Ryan Estrellado

Given that schools are in the business of supporting the academic and social development of its children, my discussions with parents, education professionals, and graduate students inevitably lead to the topic of effective school interventions. A resource that comes up frequently is Jim Wright’s Intervention Central.

The website houses a wide variety of interventions and tools geared towards parents and teachers. The breadth of content is as thorough as it is easy to follow . The Intervention Ideas section is divided into several specific areas, including Reading, Writing, Classroom Management, and Behavior. It also presents a number of different intervention approaches ranging from individual student work to whole-school systems.

I found a model for playground rules, entitled Creating Safe Playgrounds: A Whole School Approach, particularly promising. The write-up gives a step by step procedure for designing and monitoring recess rules to encourage safe play and good social skills. Like a well-designed technical manual, the write-up even includes a troubleshooting section:

The playground intervention is not very effective. If your school discovers that the intervention is not working, be sure that:

• Students fully understand what positive behaviors are expected of them on the playground and what negative behaviors are not permitted.
• Monitors are consistent and fair when enforcing the behavioral expectations on the playground.
• Students receive regular praise and good-behavior tickets for appropriate behavior.
• Teachers follow through in their classrooms in giving students earned rewards for good playground behavior.

The write-up references two professional journals as sources for the development of the intervention.