Enhancing RTI

Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey, ENHANCING RTI—How to Ensure Success with Effective Classroom Instruction and Intervention

I love this book. I have already read it once, highlighted key components as I read, re-read my anecdotal notes, and I know I must go back through it carefully at least one more time to digest its important message. The goal of an RTI model is to ensure that each and every student has access to learning. Fisher and Frey remind us, “This Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTI²) system is designed to change learner performance as a function of targeted instruction.” 

The term “RTI” is familiar to most educators and the author’s use of a comparison framework supports the reader’s understanding of an updated RTI model that integrates instruction and intervention. The hard question becomes evaluating which RTI scenario system is currently being implemented in your teaching and learning system and what steps are needed to move forward school-wide. 

The Traditional School What is wrong with Adam?

The RTI School How can we help Adam?

The RTI² School How can focusing on Adam        help the system improve?

                                                                            

Equitable student achievement begins with high-quality core instruction focused on high expectations for student learning. Before recommending supplemental and intensive interventions, the RTI² model reminds us to begin with strong core instruction with a gradual release of responsibility to build student confidence and encourage independent learning. The work of Madelyn Hunter, Dr. Anita Archer, and Jo Robinson comes to mind as we think of the quality indicators of core instruction needed in each and every lesson; establishing a purpose (learning targets), teacher modeling, guided instruction, productive group work, and independent learning. Teachers and students each have responsibilities to promote the long term goal of “I do it. You do it. You do it together. You do it alone.”

This Release of Responsibility Model is not new, but needs to be revisited repeatedly to ensure these research based instructional routines are integral to quality teaching.

Sound instruction benefits all students, but what are the next steps when student’s progress begins to slide in an RTI² structure? Moving from how can we help Adam, to how can we help the system improve, requires aligning Tier 2 supplemental instruction with high quality core instruction and increasing the intensity of group size, time, assessments, and expertise. Tier 3 interventions are distinguished from Tier 2 by further intensifying the same above components with more individualized one-to-one instruction. Honestly, this is has become the most difficult task due to the lack of resources needed to implement an effective RTI² model. Difficult, but not impossible, and requires creativity and manipulation of funding and resources.

Important to note are the conditions necessary for interventions to make a difference, and actually are components needed for each Tier no matter the level.

ü  The teacher should play a critical role in assessment and instruction,

ü  The intervention should reflect a comprehensive approach to reading and writing,

ü  The intervention should be engaging,

ü  Interventions should be driven by useful and relevant assessments, and

ü  Interventions should include significant opportunities for authentic reading and writing.

“For RTI² to work, it has to become accepted and institutionalized, not a special program that individual teachers can opt into or out of. It has to be hardwired into the very culture of the school.” Richard DuFour, one of the founders of the Professional Learning Community model, reminds each educator to “Embrace Learning rather than Teaching as the fundamental purpose of your school.” The goal of an RTI² model is to ensure that each and every student has access to learning. Working collaboratively to “vary instruction and time in order to hold achievement constant,” will be challenging but rewarding.

  

Instructional Rounds in Education

Elizabeth A. City, Richard F. Elmore, Lee Teitel, Sarah E. Fiarman, & Andrew Lachman Instructional Rounds in Education—A Network Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning

The authors of Instructional Rounds Education were inspired by the medical rounds model used by physicians to refine their practice and insure the health and safety of their patients. They use highly effective protocols to develop a common understanding of best practices. In a quick summary, Instructional Rounds is School Improvement in action. Small groups of teachers and other instructional leaders develop a shared understanding of what effective and engaging instruction looks like by briefly observing each other and comparing their practices to improve the quality and level of student learning.

The important work comes after the observations. Collaboratively, the discussion revolves around The Instructional Core. This is “the relationship between the teacher, the student, and the content—not the qualities of these by themselves—that determines the nature of instructional practice”. At the center of the instructional core, is the instructional task. What is the actual work that students are asked to do—not what teachers think they are asking students to do—but what are students actually doing.

“Making meaningful and productive changes in instructional practice requires us to confront how they upset and, in some sense, reprogram our past ways of doing things.”

Student learning is the fundamental core of this practice and the model of the instructional core provides seven principles needed to improve the quality and level of student learning. In summary, the basic framework includes:

1. 1.   ­ student learning = improvement of ­ content, ­ teacher knowledge/skill + ­ student engagement
2. 2.   To change one element of the core, you have to change the other two
3. 3.   If you can’t see it in the core, it’s not there
4. 4.   Task predicts performance
5. 5.   Real accountability = the task students are asked to do
6. 6.   We learn to do the work by doing the work
7. 7.   Description before analysis, analysis before prediction, prediction before evaluation

Douglas Reeves, founder of The Leadership and Learning Center supported the use of Instruction Rounds in Education. He stated, “At last, we have a book that moves school and district leaders closer to the classroom……Instructional Rounds in Education will have a profound influence on education leaders who are willing to invest the time to observe, listen, and learn.”

