RTI: General Academic Interventions for DifficulttoTeach Students Jim Wright www'interventioncentral

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RTI General Academic Interventions for
Difficult-to-Teach StudentsJim
Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
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Download PowerPoints and Handouts from this
workshop athttp//www.interventioncentral.org/
schoolhouse08.php
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Workshop Agenda
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• Trivia Question What job is Jim Wright, school
  psychologist and school administrator, MOST often
  mistaken as having?

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The quality of a school as a learning community
can be measured by how effectively it addresses
the needs of struggling students.--Wright
(2005)
Discussion Read the quote below
Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Why?
Source Wright, J. (2005, Summer). Five
interventions that work. NAESP Leadership
Compass, 2(4) pp.1,6.
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-You're a pretty smart fella.-Not that
smart.-How'd you figure it out?-I imagined
someone smarter than me. Then I tried to
think,"What would he do?From HEIST
(2001)Written by David Mamet
RTI Logic The Power of Working Smarter
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Essential Elements of RTI (Fairbanks, Sugai,
Guardino, Lathrop, 2007)

• A continuum of evidence-based services available
  to all students" that range from universal to
  highly individualized intensive
• Decision points to determine if students are
  performing significantly below the level of their
  peers in academic and social behavior domains"
• Ongoing monitoring of student progress"
• Employment of more intensive or different
  interventions when students do not improve in
  response" to lesser interventions
• 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.
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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.

Universal intervention Available to all
students Example Additional classroom literacy
instruction
Tier I
Individualized Intervention Students who need
additional support than peers are given
individual intervention plans. Example
Supplemental peer tutoring in reading to increase
reading fluency
Tier II
Intensive Intervention Students whose
intervention needs are greater than general
education can meet may be referred for more
intensive services. Example Special Education
Tier III
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Hic sunt dracones. Latin for Here be
dragons Phrase appearing on the Lenox Globe
circa 1503, denoting unknown dangers on the
unexplored east coast of Asia. This term now is
used to describe any instance in which
decision-making or action is difficult because
the situation is so complex or because so many
variables are unknown. Source Wikipedia
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_be_dragonsDrag
ons_on_maps
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Two Ways to Solve Problems Algorithm vs.
Heuristic

• Algorithm. An explicit step-by-step procedure for
  producing a solution to a given problem. Example
  Multiplying 6 x 2
• Heuristic. A rule of thumb or approach which may
  help in solving a problem, but is not guaranteed
  to find a solution. Heuristics are exploratory in
  nature. Example Using a map to find an
  appropriate route to a location.

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As Knowledge Base Grows, Heuristic Approaches
(Exploratory, Open-Ended Guidelines to Solving a
Problem) Can Sometimes Turn into Algorithms
(Fixed Rules for Solving a Problem )Example
Recipes Through History
MODERN DARYOLS RECIPE (ALGORITHM)INGREDIENTS 2
(9 inch) unbaked pie crusts 1/2 cup blanched
almonds 1 1/4 cups cold water 1
cup half-and-half cream 1 pinch saffron powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 5 eggs
3/4 cup white
sugar 1 teaspoon rose water DIRECTIONS Preheat
the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Press
pie crusts into the bottom and up the sides of
two 9 inch pie pans. Prick with a fork all over
to keep them from bubbling up. Bake pie crusts
for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until
set but not browned. Set aside to cool. Make an
almond milk by placing almonds in the container
of a food processor. Process until finely ground,
then add water, and pulse just to blend. Let the
mixture sit for 10 minutes, then strain through a
cheesecloth. Measure out 1 cup of the almond
milk, and mix with half and half. Stir in the
saffron and cinnamon, and set aside. Place the
eggs and sugar in a saucepan, and mix until well
blended. Place the pan over low heat, and
gradually stir in the almond milk mixture and
cinnamon. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly
until the mixture begins to thicken. When the
mixture is thick enough to evenly coat the back
of a metal spoon, stir in rose water and remove
from heat. Pour into the cooled pie shells. Bake
for 40 minutes in the preheated oven, or until
the center is set, but the top is not browned.
Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until
serving.
DARYOLS ORIGINAL14th CENTURY ENGLISH RECIPE
(HEURISTIC)Take cream of cow milk, or of
almonds do there-to eggs with sugar, saffron and
salt. Mix it fair. Do it in a pie shell of 2 inch
deep bake it well and serve it forth.
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RTI is a Work in Progress Some I\Areas Can Be
Managed Like an Algorithm While Others Require a
Heuristic Approch

