Tier II Interventions in RtI : Research-Based Reading Support for Every Student

1. Tier II Interventions in RtI:Research-Based Reading Support for Every Student Dana A. Keck, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Chad H. Waldron, Michigan State University danakeck828@hotmail.com

2. Session Objectives • Provide innovative Tier II interventions for Response to Intervention (RtI) • Equipped with practical instructional strategies, based in each student’s instructional data • Provide leadership in implementing successful changes to your school’s literacy program • Gain knowledge in RtI and implementing effective practices for it

3. Components of Three-Tiered RTI System

4. What is RtI in Pennsylvania? • Response to Instruction and Intervention (RtII) • an early intervening strategy and carries dual meaning in Pennsylvania • Instruction + Intervention • a comprehensive, multi-tiered, standards-aligned strategy to enable early identification and intervention for students at academic or behavioral risk • At a later date, RtII may be considered as one alternative to the aptitude-achievement discrepancy model for the identification of students with learning disabilities after the establishment of specific progress measures PaTTAN (2010)

5. Why Struggling Readers Continue to Struggle • In most schools, struggling readers are lucky if they spend 10 to 20 percent of their school day in lessons designed to meet their needs. • Struggling readers spend 4 to 5 hours every day in classrooms where the instruction is targeted to the average- achieving student. • In most cases, the reading lesson is drawn from a core reading program text (i.e. basal reader solely) that is too hard for the struggling reader. (Allington, 2009)

6. Traditional Reading Interventions… • Pulled out of the classroom to work with the reading specialist (or the reading specialist pushes in) during their classroom reading block. • Research shows struggling readers need additional reading instruction if we expect them to learn to read faster and “catch up” with their average-achieving peers. This is additional time beyond the core reading program.

7. How Much Intervention? • 90 minutes weekly (20 minutes a day approximately) • 20% reading achievement increase across a year • One or two months of added reading growth per year • By dramatically increasing the amount of reading instruction offered, we are far more likely to see the growth needed to catch up. • In kindergarten and first grade, • Students benefit enormously from an additional 30 minutes daily of extra, intensive, and expert reading support. • Beyond first grade, longer intervention periods are usually necessary. (Allington, 2009)

8. EndingOne-Size-Fits-All Interventions None of the intervention programs were equally effective for all of the children studied. There may be individual characteristics of children that predispose them to more or less success with a particular program. …We need to move away from a “one-size-fits-all” mentality and apply continuous assessment approaches that evaluate how well an instructional program is working with particular youngsters. -Lyonn et al., 2001

9. Differentiated Instruction • Provided for all students as part of Tier 1 instruction with different avenues for learning so that all students learn effectively (Tomlinson, 2001). • In Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions, differentiation is provided through addressing specific, targeted needs. This instruction occurs in smaller groups with increased intensity. Progress monitoring occurs more frequently and provides the information needed for instructional decision-making.

10. Tier 2 Intervention Addresses the Question, “What Will We Do When Students Don’t Learn?”

11. How to Design Research-Based Tier II Interventions • Supply of interesting, leveled texts with comprehension opportunities • One-to-one tutoring -or- small-group intervention designs, groups no larger than 3, follow close behind • Well-coordinated intervention lessons with classroom reading lessons • Balanced intervention reading lessons, with an emphasis on developing meta-cognition and comprehension

12. Tier 2 Supplemental Targeted Intervention • Aimed at remediating students who fail to meet Tier 1 benchmarks in one or more critical areas of literacy: phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, writing, fluency, vocabulary, & comprehension. • Systematic, explicit, and aligned with Tier 1 instruction. • Based on the needs of each student as determined by assessment data.

13. Essential Elements of Tier 2 Instructional Intervention • Homogeneous small group or individual instruction, by highly-qualified classroom teacher, reading specialist, special education teacher, or ELL teacher • Use of intervention and content materials supporting Tier 1 instruction • Opportunities for review and practice • 30 to 60 minutes daily in addition to Tier 1 instruction • Interventions take place in the general education and/or supplemental classroom setting

14. Effective Tier 2 Interventions for Students At-Risk for Reading Difficulties • Aligns with the core reading instruction, in addition to providing regular and systematic corrective feedback to students. • Extended practice in the critical components of effective reading instruction, based on student literacy needs. • Systematic classroom-based instructional assessments document student improvement and design instruction.

15. Effective Tier 2 Interventions (Keck, 2010)

16. Assessments for Determining Interventions • Process of collecting, reviewing, and using information to make educational decisions about student learning. • An effective reading program should include at least four types of assessment: screening, diagnostic, progress monitoring, and outcome. • Some assessments can be used for multiple purposes.

17. Types of Assessment • Screening Assessments: • quick and efficient measures of overall reading ability • efficient measures of critical skills known to be strong indicators predicting student reading performance • (AIMS/CBM, DIBELS, Running records)

18. Types of Assessment • Diagnostic Assessments • Define a student’s weaknesses and strengths with critical reading skills helping teachers plan instruction by providing in-depth information regarding students skills and instructional needs • Individually administered to students at risk for reading failure, providing specific information needed to guide appropriate instruction • Typically take longer to administer than screening or benchmark assessments so only students identified as at risk should be given these assessments • Woodcock Reading Mastery, Woodcock-Johnson III, DRA, QRI, Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment

