Response to Intervention RTI for Elementary Schools: Cohorts 1 & 2 Update Jim Wright

Response to Intervention

www.interventioncentral.org

RTI for Elementary Schools: Cohorts 1 & 2 Update

Jim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org



Workshop Goals…RTI Planning Time

Sharing With Other Elementary Schools

Updates Regarding NYS RTI Expectations: Guidance Document

Updates Regarding RCSD District Implementation of RTI

Technical Assistance: Reading Comprehension Fix-Up Skills; Defensive Behavior Management; Data Collection



Key RTI Challenges1. Promoting Staff Understanding & Support for

RTI

2. Verifying that Strong ‘Core Instruction’ and Interventions Are Being Delivered in Classrooms

3. Using Screening Data to Identify Students at Risk for Academic or Behavioral Problems

4. Establishing a Strong RTI Team for Students Who Need a Problem-Solving Approach

5. Developing & Implementing Effective Tier 2/3 Intervention Programs

6. Ensuring That Interventions Are Carried Out With Fidelity


www.interventioncentral.org 4

RTI Assumption: Struggling Students Are ‘Typical’ Until Proven Otherwise…

RTI logic assumes that:– A student who begins to struggle in general education is typical,

and that– It is general education’s responsibility to find the instructional

strategies that will unlock the student’s learning potential

Only when the student shows through well-documented interventions that he or she has ‘failed to respond to intervention’ does RTI begin to investigate the possibility that the student may have a learning disability or other special education condition.



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.



RTI ‘Pyramid of Interventions’

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 1: Universal interventions. Available to all students in a classroom or school. Can consist of whole-group or individual strategies or supports.

Tier 2 Individualized interventions. Subset of students receive interventions targeting specific needs.

Tier 3: Intensive interventions. Students who are ‘non-responders’ to Tiers 1 & 2 are referred to the RTI Team for more intensive interventions.



Evaluating a Student’s ‘Non-Responder’ Status: An RTI

Checklist





Evaluating a Student’s ‘Non-Responder’ Status: An RTI Checklist

Interventions: Evidence-Based & Implemented With Integrity

• Tier 1: High-Quality Core Instruction• Tier 1: Classroom Intervention• Tier 2 & 3 Interventions: Minimum Number & Length• Tier 2 & 3 Interventions: Essential Elements• Tier 1, 2, & 3 Interventions: Intervention Integrity

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Academic Screenings: General Outcome Measures and Skill-Based Measures

• Selection of Academic Screening Measures• Local Norms Collected via Gradewide Academic

Screenings at Least 3 Times Per Year

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Dual Discrepancy Cut-Offs: Academic Skill Level and Student Rate of Improvement

• Cut-point Established to Define ‘Severely Discrepant’ Academic Performance

• Cut-Off Criterion Selected to Define Discrepant Slope

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Data Collection• Use of Both ‘Off-Level’ and Enrolled Grade-Level

Benchmarks & Progress-Monitoring Measures to Assess Student Skills and Growth

• Student Baseline Calculated• Student Goal Calculated• Regular Progress-Monitoring Conducted

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Application of RTI Decision Rules to a Particular Student Case

• Despite the Tier 2/3 Interventions Attempted, the Student’s Skills Continue to Fall Below the Boundary of ‘Severely Discrepant’ Academic Performance

• Despite the Tier 2/3 Interventions Attempted, the Student’s Rate of Improvement (Slope) Continues to Be Discrepant

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RTI for Cohorts 1 and 2: What Are Your Questions?

At your tables:• Discuss the key questions that you still have

about RTI implementation in your school.• Write down the TOP 1-2 questions that you

would like to have answered (or discussed) at today’s workshop.

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Challenge # 1: Promoting Staff Understanding & Support for RTI




“ ”“The tipping point is the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” (Gladwell, 2000; p. 12)

Sources: Gladwell, M. (2000). The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. Little, Brown and Company: NY.

