The Simple Question That Transforms Intervention Planning
If you’ve ever sat down to plan an intervention session and thought:
“Where do I even start?”
You’re not alone.
Most Reading Specialists I work with aren’t short on dedication, training, or resources—they’re overwhelmed by too much information and not enough structure.
And when planning starts to feel chaotic—scattered goals, unclear groupings, disjointed data—the impact is real:
- Time wasted planning
- Unclear student progress
- And that creeping sense of “I’m missing something…”
🎯 The Fix? One Strategic Question
After years of supporting complex learners, I’ve found that effective planning doesn’t start with a lesson template. It starts with a question:
👉 What’s the ONE skill this student needs to become more automatic right now?
That single question brings instant clarity.
It shifts planning from:
❌ “How can I cover everything?”
to
✅ “How can I move one thing forward?”
That’s what makes your intervention purposeful, not panicked.
💡 Why This Works (and What We Forget)
When a learner struggles, it’s natural to want to do everything: decoding, fluency, morphology, comprehension, executive function—and all before recess.
And yes—real reading requires integration.
But effective teaching requires precision first.
We start by isolating the tricky skill—the one holding things up.
Then, we layer it back into integrated practice once it starts to stick.
Think of it like band practice:
(Without the awkward middle schooler braces, frizzy hair & too short bangs- wait, was that just me?)
- 🎶 The flutes* are struggling with a difficult section. When the full band plays, they can’t keep up.
- 🎶 So we pull them out, give them time to slow down and master the part…
- 🎶 Then we bring them back to rehearse it with the full ensemble.
That’s what our lessons need to do.
Isolate. Strengthen. Reintegrate.
If we only isolate, the learning doesn’t transfer.
If we only integrate, the gaps never close.
(* obvs. I picked the flutes, because us clarinets were always perfect.)
🧩 What This Looks Like in Practice
This is a key structure inside the Reading Specialist Mastery Blueprint, where we anchor every plan around a three-part lesson format:
This three-part structure is inspired by approaches like Reading Simplified’s Streamlined Pathway—but, we’ve adapted it specifically for planning clarity, confidence, and data-informed intervention.
- Review – Quick warm-up using previously taught skills, both isolated and integrated.
- New Work – The focused breakout. This is where we drill into one skill the student needs to automate.
- Fluency – Re-integration. This could be oral reading, connected writing, or a task that lets the student apply skills in a supported, authentic way.
This framework keeps things grounded. Focused. Sustainable.
No guesswork. No burnout.
🔁 Start With the Question
So next time you feel lost in a sea of needs, stop and ask:
✨ “What’s the ONE skill they need to become more automatic right now?”
That’s your anchor.
That’s your intervention.
And from there?
Everything gets clearer.