What Actually Works During Intervention

Why I Created F.O.C.U.S.

Recently, the New Jersey Department of Education announced the availability of $3.95 million in literacy funding through FOCUS and BRIDGE grants https://www.nj.gov/education/grants/opportunities/ .

Both are designed to help districts strengthen how they use data and improve instruction. 

As I read through the announcement, I had one of those moments where I thought: this is exactly the work we’ve been trying to do in classrooms.

Over the past several years, my work in schools has been shaped through my role as an NJTSS Federal grant coach in partnership with the NJDOE and Rutgers University, as well as my work with NJPSA. Through those experiences — and now through Elevate Educators — I’ve spent a great deal of time in classrooms coaching teachers and paraprofessionals and modeling WINN lessons in ELA.

I didn’t set out to create a framework or a tool. I was simply trying to help make intervention time feel more manageable — and more effective for students.

I’ve been working alongside teachers and school leaders to make intervention time more focused, more manageable, and more effective — and that work led to something I now call F.O.C.U.S.

But something kept happening.

No matter the school, the grade level, or the team I was working with, I found myself coming back to the same instructional moves. I would sit beside teachers, look at student work, and say some version of the same thing: let’s start with what the data is telling us right now. Let’s narrow this down to one skill so students actually have a chance to learn it. Let’s model it clearly — not just what to do, but how to think through it. And let’s keep it simple enough that it feels doable in a real classroom.

Over time, I realized this wasn’t just coaching language. It was a pattern. And when teachers leaned into that pattern, something shifted. Lessons felt calmer. Students were more willing to try. And the learning actually stuck.

A big part of that shift comes from how we model thinking. During intervention, we’re not assigning work — we’re teaching. That often means making our thinking visible. Using a think-aloud allows us to say, “Here’s what I’m noticing… here’s why I’m doing this…” so students aren’t left guessing. They are shown how to approach the work, not just what to produce. If you want to see what that looks like more clearly, this is a helpful explanation of think-aloud strategies:👉 https://www.readingrockets.org/classroom/classroom-strategies/think-alouds

I’ve also realized I’ve been using the phrase gradual release of responsibility since I graduated from grad school. I’ll own it — I’m a little nerdy, and I still love the way it sounds. I use it so much it’s followed me home. When I’m cooking with my sons, I’ll say, “I’ll scaffold this part… now you try… okay, I’m releasing responsibility.” They roll their eyes, but the principle holds.

That same rhythm — scaffold, support, then release — is what I see every time intervention actually works. It’s often described as “I do, we do, you do,” where responsibility for learning gradually shifts from teacher to student. If you want a simple, clear explanation of that model, this is a helpful overview:👉 https://thinkport.org/grr/

At some point, I realized I was naming the same pattern so often that it needed a shorthand — not to turn it into a program, but to make it easier for teachers to hold onto in the middle of a busy day. That’s where F.O.C.U.S. came from.

F.O.C.U.S. isn’t something to implement. It’s simply a way to anchor instruction in what actually works. It starts with finding the need using fresh, current data. It asks us to focus on one skill, maybe two, so we don’t dilute the learning. It reminds us to model clearly and explicitly so students can see how to approach the work. It keeps us grounded in instruction that feels simple, secure, and successful, because that’s what builds confidence. And it reinforces the importance of scaffolding and gradually releasing responsibility so students can move toward independence.

I created the F.O.C.U.S. bookmark as a reflection of this work — not as something extra, but as something useful. A quick check before teaching. A small reminder that clarity matters more than complexity.

Because that’s really what I’ve learned across all of these classrooms.

Intervention doesn’t improve when we add more. It improves when we get clearer about what we’re teaching and why.

In my next post, I’m going to explore something educators ask all the time: how do you know when a student should stay in a skill group, when they need something more intensive, and when they’re ready to be released? I’ll walk through how I think about those decisions and share a practical tool that can help.

For now, this is what I keep coming back to:

Clear targets.Simple instruction.Purposeful teaching.

That’s when intervention works.

And if this is the work your team is trying to strengthen, it’s worth knowing that support is available right now through NJDOE FOCUS and BRIDGE funding. If you’d like to talk through what that could look like in your setting, I’m always happy to start the conversation.