Response to Intervention Students Responding to Instructional and

Response to Intervention Students Responding to Instructional and Behavioral Interventions in Local School Buildings—Making It Work Jim Wright www. interventioncentral. org March 2007 www. interventioncentral. org

Response to Intervention Workshop Goals… In this training, we will review ideas to: q Identify the ‘driver(s)’ or functions of the student’s academic problems q Organize intervention ideas into packaged scripts for ease of use q Assess the intensity of (work needed to implement) the student intervention plan q Evaluate the degree to which educators have successfully carried out the intervention plan (‘intervention followthrough’ or ‘treatment integrity’) www. interventioncentral. org 2

Response to Intervention RTI: Essential Elements for Intervention Planning www. interventioncentral. org

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 III Universal intervention: Available to all students Example: Additional classroom literacy instruction Individualized Intervention: Students who need additional support than peers are given individual intervention plans. Example: Supplemental peer tutoring in reading to increase reading fluency Intensive Intervention: Students whose intervention needs are greater than general education can meet may be referred for more intensive services. www. interventioncentral. org Example: Special Education 4

Response to Intervention RTI: School-Wide Three-Tier Framework (Kovaleski, 2003; Vaughn, 2003) Tier I ‘School-Wide Screening & Group Intervention’ Tier III ‘Non. Responders’ to Tier I Are Identified & Given ‘Individually Tailored’ Interventions (e. g. , peer tutoring/fluen cy) ‘Long-Term Programming for Students Who Fail to Respond to Tier II Interventions’ (e. g. , Special Education) www. interventioncentral. org 5

Response to Intervention Avg Classroom Academic Performance Level Discrepancy 1: Skill Gap Discrepancy 2: (Current Gap in Rate of Performance Level) Learning (‘Slope of Target Improvement’) Student ‘Dual-Discrepancy’: RTI Model of Learning Disability (Fuchs 2003) www. interventioncentral. org 6

Response to Intervention Discussion: Read the quote below and discuss in pairs: How sloppy can we be in doing RTI and still be effective? www. interventioncentral. org 7

Response to Intervention Writing Quality ‘Problem Identification’ Statements www. interventioncentral. org

Response to Intervention Writing Quality ‘Problem Identification’ Statements • A frequent problem at RTI Team meetings is that teacher referral concerns are written in vague terms. If the referral concern is not written in explicit, observable, measurable terms, it will be very difficult to write clear goals for improvement or select appropriate interventions. • Use this ‘test’ for evaluating the quality of a problem-identification (‘teacher-concern’) statement: Can a third party enter a classroom with the problem definition in hand know when they see the www. interventioncentral. org 9

Response to Intervention Writing Quality ‘Problem-Identification’ Statements: Template Format for Writing RTI Team Teacher Concerns Conditions when the behavior is observed or absent Description of behavior in concrete, measurable, observable terms During large-group instruction The student calls out comments that do not relate to the content being taught. When reading aloud When sent from the classroom with a pass to perform an errand or take a The student decodes at a rate much slower than classmates. The student often wanders the building instead of returning promptly to class. www. interventioncentral. org 10

Response to Intervention Writing Quality ‘Teacher Referral Concern’ Statements: Examples • Needs Work: The student is disruptive. • Better: During independent seatwork , the student is out of her seat frequently and talking with other students. • Needs Work: The student doesn’t do his math. • Better: When math homework is assigned, the student turns in math homework only about 20 percent of the time. Assignments turned in are often www. interventioncentral. org 11

Response to Intervention Identifying the ‘Driver(s)’ or Cause(s) of Student Academic Concerns www. interventioncentral. org

Response to Intervention Identifying the Cause of the Student’s Academic Deficit Possible Explanations: • Skill Deficit: Student needs to be taught the skills • ‘Fragile’ Skill: Student possesses the skill but has not yet mastered to automaticity • Performance Deficit: Student can do the skill but lacks incentive to www. interventioncentral. org 13

Response to Intervention Instructional Hierarchy: Four Stages of Learning • Acquisition • Fluency • Generalization • Adaptation 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. www. interventioncentral. org 14

Response to Intervention Instructional Hierarchy: Matching Interventions to Student Learning Stage (Haring, et al. , 1978) Learning Stage Student ‘Look- What strategies are effective… Fors’… Acquisition: Exit Goal: The student can perform the skill accurately with little adult support. Is just beginning to learn skill Not yet able to perform learning task reliably or with high level of accuracy 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 www. interventioncentral. org 15

