Response to Intervention

Russian psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner created a developmental systems theory to explain the impact of the microsystem and macrosystem on human development.  The microsystem consists of those closest to a person such as family, friends, and school.  The macrosystem is made of larger components such as community, religious affiliation, state, and political influence (Belsky, 2010).  The American education system impacts the development of students in tremendous ways, second only to their families.  For most parents, nothing is more important than their children, and the parents of children with exceptional needs are often more voracious in their educational goals for their children.  The American education system bears a tremendous responsibility to provide free appropriate public education to all learners, both typically developing and those with exceptional needs.  For students to be successful, supports must come from both the micro and macro systems, and when intervention is necessary, the confluence of these systems becomes even more important.  “The best intervention is prevention” (Buffum, Mattos, & Weber, 2012).

RTI stands for Response to Intervention, which refers to a multi-tiered system of supports identified for all students, those with exceptional needs and those who learn by the general curriculum.  The purpose of RTI is to integrate resources, dissolving the territorial boundaries between special education, Title 1, and general education.  RTI involves taking a multi disciplinary approach to assessing students’ needs on how to best deliver high-quality, research-based instruction based on the belief that all students can learn (Laferriere Lecture, 2015). 

            Intervention is most effective when implemented early on.  Assessment and supports are available from the state to children from 0-36 months old.  The school system begins its responsibility when children reach the age of 3 and continues until they graduate from high school.   In the book Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles, the authors preface this entire concept by emphasizing urgency.  Proactivity is paramount, and every student and every family is different which presents unique and ever-changing challenges to effective intervention.  Intervention integrated with quality education is a moral responsibility, not a privilege, and it can be difficult, but not impossible.  It requires professionals to first attempt to reach all students in meaningful ways, differentiating as opposed to labeling.  Educators, counselors, families, and those in supporting roles need to attend to and identify those children at risk before they fall too far behind (Buffum et al., 2012).   

Buffum et al. list the 4 Cs of RTI:

1.     Collective Responsibility – Why are we here?

2.     Concentrated Instruction – Where do we need to go?

3.     Convergent Assessment – Where are we now?

4.     Certain Access – How do we get every child there?

Collective responsibility may be the most significant aspect of RTI because it is centered on the idea that education is a collaborative event both in teaching and learning.  It involves the entire system to provide appropriate opportunity to all students within the core curriculum and those identified as needing additional supports.  It includes school wide teams as well as teacher teams taking on the arduous task of challenging the old ways of thinking and transforming them into a collectivist focus.  If educators are asked whether or not they believe all students can learn, they will all agree yes, but they will follow their answers with qualifiers about things beyond an educator’s control such as the condition of home life, economic conditions, and intrinsic motivation (Buffum et al., 2012).  It is true that educators cannot change much of that, but what happens during school time is within their control, and it is their responsibility to execute purposeful plans during that time.  Learning needs to be the focus, not just teaching.

So what can I do?  I can demonstrate the acknowledgement and acceptance of a collectivist culture within the educational realm.  I can vocalize my intentions and motivate others to join me.  I can find out whom and seek help from interdisciplinary teams within the school system and offer my assistance and insight to the highest level possible for the good of the student.  These teams are made up of administrators, teachers, counselors, therapists, specialists, community resources officers, and parents and students, too.  If there is a team building committee or a teacher team structure on which I can serve as an ambassador for “regular” teachers, I could join.  I can also encourage others to and personally participate in ongoing learning.  In respectful ways, I can hold myself and others accountable for promoting cultural change within the school where I teach and the community as a whole.

Once educators commit to collaborative intervention, the next step is determining where to go.  Learners vary in skill level, and those who qualify for added supports and services vary even more.  The whole purpose of RTI is to reach all students on all levels before those determined “at risk” fall too far behind or are cast to the wayside.  RTI is grounded in the notion of implementing research-based strategies for teaching.  It has purpose.  This concept refers to concentrated instruction, which has 3 parts:  1.  Define the learning objectives (core instruction).   2.  Conceptualize what modification and accommodations will be offered and to whom.  3.  Design formative assessments that accurately reflect student achievement (Buffum et al., 2012). 

