Energizing Teachers About Your School’s RTI Team Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org

1. Energizing Teachers About Your School’s RTI TeamJim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org

2. Teachers may be reluctant to refer students to your RTI Team because they… • believe referring to the RTI Team is a sign of failure • do not think that your team has any ideas that they haven’t already tried • believe that an RTI referral will mean a lot more work for them (vs. referring directly to Special Education) • don’t want to ‘waste time’ on kids with poor motivation or behavior problems when ‘more deserving’ learners go unnoticed and unrewarded • don’t want to put effort into learning a new initiative that may just fade away in a couple of years

3. Teachers may be motivated to refer students to your RTI Team because they… • can engage in collegial conversations about better ways to help struggling learners • learn instructional and behavior-management strategies that they can use with similar students in the future • increase their teaching time • are able to access more intervention resources and supports in the building than if they work alone • feel less isolated when dealing with challenging kids • have help in documenting their intervention efforts

4. “Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.” --Margaret Mead

5. RTI Team Strategies to Win Over Reluctant Teachers(from Cialdini, 1984)

6. Reciprocation When people are given a gift or have a service performed for them, they feel obligated to pay it back.

7. Reciprocation: Team Tips • Stuff teacher mailboxes with intervention tips • Sponsor teacher workshops with handouts & refreshments • Accommodate a teacher’s schedule to hold RTI Team meetings • Offer to collect ‘baseline’ information on a student—share results with teacher • Compile list of RTI Team members’ services– invite teacher to select 1 or 2

8. Consistency People strive, often unconsciously, to maintain consistency between their opinions or attitudes and their actions.

9. Consistency: Team Tips • Invite a reluctant teacher to an RTI Team meeting to ‘support’ a colleague • Sign up teachers as ‘consultant members’ of the RTI Team • Ask a teacher to keep RTI Team referral forms or other RTI Team resources in classroom to share with colleagues • Set up contest for ‘best intervention ideas’ • Showcase ideas from reluctant teachers

10. Social Proof People are influenced to take an action when they see that others like them are also doing it.

11. Social Proof: Team Tips • Encourage teachers to give RTI Team testimonials at faculty meetings • Make sure that all grade levelsare represented on the RTI Team • Share successful RTI Team intervention ideas with other members of a referring teacher’s team • Bring in RTI Team speakers from another school who resemble underrepresented groups • Share general RTI Team statistics with staff

12. Liking People are motivated to carry out the requests of those whom they like or with whom they feel ‘connected’.

13. Liking: Team Tips • Ask satisfied teachers to invite afriend to refer to the RTI Team • Assign RTI Team members to invitefriends, acquaintances to an RTI Team meeting • Encourage referring teachers to bring friends, teaching partners to an RTI Team meeting • Praise teachers at an RTI Team meeting for positive teaching, management qualities • Seek out popular, respected staff to serve on the RTI Team

14. Authority People respect and follow those with authority (organizational, experiential, professional).

15. Authority: Team Tips • Have principal encourage newteachers to refer to the RTI Team • Invite building- or district-level administrators to make positive comments about the RTI Team to faculty • Have teachers with experiential, professional authority to give positive testimonials about the RTI Team • Send ‘Thank You’ cards signed by principal • Ask outside presenters to ‘plug’ the RTI Team

16. Scarcity When items, resources or opportunities are in short supply, people value them more (especially when competing for them).

17. Scarcity: Team Tips • Establish a cut-off date foraccepting RTI Team referrals • Limit the number of RTI Team referralsthat your team will accept in a year • Publicize the limited slots available at key referral times (e.g., end of marking period) • Give away limited-edition packets of intervention resources at RTI Team meetings • Sign up ‘consultant member’ to the RTI Team but limit the number of meetings that he or she attends

18. References • Cialdini, R.B. (1984). Influence: How and why people agree to things. New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc.