Response to Intervention and
Instruction
ED 584
NOVEMBER 29, 2012
BY: SHAWNA ADES, DEVIN BRIERLY, SARAH
COLEMAN, SHERRI DALLAS, MISSY DHARMA,
JESSY MEEK, MAGGIE ORZESKE, LAUREN
PULLIUM, AND MARBETH SHIELL
Multidisciplinary Team Meeting
What is RTI?
 Early intervention and




prevention
Interventions at various
levels of intensity
Assessment
Collaboration
Researched-based
teachings and
interventions
Instructional Tiers of RTI
Tier 1
 Designed for all students
 Researched-based instruction and strategies
 90 minutes or more a day for literacy
 60 minutes or more a day for math
 Assessment
 Instruction provided by general ducation Teacher
 Delivered in general education classroom
Components of Tier II Instruction
Components of Tier III Instruction
RTI and Assessment
Personalized Learner Assessment
 Often given at the beginning of the year
 Offers information about:
 Student’s family
 Student’s interest
 Background knowledge
 Learning styles
 Favorite/least favorite subjects
Examples of Personalized Learners Assessments
 Student Interest Surveys
 Coat of Arms
 What Makes A Great Teacher
 Learning Styles Inventory
 Parent Checklists
 Teacher Observation Forms
Academic Assessment
 Screening
 Diagnostic Evaluation
 Progress Monitoring
 Outcome Assessment
Screening
 Screening is a quick assessment of student’s
understanding and gauges a learner’s knowledge and
cruicial abilities, such as reading and math. (Esteves,
Whitten & Woodrow, 2009)
 Occurs a minimum of three times a year.
 Screening is key in the RTI process given it’s emphasis
on early intervention.
 Screening tools:




DIBELS
Running Record
Star Math
Star Reading
Diagnostic Evaluation
 Diagnostic evaluation can provide insight into a
student’s individual academic challenges and
strengths. Knowing this information is vital in
identifying appropriate interventions (Esteves,
Whitten, & Woodrow, 2009).
 Examples of Diagnostic Evaluation



Woodcock-Johnson III
Wechsler Fundamentals: Academic Skills
Process Assessment of the Learner - Math
Progress Monitoring
 Progress monitoring is regular and frequent
assessment to determine if learners are advancing.
This form of assessment is important because it
alerts educators when changes to the educational
program are needed because what is currently being
used isn’t working (Esteves, Whitten, & Woodrow,
2009).
 Examples of Progress Monitoring:



Curriculum-based Measurements (CBMs)
AIMSweb
Developmental Reading Assessment – Second Edition (DRA2)
Example of Progress Monitoring
Outcome Assessment
 Outcome assessments can be used to document or gauge
overall effectiveness of instruction. This summative form
of assessment is given at the end of a unit of instruction
to determine if learners have met academic objectives.
Outcome assessments demonstrate proficiency and
growth over an extended amount of time (Esteves,
Whitten, & Woodrow, 2009).
 Examples of outcome assessment:




End of the unit exams
Student projects
Classroom presentations
Pre-test and Post-test assessments (CBA)
Adaptations of Assessments
 It is important to consistently select, adapt, and modify assessments to
accommodate the needs and abilities of the students.
 Examples Conduct an assessment in a students primary language
 Give the students extended time
 Allow the students to orally report information rather than
writing it down
 It is important to consistently develop and modify the individualized
assessment strategies based on the students characteristics.

Examples Present assessment in small groups or individually
 Read portions of assessments out loud
 Provide alternate means of knowledge representation including
posters, skits, or group projects
Assessments and Individuals Other than the
Normative Population
 When using standardized or norm referenced
assessments, it is important to note that reliability
and validity may be questionable

ExamplesLatino adolescent who appears to be acculturated but is more
proficient in Spanish than English may have more difficulty taking
a timed test administered in English.
 Different experiential background affects interpretation of
information on the test.

