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Location: Penn State York Summer Institute Discussion Forum
Discussion: Chapter 8
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Discussion Forum /
Successful Approaches to RTI
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Showing 8 posts
juliebwise |
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kevindreynolds |
1. RE: Chapter 8
Jun 20 2011, 8:37 PM EDT
Chapter 8 focuses on RTI for secondary schools. As one of the speakers mentioned today, many students seem to cruise along just fine until they hit middle school and are faced with longer, more in depth texts for which they may lack the necessary vocabulary and/or comprehension strategies. Much of this chapter reminded me of Reading Apprenticeship which is discussed later in the chapter as a good foundation for RTI. In our school, content teachers who bought in to the RA concept are seeing significant pay-offs in their students' levels of thinking. With RTI, just as with RA, teachers need training and support on an on-going basis to ensure effectiveness and growth. Too often, these initiatives are met administratively with a "good, everyone is trained" mindset and we move on to another great idea rather than seeing the first one through to its best use. The thing that kept jumping out at me is what every speaker noted today -- good teaching is the most important starting point. The techniques mentioned in Chapter 8 are good for all students not just those who are struggling. I was struck by how many of the suggestions for middle schools are already in place in my building. What we need to improve is the use of those structures by focusing our efforts on something like RTI instead of a massive checklist of ideas and initiatives to implement. I am impressed by the school that recognized that they would need to scrap their ideas of how the school day had to be structured and how/when interventions would be offered in order to reach all of their students. That is probably the only way to get common planning time for the various specialists to be able to effectively collaborate with core content teachers.
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tracylzimmer |
2. RE: Chapter 8
Jun 23 2011, 8:10 PM EDT
I wasn't sure what the second chapter I was going to read until today. After hearing Barbara Laster speak today I decided to read Chapter 8. I was a bit reluctant since I am a primary teacher but I am glad I just did. Having a better understanding of what is being suggested and going on at the secondary level has given me a better rounded look at RTI and how it can be implemented at any level with sucess for studentsev. This chapter discusses lots of topics at the secondary level that tie into an RTI framework at the secondary level like student engagement, classroom texts, integrating language and literacy processes, focus on vocabulary, and focus on comprehension. These topics are all part of the core curriculum. The chapter further discusses differentiating instruction within the core content area and the instruction for students who need support beyond the content classroom. I was happy to see the intervention pyramid on page 200 involving all the stakeholders (even parents and administrators). Collaborative efforts are shown again to be a big part of RTI. The chapter even concludes by saying that " Any RTI framework is based on consistent and ongoing collaboration among educators." page 204
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CoreyBittle |
3. RE: Chapter 8
Jun 23 2011, 8:45 PM EDT
As Dr. Laster stated in her presentation, cooperation and collaboration can be viewed differently. Many teachers try to be cooperative of each other when dealing with special ed students/teachers. While collaboration can create a shared teaching moment where the 2 instructors would be attempting to work in different strategies to have the students understand the lesson.
