Coaching RtI Considerations and Challenges

1. Coaching RtI Considerations and Challenges Literacy Coaching Summit, 2009 Barbara A. Marinak, Ph.D. bam234@psu.edu

4. Definitions of Coaching • Coaching as a noun: an expert who trains or instructs • Person- literacy coach/reading specialist • Place- classrooms, model lessons, PLCs • Thing- research, program materials (TEs, white papers, etc)

5. There are studies indicating that critically reading intervention manuals can help teachers become familiar with new instructional methods. This research suggests that teacher’s manuals can act as a “guide on the side”--providing vignettes of complex instructional language. Some examples include strategic prompting during guided reading or the conversation that takes place when engaging in reciprocal teaching. The key concept, however, is critically reading the manuals. Such tools should always be viewed as suggestions (Brown, 2009).

6. darkness: no attempt • Give it a try. Draw a line between dark/ness. Try the first syllable. If needed, write car above dark in book. Does this help you? Write mess above ness. Does this help you? Put the two syllables together. Try reading the word again.

7. After Reading: Text Pyramid one How many babies do giraffes and penguins have at a time? AntarcticaAfrica Use two words to describe where the penguin and the giraffe live. egglivebirth In three words, list how the giraffe and the penguin have babies. caredforinkindergartens In four words, describe how giraffes and penguins protect their babies.

8. Coaching as a verb: the act of preparing for a new and more challenging endeavor • Receive assistance • Read • Talk with others • Rehearse • Plan

9. Coaching as an adjective: is one coachable? • Disposed to learn • Open to new ideas and suggestions

10. Coaching RtI IDEIA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act: 2004) mandates the use of early intervening services for: • Identifying children who are members of a disaggregated subgroup with a specific learning disability whereby the discrepancy model could result in over identification.

11. Provide evidence-based intervention to all children at risk for school failure.

12. Evidence-Based • Evidence-based reading instruction takes place when decisions that affect the student are rendered with due weight accorded to all valid and relevant information. Sackett, 2008

13. For most models, Tier 2 is core classroom instruction. Tiers 2 and 3 are varying levels of intervention. Today, we will consider Considerations and Challenges for Tiers 1-3.

14. Reading Practice by Grade Average: 7.1 Minutes! Average Daily Reading Practice (Minutes per Student)

15. Regardless of RtI tier, the overarching goal of all instruction and intervention should be to increase daily reading practice. • Need to grow from minutes to hours for all students!

16. How do we turn negative Matthew Effect into a positive Matthew Effect? • Practice, practice, practice! • Turn intervention students into outliers! Gladwell, 2008

17. 10,000 hours = 4.3 hours of reading practice per school day for 13 years! • You need help! • With help from home (including summer) = 2.2 hours per day

18. Considerations and Challenges

19. Tier 1 Tier 1 is core classroom instruction delivered every day for 45-150 minutes.

20. Considerations in Tier 1 Core • More discussion about core reading practices • Recognition of need for balanced instruction at all grade levels • Recognition of need for balanced collections at all grade levels

21. Core classroom data is “at the table” • More staff development for classroom teachers

22. Challenges in Core aka Tier 1 Without Tears

23. Coaching Questions • What are the strengths and needs of your current reading program? • instructional practices • time allocations • group size • group membership

24. Does every child receive reading instruction every day in a small-differentiated group delivered by the classroom teacher? • Is there consistency within a classroom and at a grade level in how language arts minutes are allocated across the subjects? • Has the classroom teacher been trained in a research-based collection of instructional methods?

25. Tier 2 Tier 2 regular education intervention should be delivered in addition to, never in lieu of, core classroom instruction.

26. Considerations in Tier 2 • School-wide screening is being implemented • Intervention is being provided based on data • Intervention teams represent the disciplines that can effectively inform intervention

27. Challenges in Tier 2 aka Differentiating the Double Dose

28. Attribute 1: Assessment • Assessment tools should reflect authentic language and literacy activities as opposed to contrived texts or tasks generated specifically for assessment purposes. • Assessment tools that narrowly define literacy result in unbalanced and shallow interventions.