Assessments and Individuals Other than the
Normative Population
 Criterion referenced assessments (pass/fail or based on
mastery of skill) although more appropriate for ELLs also
raise the questions of reliability and validity

Example

Language screening test not designed for learners who have
different first-language exposure
 Criterion referenced assessments help identify specific
areas to focus on
 The most appropriate and informative way to assess ELL
students is multi-stepped including criterion referenced
assessment, prior background knowledge, family history,
translation and/or adaptation of standardized assessments
Interpretation of ELL Students Performance
on Assessments
 ELL students who perform poorly on assessments
due to lack of understanding can be mislabeled or
wrongly identified as learning disabled.
 This results in the students not receiving the correct
services, poor academic performance, retention, low
self-esteem, and lack of interest in academics.
Legal and Ethical Considerations
 Under IDEA it is the schools responsibility to
identify students with a suspected disability in a
timely manner
 IDEA states:

“In determining whether a child has a specific learning
disability, a local educational agency may use a process that
determines if the child responds to scientific research-based
intervention as a part of the evaluation procedures described
in paragraphs (2) and (3).
Legal and Ethical Considerations
 Fidelity in Implementation:





Student Responsiveness- How engaged and involved are the
students in this intervention or activity?
Adherence- How well do you “stick to the plan?”
Exposure- How often does a student receive and intervention?
Quality of Delivery- How well was the intervention delivered?
Were good teaching practices used?
Program differentiation- How well do you differentiate one
intervention to another?
 If the RTI team suspects a disability a referral must be
made and parent or guardian consent obtained prior to
initiation of a special education evaluation.
Legal and Ethical Considerations
 Parent’s rights
 1. Immediately request and sign your written consent to a
comprehensive psycho-educational evaluation performed by a
school psychologist.
 2. Your Written Consent will trigger the special education
(“IEP”) process. The school district will have 60 days to
complete the evaluation and complete the RtI process.
 3. At the end of the 60 day period, the school must invite you
to a meeting when the team will review both the RtI progress
monitoring data and the psycho-ed. evaluation to determine if
your child is eligible for special education services.
 Parents continue to have the right to request a
referral for special education evaluation at any time.
Family Partnerships
The Law: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA 2004)
IDEA 2004, Congress stressed: “strengthening the
role and responsibility of parents and ensuring that
families of such children have meaningful
opportunities to participate in the education of their
children at school and at home.” 20 U.S.C.
1401( c)(5)(B)
Family Partnerships
 Families & teachers work together right away when student is
struggling; all try to understand the problems
 Communicates regularly with parents through phone calls,
meetings, and/or a communication notebook
 Provokes suggestions for making instruction more culturally and
personally relevant for students

Cultural and linguistic differences are directly addressed because:



Authentic partnering creates common ground;
Students see their worlds working together;
There is a forum to understand the culture of the family and the culture of the
school
 Learns about student’s strengths and weaknesses from parents
Family Partnerships
 RtI family and community partnering fosters information-
sharing, early intervention, and home-school learning
coordination - so there is more time for student instruction
and practice.
 Partnering with parents can have a significant
impact on:





Students’ grades and test scores
Attendance
Behavior and social skills
Graduation
Pursuit of postsecondary education
Family Partnerships
30-Year Research Summary: Benefits of Family-School Collaboration
 For Students:
 Higher achievement, more homework completion, come to school
more and stay in school longer, observing more similarities between
home and school
 For Families:
 Becoming more supportive of child and teachers, becoming more
confident in how to help child learn, learning more about education
programs
 For Teachers and Schools:
 Improved teacher morale, higher ratings of teachers by parents,
parents support schools and bond issues
(Christenson& Sheridan, 2001; Epstein et al, 2002)
Monitoring the Implementation of Interventions
TESOL: 4a1, 4a2, 4c1
CEC: IGC4S12, ICC8S8
Assessment
 By regularly assessing students teachers can identify :
- which students need more help
- which are likely to make good progress
without extra help
- which students need their learning
accelerated
Main Objectives
 To identify students at the beginning of the year who are at-risk or who are
experiencing difficulties and who may need extra instruction or intensive
interventions.
 To monitor students progress during the year to determine whether :
- at-risk students are making adequate progress
- identify students who are falling behind
- identify students who need to be challenged
 To inform instructional planning in order to meet the most critical needs of
individual students.
 To evaluate whether the instruction or intervention provided is powerful enough to
help all students achieve grade-level standards by the end of each year.
Progress Monitoring
 Brief assessments given periodically (every 9 weeks for my





kindergarteners)
Assessment focuses in areas that students need to master by
the end of the year in order to meet grade level standards.
Results from these help teachers decide students that need to
receive interventions
Based on these results teachers can develop intervention plans
in response to students needs
After every assessment the teacher goes through and identifies
students that need interventions in each area
Briefly explain what that looks like in my classroom (bring in
copy of assessment)
Teaching to Learner Characteristics
 It is very important to base your teaching off of your
students’:





