RtI is coming...are we ready?

Response to Intervention is coming...ready or not !

I finally finished a text that "the sisters" highly recommended regarding RtI.
Mary Howard does a great job explaining the purpose of RtI and how it could be implemented.  She emphasizes the most important part of RtI...the classroom teacher and the quality of our instruction, our professional judgment and above all the individual child. Teachers must be proactive NOT reactive.  To successfully implement RtI you must know your subject matter and your children through carefully planned observations and assessments.  Howard emphasizes that as educators we must be efficient by teaching a strong, explicit, well-balanced core literacy program with a high concentration of daily reading and writing by the students.  Reading must also be integrated in every subject. Literacy instruction happens all day, every day!   ARE YOU HEARING THIS?????  This is exactly what we've been working on for the last two  years.
Our Balanced Literacy Non-Negotiable document which now includes the Daily Five and the CAFE menu, our assessments we are developing through the Iowa Core Standards, and our emphasis on daily reading and writing place us right where we need to be.  The sisters said over and over....don't add more but do your day more efficiently.  Limit the use of:  worksheets, literature craft activities, lecturing, rote activities that take away from real reading and writing.
 
 "We are at a crossroads.  We can either use response to intervention as an opportunity to rebuild a positive climate or allow it to devolve into something that takes us even farther from the reason most of us became teachers."

Howard uses a traffic light-red, yellow and green.  With every aspect of RtI she uses the stoplight to point out to educators....stop-beware, proceed with caution, or  move forward.  Her entire book is a guide for teachers to help us make good decisions for ourselves, our students and our schools.  The purpose and goals of RtI is a wonderful concept but when teachers only understand small pieces of it... RtI will be done ineffectively, it will be a burden in costs to districts and the intended successful results for children will not happen.

I am so proud of what we have done, where we seem to be going.  We have a group of young teachers that are passionate, highly professional and ready for this work.  I believe with our veteran teachers setting the example of hard work, POSITIVE attitudes, sharing excellent teaching experience and a team work philosophy our district will see great things for our students.  This is the main reason I am thrilled that my own daughter can be a part of this great staff and curriculum work.

With this being said...I definitely want to caution us.  Will we see student success rise and more readers becoming proficient?  I dislike using Iowa Assessments as our only indicator of success.  We must come up with a district wide system to make sure we are producing students that can read and write at their grade level with confidence and with fewer and fewer students "ending up" in special education or falling through the cracks of being at-risk.  With our large ELL population and our free & reduced lunch program numbers we have an additional urgency to find something that works!

Over the next few weeks...I will be summarizing the chapters from this book.   I hope it will provide insight and offer a better of understanding of RtI.  REMEMBER ....RtI is for the classroom teacher.   RtI is coming this fall K-6.  Mary Howard states over and over....this is a wonderful piece of legislation designed to truly help kids.  I will emphasize the chapters in bold.

Chapter 1 The Paths Leading to the RTI Crossroads
Chapter 2 RTI: A Framework for Responsive Differentiated Teaching
Chapter 3 Tier I Intervention: High-Qualilty Instruction fo All
Chapter 4 Tier 2 Interventions: Establishing a Coordinated continuum of Support
Chapter 5 Tier 3 Intervention: Intensifying the Instructional Support
Chapter 6 Broadening the Role of Assessment in an RTI mOdel
Chapter 7 Maximizing the Success Factors: Making RTI Work Schoolwide

I loved this quote from Mrs. Howard:
      "You- and you alone-are the ringmaster who will make a difference for readers who struggle.  What you do matters when you make every day matter for your students.  You add the talented human touch we are dangerously close to losing."

Happy Summer Reading- Mrs. Speake

PS  I just finished Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth.  Great reads especially if you enjoyed The Hunger Games.  Now on to Ender's Game before the movie comes out! :)