Response to Intervention Instructional Hierarchy: Matching Interventions to Student Learning Stage (Haring, et al. , 1978) Learning Stage Student ‘Look- What strategies are effective… Fors’… Fluency: Exit Goals: The student (a) has learned skill well enough to retain (b) has learned skill well enough to combine with other skills, (c) is as fluent as peers. Gives accurate responses to learning task Performs learning task slowly, haltingly 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 www. interventioncentral. org 16

Response to Intervention Instructional Hierarchy: Matching Interventions to Student Learning Stage (Haring, et al. , 1978) Learning Stage Student ‘Look- What strategies are effective… Fors’… Generalization: Exit Goals: The student (a) uses the skill across settings, situations; (b) does not confuse target skill with similar skills Is accurate and fluent in responding May fail to apply skill to new situations, settings May confuse target skill with similar skills (e. g. , confusing ‘+’ and ‘x’ number operation signs) 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 www. interventioncentral. org 17

Response to Intervention Instructional Hierarchy: Matching Interventions to Student Learning Stage (Haring, et al. , 1978) Learning Stage Student ‘Look- What strategies are effective… Fors’… Adaptation: Exit Goal: The Adaptation phase is continuous and has no exit criteria. Is fluent and Teacher helps student to articulate the ‘big accurate in skill ideas’ or core element(s) of target skill that the Applies skill in student can modify to face novel tasks, novel situations, situations (e. g. , fractions, ratios, and settings without percentages link to the ‘big idea’ of the part in prompting relation to the whole; ‘Thank you’ is part of a Does not yet larger class of polite speech) modify skill as Train for adaptation: Student gets needed to fit opportunities to practice the target skill with new situations modest modifications in new situations, (e. g. , child says settings with encouragement, corrective ‘Thank you’ in all feedback, praise, other reinforcers. situations, does Encourage student to set own goals for not use adapting skill to new and challenging situations. modified, equivalent phrases such as “I appreciate your help. ”)www. interventioncentral. org 18

Response to Intervention How Do We Know Whether Motivation is a Barrier to Learning? : Student Motivation Assessment www. interventioncentral. org

Response to Intervention "People say I don't take criticism well, but I say, what the hell do they know? " – Groucho Marx www. interventioncentral. org 20

Response to Intervention Schoolwork Motivation Assessment: 2. 26 -7 www. interventioncentral. org 21

Response to Intervention Schoolwork Motivation Assessment: 2. 26 -7 www. interventioncentral. org 22

Response to Intervention Schoolwork Motivation Assessment: 2. 26 -7 • Step 1: Assemble an Incentive menu • Step 2: Create two versions of a timed worksheet • Step 3: Administer the first timed worksheet to the student WITHOUT incentives. • Step 4: Compute an improvement goal. • 5: Have the student select an incentive for improved performance. • Step 6: Administer the second timed worksheet to the student WITH incentives. • Step 7: Interpret the results of the academic motivation assessment to select appropriate www. interventioncentral. org 23

Response to Intervention Schoolwork Motivation Assessment: 2. 26 -7 • Step 1: Assemble an Incentive menu Create a 4 -5 item menu of modest incentives or rewards that students in the class are most likely to find motivating. www. interventioncentral. org 24

Response to Intervention Schoolwork Motivation Assessment: 2. 26 -7 • Step 2: Create two versions of a timed worksheet Make up two versions of custom student worksheets. The worksheets should be at the same level of difficulty, but each worksheet should have different items or content to avoid a practice effect. NOTE: If possible, the worksheets should contain standardized short -answer items (e. g. , matching vocabulary words to their definitions) to allow you to calculate the student’s rate of work completion. www. interventioncentral. org 25

Response to Intervention Schoolwork Motivation Assessment: 2. 26 -7 • Step 3: Administer the first timed worksheet to the student WITHOUT incentives. In a quiet, non-distracting location, administer the first worksheet or CBM probe under timed, standardized conditions. Collect the probe or worksheet and score. www. interventioncentral. org 26

Response to Intervention Schoolwork Motivation Assessment: 2. 26 -7 • Step 4: Compute an improvement goal. After you have scored the first CBM probe or worksheet, compute a ’ 20 percent improvement goal’. Multiply the student’s score on the worksheet by 1. 2. This product represents the student’s minimum goal for improvement. Example: A student who completed 20 correct items on a timed worksheet will have an improvement goal of 24 (20 x 1. 2 www. interventioncentral. org 27

