Unlocking Student Potential through Micro-interactions

by Gabriel Ortiz

As an educator in a Title I charter school in Florida, I have learned that knowledge of instruction in literacy development is the most critical component of student success. This idea was reinforced for me while listening to episode 9 of To the Classroom featuring Rachael Gabriel, an author, editor, and researcher in literacy education. They spoke about how research has shown that a teacher’s ability to make appropriate micro-decisions based on students' needs, and act at a micro-level with relevant micro-interactions, make a major impact on student achievement.

So what might this look like in practice? Here are four steps that I found to be effective.

Step #1: Assess and identify goals.

To help a 6th grade student improve her reading skills, I first assessed her comprehension by asking her to retell a chapter from Yolanda’s Genius by Carol Fenner.

This was her response:

Yolanda was talking about owning a barbeque and growing flowers. Her mom was at the table, and she wanted to move but Yolanda didn’t want to.  She told her mom how she is a big fish in these waters. Her mother said that she’s right. Yolanda didn’t want to move.

Using the Reading Goals: Hierarchy of Action (Serravallo, 2023) as a guide, I knew she didn’t need support with Accuracy or Fluency: she’d read the word correctly, automatically, at a good pace, and with good expression.

I moved on to Plot & Setting and assessed the quality of her retelling. Considering the complexity of the text, her retelling felt simple. I identified what she was doing well and determined next steps for improvement.

(c) 2023 Serravallo The Reading Strategies Book 2.0

Step #2: Determine Next Steps Using a Skill Progression

Consider her response and think about your expectation for retelling in 6th grade. What is she doing well? What might be an important next step? Try to answer this question before reading on.

It is challenging to pinpoint exactly what she might need, but skill progressions can help educators make that decision. Consider this excerpt from the Plot & Setting progression of skills (Serravallo, 2023):

1. Retells in sequence, but may include too few or too many details, is ready to identify a character’s main problem or motivation in the story and determine the most important plot events connected to it.

2. Is able to identify one problem and is ready to consider multiple aspects (internal, external) of a story’s problem/conflicts and track how they are solved/resolved by the story’s end.

3. Retells sequential narratives and is ready to learn to retell to summarize stories with more complex plots (jumps in time, foreshadowing, flashbacks etc.) or infer to create theme or idea-based retellings.

Now, re-read my student’s response again, considering the progression. What is she doing well? What might be an important next step?

Much easier, right? The progression allowed me to identify a strength and then make a micro-decision for what’s next.

I complimented this student on how she was beginning to retell in sequence. I celebrated that she was ready to start identifying character motivations, or key moments of conflict, that would allow her to  strengthen her retelling and determine which events were the most important to include.

Step #3: Teach Strategies to Practice the Skill

I know that students learn best when they aren’t just told what to do but also shown how to do it. So, I had to make another micro-decision - what strategy would be the best fit to teach her how to practice this skill?

I flipped through the strategies aligned to the “Retells in sequence…” condition on the skill progression in The Reading Strategies Book 2.0, and I chose a first strategy to teach:

<FIG: insert strategy page>

Without the book, I could have thought, “How would I identify a motivation or conflict?” and explained the strategy using step-by-step language.

Step #4: Guide Practice and Offer Feedback

After I quickly modeled the steps of the strategy, I asked her to try it. Using prompts, I offered feedback when she was on the right track, (e.g., “you’ve determined what the character wants. That’s important. Keep going) and redirected her as needed (e.g., “try connecting the ending to what the character wants”). I then sent her back to her desk to continue practicing. It took 7 minutes total. It was a little longer than I’d like - but this micro-interaction (with feedback) was critical coaching to help her practice this new strategy.

Next week, I will check in to see how she’s using the strategy, and either give her more practice, or choose another strategy for the same skill. I might also include her in a group with other students whom I identified could use the same support. I will introduce a second strategy and give them individualized coaching during a small group strategy lesson (Serravallo, 2018). It will save time.

 This micro-work is a process, and I didn’t learn it overnight. But from research cited by Rachael Gabriel, Jennifer Serravallo, and through my own experience as reading teacher, I know my ability to be responsive is critical. As Gabriel says, “Responsiveness is the name of the game. It has always been the name of the game. It will always be the name of the game.”