Dr. Denise P. Gibbs, Director Alabama Scottish Rite Foundation STUDENT SUCCESS RtI SPED Dr. Denise P. Gibbs, Director Alabama Scottish Rite Foundation Learning Centers Gibbsdenise@aol.com

This presentation is being provided today at no cost by the Alabama Scottish Rite Foundation. The philanthropy of the Alabama Scottish Rite Foundation began in the 1950’s in Alabama and continues today. The mission of the Alabama Scottish Rite Foundation is to provide help to Alabama Schools as they work with students who struggle in reading -particularly those students with dyslexia.

Alabama’ RTI Framework Two documents for download at alsde.edu (special links) Response to Instruction: Alabama Core Support For All Students A Problem Solving Team Process

Questions from SPED Coordinators Screening questions What are some examples of universal screeners? What areas must be screened? When do you screen?

Screening: What and When Screen basic math and reading skills For K-3 students, ALL students should be screened 3 times per year. For grade 4-12 students, schools could: Screen all students (as in K-3) screen all entering students complete a records review and then “screen” students below a designated level

A few of the peer-reviewed screening tools AIMSWEB (reading, math, spelling, written expression pre K-12) Aggregate Growth Scores DIBELS (reading K-6) STEEP (reading and math K-12) Independent, peer-review of screening and progress monitoring tools www.rti4success.org

A look at some reading and math screening probes R-CBM Mazes Math Computation Math Concepts and Applications

System-wide intervention criteria School systems will need to determine the screening outcomes which will result in intervention consideration and referral to one of the problem solving teams. If score is below ___ then student will be reviewed by the appropriate problem solving team Could choose “arbitrary percentile score” Could choose score which predicts success on high stakes test like ARMT or ASGHE

Screening and Progress Monitoring Need to select a screening tool which also has some useful progress monitoring tools “built into their package” Progress should be monitored weekly Incorrect progress monitoring tool use is a “deal breaker”

Questions from SPED Coordinators Tier questions Define Tier II and Tier III. Who would be in Tier II? Examples of class set-up for Tier II Amount of intervention times for Tier II Intervention strategies for Tier II How long in Tier II before you move to Tier III? What does Tier II look like? How is Tier III different from activities in Tier II?

Elementary Tier Model (K-3) Plus Special Education ? % 5% Tier 3 Intensive Intervention 60 minutes Intervention 30 minutes per day in the classroom Tier 2 15% Comprehensive Core 90 minutes per day reading 60 minutes per day math Tier 1 80%

Academically, what should Tier 1 include for elementary students? MINIMUM of 90 minutes in reading and 60 minutes in math of uninterrupted core instruction NRP and NMAP suggest a combination of whole and small group differentiated instruction The five big ideas from the NRP and critical benchmarks from NMAP!

Tier 2 for elementary students…. Additional small group instruction Best when provided by classroom teacher At least 10-12 weeks in duration** Frequent progress monitoring May need additional rounds of Tier 2 if “adequate progress” is being made May need to move to Tier 3 if “inadequate progress” is being made

Tier 3 for K-3 students Intensive intervention Does not replace or supplant (Tier 1) but may replace Tier 2 Designed to meet identified student needs in math, reading, and behavior Student will miss something Decide what will be missed Schedule for success! Who might provide this intervention? Title I; reading, math, or behavior interventionists; SPED; Para; Classroom teacher, etc

Intensive Intervention classes Grade 4-12 Tier Model Plus Special Education ? % Tier 3 5% Intensive Intervention classes Differentiated strategy instruction in content classes small group-intentional groupings Tier 2 15% Tier 1 80% Core instruction=Strategy instruction in content classes whole and small group

About Grades 4-12 Tier 1 Students learn how to learn Strategic teaching in ALL classes Some time for students to work with peers daily in ALL classes Encourages student engagement Students become active participants in the learning process Students “make their own meaning”

