Students that are labeled as Tier 2 or Tier 3 students need a different kind of instructional support. If you teach secondary these are the students who have been retained and have had very little academic success. You could say that some of them fell through the cracks but were passed on for one reason or another.
Carefully structuring your Google Classroom so that it supports these students, can set your students up for success.
Organizing Your Content in Google Classroom
How you organize your content in Google Classroom can be compared to organizing the furniture in your classroom. There are certain ways you organize the desks because the way that the students move about the classroom is important.
Organizing your math content in Google Classroom requires the same care. You wouldn’t just put the pencil sharpener anywhere in the classroom! When you’re setting up your classroom you place the pencil sharpener, student supplies, and textbook in places where students can easily access them.
This is the same process you take with setting up your Google Classroom. All your topics should be labeled, expectations are clear, and classroom assignments or additional resources are easily accessible.
Math Intervention Resources
Providing math intervention for students remotely using Google Classroom may look different but has the same intent. For example, if your students are struggling with multiplication facts at the elementary level you would give them a multiplication chart.
The supports are the same in the virtual world. Instead of printing out a multiplication chart, you’d upload it to Google Classroom.
The same goes for any other additional instructional support that the students may need. The above picture has clearly labeled topics and resources that students may need. I also included some games that targeted skills that the students were consistently struggling with throughout the school year.
Supporting Struggling Readers
Most of the time Tier 2 and Tier 3 are what I call “double dippers”. This means that they struggle in math as well as reading which can cause a problem with understanding directions for students who are working independently. 
Since we shifted to online learning, I found myself not having a way to really explain the instructions to my students. So I decided to use Loom Videos to explain how to log on to Google Classroom.
Using videos to support math students who struggle with reading is an effective way to ensure that students understand their assignments.
In addition to using video to support struggling readers, you can also create a daily agenda that includes pictures and written instructions.
Using pictures along with the written instructions provides a kind of visual roadmap for students to follow for new assignments. The pictures visually point the students in the right direction in your Google Classroom.
Providing math intervention for your students is difficult but not impossible. Just think about all the support that you provide for your students in the classroom. Then figure out how you can create a digital version of that math intervention support in your Google Classroom.
