RTI for Middle and High Schools: The Teacher as Intervention

1
RTI for Middle and High Schools The Teacher as
Intervention First ResponderJim
Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
2
Workshop Goals
3
The quality of a school as a learning community
can be measured by how effectively it addresses
the needs of struggling students.--Wright
(2005)
Source Wright, J. (2005, Summer). Five
interventions that work. NAESP Leadership
Compass, 2(4) pp.1,6.
4
School Instructional Time The Irreplaceable
Resource

• In the average school system, there are 330
  minutes in the instructional day, 1,650 minutes
  in the instructional week, and 56,700 minutes in
  the instructional year. Except in unusual
  circumstances, these are the only minutes we have
  to provide effective services for students. The
  number of years we have to apply these minutes is
  fixed. Therefore, each minute counts and schools
  cannot afford to support inefficient models of
  service delivery. p. 177

Source Batsche, G. M., Castillo, J. M., Dixon,
D. N., Forde, S. (2008). Best practices in
problem analysis. In A. Thomas J. Grimes
(Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V
(pp. 177-193).
5
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 educations responsibility to find
  the instructional strategies that will unlock the
  students 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.

6
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.
7
NYSED RTI Guidance Memo April 2008
Source DeLorenzo, J. P., Stevens, J. C. (April
2008). Implementation of response to intervention
programs. Memorandum issued by New York State
Education Department. Retrieved November 25,
2008, from http//www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/pu
blications/policy/RTI.htm
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The Regents policy framework for RtI

• Authorizes the use of RtI in the State's criteria
  to determine learning disabilities (LD) and
  requires, effective July 1, 2012, that all school
  districts have an RtI program in place as part of
  the process to determine if a student in grades
  K-4 is a student with a learning disability in
  the area of reading.  Effective on or after July
  1, 2012, a school district shall not use the
  severe discrepancy criteria to determine that a
  student in kindergarten through grade four has a
  learning disability in the area of reading. 
    8 NYCRR section 200.4(j)

Source DeLorenzo, J. P., Stevens, J. C. (April
2008). Implementation of response to intervention
programs. Memorandum issued by New York State
Education Department. Retrieved November 25,
2008, from http//www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/pu
blications/policy/RTI.htm
10
What previous approach to diagnosing Learning
Disabilities does RTI replace?

• Prior to RTI, many states used a Test-Score
  Discrepancy Model to identify Learning
  Disabilities.
• A student with significant academic delays would
  be administered an battery of tests, including
  an intelligence test and academic achievement
  test(s).
• If the student was found to have a substantial
  gap between a higher IQ score and lower
  achievement scores, a formula was used to
  determine if that gap was statistically
  significant and severe.
• If the student had a severe discrepancy gap
  between IQ and achievement, he or she would be
  diagnosed with a Learning Disability.

11
Target Student
Dual-Discrepancy RTI Model of Learning
Disability (Fuchs 2003)
12
RTI Pyramid of Interventions
13
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-oc
t10.pdf p. 12
14
Tier 1 Core Instruction

• Tier I core instruction
• Is universalavailable to all students.
• Can be delivered within classrooms or throughout
  the school.
• Is an ongoing process of developing strong
  classroom instructional practices to reach the
  largest number of struggling learners.
• All children have access to Tier 1
  instruction/interventions. Teachers have the
  capability to use those strategies without
  requiring outside assistance.
• Tier 1 instruction encompasses
• The schools core curriculum.
• All published or teacher-made materials used to
  deliver that curriculum.
• Teacher use of whole-group teaching
  management strategies.
• Tier I instruction addresses this question Are
  strong classroom instructional strategies
  sufficient to help the student to achieve
  academic success?

15
Tier I (Classroom) Intervention

• Tier 1 intervention
• Targets red flag students who are not
  successful with core instruction alone.
• Uses evidence-based strategies to address
  student academic or behavioral concerns.
• Must be feasible to implement given the resources
  available in the classroom.
• Tier I intervention addresses the question Does
  the student make adequate progress when the
  instructor uses specific academic or behavioral
  strategies matched to the presenting concern?

