Chapter 2 A Framework for Responsive Differentiated Teaching

Please note as I summarize the chapters, I quote much of Mary Howard’s text.  The italicized print are my own personal opinions concerning RtI and where we are in our journey of strengthening our literacy programs.  The sole purpose of the summaries are to benefit our literacy teachers as we begin the RtI journey this coming school year.

The most common framework for RtI is the three tiered approach.  The tier approach can offer a safety net for struggling teachers since ongoing assessment and referral to higher tiers may reveal where large percentages of students are not making growth. 

 I have thought a lot about this statement.  This is where I believe RtI truly becomes a system to strengthen our own teaching.  This is where the power of our PLCs must come into play!  We have to let our guard down, being honest with data collecting, and be willing to ask for help if needed.  All teachers have strategies and ideas that we know work well.  We have to start sharing this with each other.  

Tier 1 Universal or General Education (the core classroom) 

Flexible groupings and differentiation must be happening for all students in this tier.  

Tier 2 Targeted or Supplemental

Small groups of 5 meeting every day along with literacy instruction from tier 1

Tier 3 Strategies or Intensive

Individualized or groups of 3, suggesting at least 2 sessions daily for student

Howard clearly states that schools must remain flexible concerning students falling into the tiers.  Entering and exiting the tiers can vary for each student.  

Mary Howard uses a great acronym LEARN to help teachers develop seamless integration of instruction within and between tiers.

Link: the support provided at each tier is interrelated with other tiers

Engage:  Emphasize activities that make students active participants in their learning.

Motivation, authentic reading & writing activities (text at their level)

Accelerate: Intensify learning experiences at all tiers for accelerated progress

Reinforce:  Emphasize reinforcement and practice within and across every tier.  For example a child is working on visualization with the classroom teacher and with his reading group teacher. 

Negotiate:  Adjust the tiers to fit your school and staff.  What works for one school may not work for another.  Use your knowledge to develop your best plan that maximizes staff, time and seeing student success.  

Howard states there are three usual options to provide interventions: in-class, push-in and pull-out. 

 In-class interventions are usually the sole responsibility of the classroom teacher.  The other two models usually bring in additional support staff.  This is where schools tend to argue and then unnecessary time is wasted over who is “right”.  Howard believes either system can work depending on staff communication and collaboration and/or needs of the specific students needing the intervention.

Caution:  minimize the number of adults working with an individual child.  Too often children become confused because they receive conflicting instruction. 

Push-In Advantages	Pull-Out Advantages
Increases instructional continuity	Involves fewer distractions
Unobtrusive	Provides another perspective
Doesn't require moving to another location	Easier to schedule beyond classroom reading instruction
Ensures time is spent on instruction rather than travel	Provides the special attention of a support teacher
Provides a model for instruction	May increase student engagement
Encourages shared planning	Makes it easier to emphasize supplemental materials
Can be coordinated with the general curriculum
Push-In Disadvantages	Pull-Out Disadvantages
Requires buy-in by everyone involved	Requires additional space
Takes place in a crowded classroom	Requires travel time...lost instructional time
Is susceptible to distractions	Creates scheduling difficulties
May supplant tier 1 instruction	Makes collaboration challenging
Could view expert teachers as glorified aides	Creates the stigma of leaving the classroom
Emphasize grade-level material	Does not encourage shared ideas

Howard points out essential principles throughout the book.

Time is a Precious Commodity

What are your “nonnegotiables” or things you hold highest in importance?  Write them down and stick to them.  We have these but now how do we hold all teachers accountable?  PLCs, monthly literacy walk-throughs by admin?  

One Size Fits Few

We must agree that each child’s needs can’t be met in the same way.  Quality curriculum resources and materials are very effective in the hands of knowledgeable professionals who use them flexibly and they can serve as a safety net for less experienced teachers as they develop a deeper understanding of literacy.  Materials do not always meet the needs of struggling readers or advanced readers.  Differentiation, dynamic and varied grouping, and alternative resources are critical to the success of RtI and ultimately to the success of students.  The teacher is the key effective element not the manuals.  I love our Making Meaning with Vocabulary curriculum, Being a Writer & the Daily 5 management.   It gives us a great base for teaching important strategies and it helps create a safe and caring environment for all students.  I especially see the power when first year teachers can walk in and have a strong base to provide high quality learning opportunities in their classrooms.

