FOR-PD Literacy Blog

We’d love to hear your thoughts on some of the RtI basic principles. Select 3 of the following core RtI principles to discuss:

• Frequent and ongoing assessment of all students.
• Early identification of learning and behavioral needs.
• Data-driven, shared-decision making on intensity and type of interventions.
• Continuous progress monitoring of a student’s response to these interventions.
• Increased levels of intensity of intervention.

With regard to RtI, what types of collaboration are taking place at your school between general classroom teachers and speech language pathologists, exceptional education teachers, psychologists, and other relevant personnel and parents in planning programs to meet the needs of learners?

The IRA Commission on Response to Intervention (RTI) is interested in learning members’ experiences with RTI. Several national surveys have been conducted that reveal the experiences of special education personnel at state and district levels. Certainly the perspectives of special education personnel are important.

However, they may not reflect the fact that an RTI approach calls for general education to address the learning needs of at least 80% of students nor the evidence that difficulty with literacy is the reason for 50 to 80 percent of learning disability classifications.

To ensure that the perspectives of classroom teachers and literacy professionals are represented in the national conversation about RTI, we would like to hear from IRA’s membership about their experiences with RTI so far, good and bad, and any comments that might guide the Commission’s work. Given that IRA membership includes classroom teachers, literacy specialists, special educators, and an array of other specialists and stakeholders, the range of perspectives is likely to be much broader than other surveys to date.

To contribute your experiences, please click on the following link and complete the survey.

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229JF37HXWZ

With regard to RtI, what data or indicators do you use to ensure that some of your students’ difficulties are not due to lack of appropriate instruction?

Response to intervention aims to identify students early and thus, maximizing the probability of correcting early deficits and helping all students to succeed.

How can using RtI ensure that informed decisions are being made about the instruction students need to succeed and also offer support in closely monitoring student growth?

Response to Intervention (RtI) is a promising way for promoting school reform that capitalizes on active and meaningful collaborations between general and special education personnel. RtI helps to bridge the gaps between research and instructional practice. What is your definition of RtI? As you know there are different models and multiple interpretations. What are essential elements of RtI according to your view?

Good readers are extremely active as they read. They are aware of why they are reading a text, make predictions about the upcoming text, and associate ideas they are reading about to their own background knowledge (Pressley, 2000). These are just a few characteristics of an active reader.

See a landmark article by Michael Pressley titled, “Comprehension Instruction: What Makes Sense Now, What Might Make Sense Soon” http://www.readingonline.org/articles/handbook/pressley/index.html

What active comprehension strategies do you teach in your classroom? How do you choose which strategies to use?

From the NEA: The beginning of a new school year can be the start of a journey toward success if parents, students and teachers work together. Here are some suggestions from NEA for parents who want to help their child start the new school year right. Please visit, http://www.nea.org/parents/startnewyeartips.html, to view the tips from the National Education Association.