Selected Topic: Educational Changes Regarding Response to Intervention in Wisconsin and its Implications for Reading Teachers
Ia. Justification for chosen topic based upon both personal and professional experience:
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) in combination with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law are significantly changing the way classroom teachers, reading teachers, and special education teachers are identifying students’ needs and delivering instruction. Response to Intervention (RTI) is becoming the prevailing model for schools in Wisconsin and across the nation to address the learning needs of all students.
According to Fuchs and Fuchs (2006), RTI is a multi-tiered approach to “providing early intervention to all children at risk for school failure” (p. 93). Although there are multiple models for RTI, it always involves the use of evidence-based instruction for all students, screening to identify at-risk students, tiers of increasingly intensive and differentiated instruction for those identified at risk, and ongoing monitoring of student responsiveness to instruction (RTI Action Network, 2011). Students who do not respond to highly intensive instruction may be identified as having a specific learning disability.
My professional motivation for choosing this topic is based on the International Reading Association’s identification of reading and literacy specialists as key professionals in assessing student learning, planning appropriate instruction and monitoring students growth (International Reading Association, 2009). As a Reading Teacher, I will need to have a thorough understanding of the implications of both IDEA and RTI, and be ready collaborate with a...
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...for the Reading Teacher. In D. Fuchs, L.S. Fuchs, & S. Vaughn (Eds.), Response to intervention (pp. 105-122). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Accessed online March 12, 2011 at http://www.reading.org/Publish.aspx?page=/publications/bbv/books/bk622/abstracts/bk622-5-shanahan.html&mode=redirect
Temple, C., Ogle, D., Crawford, A & Freppon, P. (2011). All children read: Teaching for
literacy in today’s diverse classrooms. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. (2010) Wisconsin response to intervention: A guiding document. Retrieved March 12, 2011 from dpi.state.wi.us/rti/pdf/rti-roadmap.pdf
Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L. S. (2006). Introduction to Response to Intervention: What, Why, and How Valid Is It?. Reading Research Quarterly, 41(1), 93-99. Retrieved March 16, 2011 from EBSCOhost.
Fountas, I., C., & Pinnel, G. S., (2009). When readers struggle: Teaching that works. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
With such high numbers of adolescents falling below basic in reading, illiteracy is a battle that must be fought head on. The largest dilemma with the struggle is the number of variations that cause adolescents to become reluctant, unmotivated or struggling readers. Fortunately, a large number of strategies exist to encourage and strengthen readers of all ages, proving that adolescence is not a time to give up on faltering students. Rather, it is a time to evaluate and intervene in an effort to turn a reluctant reader into an avid one (or near enough). Ultimately, educators must learn to properly assess a student’s strengths and weaknesses (Curtis, 2009) and pair them with the proper intervention techniques. If one method does not work, countless others exist to take its place.
Klotz, M. B., & Canter, A. (2007). Response to intervention (RTI): A primer for parents.
RtI was designed to provide early intervention to students that are experiencing difficulties in developing literacy skills. Throughout RtI, assessment data is collected to monitor student progress, and is used to determine if the intervention should be continued or modified (Smetana 2010). A common consensus is that the RtI framework consists of three tiers: Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III. In Tier I, primary interventions are used that differentiate instruction, routines, and accommodations to the students that need little to no interventions. The students in this tier are often times classified with the color green.
In the article titled Responsiveness to Intervention: Evidence and implications for learning Disability, this article also focused on responsiveness to intervention. The article speaks on the functions and how to properly set up , analyze data and instruct RTI’s. From 1977 to 1994 children with learning disabilities increased from 3.7 million to 5.3 million (Hanushek, Kain & Rivikin, 2001, p.7). The growth of learning disabilities RTI’s were advocated to help children with early learning disabilities.
... all the teachers, except for the multi-disability teacher, having an Intervention Specialist licensure. This allows the teachers to teach students in a cross-categorical situation in promoting academic excellence. The RTI program is designed to further enhance the needs of students with disabilities, under Title I, and is also taught by qualified and licensed teachers (personal communication, July 10, 2009).
In this case, teachers must employ other resources and feet collaboration from colleagues. This is where the RTI process comes into place. Messmer and Messmer, (2008) explained that the response to intervention serves as a vehicle to identify and serve students with learning difficulties. On the other hand, several steps should be followed to implement correctly RTI. In my opinion, my school possesses a fair understanding of the RTI process and manages the implementation of a consistent approach that positively affects the student.
Gomez, L. M., & Gomez, K. (2007). Reading for learning: Literacy supports for 21st-century work. Phi
...ding Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction(NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
In conclusion, it seems as though all the positives of the response to intervention program outweigh any negatives about it. The RTI program is extremely helpful in identifying any student that is having academic difficulties at an early age. Whether these students should be considered in the special education program or not can also be determined by using the RTI program. There is no reason to allow students to fail before any intervention is even considered. Anything that is beneficial in helping students succeed in their academic achievements should be viewed as a
Woodward, M., & Johnson, C. T. (2009, November). Reading Intervention Models: Challenges of Classroom Support and Separated Instruction. The Reading Teacher, 63(3).
Every child deserves a positive, safe, nurturing, and stimulating learning environment where they will grow academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. My role as an educator is to provide my students with this type of environment as well as an education that will help them succeed academically and become life long learners. It is the responsibility of a literacy educator to provide students with this type of environment, but also to provide instruction that will help students become successful readers and writers. There are numerous programs and philosophies about literacy and reading. Through years of experience and research, one begins to develop their own creative approach on teaching these skills. After looking at different programs and seeing the positive and negatives of each, an integrated and balanced approach of literacy seems to be the best way to teach the differing needs of each student.
Special education is no longer restricted to schools that cater for specific disabilities. Increasingly mainstream classrooms must cater for a diverse range of abilities and be inclusive of children with disabilities, therefore providing special education (Heward as cited on Pearson Prentice Hall, 2010). In catering for all children within a class, teachers also need to provide intervention as necessary. Intervention according to Heward (as cited on Education.com, 2011) intends to reduce, eliminate and/or limit the hurdles faced by students with disabilities that may prevent them from maximising their learning and becoming productive members of society. This essay will discuss how teachers can provide all three kinds of intervention; preventive, remedial and compensatory on behalf of individual students who may require it (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2010). Each type of intervention will be explored with examples to demonstrate the possible use of each one and the potential issues that may be associated with them.
Fox, L., Carta, J., Strain, P., Dunlap, G., & Hemmeter, M. L. (2009). Response to Intervention and the Pyramid Model. Retrieved from http://www.challengingbehavior.org/do/resources/documents/rti_pyramid_web.pdf
“The single most important activity for building knowledge for their eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children,” a report from 1985 by the commission