What is Math Intervention?
Math intervention is targeted instruction for students
struggling with mathematics. Too often students have diffi culty
understanding math concepts, and the instruction they receive
perpetuates or masks the problems rather than addressing
them. Students are left to fl ail and founder in a confusing sea of
procedures and rules. The problems become more profound as
the student moves into each new grade. As math educators we
can no longer let this happen. We must make math meaningful
for students and provide targeted instruction that focuses on
the precise academic needs of students. It is essential that we
concentrate on repairing students’ misconceptions and learning
gaps in ways that build their math capacity.
In mathematics there are four interconnected goals:
accuracy, effi ciency, fl exibility, and fl uency. Our fi rst priority
is to help students with their math accuracy, which means we
help them learn how to obtain the correct answer. Next, we
address effi ciency by helping students learn how to obtain the
right answer as quickly as possible as is appropriate for the
concept. After correctness and speed, we help students improve
fl exibility so that they understand how to apply their learning
to new situations and in different ways. Flexibility means
adaptability. We want students to be able to revise and
adjust their thinking in ways that maintain and increase
accuracy and effi ciency. Finally, we must support students
as they build their fl uency with mathematics. Fluency
Introduction