Tipping point (sociology). (2010, February 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:52, March 1, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tipping_point_(sociology)&oldid=344548179

“ ”Tipping point: “any process in which, beyond a certain point, the rate at which the process increases dramatically.” (Tipping Point, 2010).



Q: What Conditions Support the Successful Implementation of RTI?:

• Continuing professional development to give teachers the skills to implement RTI and educate new staff because of personnel turnover.

• Administrators who assert leadership under RTI, including setting staff expectations for RTI implementation, finding the needed resources, and monitor ingthe fidelity of implementation.

• Proactive hiring of teachers who support the principles of RTI and have the skills to put RTI into practice in the classroom.

• The changing of job roles of teachers and support staff (school psychologists, reading specialists, special educators, etc.) to support the RTI model.

• Input from teachers and support staff (‘bottom-up’) about how to make RTI work in the school or district, as well as guidance from administration (‘top-down’).

Source: Fuchs, D., & Deshler, D. D. (2007). What we need to know about responsiveness to intervention (and shouldn’t be afraid to ask).. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 22(2),129–136.



Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: 7 Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI Interventions



Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: 7 Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI

Interventions• Lack of Skills. Teachers lack the skills necessary to

successfully implement academic or behavioral interventions in their content-area classrooms (Fisher, 2007; Kamil et al., 2008).

• Not My Job. Teachers define their job as providing content-area instruction. They do not believe that providing classwide or individual academic and behavioral interventions falls within their job description (Kamil et al., 2008).




Interventions(Cont.)

• No Time. Teachers do not believe that they have sufficient time available in classroom instruction to implement academic or behavioral interventions (Kamil et al., 2008; Walker, 2004).

• No Payoff. Teachers lack confidence that there will be an adequate instructional pay-off if they put classwide or individual academic or behavioral interventions into place in their content-area classroom (Kamil et al., 2008).




Interventions (Cont.)

• Loss of Classroom Control. Teachers worry that if they depart from their standard instructional practices to adopt new classwide or individual academic or behavior intervention strategies, they may lose behavioral control of the classroom (Kamil et al., 2008).

• ‘Undeserving Students’. Teachers are unwilling to invest the required effort to provide academic or behavioral interventions for unmotivated students (Walker, 2004) because they would rather put that time into providing additional attention to well-behaved, motivated students who are ‘more deserving’.




Interventions (Cont.)

• The Magic of Special Education. Content-area teachers regard special education services as ‘magic’ (Martens, 1993). According to this view, interventions provided to struggling students in the general-education classroom alone will be inadequate, and only special education services have the power to truly benefit those students.



Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: Seven Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI Literacy Interventions

1. Lack of Skills. Teachers lack the skills necessary to successfully implement academic or behavioral interventions in their content-area classrooms.

2. Not My Job. Teachers define their job as providing content-area instruction. They do not believe that providing classwide or individual academic and behavioral interventions falls within their job description.

3. No Time. Teachers do not believe that they have sufficient time available in classroom instruction to implement academic or behavioral interventions.

4. Insufficient Payoff. Teachers lack confidence that there will be an adequate instructional pay-off if they put classwide or individual academic or behavioral interventions into place in their content-area classroom.

5. Loss of Classroom Control. Teachers worry that if they depart from their standard instructional practices to adopt new classwide or individual academic or behavior intervention strategies, they may lose behavioral control of the classroom.

6. ‘Undeserving Students’. Teachers are unwilling to invest the required effort to provide academic or behavioral interventions for unmotivated students because they would rather put that time into providing additional attention to well-behaved, motivated students who are ‘more deserving’.

7. The Magic of Special Education. Content-area teachers regard special education services as ‘magic’. According to this view, interventions provided to struggling students in the general-education classroom alone will be inadequate, and only special education services have the power to truly benefit those students.



RTI Challenge: Promoting Staff Understanding & Support for RTI

• Discuss the degree to which your staff currently understand the RTI model and support it.