16
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-oc
t10.pdf p. 13
17
Tier 2 Supplemental (Group-Based)
Interventions(Standard Treatment Protocol)

• Tier 2 interventions are typically delivered in
  small-group format. About 15 of students in the
  typical school will require Tier 2/supplemental
  intervention support. Group size for Tier 2
  interventions is limited to 3-5 students.
  Students placed in Tier 2 interventions should
  have a shared profile of intervention need.
• Programs or practices used in Tier 2
  interventions should be evidence-based.
• The progress of students in Tier 2
  interventions are monitored at least 2 times per
  month.

Source Burns, M. K., Gibbons, K. A. (2008).
Implementing response-to-intervention in
elementary and secondary schools. Routledge New
York.
18
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-oc
t10.pdf p. 14
19
Tier 3 Intensive Individualized
Interventions(Problem-Solving Protocol)

• Tier 3 interventions are the most intensive
  offered in a school setting.
• Students qualify for Tier 3 interventions
  because
• they are found to have a large skill gap when
  compared to their class or grade peers and/or
• They did not respond to interventions provided
  previously at Tiers 1 2.
• Tier 3 interventions are provided daily for
  sessions of 30 minutes or more. The
  student-teacher ratio is flexible but should
  allow the student to receive intensive,
  individualized instruction.
• The reading progress of students in Tier 3
  interventions is monitored at least weekly.

Source Burns, M. K., Gibbons, K. A. (2008).
Implementing response-to-intervention in
elementary and secondary schools. Routledge New
York.
20
Secondary Students Unique Challenges

• Struggling learners in middle and high school
  may
• Have significant deficits in basic academic
  skills
• Lack higher-level problem-solving strategies and
  concepts
• Present with issues of school motivation
• Show social/emotional concerns that interfere
  with academics
• Have difficulty with attendance
• Are often in a process of disengaging from
  learning even as adults in school expect that
  those students will move toward being
  self-managing learners

21
School Dropout as a Process, Not an Event

• It is increasingly accepted that dropout is
  best conceptualized as a long-term process, not
  an instantaneous event however, most
  interventions are administered at a middle or
  high school level after problems are severe.

Source Jimerson, S., Reschly, A.L., Hess, R.
(2008). Best practices in increasing the
likelihood of school completion. In A. Thomas
J. Grimes (Eds). Best Practices in School
Psychology - 5th Ed (pp. 1085-1097). Bethesda,
MD National Association of School
Psychologists.. p.1090
22
Student Motivation The Need for Intervention

• A common response to students who struggle in
  sixth grade is to wait and hope they grow out of
  it or adapt, to attribute early struggles to the
  natural commotion of early adolescence and to
  temporary difficulties in adapting to new
  organizational structures of schooling, more
  challenging curricula and assessment, and less
  personalized attention. Our evidence clearly
  indicates that, at least in high-poverty urban
  schools, sixth graders who are missing 20 or
  more of the days, exhibiting poor behavior, or
  failing math or English do not recover. On the
  contrary, they drop out. This says that early
  intervention is not only productive but
  absolutely essential.

Source Balfanz, R., Herzog, L., MacIver, D. J.
(2007). Preventing student disengagement and
keeping students on the graduation path in urban
middle grades schools Early identification and
effective interventions. Educational
Psychologist,42, 223235. .
23
What Are the Early Warning Flags of Student
Drop-Out?