Intensity is the Great Equalizer

Although the goal of school-wide assessment is not to label or segregate students, but to support instructional design and planning that allow us to accommodate individual needs.  Teachers must know who needs additional help or support.  We must not label kids instantly and allow them to fall into the "wait-to-fail" pit.

The Power of “Double Dipping”

The goal is to offer more-more time, more support and more opportunity.  Student at higher tiers continue to receive all tier 1 instruction.  Open professional communication between tiers is essential as ongoing dialogue reframes “yours vs. mine” as ours.  The question becomes: What can we do to ensure the success of our students?

This can be tough.  As a classroom teacher, the students were mine and I definitely know how very hard it is to change this thinking.  Recently, the needs of our struggling learners seem to be more severe and we have a large population of at-risk students.  I find this to be quite overwhelming even as an experienced teacher.  Luckily, I had a wonderful co-teaching experience and know first hand the power of two and the power of sharing OUR students.  We were able to co-teach reading, writing and my co-teacher provided additional math support.  I wish we could allow this to happen in every classroom.  Two teachers serving all students in all capacities.  

Transfer is the Glue

In all we do at every tier we must focus on the gradual release of responsibility (Pearson and Gallagher 1983).  Teacher modeling, shared and guided practice and independent application.  Unless this essential transfer is the end goal of teaching, our efforts will be wasted.  This is part of our nonnegotiable.  Do we really do each gradual release stage well?  I believe we are getting there.  

Data Collection 

Effective assessment occurs in daily contexts and supports future instructional decisions.  Formative assessments are continuous, ongoing and more process oriented.  As schools begin to use universal screenings they cannot lose sight of assessment strategies such as checklists, rubrics, anecdotal records, listening to readers, running records, 1-1 conferences, retelling, portfolios and literature responses.

I am excited to see the power of our Iowa Core work & the CAFE strategies as we implement these into our literacy curriculum.

The next articles will outline each tier. 

Happy Reading- Mrs. Speake

RTI from All Sides, Chapter 1

Chapter 1 The Paths Leading to the RTI Crossroads

 I realized as I was outlining key points...I got a little carried away and decided to post each chapter separately.  I will try to post articles more frequently!  But as I read chapters 1 & 2 ... it definitely eases my mind in regards to how we are going to implement RtI.  We have done all the necessary ground work in regards to best practices in literacy instruction.  We've realized the need for a strong literacy program in every classroom and we've realized the need for our classroom teachers to be the literacy experts and a one-size fits all curriculum is not acceptable for our kids.   Chapters 1 & 2 confirms that our hard work over the last two years was vital...we have set the stage for the detailed work to come this fall as we begin to provide support for the tier 2 & 3 students.

In this first chapter Howard summarizes the beginnings of RTI and why teachers must be fully aware of what it is and how it may truly benefit the students.  Unfortunately, it is yet another mandated program which teachers must know well and due to time constraints and pressure to raise test scores, schools are buying and beginning programs that claim to be RTI but in reality are far from it.     I can confidently say H-D has done the opposite.  We threw away the one-size-fits-all program and began from scratch defining what balanced literacy is and how to best address each area! Its been a struggle learning and changing so many things at once but we definitely know what we believe about literacy and the research behind this belief.  Well....we are getting there, right?! Its been hours of hard work and we all have different comfort levels but we are being proactive and learning and progressing.  Teaching is forever evolving and we should be constantly adding to our toolbox of strategies.

