RTI for Math & Writing: Grades K-8 Jim Wright interventioncentral

1. RTI for Math & Writing: Grades K-8Jim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org

2. Workshop PPTs and handout available at: http://www.interventioncentral.org/gisd

3. RTI: Key ConceptsFocus of Inquiry: What are central concepts of RTI that are helpful in understanding how to expand the model to include math and writing?

4. RTI Assumption: Struggling Students Are ‘Typical’ Until Proven Otherwise… RTI logic assumes that: • A student who begins to struggle in general education is typical, and that • It is general education’s responsibility to find the instructional strategies that will unlock the student’s learning potential Only when the student shows through well-documented interventions that he or she has ‘failed to respond to intervention’ does RTI begin to investigate the possibility that the student may have a learning disability or other special education condition.

5. Tier 3: Intensive interventions. Students who are ‘non-responders’ to Tiers 1 & 2 are referred to the RTI Team for more intensive interventions. Tier 3 Tier 2 Individualized interventions. Subset of students receive interventions targeting specific needs. Tier 2 Tier 1: Universal interventions. Available to all students in a classroom or school. Can consist of whole-group or individual strategies or supports. Tier 1 RTI ‘Pyramid of Interventions’

6. Avg Classroom Academic Performance Level Discrepancy 1: Skill Gap (Current Performance Level) Discrepancy 2: Gap in Rate of Learning (‘Slope of Improvement’) Target Student ‘Dual-Discrepancy’: RTI Model of Learning Disability(Fuchs 2003)

7. Evaluating a Student’s ‘Non-Responder’ Status: An RTI Checklist pp. 2-7

8. RTI ‘Non-Responder’ Checklist: Purpose The document Evaluating a Student’s ‘Non Responder’ Status: An RTI Checklist was created to help schools to: • audit the quality of their current RTI efforts in any academic area. • create concrete guidelines for judging whether RTI intervention efforts for a particular student are of adequate quality.

10. Evaluating a Student’s ‘Non-Responder’ Status: An RTI Checklist Interventions: Evidence-Based & Implemented With Integrity • Tier 1: High-Quality Core Instruction • Tier 1: Classroom Intervention • Tier 2 & 3 Interventions: Minimum Number & Length • Tier 2 & 3 Interventions: Essential Elements • Tier 1, 2, & 3 Interventions: Intervention Integrity

16. Evaluating a Student’s ‘Non-Responder’ Status: An RTI Checklist Academic Screenings: General Outcome Measures and Skill-Based Measures • Selection of Academic Screening Measures • Local Norms Collected via Gradewide Academic Screenings at Least 3 Times Per Year

19. Evaluating a Student’s ‘Non-Responder’ Status: Activity • At your table: Discuss how your school or district may use the document Evaluating a Student’s ‘Non-Responder’ Status: An RTI Checklist to: • help you to identify the ‘non-negotiable’ elements of RTI as you extend it to cover math and writing. • Be prepared to share the main points of your discussion with the large group.

20. Core Instruction & Tier 1 InterventionFocus of Inquiry: What are the indicators of high-quality core instruction and classroom (Tier 1) intervention for math?

21. “ ” “Tier I of an RTI model involves quality core instruction in general education and benchmark assessments to screen students and monitor progress in learning.” p. 9 “ ” “It is no accident that high-quality intervention is listed first [in the RTI model], because success in tiers 2 and 3 is quite predicated on an effective tier 1. “ p. 65 Source: Burns, M. K., & Gibbons, K. A. (2008). Implementing response-to-intervention in elementary and secondary schools. Routledge: New York.

22. Common Core State Standards Initiative http://www.corestandards.org/View the set of Common Core Standards for reading and mathematics being adopted by states across America.

23. Commercial Instructional and Intervention Programs. Provide materials for teaching the curriculum. Schools often piece together materials from multiple programs to help students to master the curriculum. It should be noted that specific programs can change, while the underlying curriculum remains unchanged. Common Core Standards, Curriculum, and Programs: How Do They Interrelate? School Curriculum. Outlines a uniform sequence shared across instructors for attaining the Common Core Standards’ instructional goals. Scope-and-sequence charts bring greater detail to the general curriculum. Curriculum mapping ensures uniformity of practice across classrooms, eliminates instructional gaps and redundancy across grade levels. Common Core Standards. Provide external instructional goals that guide the development and mapping of the school’s curriculum. However, the sequence in which the standards are taught is up to the district and school.

24. An RTI Challenge: Limited Research to Support Evidence-Based Math Interventions “… in contrast to reading, core math programs that are supported by research, or that have been constructed according to clear research-based principles, are not easy to identify. Not only have exemplary core programs not been identified, but also there are no tools available that we know of that will help schools analyze core math programs to determine their alignment with clear research-based principles.” p. 459 Source: Clarke, B., Baker, S., & Chard, D. (2008). Best practices in mathematics assessment and intervention with elementary students. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V (pp. 453-463).

