Response to Intervention
RTI: General Academic
Interventions for
Difficult-to-Teach Students
Jim Wright
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Response to Intervention
Download PowerPoints and Handouts from this
workshop at:
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schoolhouse08.php
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Response to Intervention
Workshop Agenda…
RTI & Academic Interventions: 4 Big Ideas
Selecting & Implementing ‘Research-Based’ Interventions:
Considerations
Best Practices: Reading Interventions
Best Practices: Math Interventions
Best Practices: Writing Interventions
Best Practices: Motivating Students
Intervention Resources: Free Stuff on the Internet
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Response to Intervention
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Response to Intervention
• Trivia Question: What job is
Jim Wright, school
psychologist and school
administrator, MOST often
mistaken as having?
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Response to Intervention
Discussion: Read the quote below:
“The quality of a school as a learning
community can be measured by how
effectively it addresses the needs of
struggling students.”
--Wright (2005)
Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Why?
Source: Wright, J. (2005, Summer). Five interventions that work. NAESP Leadership Compass, 2(4) pp.1,6.
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Response to Intervention
‘RTI Logic’: The Power of Working
Smarter…
-You're a pretty smart fella.
-Not that smart.
-How'd you figure it out?
-I imagined someone smarter than
me.
Then I tried to think,
"What would he do?”
From HEIST (2001)
Written by David Mamet
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Response to Intervention
Essential Elements of RTI (Fairbanks, Sugai, Guardino, & Lathrop, 2007)
1. A “continuum of evidence-based services available to
all students" that range from universal to highly
individualized & intensive
2. “Decision points to determine if students are
performing significantly below the level of their peers
in academic and social behavior domains"
3. “Ongoing monitoring of student progress"
4. “Employment of more intensive or different
interventions when students do not improve in
response" to lesser interventions
5. “Evaluation for special education services if students
do not respond to intervention instruction"
Source: Fairbanks, S., Sugai, G., Guardino, S., & Lathrop, M. (2007). Response to intervention: Examining classroom behavior
support in second grade. Exceptional Children, 73, p. 289.
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Response to Intervention
How can a school restructure to support RTI?
The school can organize its intervention efforts into 3 levels, or Tiers,
that represent a continuum of increasing intensity of support.
(Kovaleski, 2003; Vaughn, 2003). Tier I is the lowest level of
intervention and Tier III is the most intensive intervention level.
Tier I
Universal intervention: Available to all students
Example: Additional classroom literacy instruction
Tier II
Individualized Intervention: Students who need additional
support than peers are given individual intervention plans.
Example: Supplemental peer tutoring in reading to increase
reading fluency
Tier III
Intensive Intervention: Students whose intervention needs
are greater than general education can meet may be referred
for more intensive services.
Example: Special Education
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Response to Intervention
Hic sunt dracones.
[Latin for “Here be dragons…”]
Phrase appearing on the Lenox Globe circa
1503, denoting unknown dangers on the
unexplored east coast of Asia.
This term now is used to describe any
instance in which decision-making or
action is difficult because the situation is so
complex or because so many variables are
unknown.
Source: Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_be_dragons#Dragons_on_maps
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Response to Intervention
Two Ways to Solve Problems: Algorithm vs. Heuristic
• Algorithm. An explicit step-by-step procedure for
producing a solution to a given problem.
Example: Multiplying 6 x 2
• Heuristic. A rule of thumb or approach which
may help in solving a problem, but is not
guaranteed to find a solution. Heuristics are
exploratory in nature.
Example: Using a map to find an appropriate
route to a location.
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Response to Intervention
MODERN DARYOLS RECIPE (ALGORITHM):
As Knowledge Base Grows,
Heuristic Approaches
(Exploratory, Open-Ended
Guidelines to Solving a Problem)
Can Sometimes Turn into
Algorithms (Fixed Rules for
Solving a Problem )
Example: Recipes Through History
DARYOLS: ORIGINAL14th
CENTURY ENGLISH RECIPE
(HEURISTIC):
Take cream of cow milk, or of
almonds; do there-to eggs with
sugar, saffron and salt. Mix it fair.