• What are some positive steps that your school has taken to improve staff understanding and support?

• What are significant challenges that must still be addressed in the area of staff understanding and support to reach a positive RTI ‘tipping point’?

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Challenge # 2: Verifying that Strong ‘Core Instruction’ and Interventions Are Being Delivered in Classrooms




Source: New York State Education Department. (October 2010). Response to Intervention: Guidance for New York State School Districts. Retrieved November 10, 2010, from http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/RTI/guidance-oct10.pdf; p. 12





RTI Challenge: Verifying that Strong ‘Core Instruction’ and Interventions Are Being Delivered in Classrooms

• Discuss the capacity of general-education teachers in your school to provide ‘appropriate instruction and research-based instructional interventions’ in their classrooms.

• What are some positive steps that your school has taken?

• What are significant challenges that must still be addressed in helping teachers to understand and support their role as classroom interventionists?

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Challenge # 3: Using Screening Data to Identify Students at Risk for Academic or Behavioral Problems





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Creating a School-Wide Screening Plan: Recommendations for ALL Schools

1. Ensure that any discussion about grade- or school- or district-wide adoption of RTI screening tools includes general education and special education input.

2. When adopting a screening tool, inventory all formal assessments administered in your school. Discuss whether any EXISTING assessments can be made optional or dropped whenever new screening tools are being added.

3. If possible, use screening tools found by the National Center on RTI to have ‘technical adequacy’.

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RTI Challenge: Adopting Schoolwide Screening Measures

• Discuss your school’s current status in identifying and adopting screening tools to proactively identify students at risk for academic or behavioral problems. (Remember that existing data—grades, attendance, behavior—can be analyzed periodically and used to ‘screen’ students at risk.)

• What are some positive steps that your school has taken?

• What are significant challenges in the identification and use of screeners that must still be addressed?

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Challenge # 4: Establishing a Strong RTI Team for Students Who Need a Problem-Solving Approach




Source: New York State Education Department. (October 2010). Response to Intervention: Guidance for New York State School Districts. Retrieved November 10, 2010, from http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/RTI/guidance-oct10.pdf; p25



Step 1: Assess Teacher Concerns 5 Mins

Step 2: Inventory Student Strengths/Talents 5 Mins

Step 3: Review Background/Baseline Data 5 Mins

Step 4: Select Target Teacher Concerns 5-10 Mins

Step 5: Set Academic and/or Behavioral Outcome Goals and Methods for Progress-Monitoring 5 Mins

Step 6: Design an Intervention Plan 15-20 Mins

Step 7: Plan How to Share Meeting Information with the Student’s Parent(s) 5 Mins

Step 8: Review Intervention & Monitoring Plans 5 Mins

RTI Team Consultative Process



RTI Team Roles

• Coordinator• Facilitator• Recorder• Time Keeper• Case Manager



RTI Challenge: Establishing a Strong RTI Team for Students Who Need a Problem-Solving Approach

• Discuss the current functioning of your RTI Problem-Solving Team.

• What are some positive steps that your school has taken to improve this team?

• What are significant challenges that must still be addressed to equip your RTI Team to work with teachers to create intensive and effective interventions?

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Challenge # 5: Developing & Implementing Effective Tier 2/3 Intervention Programs










Scheduling Elementary Tier 2 Interventions

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

Classroom 1 Classroom 2 Classroom 3Grade K

Classroom 1 Classroom 2 Classroom 3Grade 1





Anyplace Elementary School: RTI Daily Schedule

Option 3: ‘Floating RTI’:Gradewide Shared Schedule. Each grade has a scheduled RTI time across classrooms. No two grades share the same RTI time. Advantages are that outside providers can move from grade to grade providing push-in or pull-out services and that students can be grouped by need across different teachers within the grade.

