My life has been crazy this month. I bought a new town home and moving in the school year has been challenging.  All my stuff is hiding in the garage and I have no clue where anything is. It's tons of fun. Though since the beginning of the month, my Special Education team has been working on referrals from Tier 2 interventions. We have been working with a group of fabulous Reading Recovery teachers who provide many of the Tier 2 interventions. Its been a learning process for everyone.

Why should I do it:

• RTI is an academic based intervention addressing primarily academics rather than behavior
• Many kids act out and exhibit emotional and coping problems in school due to being behind academically and not understanding the work and concepts
• RTI addresses these academic deficits that lead to acting out
• Reduces behavior problems and increases coping skills
• Improves grades and achievement
• Boosts student confidence, work completion, and willingness to work
• Improves student’s self concept
• Increases student’s independent working and responsibility
• When should I do it:
• When student’s act out due to being unable to do the work
• When it appears a student is avoiding work
• When a student seems to act out or behave as the class clown in correlation to having to begin and work on academic tasks
• When a student displays work refusal, withdraws from group and pairs work, and seems to make excuses for not doing academic tasks and it is known the student has low scores or low ability in the academic area or an area related to the ability to do the task

How do I do it:

In a nutshell, RTI is a 3 tiered system where each tier of intervention targets more specific academic deficits and more individual students, such that tier 1 interventions target a whole class, tier 2 small groups or pairs, and tier 3 individual students

The basic idea is:

• Determine the academic deficit areas
• Test these areas to get a baseline
• Implement an academic intervention targeting the specific academic deficit area
• Test the student again after delivering the intervention
• If there is progress, continue this intervention
• If there is not progress, try the intervention again or a different one and then test
• If you try the same intervention again and it does not work, try a different one and then test
• Continue this process until you find an intervention the student responds to;.
• How can I design effective Tier 2 interventions?

Tier 2 evidence-based interventions use systematic, explicit methods to change student performance and/or behavior. In systematic methods, skills and concepts begin with the most simple, moving to the most complex. Student objectives are clear, concise, and driven by ongoing assessment results.
Additionally, students are provided with appropriate practice opportunities which directly reflect systematic instruction. Explicit methods typically include teacher modeling, student guided practice, and student independent practice, sometimes referred to as “I do, We do, You do.”

Tier 2 Intervention Design Example:

I do
1.Teacher models and explains

We do
2.Students practice (with teacher’s guidance) what the teacher modeled
3.Teacher provides prompts/feedback
4.Students apply skill as teacher scaffolds instruction

You do
5.Students practice independently (either in-class or as homework)
6.Teacher provides feedback

As you design interventions that are systematic and explicit, make sure you spend plenty of time on the “We do” stage. That is your best opportunity to catch mistakes and clarify misconceptions.
How can I differentiate targeted interventions to meet the needs of each of my Tier 2 students?
To design effective differentiated interventions, you must understand your students’ learning modalities and multiple intelligences. As you no doubt remember from your college classes, the modalities are how we take information into the brain.

Are your students visual, auditory, or tactile/kinesthetic? Many Tier 2 learners are primarily visual and tactile/kinesthetic. They need concrete examples such as pictures and graphic organizers, as well as hands-on experiences.

Students who are poor readers typically exhibit strengths in the visual/spatial intelligence. They “think in pictures” rather than in words. Because these students are often able to put details into their pictures that others may not discern, encourage them to sketch what they are reading or hearing. Next, guide them as they first explain and then write about their pictures.

Have a great week!

The last couple of months have been crazy. One thing that teachers have been hitting me up for is Sound and Letter Identification ideas. A couple of activities that my small group students love are below.


 






I love this pin because she thinks outside the box and has ideas that are not used every day in a classroom. This is great for a teacher that has tried everything and needs new ideas.

Have a great weekend!

Its been a very bust weeks of school. All the special education staff in my building are either new to the district or to teaching. I have spent most of my time finding ways to support the classroom teachers. Not know what kind of support they have had in the past-most seem very thankful to the support and sharing of knowledge. With that in mind I would like the share three of the pins that I have past on to them. Finding easy to understand information that doesn't require a special education degree is hard.

I have new home for the coming year. No more looking. I'll post pictures of my room later this week. The Pinterest links that I have are things that I plan on using with my kidoos.

Somethings I kee going back and forth on like with student data-should it be binders or folders. These are the things that I keep thinking about while pinning.








This is the data folder set-up that I used last year. It worked great-student were able to keep their data and track their progress with it. I could take the folders to meetings, show to parents. rock a principle's world. The pain/difficult part with adding pages, so that new pages were in the same place. But students loved having their RTI or personalized materials in the front. I never once found those materials anywhere but where I out them. I also color coded them--making each group have their own color. FYI: cutting duct tape with kill a pair of scissors.



 The point of data folders is having student friendly graphs. Last year, I used both my own and found something that would work. One thing I want to do this school year, is do a better job of tracking which ones work. Depending on what data you need to keep track of-these ladies may have it. Plus, they have Common Core grade level tracking sheets that are a plus to have.








My new position is K-3. I have not ID about needs and hours but I don know from working the kinder and first is finding good assessments that can be used all year is hard. This set is free. Amber Monroe explains in her post how she creates data folders in her first grade classroom.











The Pinterest Picks for this month have freebie items attached to them-make sure to grab them. Be sure to stop by Teachers pay Teachers for a great sale. My store will you any extra 20% off anything in my store.

Have a great week!

Every summer I have this pile of books. I try to get through them all-sometimes it happens but not always. This summer I started the pile about Spring break and its been growing ever since. Sometimes I think I need a 12 Step for Amazon with all the money I spend there.





Since, it's Friday I have a freebie for you. Be sure to sop by my store to grab it. My Kindergarten Tic Tac Toe is great for literacy centers and Daily 5 for students work on to help learn their sight words.


Have an awesome Forth of July.

These guys have free PECS too but I love how they have stored them. I like said above I don't tend to hang on to my pictures but this would be an easy way to keep them and a place where I can send teachers who are looking for one or two things without having to do it for them.



I use PECS for more than creating schedules for students. I also create games, books, and activities for them because some have such large language deficits it helps them out. I like this mat because its simple and an easy way for students to build vocabulary around a words with out me having to do tons of prep.



I hope I have inspired you to try something new or started the wheels moving on tweaking something that you do all ready. Have a great weekend and check the out posts.