Do it in a pie shell of 2 inch deep;
bake it well and serve it forth.
INGREDIENTS
2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts
1 1/4 cups cold water
1 pinch saffron powder
5 eggs
1 teaspoon rose water
1/2 cup blanched almonds
1 cup half-and-half cream
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup white sugar
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Press pie crusts into
the bottom and up the sides of two 9 inch pie pans. Prick with a fork all over
to keep them from bubbling up. Bake pie crusts for about 10 minutes in the
preheated oven, until set but not browned. Set aside to cool.
Make an almond milk by placing almonds in the container of a food
processor. Process until finely ground, then add water, and pulse just to
blend. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes, then strain through a cheesecloth.
Measure out 1 cup of the almond milk, and mix with half and half. Stir in the
saffron and cinnamon, and set aside.
Place the eggs and sugar in a saucepan, and mix until well blended. Place
the pan over low heat, and gradually stir in the almond milk mixture and
cinnamon. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture begins to
thicken. When the mixture is thick enough to evenly coat the back of a
metal spoon, stir in rose water and remove from heat. Pour into the cooled
pie shells….
Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the center is set, but the
top is not browned. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until serving.
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Response to Intervention
RTI is a Work in Progress: Some I\Areas Can Be Managed Like
an Algorithm While Others Require a Heuristic Approch
• Reading Fluency. Can be approached as a fixed algorithm.
– DIBELS allows universal screening and progress-monitoring
– DIBELS benchmarks give indication of student risk status
– Classroom-friendly research-based fluency building interventions
have been validated
• Study Skills. A complex set of skills whose problem-solving
approach resembles a heuristic.
– Student’s basic set of study skills must be analyzed
– The intervention selected will be highly dependent on the
hypothesized reason(s) for the student’s study difficulties
– The quality of the research on study-skills interventions varies and is
still in development
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Response to Intervention
“The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
--Voltaire
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Response to Intervention
RTI: Listening to the ‘Teacher’s Voice’…
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Response to Intervention
1. What are the likely
reason(s) for the student’s
academic skill or performance
deficit(s)?
Key Questions About Implementing
Classroom Interventions
2. What research-based
interventions best match the
student’s needs?
7. How can we assess
the quality of the
intervention ‘followthrough’?
6. What are ways we
can motivate students
so that they will be
motivated to engage in
the intervention plan?
3. Where can we find the
resources necessary to
implement the intervention
plan?
5. How can we
4. How can the intervention
best be ‘packaged’ to
increase the likelihood that it
will be done right?
support teachers as
they implement the
plan in the
classroom?
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Response to Intervention
Big Ideas: Student Social & Academic Behaviors
Are Strongly Influenced by the Instructional Setting
(Lentz & Shapiro, 1986)
• Students with learning problems do not exist in
isolation. Rather, their instructional environment
plays an enormously important role in these
students’ eventual success or failure
Source: Lentz, F. E. & Shapiro, E. S. (1986). Functional assessment of the academic environment. School Psychology Review,
15, 346-57.
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Response to Intervention
Big Ideas: Learn Unit (Heward, 1996)
The three essential elements of effective student learning include:
1. Academic Opportunity to Respond. The student is presented with
a meaningful opportunity to respond to an academic task. A question posed by
the teacher, a math word problem, and a spelling item on an educational computer
‘Word Gobbler’ game could all be considered academic opportunities to respond.
2. Active Student Response. The student answers the item, solves the problem
presented, or completes the academic task. Answering the teacher’s question,
computing the answer to a math word problem (and showing all work), and typing
in the correct spelling of an item when playing an educational computer game are
all examples of active student responding.
3. Performance Feedback. The student receives timely feedback about whether his
or her response is correct—often with praise and encouragement. A teacher
exclaiming ‘Right! Good job!’ when a student gives an response in class, a student
using an answer key to check her answer to a math word problem, and a
computer message that says ‘Congratulations! You get 2 points for correctly
spelling this word!” are all examples of performance feedback.
