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.

Grouping your learners

We know that not all children learn the same.  It isn’t fair to teach them all the same and have everyone complete the same assignment.  Some students need more time to do less challenging work and other students fly through every assignment you give them.  

In my classroom I assign each student to a colored group and each color has different projects and assignments they are working on in class.  Students can move up and down groups based on previous assignments.

Here is an example of how I grouped learners to do a science project:

GREEN GROUP

Make a picture of each ecosystem.  Show what types of organisms live there.  List the properties (details) of that ecosystem.

BROWN GROUP

Make a cluster web of each ecosystem.  List five details about that ecosystem.

WHITE GROUP

Draw a picture of each ecosystem and write a short sentence about that ecosystem. 

The white group was very low the year I did this.  As you can see, they would really struggle doing what the brown group was doing.  My brown group could probably do what my green group was doing, but this would take them a very long time and many would get frustrated. 

Make sure your assignments are leveled so students don’t end up frustrated or bored.  You want everyone to be working at a comfortable level for them.

Some ask about other students complaining about having more work or the white group having it “easy”.  I talk to my students about being different and being created in God’s image (Catholic school).  Not everyone learns the same so it isn’t fair for everyone to have the same assignment.  If students ever make fun of my white group, there are serious consequences.  I do not tolerate teasing directed at anyone and I make that VERY clear early on. 

My life is very interesting

My students love to learn things about me.  When working on new topics in class, I like to write things up for the students to read and apply their new skill to.  The best way to do this is with English.  I might type up a passage about me and make mistakes that they need to correct, or I have them find all the verbs, or fill in adjectives where I put blanks. 

Here is an example of a passage I typed when working with finding nouns:

            Yesterday was my friend Robyn’s birthday.  She is the same age as I am.  I met Robyn when I was in high school.  I was a sophomore and she was a freshman.  We were in a computer class together and I was impressed by how quickly she could type.  On my birthday that year, she brought a cake to school for me and that weekend I slept over at her house.  Ever since then, we have been the best of friends!

In this passage my students were to read it first, then take out their highlighters and highlight all the nouns they found.  It was fun for them because they learned about me and they got to use highlighters, which doesn’t happen too often.

When typing things for my students, I make sure I use Comic Sans MS font.  This is the closest font to actual print.  When typing passages for them I double spacing and make the writing fill up the entire page (especially if they are to highlight, circle, or underline something-they need that space).

Don’t be afraid to tell your students a little bit about yourself.  You don’t need to tell them EVERY detail, but it’s nice for them to see that you are a person too.

When am I going to use this?

My students don’t ask this question often, but I’m sure they are thinking it!  I know as a student I often wondered when I’d use half the stuff I was learning. 

When you are lesson planning, make sure that you are thinking of examples of real life situations that you have had where you used this information.

 For example, you use measuring often, especially as a homeowner and parent.  How long does the baby gate have to extend to fit in this space?  How high up should I mount this shelf so it’s halfway between the ceiling and back of the couch?  Will a new dishwasher fit here?  Can this chair fit through my door?  How long do my window treatments need to be?

Why do you need to sign your name in cursive? 

Stratus clouds are in the sky today so I probably don’t want to go to the zoo tomorrow.

These of course are just a few examples. 

I always try to make sure I mention something about how I’ve used the skill in the past.  If possible, I bring materials in to have them “help” me.  I might bring in pictures and dimensions of baby gates and have them pick one that will fit where I need it and meet my budge requirements.  Maybe I bring in a check and show them where I need to sign to get my money. 

If you need help figuring out how a lesson applies to real life, do not hesitate to post a comment and I can help you.

Applied Learning

Whenever I teach a lesson, I always have in mind how I am going to assess my students during and at the end.  One way I like to do this is by asking questions that really make the students stop and think. 

When learning about the Bill of Rights, I made a worksheet that gave situations people may face and asked if it’s in their rights as citizens to do it.  If it is a right, they had to say what right it is.  Here are some examples:

Greg is at a movie theatre.  He wants a seat up front, but all the seats are taken.  He decides to shout “fire” which causes everyone to go running out.  There really wasn’t a fire.  Does he have the right to do this?

Tiffany is an active member of a local animal rescue shelter.   She gathers with other members to host a car washing fundraiser on the shelter’s property.  Does she have the right to do this?

Hopefully you can see how the students need to use higher level thinking to answer these questions.  First they need to think if it’s okay or not.  If it is, they then need to figure out why and what right they have that allows this action. 

I have a Blooms Taxonomy flipbook that I use often to help me decide on higher level questions.  It is very easy as a teacher to always use the lower level thinking.  Challenge your students!

This is a great site that I often print and pass out to help my parents ask higher level questions when reading together at home.  It uses Goldilocks as an example.

http://stewardess.inhatc.ac.kr/philoint/stewardess/data/philoint/culture/bloom's-taxonomy-reading-questions.htm

Objectives

It's important when planning that you know what your objective is.  An objective is similiar to a goal.  By the end of your lesson, what do you want your students to be able to do?  During the lesson, what are the students doing?

Having a clearly stated objective helps students focus their learning.  In my classroom the objective is stated and written.  Every morning all of my objectives for the day are written on my side board.  I make sure I draw the students attention to it before every lesson.

Being able to write a good objective takes practice.  Many times I find myself writing what assignment the students are going to do...  Here's an example of a "bad" objective

Objective: Be able to understand animal adaptations.

How do you know if they understand it?  What will they do to show you they understand it?

Here is the same objective written in a "good" way

Objective: Draw a picture of an animal and include any adaptations it would need to survive in its environment.  Write a one paragraph essay describing these adaptations and why they are needed.

The most important thing to remember is to use verbs and make sure your objective is observable.