25. What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide: Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Response to Intervention (RtI) for Elementary and Middle Schools http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/This publication provides 8 recommendations for effective core instruction in mathematics for K-8.

26. Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: RtI for Elementary & Middle Schools: 8 Recommendations • Recommendation 1. Screen all students to identify those at risk for potential mathematics difficulties and provide interventions to students identified as at risk • Recommendation 2. Instructional materials for students receiving interventions should focus intensely on in-depth treatment of whole numbers in kindergarten through grade 5 and on rational numbers in grades 4 through 8.

27. Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: RtI for Elementary & Middle Schools: 8 Recommendations (Cont.) • Recommendation 3. Instruction during the intervention should be explicit and systematic. This includes providing models of proficient problem solving, verbalization of thought processes, guided practice, corrective feedback, and frequent cumulative review • Recommendation 4. Interventions should include instruction on solving word problems that is based on common underlying structures.

28. Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: RtI for Elementary & Middle Schools: 8 Recommendations (Cont.) • Recommendation 5. Intervention materials should include opportunities for students to work with visual representations of mathematical ideas and interventionists should be proficient in the use of visual representations of mathematical ideas • Recommendation 6. Interventions at all grade levels should devote about 10 minutes in each session to building fluent retrieval of basic arithmetic facts

29. Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: RtI for Elementary & Middle Schools: 8 Recommendations (Cont.) • Recommendation 7. Monitor the progress of students receiving supplemental instruction and other students who are at risk • Recommendation 8. Include motivational strategies in tier 2 and tier 3 interventions.

30. How Do We Reach Low-Performing Math Students?: Instructional Recommendations Important elements of math instruction for low-performing students: • “Providing teachers and students with data on student performance” • “Using peers as tutors or instructional guides” • “Providing clear, specific feedback to parents on their children’s mathematics success” • “Using principles of explicit instruction in teaching math concepts and procedures.” p. 51 Source:Baker, S., Gersten, R., & Lee, D. (2002).A synthesis of empirical research on teaching mathematics to low-achieving students. The Elementary School Journal, 103(1), 51-73..

31. Activity: How Do We Reach Low-Performing Students? p.23 • Review the handout on p. 23 of your packet and consider each of the elements found to benefit low-performing math students. • For each element, brainstorm ways that you could promote this idea in your math classroom.

32. RTI at Tier 1: The Teacher as ‘First Responder’Focus of Inquiry: What does Tier 1 intervention look like for the general-education classroom teacher who is supporting struggling students?

33. Tier 3: Intensive interventions. Students who are ‘non-responders’ to Tiers 1 & 2 are referred to the RTI Team for more intensive interventions. Tier 3 Tier 2 Individualized interventions. Subset of students receive interventions targeting specific needs. Tier 2 Tier 1: Universal interventions. Available to all students in a classroom or school. Can consist of whole-group or individual strategies or supports. Tier 1 RTI ‘Pyramid of Interventions’

34. Tier 1 Core Instruction Tier I core instruction: • Is universal—available to all students. • Can be delivered within classrooms or throughout the school. • Is an ongoing process of developing strong classroom instructional practices to reach the largest number of struggling learners. All children have access to Tier 1 instruction/interventions. Teachers have the capability to use those strategies without requiring outside assistance. Tier 1 instruction encompasses: • The school’s core curriculum. • All published or teacher-made materials used to deliver that curriculum. • Teacher use of ‘whole-group’ teaching & management strategies. Tier I instruction addresses this question: Are strong classroom instructional strategies sufficient to help the student to achieve academic success?

35. Tier I (Classroom) Intervention Tier 1 intervention: • Targets ‘red flag’ students who are not successful with core instruction alone. • Uses ‘evidence-based’ strategies to address student academic or behavioral concerns. • Must be feasible to implement given the resources available in the classroom. Tier I intervention addresses the question: Does the student make adequate progress when the instructor uses specific academic or behavioral strategies matched to the presenting concern?

36. The Key Role of Classroom Teachers as ‘Interventionists’ in RTI: 6 Steps • The teacher defines the student academic or behavioral problem clearly. • The teacher decides on the best explanation for why the problem is occurring. • The teacher selects ‘research-based’ interventions. • The teacher documents the student’s Tier 1 intervention plan. • The teacher monitors the student’s response (progress) to the intervention plan. • The teacher knows what the next steps are when a student fails to make adequate progress with Tier 1 interventions alone.

