Chapter 4 ELA How Will We Respond When Students Don’t Learn? LEARNING BY DOING Chapter 4 ELA How Will We Respond When Students Don’t Learn?

PART ONE Here’s How Intervention Vs. Systematic Question: As an educator, where do you stand in regards to your teaching method? Is it systematic where you believe how you teach reaches ALL students? OR Is it with interventions where if one way of teaching is not effective then you modify to help students reach their highest potential.

Well research say its mostly “systematic.” Most educators stick to one teaching style that is comfortable and beneficial for the teacher and not for the students. Like many many situations mentioned in chapter 4, we as teachers do feel that students either learn our method of teaching, catch on quick, and pass or get left behind and fail. My fellow educators, that’s not the correct attitude to have! According to chapter 4, teachers, we must have an “Intervention process that is timely and students are ensured to receive additional time and support for their learning when they experience difficult within our “systematic” teaching. This intervention process should be timely and students are directed rather than invited to utilize the system of time and support.

IN OTHER WORDS Teachers we must be understanding, motivators, as well as learners of our students needs.

PART TWO Here’s How Question? How will we respond when our students don’t learn? Answer! There must be a Systematic Response to Intervention… Systematic Response to Intervention Timeliness: Intervention should occur immediately. Direct: Students should be direct to take advantage of interventions until success occurs. Guaranteed: Students should have access to interventions, no matter who their teacher is. (KEY: p74) In order to help students learn at high levels, schools must provide students with additional TIME and SUPPORT for learning in a TIMELY, DIRECTIVE, and SYSTEMATIC way.

PART THREE Here’s Why Effective schools create a climate of high expectations for student learning examine what happens when some students don’t learn- this is the most authentic method to assess the degree to which a school is characterized by high expectations professional learning communities must create a process to ensure that students who need additional time and support for learning will receive it schools must provide additional opportunities to learn during the instructional day that students perceive as helpful it is pointless to give assesments if schools aren’t prepared to intervence if students haven’t learned if additional support is not forthcoming it is summative if it is forthcoming then it is formative “ The success of our students is our joint responsibility and when they succeed, it is to our joint credit and cumulative accomplishment”

Assessing Your Place on the PLC Journey PART FOUR Assessing Your Place on the PLC Journey (Refer to Handout)

PART FIVE Tips for Moving Forward Creating Systematic Interventions to Ensure Students Receive Additional Time and Support for Learning Beware of appeals to mindless precedent We have never done it that way The Schedule won’t let us We have always done it this way The system of intervention should be fixed System of Intervention should be designed as a permanent support for individual students. When students are experiencing difficulty, they should be directed to the appropriate level of intervention, but only until they have acquired the intended knowledge and skill Systems of intervention work most effectively when they are supporting teams rather than individual leaders Ensure common understanding of the term “system of interventions” Providing students with additional time and support for learning SPEED Intervention Criteria Systematic- Plan is school wide, independent of the individual teacher , and communicated in writing (who, why, how, where, when) to everyone : staff, parents and students

TIPS cont. Practical- Plan is affordable with the schools available resources (time, space, staff, materials) Effective- Plan must be effective and available and operational early enough in the school year to make a difference for the student. It should respond to the ever changing needs of the students Directive- Pan should be mandatory, not invitational, and apart of the student’s regular school day. Students should not be able to opt out. Essential- Plan should focus on agreed upon standards and the essential learning outcomes of the districts’ curriculum. It should be targeted to a students specific learning needs

FINAL THOUGHT Realize that no support system will compensate for bad teaching. A school characterized by weak and ineffective teaching will not solve its problems by creating a system of timely interventions for students. Eventually system will be crushed. Schools need both skillful teachers and effective school wide interventions.