Amanda Witt
SPED 200
P. Burgess
April 12, 2011
Response to Intervention- Lara Johnson
Learner Description
Lara Johnson is a third grade student at Monroe Elementary School. She is one of the
thirty students in Sara Smith’s classroom. Lara began her year at a great start. On her report
card, it shows that she was earning all B’s and only one C for the first quarter grades. Since then
Lara has been on the decline in her studies. Not one of her letter grades has increased since the
first quarter, all of them have dropped. Looking and reviewing the grade report more in depth, I
have noticed that her daily attendance has changed since the beginning of school. In the first
quarter, Lara only missed a half-day of school. However, in the third quarter she has missed a
total of five days. Attendance is very important for a young student in elementary school.
Throughout the school day, a student can miss out on an abundance of important information if
he or she is absent. This can affect a student’s progress in the classroom.
Lara Johnson has been tested through AIMS Web several times since the winter of her
first grade year. AIMS Web is an assessment used to test students’ knowledge of reading and
language arts. This testing is liked by many educators because it increases the teacher’s time for
instruction. This assessment can be quickly used and results are provided almost instantly. Even
though Lara is below average for her age, she shows improvement throughout the year. On her
STAR reading test, Lara’s reading level is at the 25th percentile for her grade. And also her
Grade Equivalent (GE) score is a 2.1which means she is looked at, based on this test score, as a
beginning second grade student in the first month of schooling.
Tier I
In Tier I, the general education teacher is involved. In Lara Johnson’s case, the teacher
would be Sara Smith. In this first stage of RTI, all students need to be tested approximately three
times a year. After each test is completed, the majority of students (eighty percent) will be on
the right track to meet their goals. The students that are on the right track will continue with the
regular curriculum provided by Mrs. Smith. With this testing, the general education teacher
should note the higher performing students in hopes to help with enrichment if possible.
During this first tier of RTI, Mrs. Smith should use different interventions for her
students. Asking the students to summarize a story they have just read, independent silent
reading, and also buddy reading are different ways Mrs. Smith can provide to help her students’
reading skills increase. For Lara, this level of instruction was not enough for her. She could
summarize a story for Mrs. Smith. When it came to silent reading by herself, Lara did not want
to participate. Since Lara’s AIMS Web scores were well below average, I can only assume that
Lara does not understand what she is reading. Some words she knows and can pronounce very
well, but when it comes to comprehension and knowledge of the words, Lara seems confused.
Since Lara seems to not understand and comprehend at this level, she is moved to Tier II.
Tier II
Tier II is a little more in depth than Tier I. At this level of RTI, Mrs. Smith is still the
teacher in charge. She refers to other trained professionals for their opinions about different
strategies that can be used in the classroom. This tier pinpoints the students who are moderately
at risk for needing special education. This includes about fifteen percent of the students and the
training in provided in small groups of two to five students. These students are required to be
tested monthly and also have an additional thirty minutes per day instruction. During this level,
parents are notified of their child’s instruction.
In Tier II, many different interventions can be used. For example, re-reading of the text,
performing or acting our scenes in the story, or putting together a book of all classmates’ work.
Also, teachers need to provide feedback to the student that is at this level of intervention. When
a student is at Tier II, they are monitored monthly. Differentiated instruction or the use of a
multisensory approach would be used in terms of progress monitoring every month. For Lara,
this tier of RTI was not enough for her. She needs more interventions that are more intense and
instruction that occurs more often.
Tier III
In this final tier of RTI, only five percent of students are served at this highest level of
instruction. If a student reaches this level, a requirement of weekly progress monitoring is
performed. Students are in small groups when instructed or most of the time, he or she is on a
one-on-one basis with the teacher. Depending on the student, the instruction could last anywhere
from thirty to ninety minutes a day with the specific specialized teacher. In this final stage of
RTI, the parents must be notified again about their child and their progression.
Direct questioning and response, breaking a task into smaller parts, repetition, use of
technology, and modeled problem solving are different interventions that can be used in this tier
level. A trained teacher, most likely Mrs. Smith or another trained paraprofessional, would take
the role in giving the progress monitoring every week.
Recommendations
Nine weeks are left in the school year and I think Lara needs to stay in Tier III. Lara’s
parents are happy with the services she is receiving in RTI, so we are going to keep her at Tier
III until the end of the year. Her growth needs to show more improvement for Lara to go back
into Tier II. Lara needs to show more of an increase on her AIMS testing and needs to be at least
at an average score. . I would like to see Lara have a modest growth rate of one word per week.
This would make her words read correctly jump to fifty-one words at the end of this nine weeks
(the end of the school year). If she does not achieve this by the end of the year, I think we need
to recommend special education services for the next school year. Lara’s parents can work with
her over the summer individually. If her mother and father do not have enough time to work
with Lara one-on-one, then summer school or even a small reading program at the local library
can really help her improve.