Response to Intervention Grades 7-8: RTI and the Middle-School Classroom Jim Wright .

Response to Intervention

www.interventioncentral.org

Grades 7-8: RTI and the Middle-School

Classroom

Jim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org



Workshop PPTs and handout available at:

http://www.interventioncentral.org/montauk



Intervention Centralwww.interventioncentral.org



Workshop Agenda

RTI: Sample Reading Comprehension & Writing Interventions

Methods of Data Collection: Academic Enabler Observation Checklists, Behavior Report Card

Demonstration of Free Internet Resources



Defining the ‘Big Ideas’ in Effective Academic Intervention

Focus of Inquiry: Both RTI and the Common Core Standards acknowledge the power of strong ‘direct instruction’ and recognize that learners need to be held to high expectations.

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www.interventioncentral.org 6

RTI Interventions: What If There is No Commercial Intervention Package or Program Available?

“Although commercially prepared programs and … manuals and materials are inviting, they are not necessary. … A recent review of research suggests that interventions are research based and likely to be successful, if they are correctly targeted and provide explicit instruction in the skill, an appropriate level of challenge, sufficient opportunities to respond to and practice the skill, and immediate feedback on performance…Thus, these [elements] could be used as criteria with which to judge potential …interventions.” p. 88

Source: Burns, M. K., & Gibbons, K. A. (2008). Implementing response-to-intervention in elementary and secondary schools. Routledge: New York.



Motivation Deficit 1: The student is unmotivated because he or she cannot do the assigned work.

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• Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem: The student lacks essential skills required to do the task.

pp. 4-6



Motivation Deficit 1: Cannot Do the Work (Cont.)

• What the Research Says: When a student lacks the capability to complete an academic task because of limited or missing basic skills, cognitive strategies, or academic-enabling skills, that student is still in the acquisition stage of learning (Haring et al., 1978). That student cannot be expected to be motivated or to be successful as a learner unless he or she is first explicitly taught these weak or absent essential skills (Daly, Witt, Martens & Dool, 1997).

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• How to Fix This Motivation Problem: Students who are not motivated because they lack essential skills need to be taught those skills.

Direct-Instruction Format. Students learning new material, concepts, or skills benefit from a ‘direct instruction’ approach. (Burns, VanDerHeyden & Boice, 2008; Rosenshine, 1995; Rupley, Blair, & Nichols, 2009).

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• How to Fix This Motivation Problem: When following a direct-instruction format, the teacher:ensures that the lesson content is appropriately

matched to students’ abilities.opens the lesson with a brief review of concepts or

material that were previously presented.states the goals of the current day’s lesson.breaks new material into small, manageable increments,

or steps.

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• How to Fix This Motivation Problem: When following a direct-instruction format, the teacher:throughout the lesson, provides adequate explanations

and detailed instructions for all concepts and materials being taught. NOTE: Verbal explanations can include ‘talk-alouds’ (e.g., the teacher describes and explains each step of a cognitive strategy) and ‘think-alouds’ (e.g., the teacher applies a cognitive strategy to a particular problem or task and verbalizes the steps in applying the strategy).

regularly checks for student understanding by posing frequent questions and eliciting group responses.

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• How to Fix This Motivation Problem: When following a direct-instruction format, the teacher:verifies that students are experiencing sufficient success

in the lesson content to shape their learning in the desired direction and to maintain student motivation and engagement.

provides timely and regular performance feedback and corrections throughout the lesson as needed to guide student learning.

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• How to Fix This Motivation Problem: When following a direct-instruction format, the teacher:allows students the chance to engage in practice

activities distributed throughout the lesson (e.g., through teacher demonstration; then group practice with teacher supervision and feedback; then independent, individual student practice).

ensures that students have adequate support (e.g., clear and explicit instructions; teacher monitoring) to be successful during independent seatwork practice activities.

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Research-Based Reading Interventions

Focus of Inquiry: What are examples of classroom reading interventions that are supported by research?