• A sample of 13,000 students in Philadelphia were
  tracked for 8 years. These early warning
  indicators were found to predict student drop-out
  in the sixth-grade year
• Failure in English
• Failure in math
• Missing at least 20 of school days
• Receiving an unsatisfactory behavior rating
  from at least one teacher

Source Balfanz, R., Herzog, L., MacIver, D. J.
(2007). Preventing student disengagement and
keeping students on the graduation path in urban
middle grades schools Early identification and
effective interventions. Educational
Psychologist,42, 223235. .
24
What is the Predictive Power of These Early
Warning Flags?
Number of Early Warning Flags in Student Record Probability That Student Would Graduate
None 56
1 36
2 21
3 13
4 7
Source Balfanz, R., Herzog, L., MacIver, D. J.
(2007). Preventing student disengagement and
keeping students on the graduation path in urban
middle grades schools Early identification and
effective interventions. Educational
Psychologist,42, 223235. .
25
Challenge Promoting Staff Understanding
Support for RTIJim Wrightwww.interventioncentra
l.org
26
Tipping point any process in which, beyond a
certain point, the rate at which the process
increases dramatically. (Tipping Point, 2010).


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 0252, March 1,
2010, from http//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit
leTipping_point_(sociology)oldid344548179
27

• 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 shouldnt be afraid to ask)..
Learning Disabilities Research Practice,
22(2),129136.
28
Engaging the Reluctant Teacher 7 Reasons Why
Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI
Interventions
29
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).

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

31
Engaging the Reluctant Teacher 7 Reasons Why
Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI
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.

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

33
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.

34
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?

35
Challenge Verifying that Strong Core
Instruction and Interventions Are Being
Delivered in ClassroomsJim Wrightwww.interventi
oncentral.org
36
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-oc
t10.pdf p. 12
37
The Key Role of Classroom Teachers in RTI 6 Steps

1. The teacher defines the student academic or
   behavioral problem clearly.
2. The teacher decides on the best explanation for
   why the problem is occurring.
3. The teacher selects evidence-based
   interventions.
4. The teacher documents the students Tier 1
   intervention plan.
5. The teacher monitors the students response
   (progress) to the intervention plan.
6. The teacher knows what the next steps are when a
   student fails to make adequate progress with Tier
   1 interventions alone.

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Building Teacher Capacity to Deliver Tier 1
Interventions An 8-Step Checklist
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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?

51
Promoting Student Reading Comprehension Fix-Up
SkillsJim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
52
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

53
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.

54
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.

55
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.

56
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 paragraphs main
  idea sentence. This stack of main idea cards
  becomes a useful tool to review assigned
  readings.

57
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.

58
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.

59
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 pronouns 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.

60
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
• Read the sentence again.
• Read the sentences before and after the problem
  sentence for clues to the words meaning.
• See if there are prefixes or suffixes in the word
  that can give clues to meaning.
• 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 techniqueusing 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 labelse.g., for writing a
  vocabulary term and its definition.

63
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 PreparationJim Wrightwww.interventionce
ntral.org
65
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.
66
Defensive Management Six Steps

1. 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).

Source Fields, B. (2004). Breaking the cycle of
office referrals and suspensions Defensive
management. Educational Psychology in Practice,
20, 103-115.
67
Defensive Management Six Steps

1. 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.

Source Fields, B. (2004). Breaking the cycle of
office referrals and suspensions Defensive
management. Educational Psychology in Practice,
20, 103-115.
68
Defensive Management Six Steps

1. Scanning for Warning Indicators. During the class
   session, the teacher monitors the target
   students 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.).

Source Fields, B. (2004). Breaking the cycle of
office referrals and suspensions Defensive
management. Educational Psychology in Practice,
20, 103-115.
69
Defensive Management Six Steps

1. 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.

Source Fields, B. (2004). Breaking the cycle of
office referrals and suspensions Defensive
management. Educational Psychology in Practice,
20, 103-115.
70
Defensive Management Six Steps

1. 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 students concerns, acknowledging the
   students emotions, etc.

Source Fields, B. (2004). Breaking the cycle of
office referrals and suspensions Defensive
management. Educational Psychology in Practice,
20, 103-115.
71
Defensive Management Six Steps

1. 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.

Source Fields, B. (2004). Breaking the cycle of
office referrals and suspensions Defensive
management. Educational Psychology in Practice,
20, 103-115.
72
Team Activity What Questions Do You Have About
RTI and Middle Schools?

• At your table
• Discuss the RTI information presented.
• What questions do you have about RTI that you
  would like to have answered today?