What is RtI?

RtI means Response to Intervention.

From the website http://www.rti4success.org/whatisrti

"Rigorous implementation of RTI includes a combination of high quality, culturally and linguistically responsive instruction; assessment; and evidence-based intervention. Comprehensive RTI implementation will contribute to more meaningful identification of learning and behavioral problems, improve instructional quality, provide all students with the best opportunities to succeed in school, and assist with the identification of learning disabilities and other disabilities."

RtI is responding to your students needs before their needs become a problem.  It's a multi-level PREVENTION system. 

My school has been working with RtI for the past year.  It's an ongoing process as we learn about and implement it.  We've had a couple workshops on RtI and meet often within our levels to discuss how our tracking is going.

By tracking I mean our notes.  Each day we jot down things that happened today regarding student behavior/performance.  It's an ongoing record and helps us see issues with students or ongoing problems with behavior (not turning in homework, being off task, always late, etc).  It helps when setting up meetings with our response team and with parents (I have the EXACT dates written down).

These notes are for you.  So when taking them you do not need to be detailed.  Jot down the student's name, date, and what is going on.  For example:

10-10-11
John: did not meet his goal of 80% multiplication problems (factor 8) answered correctly in 3 min.

Now that I know that, what am I going to do?  Pull him aside and drill him, give him extra worksheets that focus on 8 as a factor, have a tutor meet with him to do flashcards, teach him a song for his 8s, etc.  I'm going to jot down the date, each time I meet with him, what we did, and how it went

10-12-11

John: met for 10 minutes and worked on flashcards with 8 as a factor.  He correctly answered 0-5, 10, and 11 within seconds, but had to count on his fingers for 6-9 and 12.

10-15-11

John: met for 5 minutes to take a timed test with 8 as a factor.  He met his goal of 80% in 3 minutes.

Now that his goal is met, it does not mean I stop there.  I want to make sure I am still meeting with him to work on his 8s until I am sure he is secure with them.


It's important that you review your notebook often (I do it when lesson planning) and write in your lesson plan book when you are doing RtI and who you are meeting with (and what you are working on).

Under each day in my lesson plan book I write RtI and the names of people who need to sit with me (and I know who to meet with because I looked in my notebook)

It might look like this

Amy: 10 min. of short vowel sounds-complete vowel sort

Josh: 10 min. of state review: given a map, color in the states I name

Karen: 10 min. of long division introduction

Notice RtI isn't just for struggling kids.  I'm meeting with Karen to push her ahead in math so she isn't bored with our lessons (which will cause problems in the long run-you never want bored students).

In my notebook I am going to write their names, what we did, and how it went

11-14-11

Josh: Find states on a map-correctly identified Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan.  Thought Ohio was Indiana. 
As I learn more about RtI I will post about it.  For now, that is how we work with it.  Hopefully for now I've explained it well enough.