9:00-9:30

9:45-10:15

10:30-11:00

12:30-1:00

1:15-1:45

2:00-2:30



RTI Challenge: Developing & Implementing Effective Tier 2/3 Intervention Programs

• Discuss the current range of Tier 2/3 supplemental intervention programs that your school currently has in place to address the most frequent student academic problems.

• What are some positive steps that your school has taken to develop and implement Tier 2/3 interventions?

• What are significant challenges that still remain?

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Challenge # 6: Ensuring That Interventions Are Carried Out With Fidelity




Source: New York State Education Department. (October 2010). Response to Intervention: Guidance for New York State School Districts. Retrieved November 10, 2010, from http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/RTI/guidance-oct10.pdf; p 42

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Assessing Intervention Integrity



Why Assess Intervention Integrity?

When a struggling student fails to respond adequately to a series of evidence-based interventions, that student is likely to face significant and potentially negative consequences, such as failing grades, long-term suspension from school, or even placement in special education.

It is crucial, then, that the school monitor the integrity with which educators implement each intervention plan so that it can confidently rule out poor or limited intervention implementation of the intervention as a possible explanation for any student’s ‘non-response’.



Intervention Integrity Check: Direct Observation

Intervention integrity is best assessed through direct observation (Roach & Elliott, 2008). – The key steps of the intervention are defined and

formatted as an observational checklist. – An observer watches as the intervention is

conducted and checks off on the checklist those steps that were correctly carried out. The observer then computes the percentage of steps correctly carried out.



Limitations of Direct Observation as an Intervention Integrity Check

• Direct observations are time-consuming to conduct. • Teachers who serve as interventionists may at least

initially regard observations of their intervention implementation as evaluations of their job performance, rather than as a child-focused RTI “quality check”.

• An intervention-implementation checklist typically does not distinguish between--or differentially weight--those intervention steps that are more important from those that are less so. If two teachers implement the same 10-step intervention plan, for example, with one instructor omitting a critical step and the other omitting a fairly trivial step, both can still attain the same implementation score of steps correctly completed.

Source: Gansle, K. A., & Noell, G. H. (2007). The fundamental role of intervention implementation in assessing response to intervention. In S. R. Jimerson, M. K. Burns, & A. M. VanDerHeyden (Eds.), Response to intervention: The science and practice of assessment and intervention (pp. 244-251).



Intervention Script Builder

‘Yes/No’ Step-by-Step

Intervention Check

Each Step Marked

‘Negotiable or ‘Non-

Negotiable’



Supplemental Methods to Collect Data About Intervention Integrity

Teacher Self-Ratings: As a form of self-monitoring, directing interventionists to rate the integrity of their own interventions may prompt higher rates of compliance (e.g., Kazdin, 1989). However, because teacher self-ratings tend to be ‘upwardly biased (Gansle & Noell, 2007, p. 247), they should not be relied upon as the sole rating of intervention integrity. One suggestion for collecting regular teacher reports on intervention implementation in a convenient manner is to use Daily Behavior Reports (DBRs; Chafouleas, Riley-Tillman,, & Sugai, 2007).

Sources: Chafouleas, S., Riley-Tillman, T.C., & Sugai, G. (2007). School-based behavioral assessment: Informing intervention and instruction. New York: Guilford Press.Gansle, K. A., & Noell, G. H. (2007). The fundamental role of intervention implementation in assessing response to intervention. In S. R. Jimerson, M. K. Burns, & A. M. VanDerHeyden (Eds.), Response to intervention: The science and practice of assessment and intervention (pp. 244-251).Kazdin, A. E. (1989). Behavior modification in applied settings (4th ed.). Pacific Gove, CA: Brooks/Cole..



Intervention Contact Log

Teacher Intervention Integrity

Self-Rating



Supplemental Methods to Collect Data About Intervention Integrity

Intervention Permanent Products: If an intervention plan naturally yields permanent products (e.g., completed scoring sheets, lists of spelling words mastered, behavioral sticker charts), these products can be periodically collected and evaluated as another indicator of intervention integrity (Gansle & Noell, 2007).