- Reading Comprehension ‘Fix-Up’ Skills

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Reading Comprehension ‘Fix-Up’ Skills: A Toolkit

Good readers continuously monitor their understanding of informational text. When necessary, they also take steps to improve their understanding of text through use of reading comprehension ‘fix-up’ skills. Presented here are a series of fix-up skill strategies that can help struggling students to better understand difficult reading assignments…

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Reading Comprehension ‘Fix-Up’ Skills: A Toolkit (Cont.)• [Student Strategy] Promoting Understanding & Building

Endurance through Reading-Reflection Pauses (Hedin & Conderman, 2010). The student decides on a reading interval (e.g., every four sentences; every 3 minutes; at the end of each paragraph). At the end of each interval, the student pauses briefly to recall the main points of the reading. If the student has questions or is uncertain about the content, the student rereads part or all of the section just read. This strategy is useful both for students who need to monitor their understanding as well as those who benefit from brief breaks when engaging in intensive reading as a means to build up endurance as attentive readers.

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Reading Comprehension ‘Fix-Up’ Skills: A Toolkit (Cont.)• [Student Strategy] Question Generation: Identifying or

Constructing Main Idea Sentences (Davey & McBride, 1986; Rosenshine, Meister & Chapman, 1996). For each paragraph in an assigned reading, the student either (a) highlights the main idea sentence or (b) highlights key details and uses them to write a ‘gist’ sentence. The student then writes the main idea of that paragraph on an index card. On the other side of the card, the student writes a question whose answer is that paragraph’s main idea sentence. This stack of ‘main idea’ cards becomes a useful tool to review assigned readings.

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Reading Comprehension ‘Fix-Up’ Skills: A Toolkit (Cont.)• [Student Strategy] Restructuring Paragraphs with Main Idea

First to Strengthen ‘Rereads’ (Hedin & Conderman, 2010). The student highlights or creates a main idea sentence for each paragraph in the assigned reading. When rereading each paragraph of the selection, the student (1) reads the main idea sentence or student-generated ‘gist’ sentence first (irrespective of where that sentence actually falls in the paragraph); (2) reads the remainder of the paragraph, and (3) reflects on how the main idea relates to the paragraph content.

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Reading Comprehension ‘Fix-Up’ Skills: A Toolkit (Cont.)• [Student Strategy] Linking Pronouns to Referents (Hedin &

Conderman, 2010). Some readers lose the connection between pronouns and the nouns that they refer to (known as ‘referents’)—especially when reading challenging text. The student is encouraged to circle pronouns in the reading, to explicitly identify each pronoun’s referent, and (optionally) to write next to the pronoun the name of its referent. For example, the student may add the referent to a pronoun in this sentence from a biology text: “The Cambrian Period is the first geological age that has large numbers of multi-celled organisms associated with it Cambrian Period.”

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Reading Comprehension ‘Fix-Up’ Skills: A Toolkit (Cont.)• [Student Strategy] Reading Actively Through Text

Annotation (Harris, 1990; Sarkisian et al., 2003). Students are likely to increase their retention of information when they interact actively with their reading by jotting comments in the margin of the text. Using photocopies, the student is taught to engage in an ongoing 'conversation' with the writer by recording a running series of brief comments in the margins of the text. The student may write annotations to record opinions about points raised by the writer, questions triggered by the reading, or unknown vocabulary words.

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Parent Support for RTI

Focus of Inquiry: What is an example of an intervention in which the parent can play a role?

- Homework Contract

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Homework Contract Intended Purpose:

This homework contract intervention (adapted from Miller & Kelly, 1994) uses goal-setting, a written contract, and rewards to boost student completion (and accuracy) of homework. Students also learn the valuable skills of breaking down academic assignments into smaller, more manageable subtasks and setting priorities for work completion.



Homework Contract: Form



Homework Contract

1. Parents are trained to be supportive ‘homework coaches’.

2. The parent creates a homework reward system for the child.

3. The parent negotiates the homework contract program with the child.

4. The parent and child fill out the Daily Homework Contract.

5. The parent checks the child’s homework completion, delivers nightly & weekly rewards.



Homework Contract: Tips & Troubleshooting

• If the parent finds the Homework Contract program difficult to implement, have an afterschool program implement it.

• The teacher may choose to monitor homework completion and send a note home to the parent, who provides the reward.



Collecting Classroom Data

Focus of Inquiry: What are examples of classroom data collection tools?

-Academic Enabler Observation Checklists-Behavior Report Cards

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‘Academic Enabler’ Observational Checklists: Measuring Students’ Ability

to Manage Their Own Learning

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‘Academic Enabler’ Skills: Why Are They Important?

