedule is giving him enough instruction, so the team keeps it. These numbers are illustrations, not norms.

The weekly scores go on the reading fluency data sheet, and the oral reading fluency measurement guide explains probe selection and scoring.

Common scheduling mistakes

• Weak: Pull intervention students out during core reading because that is when the specialist is free. Better: Fix core reading first, then stagger intervention around it.
• Weak: One school-wide intervention period at the same time for every grade. Better: Stagger by grade so specialists can serve several grades.
• Weak: Groups set by homeroom so students do not move. Better: Groups set by skill need across classrooms in the grade.
• Weak: IEP minutes "met" by counting the time a student sits in core reading. Better: Count only the specialized instruction the IEP describes, in the setting it names.
• Weak: Probe days left to each teacher's judgment. Better: A fixed weekly probe slot for intensive groups, on the calendar.
• Weak: Paraprofessionals assigned the most intensive groups with no plan. Better: Trained staff with the students furthest behind, and written plans for every group.

Keeping the schedule working all year

Regroup after each screening window, usually three times a year, and whenever a student's weekly data shows a group no longer fits. Guard the block from assemblies and testing. If the block is cancelled, make up intensive sessions first.

Whether a student is served in the classroom or a separate room is its own decision. See pull-out vs push-in reading intervention. For managing the rest of the class while you teach a group, see classroom management during small groups. For tracking service minutes against the schedule, the service log tool records each session.

Once the schedule is set, the reading goal bank has goal templates for the skills each group targets. Paste draft goals into the goal checker before the IEP meeting.

Frequently asked questions

Use it in IEP Atlas

• Oral reading fluency measurement guide
• Reading fluency data sheet
• Service log tool
• Service minutes in the IEP glossary
• Reading IEP goals

Related guides

• Reading intervention for students with IEPs: assess, group, teach, monitor
• Reading progress monitoring tools
• Pull-out vs push-in reading intervention
• Managing the class during small-group intervention
• IEP services and minutes: how to write the services page
• Reading intervention progress monitoring schedule
• Tier 2 vs Tier 3 reading intervention
• Grouping students for reading intervention

Sources

1. Assisting Students Struggling with Reading: Response to Intervention (RtI) and Multi-Tier Intervention in the Primary Grades, What Works Clearinghouse, Institute of Education Sciences
2. 34 CFR §300.320: Definition of individualized education program, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School

Written and checked by the IEP Atlas editorial team under our editorial policy. This guide describes general practice and federal rules. It is not legal advice; your state may add requirements, and the IEP team makes the decisions for each student.