37. Available on conference webpage

38. RTI Interventions: What If There is No Commercial Intervention Package or Program Available? “Although commercially prepared programs and … manuals and materials are inviting, they are not necessary. … A recent review of research suggests that interventions are research based and likely to be successful, if they are correctly targeted and provide explicit instruction in the skill, an appropriate level of challenge, sufficient opportunities to respond to and practice the skill, and immediate feedback on performance…Thus, these [elements] could be used as criteria with which to judge potential …interventions.” p. 88 Source: Burns, M. K., & Gibbons, K. A. (2008). Implementing response-to-intervention in elementary and secondary schools. Routledge: New York.

39. Motivation Deficit 1: The student is unmotivated because he or she cannot do the assigned work. • Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem:The student lacks essential skills required to do the task. Handout pp.12-13

40. Motivation Deficit 1: Cannot Do the Work • Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem (Cont.):Areas of deficit might include: • Basic academic skills. Basic skills have straightforward criteria for correct performance (e.g., the student defines vocabulary words or decodes text or computes ‘math facts’) and comprise the building-blocks of more complex academic tasks (Rupley, Blair, & Nichols, 2009). • Cognitive strategies. Students employ specific cognitive strategies as “guiding procedures” to complete more complex academic tasks such as reading comprehension or writing (Rosenshine, 1995). • Academic-enabling skills. Skills that are ‘academic enablers’ (DiPerna, 2006) are not tied to specific academic knowledge but rather aid student learning across a wide range of settings and tasks (e.g., organizing work materials, time management).

41. Motivation Deficit 1: Cannot Do the Work (Cont.) • What the Research Says: When a student lacks the capability to complete an academic task because of limited or missing basic skills, cognitive strategies, or academic-enabling skills, that student is still in the acquisition stage of learning (Haring et al., 1978). That student cannot be expected to be motivated or to be successful as a learner unless he or she is first explicitly taught these weak or absent essential skills (Daly, Witt, Martens & Dool, 1997).

42. Motivation Deficit 1: Cannot Do the Work (Cont.) • How to Verify the Presence of This Motivation Problem: The teacher collects information (e.g., through observations of the student engaging in academic tasks; interviews with the student; examination of work products, quizzes, or tests) demonstrating that the student lacks basic skills, cognitive strategies, or academic-enabling skills essential to the academic task.

43. Motivation Deficit 1: Cannot Do the Work (Cont.) • How to Fix This Motivation Problem: Students who are not motivated because they lack essential skills need to be taught those skills. Direct-Instruction Format.Students learning new material, concepts, or skills benefit from a ‘direct instruction’ approach. (Burns, VanDerHeyden & Boice, 2008; Rosenshine, 1995; Rupley, Blair, & Nichols, 2009).

45. Motivation Deficit 1: Cannot Do the Work (Cont.) • How to Fix This Motivation Problem: When following a direct-instruction format, the teacher: • ensures that the lesson content is appropriately matched to students’ abilities. • opens the lesson with a brief review of concepts or material that were previously presented. • states the goals of the current day’s lesson. • breaks new material into small, manageable increments, or steps.

46. Motivation Deficit 1: Cannot Do the Work (Cont.) • How to Fix This Motivation Problem: When following a direct-instruction format, the teacher: • throughout the lesson, provides adequate explanations and detailed instructions for all concepts and materials being taught. NOTE: Verbal explanations can include ‘talk-alouds’ (e.g., the teacher describes and explains each step of a cognitive strategy) and ‘think-alouds’ (e.g., the teacher applies a cognitive strategy to a particular problem or task and verbalizes the steps in applying the strategy). • regularly checks for student understanding by posing frequent questions and eliciting group responses.

47. Motivation Deficit 1: Cannot Do the Work (Cont.) • How to Fix This Motivation Problem: When following a direct-instruction format, the teacher: • verifies that students are experiencing sufficient success in the lesson content to shape their learning in the desired direction and to maintain student motivation and engagement. • provides timely and regular performance feedback and corrections throughout the lesson as needed to guide student learning.

48. Motivation Deficit 1: Cannot Do the Work (Cont.) • How to Fix This Motivation Problem: When following a direct-instruction format, the teacher: • allows students the chance to engage in practice activities distributed throughout the lesson (e.g., through teacher demonstration; then group practice with teacher supervision and feedback; then independent, individual student practice). • ensures that students have adequate support (e.g., clear and explicit instructions; teacher monitoring) to be successful during independent seatwork practice activities.

50. Activity: ‘Good Instruction is Research-Based’ • Review the elements of effective ‘direct instruction’ that appear on page 13 of your handout. • Discuss how you can share this checklist with others in your school to help them to realize that teacher-delivered instruction that follows these guidelines is ‘research-based’ and supports RTI, e.g.: • Whole-group: Tier 1 Core Instruction • Small-group: Tier 1 Intervention; Tier 2/3 Intervention • Individual student: Tier 3 Intervention