Student academic success requires more than content knowledge or mastery of a collection of cognitive strategies. Academic accomplishment depends also on a set of ancillary skills and attributes called ‘academic enablers’ (DiPerna, 2006). Examples of academic enablers include:– Study skills– Homework completion– Cooperative learning skills– Organization– Independent seatwork

Source: DiPerna, J. C. (2006). Academic enablers and student achievement: Implications for assessment and intervention services in the schools. Psychology in the Schools, 43, 7-17.



‘Academic Enabler’ Skills: Why Are They Important? (Cont.)

Because academic enablers are often described as broad skill sets, however, they can be challenging to define in clear, specific, measureable terms. A useful method for defining a global academic enabling skill is to break it down into a checklist of component sub-skills--a process known as ‘discrete categorization’ (Kazdin, 1989). An observer can then use the checklist to note whether a student successfully displays each of the sub-skills.

Source: Kazdin, A. E. (1989). Behavior modification in applied settings (4th ed.). Pacific Gove, CA: Brooks/Cole.



‘Academic Enabler’ Skills: Why Are They Important? (Cont.)

Observational checklists that define academic enabling skills have several uses in Response to Intervention:– Classroom teachers can use these skills checklists as convenient tools to

assess whether a student possesses the minimum ‘starter set’ of academic enabling skills needed for classroom success.

– Teachers or tutors can share examples of academic-enabler skills checklists with students, training them in each of the sub-skills and encouraging them to use the checklists independently to take greater responsibility for their own learning.

– Teachers or other observers can use the academic enabler checklists periodically to monitor student progress during interventions--assessing formatively whether the student is using more of the sub-skills.

Source: Kazdin, A. E. (1989). Behavior modification in applied settings (4th ed.). Pacific Gove, CA: Brooks/Cole.



‘Academic Enabler’ Skills: Sample Observational Checklists



Monitoring Student Academic or General Behaviors:

Behavior Report Cards



Behavior Report Cards (BRCs) Are…

brief forms containing student behavior-rating items. The teacher typically rates the student daily (or even more frequently) on the BRC. The results can be graphed to document student response to an intervention.



Behavior Report Cards Can Monitor Many Behaviors, Including…

• Hyperactivity• On-Task Behavior (Attention)• Work Completion• Organization Skills• Compliance With Adult Requests• Ability to Interact Appropriately With Peers



Behavior Report Card Generator• Helps teachers to define student problem(s) more

clearly.• Reframes student concern(s) as replacement

behaviors, to increase the likelihood for success with the academic or behavioral intervention.

• Provides a fixed response format each day to increase the consistency of feedback about the teacher’s concern(s).

• Can serve as a vehicle to engage other important players (student and parent) in defining the problem(s), monitoring progress, and implementing interventions.

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Behavior Report Card Maker




Behavior Report Card Maker

www.interventioncentral.orgExample: Daily Report Card



Encouraging Student Participation in Interventions

Focus of Inquiry: How can teachers help students to take responsibility for their own learning?

-Student ‘Self-Directed’ Interventions Planning Sheet

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Student Self-Directed Interventions: Planning Sheet



Student Self-Directed Interventions Sheet: Guidelines for Use

• This worksheet is an organizer that teachers, counselors, and other educators can use to develop a student-directed intervention. The framework is flexible. A single teacher, or guidance counselor, or entire instructional team can use the form when conferencing with a student. This form can also be very helpful to structure parent-teacher-student meetings to make them more productive and to document the intervention plans developed there.

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Section 1: Defining Your Goals

Student Directions: Define 1-2 intervention goals that you would like to work on:

The student is likely to need your assistance to select 1-2 specific goals to be the focus of the intervention. The defined goal(s) may include basic academic skills, cognitive strategies, and/or more general 'academic enabling' skills. NOTE: If the presenting student problem stems from deficits in basic academic skills or cognitive strategies, you may want to review the appropriate reading or math Common Core State Standards for ideas on how to word the goal statement in standards-based form.



Student Self-Directed Intervention Plan: Tom• Tom is a middle-school student who is not getting his

homework in. He meets with the instructional team to create a student-directed intervention.

• The team and Tom agree that Tom has the skills to get his homework done but that he needs to improve his homework routine. At present, his rate of homework completion varies from about 20% (math) to 70% (English).

• Here is the way that they describe Tom's presenting problem as an intervention goal: "Tom will turn in at least 80% of his homework assignments in English, math, social studies, and science on time and completely done."