English and learning proficiency
Learning styles
Cultural background
Learning challenges
Prior experiences and knowledge
 This provides powerful instructional platform for
learning.
Teaching to Learner Characteristics (cont.)
 When children are struggling, giving them intensified
instruction directed towards their learning styles,
specified towards their learning challenges and
enhanced by their prior experiences will allow them to
connect to the material in a stronger way.


Student-centered learning
Project-based learning
 When planning lessons plan:
 Differentiate
 Create diverse and interactive lessons that all students can be
apart of at their independent level
Bias in Assessments
 Bias in a standardized assessment is the
presence of an item within the test that results
in differential performance for two individuals
of the same ability but of different gender,
ethnicity, or religion.
 Reform for biased assessments began in the
1970’s-80’s when testing showed massive
gaps between racial groups, social strata and
regions of the country.
 Results in major overrepresentation of
minority groups in special education (Del
Rosario Basterra, 1998).
Types of Bias
 Language
 Cultural
 Gender
 Ability
Effects of Bias
 Overrepresentation of minority groups in
special education - perpetuates systematic
racism in our schools (Castenell & Castenell,
1998).
 Loss of confidence in their ability to learn
 Testing becomes painful and humiliating
 The state wide reduction of our expectations
of test results for minority groups

Florida just adopted race based academic goals for
math and reading. African Americans are given the
lowest goal to achieve based on their current
performance. Imagine what that does to a child’s
psyche.
Language Bias in Assessments
- Language bias is a major concern for the ELL
student (if they struggle with English then a
simple reading test will inevitably assess their
English language skills as opposed to their
comprehension skills (Del Rosario Basterra,
1998).
- Language bias can also occur when a student
speaks a different dialect of English.
-
Ex. Regional Bias- In Wisconsin water fountain =
bubbler.
Language Bias (cont.)
-Language bias also occurs not only when the
student cannot read the questions adequately
but when they cannot give the appropriate
response because they lack English language
skills.
Culture Bias in Assessments
 Culture bias affects anyone who is not from
the dominant culture (McGinley, 2002).
Ex. White privilege- a race theory that focuses on
the advantages that white people acrue from their
position in society vs. the societal disadvantage that
people of color experience. White culture is the
“norm” Groups of color are expected to achieve this
“norm.”
 Ex. Chinese education vs. American education
 Children raised in Appalachia vs. Children raised in
NYC

Culture Bias (cont.)
 Low income students
 Immigrants students
 Inner city students
 Rural students
 To assume that this
variety of students
share a “common
knowledge” or share
the same idea of which
knowledge is most
important is to impose
cultural bias.
Gender Bias in Assessments
 This bias is typically seen in standardized tests
taken in high school
SAT’s, ACT’s- Phyllis Rosser completed a study
regarding the SAT’s and women in the early 90’s.
SAT’s are meant to predict student’s success rate in
college. Rosser found that women in general score
lower on the SAT than men, yet receive higher
grades in college (Rosser, 1989).
 As a result women are often discriminated against
in scholarship competitions based on these biased
test scores.

Ability Bias in Assessments
 Assessments that are not modified, or
accommodated to the students
disability/ability.
 Comparing these students to their regularly
developing peers.
 Often times these students are not taken into
consideration when standardized tests are
normed.
Digital Tools and Resources in the
Classroom
 Digital tools are being used more and more
everyday to support education
 Because students lives are almost completely
integrated with technology, schools have had
to catch up.

