RTI Institute: Writing Module for Elementary Schools Carroll County Schools

1. RTI Institute: Writing Module for Elementary Schools Carroll County Schools Sharon Rinks, Psy.D. Lisa Sirian, Ph.D. Michelle Avila Bolling, Ed.S., NCSP Carroll County Schools

3. Agenda • RTI implementation status reports • Process the application activity • Activating prior knowledge • Evidence-based RTI practices in writing • Universal screening • Intervention • Progress monitoring • Practice progress monitoring scoring • Case studies • Discuss application activity

4. RTI Implementation- Status Report • Share with the group how RTI implementation is going at your school For example you might… • Talk about tools are you using • Talk about what you have planned • Talk about something creative you are doing • Discuss any roadblocks you’ve encountered • Highlight something that you are proud of • Talk about how you have used something from this training • Take notes on good ideas that you can steal… or help others problem solve.

5. Processing the Application Activity • Has your team begun your reading application activity? • Did you find the materials useful? • If so, how? • If not, how might they be improved? • Did you find the team able to complete the intervention form successfully? • Any questions about that? • What was the biggest challenge so far? • What kinds of changes did completing this activity spur you to make at your school?

6. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! Activating Prior Knowledge

7. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! • It’s every man, woman, and child for him- or herself! Hope you know your RTI vocabulary. There are two ways to win! • Make a cross • Make an X

8. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! • Brief, easily administered, predictive assessments that are sensitive to small increments of change and have alternate forms available. Used at Tier 1. • When you subtract the baseline rate from the desired goal and divide by the # of weeks until the benchmark assessment, you get this. You need this to calculate the aim line.

9. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! • The minimum number of times universal screening should be conducted yearly. • In graphing RTI data, this line represents the actual projected performance of the student based on the data points already gathered. If this line does not display an adequate rate of improvement, you might consider adjusting your intervention.

10. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! • The ability to read a text accurately, quickly and expressively. This provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. • The research group who, sponsored by the federal government, reviewed over 100,000 studies on reading instruction. This group ultimately established the essential “big five” skills for reading.

11. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! • In graphing RTI data, this term refers to the line connecting the student’s baseline performance to the projected goal. • The percentage of students who should be successful with an appropriate 4-tier service delivery model in place.

12. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! • Assesses a child’s skill in reading connected text of grade-level material using one-minute probes. It is the most researched, efficient and standardized measure of reading proficiency. This can serve as a substitute for measuring overall reading proficiency, especiallyin the lower grades. • The ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words. This is auditory and does not involve words in print.

13. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! • One of the big five in reading, this involves our knowledge of words we need to communicate effectively—these can be in speech or in print. • The practice of (1) providing high-quality instruction and interventions matched to student needs and, (2) using learning rate over time and level of performance to (3) make important educational decisions.

14. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! • A type of Curriculum Based Measurement probe designed to assess comprehension and fluency of reading. This involves reading a passage from which every 7th word has been deleted and the student must select a word from three choices provided. • The Tier 1 standards-based classroom instruction that ALL students get.

15. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! • The Tier at which highly specialized services are provided to meet individual students’ needs. This is not a place, location, or specific classroom; may be provided in a regular education class or in a separate setting and may include Special Education and related services. • The percentage of students who should make benchmark with appropriate Tier 1 instruction.

16. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! • The relationship between the letters (graphemes) and the sounds (phonemes) in order to read and write words. Denotes the systematic and predictable relationship between written letters and spoken sounds. • Interventions that are empirically tested using sound research methodology, accepted by experts within the field, published in scholarly research journals.

17. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! • The reason for reading. The ultimate goal of reading instruction. Purposeful and active reading that occurs during passages. Involves making connections between prior knowledge and the current text. • Frequent teacher assessment of student performance using brief measures. It catches potential false positives from universal screening and is not meant to be diagnostic. It helps you figure out if your intervention is working.

18. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! • The number of words at which Oral Reading Fluency typically plateaus in the middle grades. • The process of building capacity in personnel, building up resources, adding personnel, creating effective teams, and increasing skills of staff to analyze data for RTI.