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Section 2: Selecting Student-Directed InterventionsStudent Directions: List up to 4 strategies that you will take on your own to reach your goal(s).

The goal is for the student to take initiative in selecting several strategies that he or she is responsible for doing to reach the goal. As you assist the student in selecting and writing down self-help strategies, specify how frequently or under what conditions the student will use each strategy (e.g., "At the start of each class period, the student will review a checklist to ensure that she has all work materials."). The student form also allows you to meet with the student for follow-up sessions and to check off whether he or she is consistently using the self-help strategies. NOTE: The student may need training before he or she can use some strategies independently.



Section 2: Selecting Student-Directed Interventions (Cont.)

Student Directions: List up to 4 strategies that you will take on your own to reach your goal(s).

Several sample student-directed solutions appear below: Self-monitor preparation for class using a student-created checklist Bring all work materials to class Write complete lecture notes Maintain a clear, uncluttered work space Create a structured work plan before completing larger assignments Complete additional readings to reinforce understanding of course concepts, content Take practice tests to prepare for actual class or state tests

Write down homework assignment and double-check for accuracy and completeness before leaving class Ensure that all work materials for homework go home Study course material on a regular review schedule Prepare nightly homework plans, check off completed tasks Use 'self-help' Internet sites (e.g., algebrahelp.com) to find answers to questions



Student Self-Directed Intervention Plan: Tom• The instructional team and Tom discussed those strategies

that Tom could use to address the homework problem. Tom shared that he sometimes had the wrong assignment or did not take the necessary work materials home. He also admitted that he did not have a set time set aside at home to do homework.

• Based on this discussion (and with encouragement from his teachers), Tom selected these three self-directed strategies…

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Section 3: Selecting Interventions Supported by OthersStudent Directions: List up to 4 types of assistance that you will obtain from others to reach your goal(s):

In this section are listed those student supports that require assistance from others. As you help the student to choose and document strategies involving others, specify how frequently or under what conditions the student will use each strategy (e.g., "When the student has a question about lecture content or an assignment, he will bring that question to the teacher during her free period."). The student form also allows you to meet with the student for follow-up sessions and to check off whether he or she is continuing to use these 'other-assisted' strategies.



Section 3: Selecting Interventions Supported by Others (Cont.)Student Directions: List up to 4 types of assistance that you will obtain from others to reach your goal(s):Several sample 'interventions supported by others' appear below: Use teacher-supplied guided notes in class Seek instructor help during free periods Receive tutoring services from peer or adult Be assigned an adult mentor Set up regular 'check-in' sessions with a school staff member to monitor student's intervention follow-through Have the teacher review and sign off on homework assignments written in the student's notebook/course agenda

Create a study group with other students Have parent(s) assist as 'homework coaches' to help the student to organize, get started with, and complete homework Meet with the teacher for brief weekly conferences to review course performance (e.g., grades, missing work, etc.)



Student Self-Directed Intervention Plan: Tom• Tom and the instructional team also agreed that he would

benefit from one 'other-directed' intervention idea:

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Section 4: Measuring Progress Toward Your Goals

Student Directions: Select up to 2 ways that you will measure progress toward your intervention goal(s):

The task in this section is to select one or more ways that you and the student can track whether the intervention(s) being tried are actually effective in helping the student to achieve his or her goal(s). As you help the student to choose each method for monitoring progress, specify how frequently the data is to be collected (e.g., 'daily', 'weekly', 'after each tutoring session'). The student form also allows you to meet with the student for follow-up sessions and to check off whether the data is being collected consistently. Several sample methods for tracking student progress on intervention appear below: 'Academic Enabler' Skills Checklist Behavior Report Card: To be completed by the teacher and/or student

Homework Log School/Home Note Evaluation of Work Products



Student Self-Directed Intervention Plan: Tom• To track progress on the intervention, the instructional team

and Tom selected the following:

– Student-created homework checklist (to monitor actual intervention follow-through)

– Teacher homework logs (to track ultimate benefit of the intervention)

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Section 5: Setting an Intervention 'Check-Up' Date

Directions: Decide how many instructional weeks your intervention will last. Write in the intervention 'end date' (the calendar date when you will review progress to see if your current intervention plan is effective):The student must allocate sufficient time for the intervention to accurately judge whether it is a success. Generally, student interventions should last between 4 and 8 instructional weeks. You can assist the student in both setting a reasonable timespan for the intervention and (by consulting a school calendar) writing down the end-date to mark the conclusion of the intervention.