Source: Heward, W.L. (1996). Three low-tech strategies for increasing the frequency of active student response during group
instruction. In R. Gardner, D. M.S ainato, J. O. Cooper, T. E. Heron, W. L. Heward, J. W. Eshleman,& T. A. Grossi (Eds.), Behavior
analysis in education: Focus on measurably superior instruction (pp.283-320). Pacific Grove, CA:Brooks/Cole.
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Response to Intervention
Big Ideas: The Four Stages of Learning Can Be Summed
Up in the ‘Instructional Hierarchy’ pp. 92, 103
(Haring et al., 1978)
Student learning can be thought of as a multi-stage process. The
universal stages of learning include:
• Acquisition: The student is just acquiring the skill.
• Fluency: The student can perform the skill but
must make that skill ‘automatic’.
• Generalization: The student must perform the skill
across situations or settings.
• Adaptation: The student confronts novel task
demands that require that the student adapt a
current skill to meet new requirements.
Source: Haring, N.G., Lovitt, T.C., Eaton, M.D., & Hansen, C.L. (1978). The fourth R: Research in the classroom. Columbus,
OH: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co.
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Response to Intervention
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Response to Intervention
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Response to Intervention
Instructional Hierarchy: Stages of Learning
Acquisition: Effective Intervention Ideas
• Teacher actively demonstrates target skill
• Teacher uses ‘think-aloud’ strategy-- especially for
thinking skills that are otherwise covert
• Student has models of correct performance to consult
as needed (e.g., correctly completed math problems on
board)
• Student gets feedback about correct performance
• Student receives praise, encouragement for effort
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Response to Intervention
Instructional Hierarchy: Stages of Learning
Fluency: Effective Intervention Ideas
• Teacher structures learning activities to give student
opportunity for active (observable) responding
• Student has frequent opportunities to drill (direct repetition
of target skill) and practice (blending target skill with other
skills to solve problems)
• Student gets feedback on fluency and accuracy of
performance
• Student receives praise, encouragement for increased
fluency
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Response to Intervention
Instructional Hierarchy: Stages of Learning
Generalization: Effective Intervention Ideas
• Teacher structures academic tasks to require that the
student use the target skill regularly in assignments.
• Student receives encouragement, praise, reinforcers for
using skill in new settings, situations
• If student confuses target skill with similar skill(s), the
student is given practice items that force him/her to
correctly discriminate between similar skills
• Teacher works with parents to identify tasks that the student
can do outside of school to practice target skill
• Student gets periodic opportunities to review, practice target
skill to ensure maintenance
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Response to Intervention
Instructional Building Blocks…
Adaption: Effective Intervention Ideas
• Teacher helps student to articulate the ‘big ideas’ or core
element(s) of target skill that the student can modify to face
novel tasks, situations (e.g., fractions, ratios, and
percentages link to the ‘big idea’ of the part in relation to the
whole; ‘Thank you’ is part of a larger class of polite speech)
• Train for adaptation: Student gets opportunities to practice
the target skill with modest modifications in new situations,
settings with encouragement, corrective feedback, praise,
other reinforcers.
• Encourage student to set own goals for adapting skill to
new and challenging situations
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Response to Intervention
Big Ideas: Academic Delays Can Be
a Potent Cause of Behavior
Problems
(Witt, Daly, & Noell, 2000)
Student academic problems cause many
school behavior problems.
“Whether [a student’s] problem is a behavior problem or an
academic one, we recommend starting with a functional
academic assessment, since often behavior problems occur
when students cannot or will not do required academic work.”
Source: Witt, J. C., Daly, E. M., & Moell, G. (2000). Functional assessments: A step-by-step guide to solving academic and
behavior problems. Longmont, CO: Sopris West, p. 13
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Response to Intervention
‘Elbow Group’ Activity: What Are Your School’s Top
Academic Intervention Needs?
In your group:
1. Discuss the top 3 academic
intervention concerns that you each
have about students in your building or
district.
2. Note any common themes of
intervention needs identified by
multiple members of your group.
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