• Reading Fluency. Can be approached as a fixed
  algorithm.
• DIBELS allows universal screening and
  progress-monitoring
• DIBELS benchmarks give indication of student risk
  status
• Classroom-friendly research-based fluency
  building interventions have been validated
• Study Skills. A complex set of skills whose
  problem-solving approach resembles a heuristic.
• Students basic set of study skills must be
  analyzed
• The intervention selected will be highly
  dependent on the hypothesized reason(s) for the
  students study difficulties
• The quality of the research on study-skills
  interventions varies and is still in development

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The perfect is the enemy of the
good.--Voltaire
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RTI Listening to the Teachers Voice
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Key Questions About Implementing Classroom
Interventions
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Big Ideas Student Social Academic Behaviors
Are Strongly Influenced by the Instructional
Setting (Lentz Shapiro, 1986)

• Students with learning problems do not exist in
  isolation. Rather, their instructional
  environment plays an enormously important role in
  these students eventual success or failure

Source Lentz, F. E. Shapiro, E. S. (1986).
Functional assessment of the academic
environment. School Psychology Review, 15, 346-57.
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Big Ideas Learn Unit (Heward, 1996)

• The three essential elements of effective student
  learning include
• Academic Opportunity to Respond. The student is
  presented with a meaningful opportunity to
  respond to an academic task. A question posed by
  the teacher, a math word problem, and a spelling
  item on an educational computer Word Gobbler
  game could all be considered academic
  opportunities to respond.
• Active Student Response. The student answers the
  item, solves the problem presented, or completes
  the academic task. Answering the teachers
  question, computing the answer to a math word
  problem (and showing all work), and typing in the
  correct spelling of an item when playing an
  educational computer game are all examples of
  active student responding.
• Performance Feedback. The student receives timely
  feedback about whether his or her response is
  correctoften with praise and encouragement. A
  teacher exclaiming Right! Good job! when a
  student gives an response in class, a student
  using an answer key to check her answer to a math
  word problem, and a computer message that says
  Congratulations! You get 2 points for correctly
  spelling this word! are all examples of
  performance feedback.

Source Heward, W.L. (1996). Three low-tech
strategies for increasing the frequency of active
student response during group instruction. In R.
Gardner, D. M.S ainato, J. O. Cooper, T. E.
Heron, W. L. Heward, J. W. Eshleman, T. A.
Grossi (Eds.), Behavior analysis in education
Focus on measurably superior instruction
(pp.283-320). Pacific Grove, CABrooks/Cole.
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Big Ideas The Four Stages of Learning Can Be
Summed Up in the Instructional Hierarchy pp.
92, 103 (Haring et al., 1978)

• Student learning can be thought of as a
  multi-stage process. The universal stages of
  learning include
• Acquisition The student is just acquiring the
  skill.
• Fluency The student can perform the skill but
  must make that skill automatic.
• Generalization The student must perform the
  skill across situations or settings.
• Adaptation The student confronts novel task
  demands that require that the student adapt a
  current skill to meet new requirements.

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.
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Instructional Hierarchy Stages of Learning

• Acquisition Effective Intervention Ideas
• 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

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Instructional Hierarchy Stages of Learning

• Fluency Effective Intervention Ideas
• 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

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Instructional Hierarchy Stages of Learning

• Generalization Effective Intervention Ideas
• 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

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Instructional Building Blocks

• Adaption Effective Intervention Ideas
• Teacher helps student to articulate the big
  ideas or core element(s) of target skill that
  the student can modify to face novel tasks,
  situations (e.g., fractions, ratios, and
  percentages link to the big idea of the part in
  relation to the whole Thank you is part of a
  larger class of polite speech)
• Train for adaptation Student gets opportunities
  to practice the target skill with modest
  modifications in new situations, settings with
  encouragement, corrective feedback, praise, other
  reinforcers.
• Encourage student to set own goals for adapting
  skill to new and challenging situations

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Big Ideas Academic Delays Can Be a Potent Cause
of Behavior Problems (Witt, Daly, Noell, 2000)

• Student academic problems cause many school
  behavior problems.
• Whether a students problem is a behavior
  problem or an academic one, we recommend starting
  with a functional academic assessment, since
  often behavior problems occur when students
  cannot or will not do required academic work.

Source Witt, J. C., Daly, E. M., Moell, G.
(2000). Functional assessments A step-by-step
guide to solving academic and behavior problems.
Longmont, CO Sopris West, p. 13
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Elbow Group Activity What Are Your Schools
Top Academic Intervention Needs?

• In your group
• Discuss the top 3 academic intervention concerns
  that you each have about students in your
  building or district.
• Note any common themes of intervention needs
  identified by multiple members of your group.