Everything from online forums for student
discussion, Promethean boards, Power Point
presentations, Ipad programs, Youtube, and entire
schools integrated with technology.
Digital Tools in Use
 Many schools have completely replaced their
textbooks with E-books via the Ipad. Most Ebooks are a fraction of the cost of textbooks,
which also increases their resources.
 Interactive Whiteboards
 Social Media- Some teachers use twitter
accounts to alert their students of up the
minute changes
 Online lesson plans, and recorded lectures
 Assistive technology like mobile
communication devices
 Graphing tools, speech to text, calculators
Digital Curricula
 Customized, comprehensive, collections of
digital resources that teachers can use in the
classroom
 Ex. CurriculumLoft.com is a web based
platform for storing and sharing all digital
academic content, aligning them with
state/core standards, and connected with your
district. Also allows you to create a custom
curriculum with the digital materials you use
in class everyday.
Using Digital Tools and Curricula to Connect
with the World
 Skyping with your sister school in another
country
 Podcasts- www.thisibelieve.org
 Iowa City-City of Literature has an iPhone app
that provides text, audio and visual content
about Iowa city authors based on your GPS
location.
 Creating a blog based on field trip experiences
and sharing them with other students.
Negatives of Digital Tools and Curricula
 Rural Community Gap
 Eye Strain (Sheehy, 2011)
 Social Media and Text Slang
 Technology is limited to information gathering and
word processing
 Can be more teacher-centered than student centered.
Reading and Vocabulary Strategies
 In the RTI process, there are many strategies that are
involved in reading and vocabulary.
 1. Bleep it: when students are reading out loud or silently and the




come across a word that they do not know, they would say BEEP in
place of the word.
2. Frame it: When students try and figure out what the word they do
not understand they isolate the word from the rest of the sentence by
placing their fingers around the word .
3. Begin it: Students look at the beginning of the word.
4. Split it: Next they divide the word into syllables and pronounce each
syllable in the word.
5. Find it: If students are unable to figure out the pronunciation of the
word they would look it up in the dictionary.
Consider prior experience
 When choosing an assessment on a child, there are
many things that you need to take into
consideration.
 You as the special education teacher will need to look
into the child’s family life, use of language, their
prior education and also the educational experiences
they have had.
 Also check to see if they have had a prior assessment.
Mock RTI Meeting
 Going through 2 papers during the meeting
 RTI Student Referral Form – filled out by gen ed teacher
 RTI Collaboration Log – filled out by the recorder (and anyone
in the meeting that wants to take notes)
Mock RTI Meeting (cont.)
Roles: Played By:
Facilitator: Sherri Dallas (keeps meeting running smoothly)
Referring Teacher: Missy Dharma (brings information about student)
Recorder: Sarah Coleman (writes down everything said during the meeting)
Case Manager: Marbeth Shiell (makes sure interventions are implemented)
Special Educator: Maggie Orzeske (will support and give advice and ideas)
Principal: Sherri Dallas (Public agency representative, represent the school)
Counselor: Devin Brierly (be there as a support for the child and parents)
Art Teacher: Lauren Pulliam (there to give an alternative view)
ELL Teacher: Marbeth Sheill (there as a language expert and as another teacher)
Psychologist: Jessy Meek (there to give an alternative view and inquire about
academic performance)
 Introductions (if there are outside representatives








there)
Facilitator will state why we are having the meeting
Referring teacher will identify academic strengths
and also any strengths he/she sees in the child
outside of school
The team will analyze the challenges
The team will establish an academic baseline and
learning preferences
The referring teacher will share what interventions
he/she has tried
The team will brainstorm teaching strategies and
interventions
The team will develop/discuss an intervention plan
and an evaluation plan
The team will establish a case manager to follow up
on the case and make sure the interventions are
carried through.
English Language Learners
vs. Special Education Issues
 Normal Second Language Acquisition
 Taking longer to process
 Omits words or adds words
 Trouble following directions
 Avoids writing or reading or is slow
 Cannot commit multiplication tables or simple vocabulary to
memory
 Does not hear fine differences in words (pin vs. Pen)
 Freezes when expected to perform on demand
 (LOOKS JUST LIKE LD!)
English Language Learners
vs. Special Education Issues
 What to look for and remember before diagnosing. . .
 There are no Valid standardized assessments for ELL Students
 Need many different data sources
 Discrepancies Native Language
 Tendency to choose intrinsic explanations

