STRATEGIC INTERVENTION MATERIALS (S.I.M) FOR A CHANGE
The mission of a teacher is to provide quality education to each pupil and to make sure that no child will be left behind.
Dedicated teachers extend their time after school hours to make instructional devices/ materials for remediation. The common instructional materials used for remediation by the teachers are reading charts, work books, teachermade booklets and activity cards written in the index card.
Nowadays, 21st century teachers used the Strategic Intervention Material (S.I.M) and combined it with technology and creativity and resourcefulness of the teachers. It is one of the instructional materials for remediation or to reteach least mastered competencies suited for 21st century learners.
The S.I.M. helps the learners to develop competencies that they did not master during regular classes. It can be presented using the power point presentation to remediate large number of learners. Some teachers used a regular teacher-made notebooks where in the activities were computerized. However it is better if the S.I.M. is made up of recycled materials.
Sometimes S.I.M. mistakenly defined as a module. They have different purpose and use. Module differs in a way that the S.I.M focuses only on the particular competency intended for remediation while Module contains different competencies in a chapter intended for regular classroom teaching.
The five parts of Strategic Intervention Material (S.I.M) are Guide card, Activity card, Assessment card, Enrichment card and Reference card. Each part of the S.I.M. should be planned and constructed properly.
The teacher should consider the learning style, interests, strengths and weaknesses of each pupil who undergo remediation throughout the S.I.M. If the S.I.M. is computerized make sure that font size was large enough and the font style should be readable. The directions for each activity should be precise and clear. The activities should challenge the learners to perform the task given.
There should be enough activities to lead the learners in mastery of the competency. Always remember the activities should be short, simple as well as fun for the learners not to get bored. The teacher should give variety of activity to cater diverse learning styles. He/ she should also assure the activities were aligned to the tasks/ objectives. The activities should be planned well to distinguish which can be done independently, in pairs or in groups.
After the activity card is the assessment card, the result of the assessment is needed to know if the competencies were achieved and what skills needed to develop further.
Enrichment activity is the additional activity or application of knowledge/ skill for the learner to have learning retention.
The last part of the S.I.M is the reference. It is the list of the resources that the learners should read further to enhance their knowledge and skills.
In case, the learner did not finish all the activities in the S.I.M., the learners can bring it home and so it should be handy enough to fit in the learner’s bag.
The S.I.M. will be effectively serves its purpose to reteach or remediate learners if we will add love into it. The love for our pupils and dedication for work is our inspiration to explore or try other different strategies for them to develop at their fullest potential and for them to become responsible and productive citizen.
In my personal experience as Mathematics teacher, who search for other new instructional materials for remediation, I saw the Strategic Intervention Material (S.I.M). It caught my attention so I read all the information I can get from Google and Facebook. I also ask the Science teachers and even my School Head about the S.I.M.
I tried to create my S.I.M. in Math and the title of S.I.M. is “Creating Word Problems Involving Division and other Operation”. The activities in my S.I.M are made based on how I teach/ remediate my pupils. When I passed my S.I.M in Math, I never expect to win in the Division Math Challenge 2016- S.I.M contest for Math Teachers, all I want is to present my S.I.M and share my techniques and ideas on how to remediate the pupils for the specific least mastered skills and to gain knowledge and learn different techniques from all amazing and talented Math Teacher- S.I.M contestants. Aside from the contestants, I also learned so much from the respected judges who are very knowledgeable and experienced not only in creating S.I.M but in teaching Math and evaluate the quality of the instructional materials and assessment tools. Their comments and recommendations served as my light to understand more about S.I.M.
Luckily, I won the 2nd place in the Division Math Challenge 2016- S.I.M contest for Math Teachers. My experienced to join the contest is beyond the award I received. — oOo— The author is Teacher III at Sta. Lucia Integrated School