19. Types of Assessment • Progress Monitoring Assessments • Determine whether students are making adequate reading progress with critical skills and current instruction • Should be administered as part of the instructional routine (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly), depending on student need • The more intensive the intervention (Tiers 2 and 3), the more frequently progress monitoring should occur. • Progress monitoring ensures that: • all students continue to make adequate progress in targeted areas of reading • group or individualized instruction is provided for students at-risk for failure • Assessment data should be collected, evaluated, and used on an ongoing basis to plan instruction and inform necessary interventions • AIMS/CBM, DIBELS, DRA, QRI, Running records, Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment

20. Types of Assessment • Outcome Assessments • Evaluates the effectiveness of instruction and indicates a student’s year-end reading achievement when compared to grade-level performance standards • Administered to all students at the end of a grading period and/or school year • AIMS/CBM, DIBELS, DRA, QRI, Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment, Running records, Woodcock Reading Mastery, Woodcock-Johnson III, 4Sight Testing

21. Positive Impact of RTI • Supports consistent use of Differentiated Instruction to maximize student learning • Eliminates “wait to fail”, as students receive help promptly within the general education setting • Increases the number of students who are successful within regular education • RTI reduces the likelihood that students from diverse racial, cultural, or linguistic backgrounds are incorrectly identified as having a “disability” • Progress-monitoring techniques utilized in an RTI approach provide more instructionally relevant data than traditional assessments

22. “Believe you can do it. Believing something can be done puts your mind to work for you and helps you find ways to do it.” -George Shinn, “The Miracle of Motivation”

23. All websites listed below can be assessed electronically through the Ready Reading Resources Wikispace: http://readyreadingresources.wikispaces.com RTI Resources For RTI PowerPoint Presentations and Handouts, go to: http://www.esul.org/dept/sped/RTI/rtipowerpoint.html Differentiated Instruction http://www.scusd.edu/gate_ext_learning/differentiated.htm http://pdonline.ascd.org/pd_online/diffinstr/el199909_tomlinson.html Fluency http://reading.uoregon.edu/flu/index.php http://reading.uoregon.edu/assessment/dibels.php

24. Assessment Forms • Choice Literacy: Free Samples/The Big Fresh • http://www.choiceliteracy.com • Reading Lady: Documents • http://www.readinglady.com • The Teachers College Reading & Writing Project • http://www.tc.edu/rwp/assessment/2008/ • The University of Arkansas-Center for Literacy: Teacher Resources • http://www.arliteracymodel.com • Comprehension • Busy Teacher’s Café: Comprehension Strategies • http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/teacherresources/literacypages/comprehensionstrategies.htm • Into the Book • http://reading.ecb.org/ • Pete’s PowerPoints: Reading Comprehension • http://languagearts.pppst.com/readingcomprehension.html • Reading Lady: Mosaic Listserv • http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/tools.htm

25. Independent Reading ICDL-International Children’s Digital Library http://en.childrenslibrary.org/index.shtml Reading A-Z http://www.readinga-z.com/ Storyline Online http://www.storylineonline.net/ Sylvan Dell Audio Books http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/mp3s/AudioBookPlayer.htm Printable Texts Hubbard’s Cupboard http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/printable_booklets.html Poetry4Kids http://poetry4kids.com/ Reading A-Z http://www.readinga-z.com Scholastic Mini-Books http://minibooks.scholastic.com/

26. Word Study Beverly Tyner’s Small-Group Reading Instruction: Word Study Cards http://www.reading.org/General/Publications/Books/SupplementalContent/BK574_SUPPLEMENT.aspx Davis Elementary School-Word Study http://db.dadecountyschools.org/~davis/wordstudy/ ReadWriteThink: Word Sorts for Beginning and Struggling Readers http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=795 4 Blocks Literacy Framework-Making Words http://www.k111.k12.il.us/LAFAYETTE/FOURBLOCKS/making_words_templates.htm Writing Leander ISD’s Six Traits Writing Booklist http://classroom.leanderisd.org/webs/elemla/reading.htm Pete’s PowerPoints-Writing http://languagearts.pppst.com/writing.html Scholastic-Writing with Writers http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/ Six Traits Writing Assessment http://www.cyberspaces.net/6traits/

27. Other RTI Resources Allington, R. L. (2009). What Really Matters in Response to Intervention: Research-Based Designs. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Busch, T. W., & Reschly, A. L. (2007). Progress monitoring in reading: Using curriculum-based measurement in a response-to-intervention model. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 32(4), 223-230. Elbaum, B., Vaughn, S., Hughes, M. T., & Moody, S. W. (2000). How effective are one-to-one tutoring programs in reading for elementary students at risk for reading failure? Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(4), 605-619. 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. Fuchs, L. S., & Fuchs, D. (2007). A model for implementing responsiveness to intervention. Teaching Exceptional Children, 39(5), 14-20. O’Connor, R. E., Fulmer, D., Harty, K. R., & Bell, K. M. (2005). Layers of reading intervention in kindergarten through third grade: Changes in teaching and student outcomes. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 38(5), 440-445. Stecker, P. M., & Fuchs, L. S. (2000). Effecting superior achievement using curriculum-based measurement: The importance of individual progress monitoring. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 15, 128-134. Tomlinson, C. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Vaughn, S., Wanzek, J., Murray, C. S., Scammacca, N., Linan-Thompson, S., & Woodruff, A. (2009). Response to early reading intervention: Examining higher and lower responders. Exceptional Children, 75(2), 165-183. Walmsley, S., & Allington, R. (2007). No quick fix, the RTI edition: Rethinking literacy programs in America’s elementary schools. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.