School started for me in early August, and as always,
the last few weeks have been filled with assessments, assessments, assessments
as I seek to find out where each of my kinder-babies are in regard to their
skills and knowledge. Naturally, during
this assessment process I have found that a few of my “littles” are a wee bit “behind”
in terms of skills and baseline knowledge.
These students are in need of immediate early intervention!
Hello RTI!
As you know, RTI
(Response to Intervention) is a multi-tier approach to the early identification
and support of students with learning needs. The RTI
process begins with high-quality instruction and universal screening of all
children in the general education classroom. Struggling learners are provided
with interventions at increasing levels of intensity to accelerate their rate
of learning. Progress is closely
monitored to assess both the learning rate and level of performance of
individual students. Educational decisions about the intensity and duration of
interventions are based on individual student response to instruction.
While RTI
is necessary, let’s be real. It can also
be time-intensive to plan, organize and make realistically “do-able” on top of
all of your other teaching responsibilities. Although I know that all schools
have different procedures for carrying out RTI,
I thought it might be helpful to share how I organize and execute the RTI
process in my classroom. For me, it’s
all about keeping things simple, do-able and organized!
Step One – RTI Skill/Standard Folders
I purchase a stockpile of simple pocket folders. You know, the kind that you can get during
the back-to-school sale for just a few cents.
I then label each folder with a different academic standard. (See below.)
Here are
the labels I use for my kindergarten RTI folders.
{I whipped these up myself...but there's nothing extremely magical about them! You could easily create your own labels by typing in your standards! If you are a kindergarten teacher and would rather save time than type them up yourself, click to download them as a FREEBIE!}
Next, I fill one of the pockets inside the folder
with these RTI documentation sheets.
Step Two – RTI Instructional Intervention
Resources/Activities
After I have all of my folders labeled and organized
by category and standard, I fill each folder with instructional materials that
can serve as RTI activities. I keep it simple, people. We all know that over-complicating things can
sometimes make them impossible to carry out! {At my school, I’m completely responsible for
all of my own RTI, so while my system might not be as
detailed as what a resource specialist could provide, it IS a system that works
for me on limited time!}I simply place skill printables and instruction sheets
for hands-on activities in each folder. Now
the RTI
folders are ready to go!
Step Three – RTI Implementation
Set aside an hour a day to implement your RTI
program. JUST KIDDING! If you are like me, I don’t have an extra
minute in my days to fit in something “extra!”
THIS is the main reason that I implement the RTI
program that I use!
First of all, whenever you do any assessments
(formative or summative) and you notice a kiddo who is performing below level
on a skill or standard, go directly to your RTI folders
and fill out an RTI form for him/her and
stick it in the appropriate folder. Even
though you may not have time to “work” with that kiddo on that skill right at that moment,
you now have his/her need documented.
Now that my RTI
folders are all organized and ready to go, I simply pull the folders during
learning center time, math station time or ANY other time that my kinders are
working independently for 2 minutes or more (literally!) If you have your RTI
materials organized, it’s amazing what you can get done in just a few minutes
of time! If you are fortunate enough to
have instructional aides or parent volunteers, you can even have them go to the
folders when they have time. Simply pull
a folder (any folder)…and if there is an RTI
form with student info filled out, they simply grab a skill printable or activity
sheet, grab that kiddo, complete the task and write a few notes on the RTI
form. Document the student’s
performance, and if more practice is needed, return the RTI
sheet to the folder. If the child shows
proof of skill mastery, I ask the aide to pull the
RTI
sheet and give it to me (or if I’m assessing, I do it myself of course!) I then place it in that student’s individual
assessment binder so that when I complete report cards, I have all the info I
need!
As the form indicates, increase duration and
intensity of the interventions for students as need indicates onto Tier 2 and
Tier 3. For more details on RTI
and the suggested intensity and duration of implementation of the various
tiers, check out the RTI FREEBIE by clicking HERE. If students
eventually need to be referred for special educational services, you already
have all the documentation you need! Easy
Peasy! J
Interested in learning more about what materials you might place
inside your RTI folders?
Here
is an example of one of the printable activities I place inside my CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.D (Recognize
and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet) RTI folder. It
specifically was designed for students who have letter reversal problems.
Here
is another example of an RTI folder intervention
activity. This is an example of an
activity specifically created to address CCSS.K.CC.A.3 {Identify and write numbers from 0 to 20/Represent a
number of objects with a written numeral}.
Some of my other Blog Hoppin’ “besties” have great resources that can be used in RTI
folders too!
GETCHA’ SOME!
Check out these RTI folder fillers, by the sweet Babbling Abby!
Great source for K numeracy skills RTI!
{That Cara Carroll knows her stuff!}
Do
YOU
have any great RTI resources that you have created for TPT and would
like to share?
If
so, LINK UP below!