Response to Intervention Energizing Teachers About Your School’s RTI Team Jim Wright

Response to Intervention

www.interventioncentral.org

Energizing Teachers About Your School’s RTI Team Jim Wright

www.interventioncentral.org


www.interventioncentral.org 2

• believe referring to the RTI Team is a sign of failure• do not think that your team has any ideas that they

haven’t already tried• believe that an RTI referral will mean a lot more

work for them (vs. referring directly to Special Education)

• don’t want to ‘waste time’ on kids with poor motivation or behavior problems when ‘more deserving’ learners go unnoticed and unrewarded

• don’t want to put effort into learning a new initiative that may just fade away in a couple of years

Teachers may be reluctant to refer students to your RTI Team because they…



• can engage in collegial conversations about better ways to help struggling learners

• learn instructional and behavior-management strategies that they can use with similar students in the future

• increase their teaching time• are able to access more intervention resources and

supports in the building than if they work alone • feel less isolated when dealing with challenging kids• have help in documenting their intervention efforts

Teachers may be motivated to refer students to your RTI Team because they…



“Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”

--Margaret Mead



RTI Team Strategies to Win Over Reluctant Teachers

(from Cialdini, 1984)



Reciprocation When people are given a gift or have a service

performed for them, they feel obligated to pay it back.



Reciprocation: Team Tips • Stuff teacher mailboxes with intervention tips• Sponsor teacher workshops with handouts &

refreshments• Accommodate a teacher’s schedule to hold RTI

Team meetings• Offer to collect ‘baseline’ information on a student—

share results with teacher• Compile list of RTI Team members’ services– invite

teacher to select 1 or 2



Consistency People strive, often unconsciously, to maintain consistency

between their opinions or attitudes and their actions.



Consistency: Team Tips • Invite a reluctant teacher to an RTI Team

meeting to ‘support’ a colleague• Sign up teachers as ‘consultant

members’ of the RTI Team • Ask a teacher to keep RTI Team referral forms or

other RTI Team resources in classroom to share with colleagues

• Set up contest for ‘best intervention ideas’• Showcase ideas from reluctant teachers



Social Proof People are influenced to take an action when

they see that others like them are also doing it.



Social Proof: Team Tips • Encourage teachers to give RTI Team

testimonials at faculty meetings• Make sure that all grade levels

are represented on the RTI Team • Share successful RTI Team intervention ideas with

other members of a referring teacher’s team• Bring in RTI Team speakers from another school

who resemble underrepresented groups• Share general RTI Team statistics with staff



Liking People are motivated to carry out the requests of those

whom they like or with whom they feel ‘connected’.



Liking: Team Tips • Ask satisfied teachers to invite a

friend to refer to the RTI Team • Assign RTI Team members to invite

friends, acquaintances to an RTI Team meeting• Encourage referring teachers to bring friends,

teaching partners to an RTI Team meeting• Praise teachers at an RTI Team meeting for positive

teaching, management qualities• Seek out popular, respected staff to serve on the RTI

Team



Authority People respect and follow those with authority

(organizational, experiential, professional).



Authority: Team Tips • Have principal encourage new

teachers to refer to the RTI Team • Invite building- or district-level

administrators to make positive comments about the RTI Team to faculty

• Have teachers with experiential, professional authority to give positive testimonials about the RTI Team

• Send ‘Thank You’ cards signed by principal• Ask outside presenters to ‘plug’ the RTI Team



Scarcity When items, resources or opportunities are in short

supply, people value them more (especially when competing for them).



Scarcity: Team Tips • Establish a cut-off date for

accepting RTI Team referrals• Limit the number of RTI Team referrals

that your team will accept in a year• Publicize the limited slots available at key referral

times (e.g., end of marking period)• Give away limited-edition packets of intervention

resources at RTI Team meetings• Sign up ‘consultant member’ to the RTI Team but

limit the number of meetings that he or she attends



References• Cialdini, R.B. (1984). Influence: How and why people agree to things. New York: William

Morrow & Company, Inc.

Documents

Response to Intervention Energizing Teachers About Your School’s RTI Team Jim Wright