Source:Gansle, K. A., & Noell, G. H. (2007). The fundamental role of intervention implementation in assessing response to intervention. In S. R. Jimerson, M. K. Burns, & A. M. VanDerHeyden (Eds.), Response to intervention: The science and practice of assessment and intervention (pp. 244-251).



Intervention Integrity: Verify Through a Mix of Information Sources

Schools should consider monitoring intervention integrity through a mix of direct and indirect means, including direct observation and permanent products (Gansle & Noell, 2007), as well as interventionist self-ratings (Roach & Elliott, 2008).

Source: Gansle, K. A., & Noell, G. H. (2007). The fundamental role of intervention implementation in assessing response to intervention. In S. R. Jimerson, M. K. Burns, & A. M. VanDerHeyden (Eds.), Response to intervention: The science and practice of assessment and intervention (pp. 244-251).Roach, A. T., & Elliott, S. N. (2008). Best practices in facilitating and evaluating intervention integrity. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V (pp.195-208).



‘Selecting Methods to Track Intervention Integrity’…

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RTI Challenge: Ensuring That Interventions Are Carried Out With Fidelity

• Discuss your school’s current ability to track the quality/fidelity of interventions.

• What are some positive steps that your school has taken to track intervention fidelity?

• What are significant challenges that still remain?

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Promoting Student Reading Comprehension ‘Fix-Up’ Skills




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.)• [Core Instruction] Providing Main Idea Practice through

‘Partner Retell’ (Carnine & Carnine, 2004). Students in a group or class are assigned a text selection to read silently. Students are then paired off, with one student assigned the role of ‘reteller’ and the other appointed as ‘listener’. The reteller recounts the main idea to the listener, who can comment or ask questions. The teacher then states the main idea to the class. Next, the reteller locates two key details from the reading that support the main idea and shares these with the listener. At the end of the activity, the teacher does a spot check by randomly calling on one or more students in the listener role and asking them to recap what information was shared by the reteller.

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Reading Comprehension ‘Fix-Up’ Skills: A Toolkit (Cont.)• [Accommodation] Developing a Bank of Multiple Passages

to Present Challenging Concepts (Hedin & Conderman, 2010; Kamil et al., 2008; Texas Reading Initiative, 2002). The teacher notes which course concepts, cognitive strategies, or other information will likely present the greatest challenge to students. For these ‘challenge’ topics, the teacher selects alternative readings that present the same general information and review the same key vocabulary as the course text but that are more accessible to struggling readers (e.g., with selections written at an easier reading level or that use graphics to visually illustrate concepts). These alternative selections are organized into a bank that students can access as a source of ‘wide reading’ material.

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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] 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] Summarizing Readings (Boardman et al.,

2008). The student is taught to summarize readings into main ideas and essential details--stripped of superfluous content. The act of summarizing longer readings can promote understanding and retention of content while the summarized text itself can be a useful study tool.

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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] Apply Vocabulary ‘Fix-Up’ Skills for

Unknown Words (Klingner & Vaughn, 1999). When confronting an unknown word in a reading selection, the student applies the following vocabulary ‘fix-up’ skills:1. Read the sentence again. 2. Read the sentences before and after the problem

sentence for clues to the word’s meaning.3. See if there are prefixes or suffixes in the word that can

give clues to meaning. 4. Break the word up by syllables and look for ‘smaller words’

within.

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Reading Comprehension ‘Fix-Up’ Skills: A Toolkit (Cont.)• [Student Strategy] Compiling a Vocabulary Journal from

Course Readings (Hedin & Conderman, 2010). The student highlights new or unfamiliar vocabulary from course readings. The student writes each term into a vocabulary journal, using a standard ‘sentence-stem’ format: e.g., “Mitosis means…” or “A chloroplast is…”. If the student is unable to generate a definition for a vocabulary term based on the course reading, he or she writes the term into the vocabulary journal without definition and then applies other strategies to define the term: e.g., look up the term in a dictionary; use Google to locate two examples of the term being used correctly in context; ask the instructor, etc.).

