How Do You RTI??
Don't you love educational acronyms? Well, here is another one...RTI, which stands for Response to Intervention. Over the summer I went to a presentation about RTI put on by Fort Zumwalt. Mike Mattos was the speaker. I had never heard of Mike Mattos, but I was familiar with the RTI intervention program, which he was to speak about. Now when I say familiar, I should probably use the adverb vaguely along with it, and then should add that I had quite a few misconceptions about how RTI works, and what it is all really about. This is what I learned...
First of all, schools are here to prepare children to be adults...successful adults. That's where the mission statement for RTI comes in: To ensure high levels of learning for all students. In RTI, high levels refers to grade-level or better. I love the simplicity of that statement. After reading the actual Common Core Standards, and trying to really dissect them and figure out what the heck they are actually wanting us to teach, this statement is refreshing. Now...how do we go about doing it?
Here is where that inverted pyramid comes in. I think everyone loves infographics. At Tier 1 all students need access to essential grade-level standards. This is your core instruction...specifically reading, writing, and math. Teachers will identify essential standards for their grade-level, share these learning targets with students, give common assessments for every essential standard, and thereby be able to identify which students need Tier 2 interventions because they aren't mastering the standard yet. Not only must teachers agree on what is essential, but also how students will demonstrate this learning...AKA common assessments. Grade-levels must be collaborative in order for RTI to work!
A key takeaway for me during the first part of the presentation was that students shouldn't be pulled during core instruction time when those essential grade-level standards are being taught. Finally...someone said out loud what all teachers are thinking! This means students shouldn't be pulled for speech, ELL, Title 1 reading, etc. when new essential skill are being taught. This is the common problem I always have as a teacher because those kids that need more help with core instructional standards are being pulled from my room to get more help, but while they are pulled they are missing my core instruction...therefore becoming more behind. It is a vicious cycle. So when should they get pulled for those extra services? They are still important. Well something has to give, and I like how Mattos said that kids will do fine in middle school not knowing about the pilgrims, but they won't be fine if they don't know how to read. Exactly! Sorry science and social studies, you are not an essential skill in 2nd grade.
Now the other piece of this that I really liked was how Mattos talked about what the essential grade-level standards might be. He called them got-to-knows (teachers determine). The other standards are nice-to-knows. All students need access to these got-to-knows, and while kids receiving other services or interventions are out of the room, the teacher can be teaching the nice-to-knows. This allows for kids times to get extra help, without missing core instruction. According to Mattos, "Essential standards do not represent all that you are going to teach. They represent the minimum a student must learn to reach high levels of learning." Doesn't that just make sense? As a parent, this is what I would want for my kid! And yes...as a teacher...I know...easier said than done.
Ok...what if there are students who aren't quite understanding an essential skill? These kids go into a Tier 2 group. Tier 2 should be flexible groups (not ability grouping or tracking). In other words, kids move in and out of Tier 2. It's fluid. In Tier 2, students are getting additional support to master the grade level essentials. Who is providing this extra support? The grade level teachers! Whatever the targeted skill is, the best teacher of that skill should be teaching those targeted students. We all as teachers have areas in which we are really good at teaching. We need to take advantage of our teacher strengths to help all the kids at our grade level be successful because I know that I am not an expert at everything, but collectively as a grade level, we have amazing expertise. According to the RTI model, grade level teachers should carve out 30 minutes a day, 2-5 times per week to provide Tier 2 interventions to targeted students. During this time, no essential standards (got-to-knows) are being taught.
My thought, at least for 2nd grade, is to have Tier 2 time during our science/social studies time slot. The amount of days per week I think would depend upon the need, and may vary. Maybe one teacher (the one who as a grade-level we know has more expertise on a specific essential skill) work with the Tier 2 group. Then this teacher's class would be divided up among the other 2nd grade teachers' classes to have science or social studies (nice-to-knows).
Further, at the Tier 2 level, targeted students are broken down into 2 groups for intervention: "Will" Interventions and "Skill" Interventions. The "Will" group includes students who have the skills to do the work, but are refusing to do it for one reason or another. These students should be pulled during Tier 2 time by someone other than a classroom teacher because they just need someone to keep telling them to work, which doesn't take a specific skill set requiring a certified educator. This other person could be any other faculty or support staff person available...secretary, clerk, para, nurse, counselor, librarian, etc. Use the talents of your staff! The "Will Intervention" group is organized by the school leadership team, not necessarily the classroom teachers.
Tier 3 is meant for the students who are missing essential skills learned from previous grades. In Tier 3, those students are receiving interventions from someone in the building with greater expertise in the area needed, like the reading specialist, who has an advanced degree in teaching kids to read. Many of these kids in Tier 3 may also be receiving Tier 2 interventions as well. But again, these kids shouldn't be pulled out during Tier 1 core instructional time of essential skills (got-to-knows). This is where the school leadership team may need to get creative. It may involve kids missing some recess time or specials time. As a parent, I would be willing to sacrifice a portion of my child's recess, music, or P.E. time so he or she would have the greatest chance of catching up to his or her peers in reading, math, or writing.
All of this starts with teacher collaboration. There is no room for pride or having hurt feelings, being cynical, or gloating! With RTI every student in the grade level is "your" student, and you are part of the team to make every student learn at high levels. My 2nd grade team of teachers are very collaborative and work well together, so I feel very lucky in this regard.
But ok, so after teacher teams decide what standards are essential, and how to measure student learning with common formative assessments, they must analyze the results. They must decide if their instructional strategies are effective, and then have a discussion and ask questions. Which students did or didn't master the specific essential standard tested? Which instructional practices did or did not work? Here is where if one teacher's students showed a lot better scores than the other teachers' classes, she would be the prime candidate to teach that skill to the Tier 2 group. And of course...the other teachers are asking her...How did you teach this?
