Discussion: Read the quote below and discuss in pairs:

1. Building Student Motivation and Academic Skills: Research Supported InterventionsJim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.orgNASP 2007 Annual ConventionNew York City 

2. Discussion: Read the quote below and discuss in pairs: How sloppy can we be in doing RTI in schools and still be effective?

3. Workshop Goals… • In this training, we will review ideas to: • Understanding of foundation learning concepts, (e.g., Instructional Hierarchy) • Knowledge of effective interventions in reading fluency/comprehension, math computation/problem-solving, writing, and study skills • Ability to increase student motivation by correcting faulty attributions about academic competencies and altering the instructional environment

4. RTI: Essential Elements for Intervention Planning

5. How can a school restructure to support RTI? The school can organize its intervention efforts into 3 levels, or Tiers, that represent a continuum of increasing intensity of support. (Kovaleski, 2003; Vaughn, 2003). Tier I is the lowest level of intervention and Tier III is the most intensive intervention level. Universal intervention: Available to all students Example: Additional classroom literacy instruction Tier I Individualized Intervention: Students who need additional support than peers are given individual intervention plans. Example: Supplemental peer tutoring in reading to increase reading fluency Tier II Intensive Intervention: Students whose intervention needs are greater than general education can meet may be referred for more intensive services. Example: Special Education Tier III

6. Tier I‘School-Wide Screening & Group Intervention’ Tier II ‘Non-Responders’ to Tier I Are Identified & Given ‘Individually Tailored’ Interventions (e.g., peer tutoring/fluency) RTI: School-Wide Three-Tier Framework (Kovaleski, 2003; Vaughn, 2003) Tier III ‘Long-Term Programming for Students Who Fail to Respond to Tier II Interventions’ (e.g., Special Education)

7. Avg Classroom Academic Performance Level Discrepancy 1: Skill Gap (Current Performance Level) Discrepancy 2: Gap in Rate of Learning (‘Slope of Improvement’) Target Student ‘Dual-Discrepancy’: RTI Model of Learning Disability(Fuchs 2003)

8. ‘Imagine a Student…’ Activity In your ‘elbow groups’: Discuss students that you have worked with (either recently or in the past) who appeared to have BOTH academic deficits and problems with motivation. At the end of the exercise, you should have an image in mind of a student who would benefit from the strategies to be discussed in this workshop.

9. ‘Big Ideas’ in Academic InterventionsJim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org

10. None of us is as smart as all of us.--Anonymous

11. Any darn mule can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build one.--Lyndon Johnson

12. ‘Curriculum Train’

13. Difficult-To-Teach Students • Experience greater difficulty with learning and retention of information • May also have behavioral problems • Fall along a continuum, with some students showing more severe needs than others

14. Difficult-To-Teach Students:The Numbers • One in ten children in schools is classified as Special Education • 3-5% of students may qualify for ADHD • In 1998, about 40% of 4th grade youngsters fell below grade-level on a national reading test

15. Difficult-To-Teach Students • “An increasing body of evidence supports the need for students with disabilities to be directly taught the processes and concepts that nondisabled children tend to learn naturally through experiences.” • --Office of Special Education Programs • 21st Annual Report to Congress (1999)

16. Teacher ‘Circle of Accountability’ • Identify students who need additional support • Use research-based interventions to assist students • Monitor these students progress on ongoing basis

17. 1. Identify & Verify the Scope of the Problem 2. Select Interventions That Address ‘Root Cause’ 3. Set Goals for Improvement 4. Monitor Student Progress & Evaluate Outcome Solving Student Academic or Behavioral Problems: A Four-Part Model for Teachers

18. Building Blocks of Effective Instruction …

19. Learning: Interaction Between Student and Setting “It would be hard to imagine a model of academic achievement that failed to recognize that learning involves interaction between students and their environment. Certainly one function of formal schooling is to organize the environment so that learning can occur effectively.” p. 346 Source: Lentz, F. E. & Shapiro, E. S. (1986). Functional assessment of the academic environment. School Psychology Review, 15, 346-357.

20. ‘Big Ideas’ as an Academic Intervention…

21. ‘Big Ideas’ As an Academic Intervention…(Carnine, 1994) “The notion of big ideas is roughly comparable to important ideas,knowledge, and concepts. Specifically, instead of teaching for coverage (i.e., exposing students to all the objectives of a lesson), only a few big ideas would be taught, but more thoroughly. It is better to do a few robust things well than lots of things poorly…”p.346 Example: Fractions, decimals, ratios, percents all represent the concept of proportion.

22. Identifying the ‘Driver(s)’ or Cause(s) of Student Academic Concerns

23. Identifying the Cause of the Student’s Academic Deficit Possible Explanations: • Skill Deficit: Student needs to be taught the skills • ‘Fragile’ Skill: Student possesses the skill but has not yet mastered to automaticity • Performance Deficit: Student can do the skill but lacks incentive to perform it (‘motivation’ issue)

24. Instructional Hierarchy(Haring, et al, 1978)

26. Instructional Hierarchy: Four Stages of Learning • Acquisition • Fluency • Generalization • Adaptation Source: Haring, N.G., Lovitt, T.C., Eaton, M.D., & Hansen, C.L. (1978). The fourth R: Research in the classroom. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co.

31. Learn Unit(Heward, 1996)

32. Instructional Building Blocks… ‘Learn Unit’ (Heward, 1996) • Academic Opportunity to Respond • Active Student Response • Performance Feedback

33. Elements of ‘Learn Unit’… • Academic Opportunity to Respond. The student is presented with a meaningful opportunity to respond to an academic task. A question posed by the teacher, a math word problem, and a spelling item on an educational computer ‘Word Gobbler’ game could all be considered academic opportunities to respond.

34. Elements of ‘Learn Unit’… • Active Student Response. The student answers the item, solves the problem presented, or completes the academic task. Answering the teacher’s question, computing the answer to a math word problem (and showing all work), and typing in the correct spelling of an item when playing an educational computer game are all examples of active student responding.

35. Elements of ‘Learn Unit’… • Performance Feedback. The student receives timely feedback about whether his or her response is correct—often with praise and encouragement. A teacher exclaiming ‘Right! Good job!’ when a student gives an response in class, a student using an answer key to check her answer to a math word problem, and a computer message that says ‘Congratulations! You get 2 points for correctly spelling this word!” are all examples of performance feedback.

36. References • Carnine, D. (1994). Diverse learners and prevailing, emerging and research-based educational approaches and their tools. School Psychology Review, 23, 341-350. • Heward, W.L. (1996). Three low-tech strategies for increasing the frequency of active student response during group instruction. In R. Gardner III, D. M.Sainato, J.O.Cooper, T.E.Heron, W.L.Heward, J.W.Eshleman, & T.A.Grossi (Eds.) Behavior analysis in education: Focus on measurably superior instruction (pp.283-320). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.