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

Enhancements (Hedin & Conderman, 2010). Text enhancements can be used to tag important vocabulary terms, key ideas, or other reading content. If working with photocopied material, the student can use a highlighter to note key ideas or vocabulary. Another enhancement strategy is the ‘lasso and rope’ technique—using a pen or pencil to circle a vocabulary term and then drawing a line that connects that term to its underlined definition. If working from a textbook, the student can cut sticky notes into strips. These strips can be inserted in the book as pointers to text of interest. They can also be used as temporary labels—e.g., for writing a vocabulary term and its definition.

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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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‘Defensive Behavior Management’: The Power of Teacher Preparation




Defensive Management: A Method to Avoid Power Struggles

‘Defensive management’ (Fields, 2004) is a teacher-friendly six-step approach to avert student-teacher power struggles that emphasizes providing proactive instructional support to the student, elimination of behavioral triggers in the classroom setting, relationship-building, strategic application of defusing techniques when needed, and use of a ‘reconnection’ conference after behavioral incidents to promote student reflection and positive behavior change.

Source: Fields, B. (2004). Breaking the cycle of office referrals and suspensions: Defensive management. Educational Psychology in Practice, 20, 103-115.



Defensive Management: Six Steps1. Understanding the Problem and Using Proactive

Strategies. The teacher collects information--through direct observation and perhaps other means--about specific instances of student problem behavior and the instructional components and other factors surrounding them. The teacher analyzes this information to discover specific ‘trigger’ events that seem to set off the problem behavior(s) (e.g., lack of skills; failure to understand directions).

The instructor then adjusts instruction to provide appropriate student support (e.g., providing the student with additional instruction in a skill; repeating directions and writing them on the board).




Defensive Management: Six Steps

2. Promoting Positive Teacher-Student Interactions. Early in each class session, the teacher has at least one positive verbal interaction with the student. Throughout the class period, the teacher continues to interact in positive ways with the student (e.g., brief conversation, smile, thumbs up, praise comment after a student remark in large-group discussion, etc.). In each interaction, the teacher adopts a genuinely accepting, polite, respectful tone.





3. Scanning for Warning Indicators. During the class session, the teacher monitors the target student’s behavior for any behavioral indicators suggesting that the student is becoming frustrated or angry. Examples of behaviors that precede non-compliance or open defiance may include stopping work; muttering or complaining; becoming argumentative; interrupting others; leaving his or her seat; throwing objects, etc.).





4. Exercising Emotional Restraint. Whenever the student begins to display problematic behaviors, the teacher makes an active effort to remain calm. To actively monitor his or her emotional state, the teacher tracks physiological cues such as increased muscle tension and heart rate, as well as fear, annoyance, anger, or other negative emotions. The teacher also adopts calming or relaxation strategies that work for him or her in the face of provocative student behavior, such as taking a deep breath or counting to 10 before responding.





5. Using Defusing Tactics. If the student begins to escalate to non-compliant, defiant, or confrontational behavior (e.g., arguing, threatening, other intentional verbal interruptions), the teacher draws from a range of possible descalating strategies to defuse the situation. Such strategies can include private conversation with the student while maintaining a calm voice, open-ended questions, paraphrasing the student’s concerns, acknowledging the student’s emotions, etc.





6. Reconnecting with The Student. Soon after any in-class incident of student non-compliance, defiance, or confrontation, the teacher makes a point to meet with the student to discuss the behavioral incident, identify the triggers in the classroom environment that led to the problem, and brainstorm with the student to create a written plan to prevent the reoccurrence of such an incident. Throughout this conference, the teacher maintains a supportive, positive, polite, and respectful tone.


Documents

Response to Intervention RTI for Elementary Schools: Cohorts 1 & 2 Update Jim Wright