Student Self-Directed Intervention Plan: Tom• The team and Tom agreed to try the intervention for six

weeks.

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Group Activity: Student Self-Directed Interventions: Planning the Student Conference• Review the five-step

process for helping students create self-directed interventions shared at this workshop.

• Imagine that you will use this process to structure a meeting with an unmotivated student.

• Discuss how you would prepare for and run the meeting.

Student ‘Self-Directed’ Interventions

• Section 1: Defining Your Goals• Section 2: Selecting Student-

Directed Interventions• Section 3: Selecting Interventions

Supported by Others• Section 4: Measuring Progress

Toward Your Goals• Section 5: Setting an Intervention

‘Check-Up’ Date



Secondary-Level Tier 1 Intervention: Case ExamplesJim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org



Tier 1 Case Example: Patricia: Reading Comprehension



Case Example: Reading ComprehensionThe Problem• A student, Patricia, struggled in her social studies class,

particularly in understanding the course readings. Her teacher, Ms. Cardamone, decided that the problem was significant enough that the student required some individualized support.

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Case Example: Reading ComprehensionThe Evidence• Student Interview. Ms. Cardamone met with Patricia to ask her

questions about her difficulties with social studies content and assignments. Patricia said that when she reads the course text and other assigned readings, she doesn’t have difficulty with the vocabulary but often realizes after reading half a page that she hasn’t really understood what she has read. Sometimes she has to reread a page several times and that can be frustrating.

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Case Example: Reading ComprehensionThe Evidence (Cont.)• Review of Records. Past teacher report card comments suggest that

Patricia has had difficulty with reading comprehension tasks in earlier grades. She had received help in middle school in the reading lab, although there was no record of what specific interventions were tried in that setting.

• Input from Other Teachers. Ms. Cardamone checked with other teachers who have Patricia in their classes. All expressed concern about Patricia’s reading comprehension skills. The English teacher noted that Patricia appears to have difficulty pulling the main idea from a passage, which limits her ability to extract key information from texts and to review that information for tests.

•

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Case Example: Reading ComprehensionThe Intervention• Ms. Cardamone decided, based on the evidence collected, that

Patricia would benefit from training in identifying the main idea from a passage, rather than trying to retain all the information presented in the text. She selected two simple interventions: Question Generation and Text Lookback. She arranged to have Patricia meet with her during an open period to review these two strategies. During that meeting, Ms. Cardamone demonstrated how to use these strategies effectively with the social studies course text and other assigned readings.

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QuestionGeneration

Students are taught to boost their comprehension of expository passages by (1) locating the main idea or key ideas in the passage and (2) generating questions based on that information.

http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/interventions/rdngcompr/qgen.php



Text Lookback

Text lookback is a simple strategy that students can use to boost their recall of expository prose by identifying questions that require information from the text and then looking back in the text in a methodical manner to locate that information.

http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/interventions/rdngcompr/txtlkbk.php



Case Example: Reading ComprehensionDocumentation and Goal-Setting• Ms Cardamone filled out a Tier 1 intervention plan for the

student. On the plan, she listed interventions to be used, a checkup date (4 instructional weeks), and data to be used to assess student progress.

• Data: Ms. Cardamone decided that she would rate the student’s grasp of text content in two ways: – Student self-rating (1-3 scale; 1=don’t understand; 3 = understand

well)– Quiz grades.

• She collected baseline on both and set a goal for improvement.

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Case Example: Reading ComprehensionThe Outcome• When the intervention had been in place for 4 weeks, Ms.

Cardamone noted that Patricia appeared to have a somewhat better grasp of course content and expressed a greater understanding of material from the text.

• She shared her intervention ideas with other teachers working with Patricia. Because Patricia’s self-ratings of reading comprehension and quiz grades met the goals after 4 weeks, Ms. Cardamone decided to continue the intervention plan with the student without changes.

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RTI and Middle School: Next Steps• Review the RTI and Common Core Standards

information shared at today’s workshop.• What are some ways that your table plans to use

any of the resources shared today?• What questions about RTI do you still have?

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Response to Intervention Grades 7-8: RTI and the Middle-School Classroom Jim Wright .

Documents

Transcript of Response to Intervention Grades 7-8: RTI and the Middle-School Classroom Jim Wright .