            This is no easy task.  Core standards have been established, but the number of standards is grossly disproportionate to the amount of time a teacher has to cover them.  Teachers prioritize standards by choosing which ones work best with the curriculum and which ones will generate the best outcome.  Besides, true learning can happen beyond standard measurement.  As a teacher my job will be to implement the chosen standards that other teacher teams and I collaboratively create.  It will also be my job to not just view the standards as one-dimensional but as having multiple dimensions that include depth, demonstration, and endurance.   Additional time and support for differentiated learners and those in need of remediation and enrichment should also be considered when planning instruction (Buffum et al., 2012).  It’s a continual process that requires ongoing attention from teachers and administrators to ensure that goals are being met and that assessment is dealt with in timely, productive, meaningful ways.  My job in this is to work with the systems around me and consider not just academic achievement but also behavioral achievement from real data sources.  I’m just one person, but I’m part of the team in a multi-tiered support system.

            All students are given assessment probes to measure achievement throughout the year.  Those who are Tier 1 students needing the least amount of intervention are assessed at least 3 times a year whereas Tier 3 students who need ongoing assessment, are probed more often up to several times a week (Laferriere Lecture, 2015).  The purpose of regular assessment is to ensure that students are progressing.  If students are not demonstrating increased achievement or are regressing, then the curriculum and implementation strategies should be reevaluated.  Systematic, measurable learning objectives are established to determine where students are and where they need to go.   Convergent assessment means to identify, determine, monitor, and revise assessments to obtain the most accurate evidence of student learning (Buffum et al., 2012).

            Again, my role as a teacher is to actively take part in the teacher team component of RTI.  Assessment criteria includes attendance, behavior, and grades in addition to research-based universal tests. These formative tests are administered several times a year, and I will be asked to provide results, so record keeping will be key.  It will be crucial for me to effectively convey classroom expectations and make myself present in the hallways, for example, to give students a chance to succeed behaviorally and academically.  Reading carries tremendous weight as a foundation for all learning.  As a future English teacher, I will need to know my students and assess their reading and writing abilities fairly in order to identify those who may need extra support.  I must also be willing and able to teach remedial learners the skills they need to make progress.       

Certain access is the fourth component of RTI.  Certain access encompasses the final result of RTI – that every student will receive the necessary support to be successful (Buffum et al., 2012).  It requires that all systems work together to produce the intended outcome.  It is a universal promise that the school district will deliver the appropriate time and support each child needs in order to learn.  One part of this involves the proper placement of students in the most effective teacher/learner environment.  Identifying the students who need support is going to determine the best intervention (Buffum et al., 2012).

            RTI and certain access do not just have to happen on the macro level.  The idea of prevention being the best intervention includes teacher responsibility to know her students chart their progress or lack thereof.  Ongoing pre and formative assessment will be crucial to monitoring students.  A quarterly report card might not be enough if needs are discovered until the entire first quarter is over.  Grading should also be valid and measurable to ensure that learning objectives are met.  The bottom line is for me to design the class purposefully, treat students equitably, differentiate successfully, assess fairly, revise and extend when necessary, and collaborate frequently.

I should follow the proper steps for referring students who need additional support. 

As a pre-service, non-SPED teacher, my opinion on RTI would be that RTI encompasses the implementation of an enormous system that we cannot completely control.  Sadly, time and place constrains make the implementation of RTI difficult because a child’s needs for time and support can vary child to child, even day to day (Buffum et al., 2012).  My job is to know my students and commit to working collaboratively with the intervention supports in place to best serve students according to their individual needs.  My job is also to practice acceptance and collaboration to promote a culture of commitment to social justice.  My motives in doing so should be in accordance with the principles, culture, and purpose of the school where I teach, and I should have a mind for continuing education and exposure.  I should also keep in mind that the goal of any education is to create cohorts of functional, thoughtful, and productive people, not to pass a test or master a certain standard. Society has made some improvements in the ways we think about and implement intervention strategies, but it is a continual process.  I believe if we, as a body of educators, can trudge through the discomfort of change, we as a society will reap the long-term benefits of offering a rich experience for our students.

