PLC/RtI: Tier II Removing the Mystery! Friday, April 7, 2017

Structure Qualified Teachers Learning Professionals District Support

Framework RtI Collective Responsibility Concentrated Instruction: Focus your Focus Convergent Assessment Certain Access RtI Collective Responsibility Concentrated Instruction: Focus your Focus; identifying essential standards (TEKS) and targets Convergent Assessment-Common Formative Assessment based upon clear, essential standards and learning targets Certain Access-RtI; systems, scheduling

IF… THEN… What is our WHY? We believe our purpose is to ensure every student learns what s/he needs to become a successful adult AND We clearly understand what TEKS they will need, THEN… What do we do to make this a reality? When a school or district functions as a PLC, educators within the organization embrace high levels of learning for all students as the reason the organization exists and the fundamental responsibility of those who work within it. (DuFour et all, 2016)

Intervention Map

Cycle of Teaching-Assessment Review the cycle. Stem: The most important task in the cycle is _________ because ________. Finding the essential standard before even beginning the cycle.

Tier II Characteristics of Effectiveness Guiding Question: How do we manage these characteristics in our work in a way that results in learning for every student? Achieving this goal will require schools to effectively respond when students struggle. While every school offers interventions, few have created a multi- tiered system of support. A multi-tiered system of interventions—also commonly called Response to Intervention—is designed to address four essential outcomes needed to ensure all students learn at high levels. 
 1. If the ultimate goal of a learning-focused school is to ensure that every student ends each year having acquired the essential skills, knowledge, and behaviors required for success at the next grade level, then all students must have access to grade-level essential curriculum as part of their core instruction. 
 2. At the end of every unit of study, some students will need some additional time and support to master this essential grade-level curriculum. 
 3. Some students will enter each school year lacking essential foundational skills that should have been mastered in prior years—skills such as foundational reading, writing, number sense, and English language. These students will require intensive interventions in these areas to succeed. 
 4. Some students will require all three of these outcomes to learn at high levels. A multi-tiered system of interventions is designed to address these four realities. Often captured visually with the shape of a pyramid, the base of the pyramid represents the school’s core instruction program. The purpose of this tier—Tier 1—is to provide all students access to essential grade-level curriculum and effective initial teaching. When the core is taught well, most students should succeed most of the time without the need for additional help. There will be a point in every unit of study when most students have demonstrated mastery of the unit’s essential learning outcomes, and the teacher will need to proceed to the next topic. But because some students may not master the essential curriculum by the end of the unit, the school must dedicate time to provide these students additional support to master this essential grade-level curriculum without missing critical new core instruction. This supplemental help to master grade-level curriculum is the second tier—Tier 2—in a multi-tiered system of support. Because this support is focused on very specific essential standards and learning targets, placement into Tier 2 interventions must be timely, targeted, flexible, and fluid.

Supporting Tier II on OUR campuses How do we decide what intervention to choose? Consider these questions first... Which are the most important TEKS and their targeted skills? What does mastery look like and how is it assessed? Why has the student not mastered it YET? More time? More practice? More opportunities to respond? Alternate instructional method/materials? Pre-teaching and/or prerequisites for anticipated challenges? Which targeted skill?