In 1995 Richard Allington and Sean Walmsley published the research findings No Quick Fix: Rethinking Literacy Programs in America's Elementary Schools.  The book cautioned against fragmentation of support services and advocated proven support models for struggling readers and the concept of a tiered approach to teaching and intervention.  It emphasized the need for an instructional framework, intervention, ongoing assessment and multi-method and multilevel instruction. Many educators believe their research was the the launching pad for RTI which officially was termed in 2007.  Isn't this interesting-Allington has know for years what should be happening in classrooms!  He constantly reminds us that the teacher is the most effective element -we must know what we are teaching and how best to do it!  I am not surprised that he continues to state, "RtI might be our last hope for struggling readers".  As we know our population has changed and we have many struggling readers and this is not going to change.

As teachers we may not know why RTI began or who truly coined the term, but we must know its framework and how it can strengthen our day-to-day teaching.  The goal of RTI is to strengthen student's literacy experiences every year in every setting with every teacher. The core literacy program must be strong and meet the needs of most students.  With this in place RtI will reduce the number of students "ending up" in special education drastically.   This is exactly what South Side has tried to stop...no more luck of the draw for who your child's teacher will be.  Everyone in our building is well equipped to teach literacy.

RTI legislation is to reduce the number of students who are referred for special education services and making literacy a schoolwide responsibility-every teacher is accountable for effective instruction for every child.  We are trying to get there- my kids, your kids or do we say OUR kids and do we really mean OUR kids??  Hopefully our PLCs will help us with this belief system.

Howard explicitly states that an effective RTI literacy framework should meet the following criteria:
(I was pleased to see we are exactly where we should be in regards to our framework or you could say our Tier 1)

• RTI should  maintain a healthy balance between explicit skill instruction, guided practice, and independent application  (this aligns with our belief in the Gradual Release Model)
• RTI cast differentiation as integral  (this is our belief in flexible groupings, targeting student needs-its not about fairness any longer, 1-1 conferring, Daily 5/CAFE/Making Meaning...all of this is exactly what we need for our literacy blocks!)
• RTI embeds learning in a wide range of authentic literacy experiences (our belief in modeling read-alouds, guided reading, IDR and peer collaboration-worksheets are not the norm, modeling daily writing)
• RTI emphasizes quality talk through daily sustained discussions (our belief in think alouds and that our students must be doing the hard thinking and discussing-our Making Meaning curriculum design)
• RTI emphasizes the thinking process behind successful comprehension (our belief in explicitly teaching skills but never emphasizing only one area... phonics, fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, writing and using the important comprehension skills in math, science, social studies)
• RTI is rooted in an environment that reinforces and extends learning (our belief in our procedures, routines, print rich classrooms, just right text for the kids, high student engagement, classroom design)
• RTI give students a prominent role in their own learning  (our belief in formative assessment, student self assessments,rubrics, setting goals with the students and parents-we are getting better at this!  I am anxious to use the CAFE terminology for everyone, Daily 5 choice work would also fall into this area)
• RTI supports the reality that motivation and learning are inseparable (our belief in self-selected just right reading, daily authentic writing activities, teachers and students regularly tracking success and celebrating together! We need to do more student goal setting, publishing parties, reading parties..we must celebrate with parents too!)
• RTI emphasizes resources at appropriate levels of challenge  (teachers ensure that every student has books that they can read and want to read and these books are interesting-we need more books to truly do this in every classroom!!)

We have our literacy RTI framework in place!  Next summary Chapter 2.  Howard points out a basic cycle of how a differentiated teaching system can work in the classroom and how this relates to the 3 tier model.  She addresses the differences in "push in" and "pull out" programs.  It is not about where the intervention happens, what matters is the what is happening and is it meaningful reading and writing for the student?

Happy Reading! Mrs. Speake

P.S. So I read Ender's Game....not my favorite but definitely powerful.  I can definitely see how it appeals to the minds of our youth and their gaming world.  My son and I had a long discussion regarding the book- it was huge for him in his middle school years. That was probably at least 10 years ago and he could discuss every aspect of it today!  Of course he went on to read the entire series and I probably won't for now.  But once again it confirms just how powerful a book may be for someone.

Now I am reading ...The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon.  I am half-way through and I love it!  It is all told from an autistic boy's point of view.  It is funny, heartwarming, sad, mysterious and so very different.

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! :)