29. Coaching Questions • Do your assessments reflect the multidimensional nature of language and literacy learning and the diversity among students being assessed?

30. Attribute 2: Highly Qualified Interventionists

31. Coaching Questions • How many reading specialists are available to deliver intervention? • How does the master schedule need to be revised to ensure that the reading specialist can provide seamless services to each targeted grade level? • Is the reading specialist well versed in the instructional priorities of the core classroom program?

32. Attribute 3: Intensity Intensity is the length and duration of the intervention.

33. Coaching Questions • How much time is available in the school day to double dose struggling readers? • How long is each intervention period (20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, etc.)? • Is there a plan to avoid “the roller coaster effect” (i.e. students moving in and out of intervention haphazardly based on limited data)? • Can Tier 2 and Tier 3 be delivered simultaneously based on immediate student need?

34. Attribute 4: Ratio Ratio is the number of students assigned to an interventionist during a given period.

35. Coaching Questions • Is the reading specialist:student ratio reduced during the intervention compared to the core reading instruction? • Can the ratio be reduced flexibly based on student need?

36. Example • A Tier 2 group with five students meets for 30 minutes. The reading specialist notices that two students are struggling. • Conducts a half-book running record on each student (approximately 90 seconds). • Both students are at frustration level. • The reading specialist immediately provides an additional 15 minutes of Tier 3 intervention with the two students based on observation and data.

37. Attribute 5: Method Method is the instructional approach chosen for the intervention group.

38. Coaching Questions • What does the classroom and multiple assessment data reveal about student needs? • What method(s) are indicated within a grade level intervention population? • Does the method selection consider all available data? In other words, is the intervention balanced? • Do the instructions scaffold delivery of the method?

39. Is there instructional congruence between the intervention and core classroom instruction? • Are the classroom teacher and interventionist “speaking” the same strategic language? • Are the assessments aligned?

40. Attribute 6: Transference • Transference is the ability of a reader to transfer and apply newly acquired strategic behaviors to increasing more difficult literacy demands. • Transference must be taught. • Teaching transference requires communication and collaboration between the interventionist and core teacher(s).

41. The most “successful” interventions fail because struggling readers have difficulty transferring newly acquired strategies from text to text, classroom to classroom, and year to year. RtI teams need to discuss how transference will be taught -- with all instructional stakeholders speaking the same literacy language.

42. Coaching Questions • Is transference being taught? • Is there explicit instruction in how newly acquired strategies can be applied to other literacy demands (science, social studies, math etc.)? • Who is teaching and monitoring transference?

43. Tier 3 Tier 3 intensified regular education intervention should also be delivered in addition to, never in lieu of, core classroom instruction.

44. Considerations in Tier 3 • Better differential diagnosis • Dramatic increases in intensity; more one to one intervention

45. Challenges in Tier 3 aka Primum non nocere (First, do no harm)

46. The three ways “harm” appears possible has been described by our teacher colleagues as: (a) piling on with no plan, and/or (b) commitment needed (c) trust our judgment

47. Piling On With No Plan • Piling on with no plan is adding disconnected interventions (and interventionists) with no plan for instructional congruence. • This phenomenon occurs when assessments measure the isolated skills of reading.

48. Commitment Needed • As Joanne Yatvin (2007) so eloquently suggested, be a “catcher in the rye”. Plan Tier 3 intervention based on the very individual differences that are present in our most struggling students. Consider all the data, choose a comprehensive method (not methods) that is congruent with core classroom instruction, and make a commitment to the child (and the method) for months-- not days or weeks.

49. Trust Our Judgment • Avoid the analogy that students are billiard balls on a pool table. Predictable trajectories are rarely seen in struggling readers, therefore, prescriptions will invariably fail. The missing ingredient in a describe-prescribe focus is professional decision-making.

50. Conclusion At this point, RtI appears to be a Problem Solving Model for instructional intervention and/or a Protocol Approach for the identification of SLD. However, at present, there is insufficient research evidence for many important considerations.