Response to Intervention Schoolwork Motivation Assessment: 2. 26 -7 • Step 5: Have the student select an incentive for improved performance. Tell the student that if he or she can attain a score on the second worksheet that meets or exceeds your goal for improvement (Step 3), the student can earn an incentive. Show the student the reward menu. Ask the student to select the incentive that he or she will earn if the student makes or exceeds the goal. www. interventioncentral. org 28

Response to Intervention Schoolwork Motivation Assessment: 2. 26 -7 • Step 6: Administer the second timed worksheet to the student WITH incentives. Give the student the second CBM probe. Collect and score. If the student meets or exceeds the pre-set improvement goal, award the student the incentive. www. interventioncentral. org 29

Response to Intervention Schoolwork Motivation Assessment: 2. 26 -7 • Step 7: Interpret the results of the academic motivation assessment to select appropriate interventions. ACADEMIC INTERVENTIONS ONLY. If the student fails to meet or exceed the improvement goal, an academic intervention should be selected to teach the appropriate skills or to provide the student with drill and practice opportunities to build fluency in the targeted academic area(s). www. interventioncentral. org 30

Response to Intervention Schoolwork Motivation Assessment: 2. 26 -7 • Step 7(Cont): Interpret the results of the academic motivation assessment to select appropriate interventions. COMBINED ACADEMIC AND PERFORMANCE INTERVENTIONS. If the student meets or exceeds the improvement goal but continues to function significantly below the level of classmates, an intervention should be tailored that includes strategies to both improve academic performance and to increase the student’s work motivation. www. interventioncentral. org 31

Response to Intervention Schoolwork Motivation Assessment: 2. 26 -7 • Step 7(Cont): Interpret the results of the academic motivation assessment to select appropriate interventions. PERFORMANCE INTERVENTIONS ONLY. If the student meets or exceeds the improvement goal with an incentive and shows academic skills that fall within the range of ‘typical’ classmates, the intervention should target only student work performance or motivation. www. interventioncentral. org 32

Response to Intervention Identifying Barriers to More Sophisticated Academic Tasks Reading Comprehension and Written Expression www. interventioncentral. org

Response to Intervention Reading Comprehension Skills Checklist: 2. 30 www. interventioncentral. org 34

Response to Intervention Writing Skills Checklist: 2. 31 -2 www. interventioncentral. org 35

Response to Intervention Creating an Intervention Script www. interventioncentral. org 36

Response to Intervention Why Create Intervention Scripts? • Intervention scripts are simple for educators to implement • Scripting interventions prevents RTI Teams from overlooking essential elements of the intervention (e. g. , training needs) • A scripted intervention can be easily monitored because each element is clearly delineated. www. interventioncentral. org 37

Response to Intervention Script Builder: 2. 33 www. interventioncentral. org 38

Response to Intervention Judging the Intensity of Interventions: Tier I, II, or III? www. interventioncentral. org 39

Response to Intervention Why Attempt to Judge the ‘Intensity’ of Interventions? Judging the intensity of interventions in advance ensures that intervention plans match the RTI Tier in which they are being used. www. interventioncentral. org 40

Response to Intervention Avoiding the ‘Intervention Trap’ When planning Tier II (individualized) interventions, RTI Teams should take care to ensure that those plans are feasible and maintainable in general-education settings. If a Tier II intervention is so ambitious as to resemble a Special Education (Tier III) program, the team may find that the student responds well to the plan but would still lack information about whether the student requires more support than general education can offer. And the plan may not be maintainable! www. interventioncentral. org 41

Response to Intervention Intensity Rating Form: 2. 35 2. On a per-pupil basis, the cost to purchase or effort needed to create intervention materials 4. Amount of preparation required for each session of the intervention Intervention materials not materials per needed or required but pupil are do not entail can be costly or significant obtained at a require expense or modest cost or substantial effort with effort to reasonable create effort Little or no Some Substantial prepar ation is neede d prepara prepar tion is ation is needed (up to (more 15 than 15 minutes minute 9. Potential of the intervention Intervention can Intervention is per to distract other students be session likely to result session or disrupt their learning implemente in significant ) ) in mild d with little distraction of or no other students other distraction of or disruption students or other to their disruption to students or learning their learning 42 www. interventioncentral. org