About Grades 4-12 Tier 2 Differentiated strategic teaching Teacher explicitly models strategies with students and scaffolds as needed Opportunities for peer-tutors and heterogeneous grouping (weaker with stronger and teacher rotates among groups) Opportunities for homogeneous grouping (weak come together and teacher works with that group)

About Grades 4-12 Tier 3 Intensive intervention classes for students who need them (math, reading, and behavior) Reading – Word-level interventions and comprehension interventions Math – Computation and problem solving interventions Behavior- small group sessions/classes Scheduling options Grade specific intervention times Acceleration block

Questions from SPED Coordinators Intervention questions Intervention strategies for Tier II Examples of Tier III interventions

Some ideas from K-3 Intervention Research Scammacca, N., Vaughn, S., Roberts, G., Wanzek, J., & Torgesen, J. K. (2007). All of the effective Tier 2 interventions included training in: phonological awareness decoding, and word study guided and independent reading of progressively more difficult texts writing exercises engaging students in practicing comprehension strategies while reading text.

An intervention study illustrating effective Tier 2 options….

Early Interventions in Reading (Torgesen and Mathes, 2005) 120 lessons, 40 minutes, 3-5 students Mathes, et al 2005 study …. Excellent gains after 91 hours of instruction Only 1% of the students were reading below the average range (30th percentile)! Intervention students had steeper rates of improvement than typical readers on word reading, passage fluency, and phonological awareness. Published by SRA

Responsive Reading Instruction (Denton and Hocker, 2006) 40 minute lessons; 3 students Mathes, et al 2005 study …. Excellent gains after 91 hours of instruction Only 7% of the students were reading below the average range (30th percentile)! Intervention students had steeper rates of improvement than typical readers on word reading, passage fluency, and phonological awareness. Published by Cambrium Learning

Tier 3 Literacy Interventions No standard treatment protocols at this level….one size will not fit all! Word-level interventions Comprehension/Vocabulary interventions

Word-level Interventions Emphasize (Simmons & Kame'enui, 2004) Phonemic awareness (prerequisite skills) Letter sound correspondence Regular word reading (using decoding skills) Regular word reading in text (lots of text!) Irregular word reading Advanced word analysis All six syllable types Prefixes and suffixes

Comprehension/Vocabulary Interventions Emphasize Magnificent seven (Pearson, et al., 1992) Making connections to prior knowledge Inferring and predicting Asking questions Determining important ideas and summarizing Visualizing Synthesizing and retelling Monitoring and clarifying understanding of text and vocabulary

Examples of Tier 3 Word-Level Interventions LANGUAGE! www.sopriswest.com Project Read www.projectread.com Slingerland www.slingerland.org Spalding Writing Road to Reading www.spalding.org S.P.I.R.E. www.epsbooks.com Take Flight www.tsrhc.org Wilson Reading System www.wilsonlanguage.com

Examples of Tier 3 Comprehension/Vocabulary Interventions Corrective Reading: Comprehension www.sraonline.com Language for Learning Language for Thinking Text Talk www.scholastic.com Voyager Passport and Voyager Journeys http://voyagerlearning.com AMP Reading System www.pearsonschool.com

Questions from SPED Coordinators RTI and SPED eligibility questions When should referral be to SPED? What must SPED look for in RTI information before accepting a referral?

When should referral be to SPED? When the process has been followed with consistency and documentation shows the need for more intensive interventions. Some valuable documentation forms Student Intervention Documentation Form K-3 walkthrough 4-12 walkthrough

One more thing from Denise…SPED after RTI? LRE will be impacted! How will we use inclusion? Need for DIRECT services Intensive, intensive intervention if Tiers did not result in success! Probably some 1:1 Must have homogeneous grouping if not 1:1 Ongoing progress monitoring

THANK YOU! gibbsdenise@aol.com RTI for Middle and High School: Structures and Strategies for Literacy Success (2009) www.LRP.com