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ElizabethChismar |
4. RE: Chapter 8
Jun 23 2011, 10:49 PM EDT
Chapter 8: RTI for Secondary School LiteracyHigh school students’ progress in reading is limited by their vocabulary development and RTI offers an opportunity to create better learning environments for struggling or striving adolescents (pg 174). RTI at the secondary level is likely to involve a systemic approach that addresses literacy across the curriculum with research-based literacy practices taught by all teachers and specialists (pg 175). This lends itself to what each keynote speaker emphasized throughout the week that success depends on the effectiveness of the core instruction and the interventions. This chapter provides information for accomplishing this with many of the examples currently implemented by my high school (although we are not technically practicing RTI). We are providing core instruction to state standards along with the integration of Reading Apprenticeship strategies. There is the utilization of engagement, texts, vocabulary development, writing strategies, comprehension and more. Co-teaching is a means of utilizing special education teachers as specialists allowing differentiation for all students in the classes. Our reading specialists ensure that we know the lexile score for each student in the building plus offer a reading program. Time for collaboration is scheduled on a consistent basis. Continued professional development is imperative for the staff to further improve the success of our students. Do you find this valuable? |
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CoreyBittle |
5. RE: Chapter 8
Jun 24 2011, 8:47 AM EDT
I found the 4 interacting dimensions in the classroom to be the most effective points of this chapter. As a subject area teacher (social studies) the concept of RTI has been pushed onto us for the last 2 years. At first, I was apprehensive of doing some of the reading strategies in class with whole group instruction and how some of the "better readers" would react to this. However, I found it to be beneficial and these students were intrigued and involved while doing such things as "talk to the text". This provided students the opportunity to hear/see how others would interpret what it is they would read. My belief has always been we need to teach our students "how to learn", not necessarily how to remember the Civil War was in 1861-1865. These dimensions focused on teaching these learning skills.This chapter discussed a few things that can be used in the classroom to make learning more of a life long skill: interactive classroom, semantic maps, read alouds, scaffolding to name a few. Each of these, and other strategies, have the goal of improving comprehension, the ability to construct meaning of what is read. Students all have different learning styles and we need to instruct in different ways to make sure we reach all of these students. Frequent questioning and connection making are the keys to understanding. One of the presenters used the strategy of "drawing" to check for understanding...if you can draw it, you know what it means. If I were to draw a picture of RTI strategies I would have the teacher doing a lot of checking for understanding and reteaching if there wasn't understanding. Engagement is an important learning issue at any age. The more students are engaged with the learning and understanding process, the more the instruction will be personalized and able to be retaught to others. Do you find this valuable? |
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JoleneKingston |
6. RE: Chapter 8
Jun 24 2011, 9:17 AM EDT
I was pleased to discover some realistic applications of the approach at the secondary level. In many instances, programs that were originally designed for primary instruction do not easily translate to the high school population. I believe one of the features of RTI that allows for this transference is the core belief that the program is not “standardized” and is expected to be adapted to the individual needs/culture/makeup of the school (pp 12-13, 174.)High School teachers have long been criticized for their stark adherence to “content area” to the exclusion of any other competencies. The read alouds would be complimentary to discussion of vocabulary in any subject area, and could be an excellent way for the teacher to help the students navigate the technical language of the classroom text. Similarly, the QAR discussion would benefit students with discernment of various levels of questions—a concept that often baffles my learning support students. I have seen teachers of the higher level science and social studies classes struggle with presenting the material to students who are reading well below grade level. The text provides suggestions for scaffolding vocabulary and other assignments in a way that could make them more meaningful for those struggling readers (pp183-184, 185-186.) This clearly is going to give us more “bang for our buck” in the long run! The chapter continues with a myriad of additional ideas which, for the sake of efficiency, I will reference them only in general terms. I believe there are a diversity of suggestions that could be easily implemented by high school teachers without a great deal of change to their classroom routine. This makes the program palatable to the secondary folks and increases the likelihood that they would attempt to put some ideas to use. Do you find this valuable? |
JulieBeard |
7. RE: Chapter 8
Jun 29 2011, 11:05 PM EDT
This will be my 2nd year team teaching with the LS teacher in September. I was especially interested in the collaboration section (p. 194) of chapter 8. It was stated during a presentation that once students get to grade (ie) 6, they are already labelled, and little hope may be given to any improvement because of the situation. My hope is to genuinely collaborate and share goals for struggling students, especially in reading and writing. As the classroom teacher, I feel it is my responsibility to establish a plan for students' success - and the strategies from this week will be especially helpful. Page 189 lists 6 factors to use in engagement and assessment. By having these formally posted in my guided reading binder, I will hold myself and the students accountable for the small group instruction time which is so valuable. Finally, having a common spoken language between the LS teacher and myself will benefit the students as well. When referring to the domains of writing or comprehension strategies in reading or even literary elements, students should hear the same language across the board. This chapter was very helpful in guiding me to a plan for a better, richer, classroom learning environment for the upcoming year.
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