As a literacy intervention teacher, Jeanine Moesch works with third, fourth and fifth grade students at Adams Elementary School who need extra help in reading. Moesch, now in her ninth year of teaching, says it is a foundational skill. Q: What are your goals for your third-, fourth- and fifth-graders?

I help students who are struggling, those who are below grade level in reading. It could be a reading fluency issue or decoding or word work issues. I assess them and find out which areas they need to work on. My goal is to get them up to the grade level course of study. Q: What is a typical day for you?

I work with small groups every 30 minutes, or nine groups throughout the day, with lunch and a planning period. I'm in a mobile unit and have access to all the materials a regular classroom teacher does.

Q: End-of-grade (EOG) testing is a big part of the upper elementary grades. How much does this affect your teaching?

Of course I keep in mind that the state of North Carolina ranks schools based on EOG scores, but most importantly I want my students to be successful. Tests are always in the back of my mind but are definitely not the focus. I want my students to learn skills they can put to use in everyday life.

Q: It must be very satisfying for you to see a student grasp a concept he struggled with. Is your student base constantly shifting, or do you work with the same students all year long?

Typically, I work with students for a full year unless they show major growth. I'm constantly collaborating with the teacher to make decisions about whether intervention is working or is no longer necessary. Sometimes, we try quitting the intervention and assess the result. We may decide to continue intervention or that it is no longer needed.

I work with grades three, four and five, and there is another teacher who works with grades K, one and two. It is not possible for two teachers to work with all the students who need help. We assess and take the neediest students, but there are always kids on our waiting list.

Q: What are some advantages to not being a classroom teacher and being with the same students all day, every day?

The biggest advantage is having smaller groups of students - I really get to know them. They are in a small group and feel comfortable talking and sharing. We work with other students who are like them, who need a little extra work. I think they appreciate having a person in this big building who is here just to help them.

Q: How big a role do parents play in the intervention framework?

We always have an open house for the literacy program where parents can meet us and see the classroom and materials. My students take home fluency passages, and their parents help them with those. We also send home LeapPads [electronic readers], and students go through the books with their parents. This year, we did a Bilingual Story Night where parents can see what students are working on. We do conferences and communicate by e-mail, too. We have great, supportive families here at Adams.

Q: Do you think we know everything we need to know about learning disabilities?

Learning disabilities are so multi-faceted, we can't possibly know everything there is to know about them. I'm always trying to find a new way to teach a concept to a student who isn't getting it.

Q: Describe a success you have seen while working with intervention students.

Which one should I choose? A third grade child who started with me in the beginning of the year, who had also had intervention in second grade, had problems decoding words. She could not grasp the [silent] "e" at the end of a word and how it changed the sound of a word. I call it the "sneaky e." At one point, I had her stand up and hold a sign with an "e" on it - she was the "e." The other students held other letters - "l," "i" and "n." I had her pretend to go and pinch the "i," then sneak back to the end of the line and be the "sneaky e." Automatically, a light came on. She started looking at the words differently and has never had a problem with it again. The smallest little things can make a difference.

Q: What do you wish you could tell people about intervention?

When people hear the word intervention, they think there is something wrong with the child. That's not it. The child is struggling and just needs a little extra help. These kids are special. They have to work so much harder than their classmates and be so responsible for their success. It is a great bunch of kids.

Help at the elementary level really affects a student's success later on. I ran into a former student of mine over the weekend. She is now in middle school, and she said she was now taking honors English and wanted to thank us for helping her. Extra work now really pays off in the future.