Tackling Informational Text

November 2013, EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP—Tackling Informational Text

I love the holiday breaks. It is a great time to be with family and friends, eat lots of amazing foods and finally put a dent into my ever growing reading pile. The challenge becomes deciding what to read first. I know there is no way I will get to all of it so I try to prioritize the content according to what will enrich and extend my own thinking and learning the most. The November issue of Educational Leadership turned out to be a gold mind of resources on how to enrich teaching and learning with informational text. With the Common Core rollout upon all of us, and its emphasis on the importance of reading more informational text, many articles clarified what will need to change in order to prepare our students for college and/or the workforce. Here are summaries of my favorite articles:

You Want Me to Read What? by Timothy Shanahan. The new standards are rigorous and encourage more reading of informational text. In elementary school, 50% the time should be spent on informational text and increase to 70 percent by middle school.  In order for students to do this successfully, the level and type of instruction needed (eliminate?) will need to change. Informational text is organized differently and is read for different purposes, which makes us vary our reading approaches.  The outcome goal is for students to build their background knowledge in the social and natural world. “What matters is that kids get a varied diet of text.” This requires a balanced diet of reading a variety of more of both literature and informational text.

Unlocking the Secrets of Complex Text, by Mary Ehnrenworth.  This was my personal favorite and one I am using to share with staff in our next meeting. The big ideas I came away with to support implementation of the Common Core State Standard and defining what it means to read are:

“Close reading is an outcome, not a technique.”

“When we teach most text are about more than one thing, we lead them to read more closely.”

“Our job is to teach readers to expect to do this thinking work. The book’s job is to make it rewarding.”

Best practices still apply, “I Do, We Do, Ya’ll Do, You Do.

Reading work required identifies the book’s central ideas. “Chances are that this book, like so many, teaches more than one thing, and some of those things may not be obvious at first. The question readers ask themselves is, what else does this text teach?”

Analyzing the craft of reading requires the reader to ask questions. “Choosing text that make the writer’s craft visible will help students see how informational text works.”

Supporting student learning by explicitly teaching them how to develop critical stances and how to construct arguments.

“After all, the goal of reading non-fiction is to learn, and the best way to do that is to read a lot.”

“Transforming reading practices in a school requires all of us to transform our ideas about what it means to read.”

The Dazzling World of Nonfiction, by Donalyn Miller.  There is more to nonfiction than just dead presidents and whales. How to look for meaningful ways to incorporate nonfiction text into our daily instruction if we want students to read more of it.

Why Content is King, by E.D. Hirsch Jr. & Lisa Hansel.  “Simple or dense, fictional or informational, what matters most for comprehension of a particular text is whether the reader has knowledge relevant to the text.” “There really is no such thing as a general level of comprehension. The single score that a student receives after taking a reading comprehension test masks the fact that the test had a variety of passages on a variety of topics, and the average student read the passages with familiar content well, yet read those with unfamiliar content poorly.”

Starting Out: Practices to Use in K-3, by Nell K. Duke.  “Look for these seen features in primary classrooms that teach beginning reading and writing with an emphasis on informational text.” I am a big fan of writing as a reflection of our thinking while reading and to get this started early in student’s academic careers is very exciting!

What Students Can Do When the Reading Gets Rough, by Sunday Cummins. This article reminded me of the Coding Method, an effective strategy struggling readers can use at they navigate through difficult text to self-monitor their understanding. No matter what strategy you teach your students, it requires a careful teacher think aloud modelng session. This is the step I see most often not included during instruction. It benefits the majority, if not all of our students, and just think of the language it supports.

Finally, Educational Leadership always seems to support an advertisement of another must read for educators. Rigorous Reading 5 Access Points for Comprehending Complex Text by Nancy Frey & Douglas Fischer. “Call it close reading, call it deep reading, call it analytic reading—call it what you like. The point is, it’s a level of understanding that students of any age can achieve with the right kind of instruction.” Oh dear, another book to add to the pile. Can’t wait!

Putting Your Beliefs Into Action

May/June 2013, PRINCIPAL--Principals can close the achievement gap by following this six-step framework. By Christopher Wooleyhand

Whenever I read an article that truly grabs my attention and recharges my thinking I create a summary in a mini poster format to hang in inside of my office cupboards or for my data binder. Every time I open them I am reminded of the key concepts I need to fine tune the skills needed to become the lead instructional learner I am striving to be. In the Principal May/June 2013 issue I found the following article helpful in reminding me of the daily actions required by every principal.

BELIEVE – You can make a difference and connect your actions to your beliefs by having genuine concerns for the progress of all students.

2  DISCUSS – Maintain a regular dialogue that focuses on student achievement.

3  LOOK AT THE RIGHT DATA – DuFour & Marzano identified high-leverage Professional Learning Community strategies that provide structures and collaborative teams to focus on students learning.

4  MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON THE RIGHT DATA – Using the results of formative assessments to make critical decisions and for students to examine their own data and set learning goals.

5  CELEBRATE YOUR COMMUNITIES DIVERSITY – Build home-school partnerships

6  BUILD TEACHER CAPACITY – Leadership that is shared is exponentially more effective when teachers and principals work collaboratively.

Here is the link to the full article for your review. https://www.naesp.org/principal-mayjune-2013-achievement-gap/putting-your-beliefs-action