Response to Intervention Intensity Rating Form: 2. 35 Guidelines for Interpreting Results If 7 or more of your ratings on this 10 -item form fall under any single Tier, it is likely that the intervention has a level of intensity matching that Tier as well. An intervention with 8 checks under the Tier II column, for example, should be considered a Tier II intervention. If you have a mixed pattern of ratings—with no single column containing 7 or more checks—count up the number of checks in each column. The intervention should be considered equivalent in intensity to the highest column that contains 3 or more checks. (Tier I is the lowest column. Tier III is the highest. ) An intervention with more than 3 checks under the Tier III www. interventioncentral. org 43

Response to Intervention Evaluating ‘Intervention Follow. Through’ (Treatment Integrity) www. interventioncentral. org 44

Response to Intervention Why Monitor Intervention Follow. Through? If the RTI Team does not monitor the quality of the intervention followthrough, it will not know how to explain a student’s failure to ‘respond to intervention’. • Do qualities within the student explain the lack of academic or behavioral progress? • Did problems with implementing the intervention prevent the student from making progress? www. interventioncentral. org 45

Response to Intervention What Are Potential Barriers to Assessing Intervention Follow-Through? Direct observation of interventions is the ‘gold standard’ for evaluating the quality of their implementation. However: • Teachers being observed may feel that they are being evaluated for global job performance • Non-administrative staff may be uncomfortable observing a fellow educator to evaluate intervention follow-through • It can be difficult for staff to find time to observe and evaluate interventions as they www. interventioncentral. org are being carried out 46

Response to Intervention Script Builder: 2. 33 www. interventioncentral. org 47

Response to Intervention Teacher Intervention Evaluation Log: 2. 37 www. interventioncentral. org 48

Response to Intervention Sample Writing Interventions www. interventioncentral. org

Response to Intervention "If all the grammarians in the world were placed end to end, it would be a good thing. " – Oscar Wilde www. interventioncentral. org 50

Response to Interventionist TIP: Don’t Forget That… Writing Interventions Are Embedded in a Larger Web of Potential Academic Intervention Strategies Time Reading Homework Managem Fluency ent Note. Taking Writing Test Taking www. interventioncentral. org Reading Comprehensi on 51

Response to Intervention "Success comes before work only in the dictionary. " – Anonymous www. interventioncentral. org 52

Response to Intervention Reading & Writing: Performance Time. Line After Reading: Before Reading: Previewing text, developing a ‘reading plan’ Planning: ? When Reading: Taking notes, ‘interacting’ with author’s ideas, content Reading WRITING Writing: ? Reviews notes, continues to think about material read, reskims text Revision: ? Sources: Pressley, M. , & Wharton-Mc. Donald, R. (1997). Skilled comprehension and its development through instruction. School Psychology Review, 26(3), 448 -467. Gersten, R. , Baker, S. , & Edwards, L. (1999). Teaching expressive writing to students with learning disabilities: A meta-analysis. New York: National Center for Learning Disabilities. www. interventioncentral. org 53

Response to Intervention Cover-Copy-Compare (Murphy, Hern, Williams, & Mc. Laughlin, 1990) Students increase their spelling knowledge by copying a spelling word from a correct model and then recopying the same word from memory. Give students a list of 10 -20 spelling words, an index card, and a blank sheet of paper. For each word on the spelling list, the student: 1. copies the spelling list item onto a sheet of paper, 2. covers the newly copied word with the index card, 3. writes the spelling word again on the sheet (spelling it from memory), and 4. uncovers the copied word and checks to ensure that the word copied from memory is spelled correctly. Repeat as necessary. www. interventioncentral. org 54

Response to Intervention Monitoring to Increase Writing Fluency (Rathvon, 1999) Students gain motivation to write through daily monitoring and charting of their own and classwide rates of writing fluency. – Assign timed freewriting several times per week. – After each freewriting period, direct each student to count up the number of words he or she has written in their daily journal entry (whether spelled correctly or not). – Have students to record their personal writing-fluency score in their journal and also chart the score on their own time-series graph for visual feedback. – Collect the day’s writing-fluency scores of all students in the class, sum those scores, and chart the results on a large time-series graph posted at the front of the room. – Raise the class goal by five percent per week. www. interventioncentral. org 55

Response to Intervention Student Monitoring Chart www. interventioncentral. org 56