19. Cut-Throat RTI Bingo! • Agreement from the top down and the bottom up which is essential to the RTI process. • The extent to which the intervention was implemented in the manner it was supposed to be implemented, on the number of occasions and, for the duration it was supposed to be implemented.

20. Activating Prior Knowledge • One of the cornerstones of an RTI model is that scientific, evidence-based Tier 1 instruction effectively eliminates inappropriate instruction as a reason for inadequate progress.

21. Activating Prior Knowledge • Remember that RTI is about prevention • Schools do not wait for students to fail before coming to their assistance • Screening is conducted for all students to identify those who, despite a strong core curriculum (Tier 1), are on a path to failure • To have any chance of deviating from the path to failure, students must get help early (Tiers 2 & 3) • When RTI is implemented fully, reading, math, writing, and behavior screening is conducted with all students • Those at risk for difficulties in one or more of these areas receive targeted evidence-based interventions (Jenkins & Johnson, 2008)

22. Activating Prior Knowledge • Important factors in sustainability of RTI: • extensive, ongoing professional development, • administrative support at the system and building level, • teacher buy-in and willingness to adjust their traditional instructional roles, • involvement of all school personnel, and • adequate meeting time for coordination. (Hughes & Dexter, 2008)

23. Exploring Evidence-Based RTI Practices for Writing

24. IRA and NCTE 12 ELA StandardsInclude the Writing Process • Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes • Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes

25. IRA and NCTE 12 ELA StandardsInclude the Writing Process • Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts • Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information)

26. Statewide Assessment and Accountability • Writing Assessments and Benchmarks have increased demands such as: • Writing in different genres • Writing for different audiences • Writing for different purposes • Demonstrating writing conventions • Grammar • Sentence construction • Spelling • Writing fluently within time constraints

27. Research • Written Expression in the early grades is a good predictor of overall school success (Isaacson, 1985) • However, • 14% of 4th grade students • 15% of 8th grade students • 26% of 12th grade students Were not able to write at even the most basic level(2002 NAEP Writing Assessment)

28. Writing Problems • Begin early and tend to continue with students throughout their education (Isaacson, 1995) • Often the 1st indicator to teachers that there is a learning problem (Isaacson, 1985) • With reading problems, writing problems lead to greatest number of referrals to and placements in Special Education (Hallahan & Kaufman, 1986; Howell, Fox, & Morehead, 1993)

29. Components of Writing • Writing involves: • Transcription skills (low-level processes) • Self-regulation skills (high-level processes) • Most children with writing problems have difficulty with one or the other • Only 1 in 3 have difficulty with both types of processes (Juel, 1988)

30. Graphemic realization of writing Spelling Vocabulary Grammar/syntax/semantics Punctuation/capitalization Components of Writing: Writing Mechanics (Low-Level)

31. Acquire knowledge Retrieve knowledge Plan text Construct text Edit text Regulate entire process Components of Writing: Writing Process (High-Level)

32. Paradigm Shift • Shift of focus from emphasis on writing mechanics to address ways to improve writing process and content • Influenced by development of cognitive models of writing that emphasize the mental operations that skilled writers use (e.g., planning, evaluating, revising) • Research suggests that a combination of approaches is most effective for children with writing problems

33. Effective Writing Instruction • Includes clear and specific objectives • Has activities for student to interact on writing tasks • Activates and builds on prior knowledge about a topic • Involves activities to organize the information • Places emphasis on text structure: narrative, expository, etc. • Teaches each step of the writing process explicitly: • Establish a purpose • Generate and organize ideas • Put ideas in print • Revise and edit (Hillocks, 1984; Isaacson, 1985)

34. Universal Screening in Writing • Tier 1 – all students screened for writing progress • Conducted 3 times per year • Early fall, midwinter & spring • Provides mechanism for identifying students at-risk for failure • Slightly over-identifies (false positives) • Allows schools to intervene early, before intensive intervention is necessary

