RTI Tips (aka...Pyramid of Intervention, IDM, etc.)

A great resource that several of you already receive is Pat Quinn's RTI News weekly email. Pat Quinn is a classroom teacher who works with educators across the country to help them better understand and use strategic and planned interventions to meet the needs of students academic skills and behavior.  He also sends out a weekly email that I recommend everyone sign up for today!  My suggestion is that when it comes each week, if you have time, read it.  If you don't have time, file it away or even delete it...but I would bet just skimming it would help you pick up some SIMPLE and useful ideas for your classroom, PLC team and building. 

Several district staff members attended Pat Quinn's RTI (Response to Intervention) workshop in Des Moines on March 26.  During this time, Pat touched on responding to behavior and academic needs of students.  The Iowa Core team will help support this team's work in working toward a district-wide behavior support system.

Here is today's tip:

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http://thertisite.learningtodayonline.com/Newsletter.htm

Greetings from "The RTI Guy"!

Last week's dip into the mailbag barely scratched the surface...so let's head back to the question bank...

Gina from California writes:

"Everyone at my school hates RTI...it is a four-letter word around here because we talk about students for years in our problem-solving teams! Help!"

Well, Gina...if you are talking about your students in your problem-solving teams "for years", you are not really solving a lot of problems are you?

Contrary to what many people seem to think, RTI was not designed to delay the special education referral process. It actually can speed up the process if designed and implemented correctly.

It should not take a year to determine whether or not full class instruction is working with a particular student. It should take about six weeks, if you are monitoring progress correctly and graphing the data. (For a free copy of my special report on Progress Monitoring just send an email to theRTIguy@gmail.com and request the special report.)

Once you choose a small group Tier 2 intervention it should only take about six weeks to determine if that is working or not. If it is working...great! If not...you need to move on. Don't keep a student in an intervention that is not working.

Even if you need to do yet another small group intervention (Tier 3 in some states) that will only take another six weeks. At the most, we need 18 weeks to get through this process...that is one half of the school year. Keep it moving...you are not helping students with the stalling!

Frustrated that your school is moving slowly? The solution is usually to have a better graph. Data that shows an intervention is NOT working will really help the team move to the next step.

Greg in Washington writes:

"Hi, I am looking for some information on RTI in physical education. Any suggestions?"

Well, although I am not familiar with any "programs" for RTI in physical education, the same concepts apply to your subject as to any other subject area.

Start by teaching to the full class.

Monitor the progress of students.

Those who do not grow under full class instruction need additional instruction.

So, you can easily see how this would look in a skill like serving in volleyball. Begin by teaching the full class how to serve a volleyball. Measure each day on a simple rubric how students are doing. After a week of this most students will get it.

For Tier Two, allow those who "get it" to move on to playing games, while you work with those who did not grow in full class instruction.

In the end, most of RTI can be boiled down to three steps: Try something, measure to see if it worked, and if it did not try something more.

Hope this helps!

Finally, Laura from North Star Elementary answers a question that many people have...How do you find time for Tier Two interventions?

Laura writes to me:

I enjoy your emails and wanted to share what I am doing with my first grade students to ensure their progress.


One way that I find time for Tier 2 interventions is to have the whole class working independently for a 20 minute block, during which they are usually doing an open-ended writing activity that includes an opportunity to illustrate. Once they get going, I pull a few students for interventions and/or progress monitoring. Since these are typically the students who don't have strong independent study skills yet anyway, they aren't missing out on key experiences. In fact, they are working toward specific learning targets during time that might commonly be less productive for them. Since I vary who I work with, students receiving Tier 2 interventions still have some opportunities to practice independent study skills, too.


I also use stations daily (literacy/integrated content area stations in the am and math/integrated content area stations in the pm), so I have at least 2 hours available to work with small groups or individuals during a typical school day. Interventions right now are in the areas of reading, math, writing, and oral language development.

Thanks so much for sharing Laura, and remember...If you have a question or a suggestion - send it to me! You can simply reply to this email!

You do not want to miss next week's newsletter...we are going to discuss Universal Screening - a topic of much confusion and a place where many schools stumble. PLUS, I have the details about a NEW Universal Screener for Middle Schools and High Schools that is GREAT! Don't miss it!

Thanks!
Pat Quinn
"The RTI Guy"
http://www.totalrti.com/