Response to Intervention A Memory Device for Proofreading (Bos & Vaughn, 2002) When students regularly use a simple, portable, easily memorized plan for proofreading, the quality of their writing improves significantly. – Create and have students refer to a classroom with the SCOPE proofreading elements: Spelling: Are my words spelled correctly; Capitalization: Have I capitalized all appropriate words, including first words of sentences, proper nouns, and proper names? ; Order of words: Is my word order (syntax) correct? ; Punctuation: Did I use end punctuation and other punctuation marks appropriately? Expression of complete thoughts: Do all of my sentences contain a noun and verb to convey a complete thought? www. interventioncentral. org 57

Response to Intervention Stimulate Writing Interest With an Autobiography Assignment (Bos & Vaughn, 2002) Assigning the class to write their own autobiographies can motivate hard-to-reach students who seem uninterested in most writing assignments. Have students read a series of autobiographies of people who interest them. Discuss these biographies with the class. Then assign students to write their own autobiographies. (With the class, create a short questionnaire that students can use to interview their parents and other family members to collect information about their past. ) Allow students to read their autobiographies for the class. www. interventioncentral. org 58

Response to Intervention "The worst thing you write is better than the best thing you didn't write. " – Anonymous www. interventioncentral. org 59

Response to Intervention Use Selective Proofreading With Highlighting of Errors To prevent struggling writers from becoming overwhelmed by teacher proofreading corrections, select only 1 or 2 proofreading areas when correcting a writing assignment. 1. Create a student ‘writing skills checklist’ that inventories key writing competencies (e. g. , grammar/syntax, spelling, vocabulary, etc. ). 2. For each writing assignment, announce to students that you will grade the assignment for overall content but will make proofreading corrections on only 1 -2 areas chosen from the writing skills checklist. (Select different www. interventioncentral. org 60

Response to Intervention Use Selective Proofreading With Highlighting of Errors: Cont. 3. To prevent cluttering the student’s paper with potentially discouraging teacher comments and editing marks: a. underline problems in the student’ text with a highlighter and b. number the highlighted errors sequentially at the left margin of the student paper. c. write teacher comments on a separate feedback sheet to explain the writing errors. Identify each comment with the matching error-number from the left margin of the student’s worksheet. TIP: Have students use this method when proofreading their own text. www. interventioncentral. org 61

Response to Intervention Selective Proofreading With Highlighting of Errors 1 Tommy Ridgeway Mrs. Richman sentences Dec 1, 2006 Spelling; Run-on and incomplete 1 Rewrite this run-on sentence as two separate sentences. 2 Not clear. Rewrite. Consider starting the sentence with ‘The concept of …’ 2 www. interventioncentral. org 62

Response to Intervention "A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason. " – Margaret Atwood www. interventioncentral. org 63

Response to Intervention Integrated Writing Instruction (Mac. Arthur, Graham, & Schwarz, 1993 ) The instructor follows a uniform daily instructional framework for writing instruction. 1. Status-checking. At the start of the writing session, the instructor quickly goes around the room, asking each student what writing goal(s) he or she plans to accomplish that day. The instructor records these responses for all to see. 2. Mini-Lesson. The instructor teaches a mini-lesson relevant to the writing process. Mini-lessons are a useful means to present explicit writing strategies (e. g. , an outline for drafting an opinion essay) as well as a forum for reviewing the conventions of writing. Minilessons should be kept short (e. g. , 5 -10 minutes) to hold the attention of the class. www. interventioncentral. org 64

Response to Intervention Integrated Writing Instruction Cont. (Mac. Arthur, Graham, & Schwarz, 1993 ) 3. Student Writing. During the session, substantial time is set aside for students to write. Their writing assignment might be one handed out that day or part of a longer composition (e. g. , story, extended essay) that the student is writing and editing across multiple days. When possible, student writers are encouraged to use computers as aids in composing and editing their work. 4. Peer & Teacher Conferences. At the end of the daily writing block, the student may sit with a classmate to review each other's work, using a structured peer editing strategy. During this discussion time, the teacher also holds brief individual conferences with students to review their work, have students evaluate how successfully they completed their writing goals for www. interventioncentral. org 65

Response to Intervention Integrated Writing Instruction Cont. (Mac. Arthur, Graham, & Schwarz, 1993 ) 5. Group Sharing or Publishing. At the end of each session, writing produced that day is shared with the whole class. Students might volunteer to read passages aloud from their compositions. Students are encouraged to choose more polished work and post it on the classroom wall or bulletin board, have their work displayed in a public area of the school, publish the work in an anthology of school writings, read it aloud at school assemblies, or publish it on a school Internet site. www. interventioncentral. org 66

Response to Intervention END www. interventioncentral. org 67