Are you looking for a flaw in the student or biases in teaching
practices?
Research-Based Instruction for ELL Students
 Lesson Plan
Adjectives
This packet contains lesson plans, vocabulary cards and a
short matching game for 10 basic adjectives.
Created by: Jenny Schell
Lesson Plans
Monday – Teach the emotions on the vocabulary cards.
Tuesday – Read a story featuring one of the emotions such as “Sheila
Rae the Brave” by Kevin Henkes.
Have the students orally complete the following sentence frames with
a partner.
Student 1: Is _________ _________?
(classmates name)
(emotion)
Student 2: Yes, ____ is ____ because ____.
(he/she)
(emotion)
Wednesday – Read a different story featuring one of the emotion.
Have the students orally complete the following sentence frame.
When I _______ I felt ________.
(emotion)
What is ELL?
 Federal Definition
A person that has a challenge speaking, reading,
writing, or understanding English, which impacts
their learning in a classroom taught in English.
This individual is not born in the US; their first
language is not English; is a Native American,
Alaska Native, or from other outlying areas; from
migrant families.
Thursday – Read a different story featuring one of the emotion.
Have the students complete and write down the following sentence
frame.
Since I ______ I felt _________.
(emotion)
Friday – Students should share the sentence frame they wrote on
Thursday with the rest of the class.
The matching game can be played for reading reinforcement
throughout the week.
friendly
mean
thoughtful
rude
shy
helpful
kind
mischievous
bossy
nice
friendly
mean
thoughtful
rude
shy
kind
helpful
mischievous
bossy
nice
Lesson Plan Revised
 Different Output
 Reduces anxiety and can ease processing
 Repetition- “Sight Words”
 Creates stronger learning paths in the brain because students
are doing the activity over and over
 Have students act out emotions
 Movement increases neural connections in the brain. Students
have more ways to make these learning connections and to
retrieve information
Materials
 This RtI presentation is available on blackboard as
well as hard copies here today.
 The resources we used during the mock meeting are
available on blackboards as well as some hard
copies here today
 The video we used was in thanks to Sheri’s school
and parent’s permission to share today
References
Brescia, W & Fortune, J.C. (1988). Standardized testing of American
Indian students. Retrieved from
www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/recordDetail?accno=296813
Castenell, Jr., L.A. & Castenell, M.E. (1998). Testing the test: Normreferenced testing and low-income blacks. Retrieved from
www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/recordDetail?accno=EJ390265
Del Rosario Basterra, M. (1998)-1999). Using standardized tests to make
high-stake decisions on English-language learners: dilemmas and
critical issues. Retrieved from www.maec.org/Old/ereview1.html
Miller, P., Ponterotto, J., & Suzuki, L. (2001). Handbook of Multicultural
Assessment: Clinical, Psychological, and Educational Applications.
San Fancisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc.
McGinley, S. (2002). Standardized testing and cultural bias. Retrieved
from http://www.fhsu.edu/~rbscott/news/dec/story15.htm
Rosser, P. (1989). The SAT gender gap; Identifying the causes. Center for
Women Policy Studies. Washington, DC.
References
Sheehy, K. (2011). Rural students lost in connectivity gap. USANews. Retrieved from
www.usanews.com/education
Sherman, J. (2011). Signing for success: Using
American sin language to
learn sight vocabulary. SRATE Journal, 20 (2), 31-38
Wake, J., Dysthe, O., Mjelstad, S. (2007). New and changing teacher roles in higher
education in a digital age. Educational Technology & Society, 10(1), 40-51.
Whitten, E., Esteves, K., & Woodrow, A. (2009). RTI Success: Proven Tools and
Strategies for Schools and Classrooms. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing.
 http://makingschoolwork.org/?p=235 (2009) Florida School Partners, P.L. If
RtI Isn’t Working for Your Child: Knowing Your Legal Rights
 “Fidelity of Implementation within an RTI Framework” Retrieved from
National Center on Response to Intervention Webinar October 20, 2009. The
University of Kansas. Daryl Mellard with Christy Khan, Melinda McKnight, and
Sara Prewitt
 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/ELL-Vocabulary-Adjectives