35. Characteristics of Quality Screening Instruments • Brief and easily administered • Research-based • Highly correlated to writing proficiency • High reliability and validity • Sensitive to small increments of change • Alternate forms available • Data analysis and reporting available

36. Universal Screening in Writing • AIMSweb • Uses CBM in: ORF, Maze, Early Literacy, Spelling, Early Numeracy, Written Expression, and Math • www.AIMSweb.com • Grades K-8 for universal screening • $3/student for just reading • $5/student complete (reading, language arts and math computation) • Curriculum Based Measurement - FREE

37. AIMSweb • There are a bunch of probes and administration directions at http://www.AIMSweb.com/measures/written/sample.php • Scores • Total Words Written (universal screening measure for grades 1-6) • Correct Writing Sequences (universal screening measure for grades 6-8) • Words Spelled Correctly (can be used for progress monitoring)

38. Benchmarks for Writing- TWW IMPORTANT NOTE: THESE NORMS ARE ALL FOR 3 MINUTES OF WRITING -- From AIMSweb, 2007

39. Benchmarks for Writing- CWS IMPORTANT NOTE: THESE NORMS ARE ALL FOR 3 MINUTES OF WRITING -- From AIMSweb, 2007

40. Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM) • Alternate forms of equal difficulty • Sample of the year-long curriculum • Highly standardized • Given at regular intervals • Brief and easy to administer • Assess the same skill at the same difficulty level

41. Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM) • Written Expression can be used as a universal screener in grades 1-12 • As soon as the child can write a sentence • Spelling CBM can be used in grades 1-6 • More useful as a progress monitoring tool than a universal screener • Loses reliability toward the upper grades • Directions and probes are included on the CD

42. Research on CBM • When teachers use CBM to guide instructional decision making: • students learn more, • teacher decision-making improves, • and students are more aware of their own performance. (e.g., Fuchs, Deno, & Mirkin, 1984)

43. Research on CBM • Reliability: a test consistently measures in the same way • Inter-rater reliability • Test-retest, etc. • Validity: a test measures what it is intended to measure • Using the SAT-9 as the criterion, CBM Writing was found to be reliable and valid (Gansle, VanDerheyden, Noell, Resetar, & Williams, 2006)

44. Research on CBM • For secondary students: • Total Words Written (TWW) and Total Words Spelled Correctly (TWS) are LESS reliable and valid than other indices in higher grades • Correct minus Incorrect Word Sequences (CIWS) seems to have the most reliability • More sensitive to change (important for progress monitoring) • Independent of the prompt (McMaster & Espin, 2007)

45. Interventions • Six Areas • Beginning Writing • Handwriting • Spelling • Editing • Planning • Fluency • Comprehensive Strategies

46. Beginning Writers • Young writers with and without learning disabilities spend little time planning before they write; they plan as they write without thinking ahead of time about content or organization schemes (Burtis, Bereiter, Scardamalia, and Tetroe,1983; Graham, Harris, MacArthur, and Schwartz, 1991) • Important note: Many beginning writers struggle with phonics. It is appropriate for these students to use the Phonics intervention strategies from the reading CD.

47. Strategies for Beginning Writers • Draw a Story • Making Words • Graham’s Alphabet Exercises • Share the Pen • Writer’s Workshop • Word Sorts for Beginning and Struggling Readers

48. Draw A Story (Renee Goularte, readwritethink.org) • Introduces students in grades K through 2 to the writing process in a way that supports the transition from oral to written storytelling • Useful in helping students work with sequential content that includes character, action, problem, and solution

49. Draw A Story (Renee Goularte, readwritethink.org) • Students draw a series of pictures that tells a simple, sequential story • They ‘read’ their story to others, transcribe their oral story into writing, and create an accordion book with drawings on the front side and writing on the back

50. Writer’s Workshop • Mini-lessons/Class Status • The Writing Process/Conferencing • Rehearsal, drafting, editing, & revising • Sharing/Author’s Chair/Publication • Jasmine & Weiner, 2007 • Increased enthusiasm • Increased confidence • Increased proficiency