 References

Belsky, J. (2010). Experiencing the lifespan (2nd ed.). New York: Worth. Print.

Buffum, Austin G., Mike Mattos, and Chris Weber. Simplifying Response to

Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree, 2012. Print.

Laferriere, EDSP 306 Class Lecture 2015.

Digital Story Telling

In the class Integrating Technology into Education, we had to create a digital story.  Digital stories are fun way for students to express themselves creatively while strengthening the connections between words and images.  Here is the analysis I produced for class.  The parable I wrote hits home, for sure.

Catherine Lee Vernon

Digital Story Telling Contextual Analysis

EDU 370

June 19, 2015

Writing a Parable for Digital Story Format

Mrs. Vernon’s 10^th Grade ELA Class

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz76xQmao-k

Standards:

CCRA.W.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

CCRA.W.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism

W.9-10.3e e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.

W.9-10.2f f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).

W.9-10.3 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

W.9-10.6 6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

Objectives:   

Students will understand and identify the differences and purposes of

parables and allegories.

Students will write their own parable or allegory.

Students will create a digital story from their parable and publish it digitally.

Contextual Analysis:

This is a chance for students to explore their values by writing a parable or allegory that teaches a lesson.  This involves creative story telling that could include a social, historical, or political issue, or any other issue that is important to students.  Students could also identify a personal conflict and relay to the audience the consequences of an action or feeling.  Then they are tasked with giving their story a face when they put it into digital format.  Students typically enjoy playing with technology and free expression, so the digital process may make learning fun while allowing students agency over the outcome.

  

Parables and allegories are often short stories, so the content will feel manageable to students. The lesson will be further enhanced by the integration of technology.  Parables and allegories employ the use of abstract thinking, so to bridge the abstract thought with concrete images and sounds may encourage students to see meaning in images and images in meanings.  Their understanding will go deeper when they ask themselves, “What does (xyz feeling) look like?”  The students still have to use their imaginations to create the story and find suitable pictures, but instead of just surface reading (fake reading) and writing, they must find substantial imagery to accompany their words.  There’s no faking that. 

Night by Elie Weisel

Book Club #3
Night
Elie Weisel

Attending:  Allicia Wick (host), Dr. Allison Wynhoff-Olsen, Stephanie Pascale, Lee Vernon, and Yvonne Holladay (my mama)

Topics:

Yiddish to French to English - what happens in translation

Elie Weisel - Nobel Peace Prize winner and acclaimed author, wrote from personal experience

Cross Textual References - The Trial of God, Maus, 1984, The Diary of Anne Frank

Themes - How the past lingers in the present, question of religions, family relationships, preservation of Holocaust memories, Jewish culture

Historical context - WWII, the 1940s, behaviors and values of that generation, American views of Holocaust, and statements from Germans who lived during that time

And much, much more.  This was likely the richest book club meeting we have had so far.  I was proud to have my mother with us.  She's a fantastic, smart lady.  This book pairs well with others similar in theme or historical era.  It's a book I should read again.  I have only read it once and the first time I read it for the plot.  I'd like to read it again for depth.

Tech Club #6: The Last Visit

For the last Tech Club meeting at the CDC, my group members and I struggled to find a learning activity for the kids.  We considered things we had done and we reflected on what topics and strategies worked and didn't work.  We finally decided on doing something with baby animals based on how the kids reacted the last time we did something with animals and videos.  They really liked the videos.

We divided the presentation into an animal introduction, the geography of where that animal lives, and ended with a video.  It was a nice zoology lesson.  As I have mentioned previously, the CDC calls this time Reactivity Time which I think is such a cool concept.  The kids can "react" to their environment by playing on their own or visiting different tables with specific activities.  This time also includes snack, so we often lose them to last calls for snacks.  This time we decided to stay placed at a certain table to let the children come and go as they pleased.  Unless the activity calls for active participation, this system seems to work better with fewer distractions.

I think the kids who are regulars at Tech Club are kids who are accustomed to technology.  They probably have iPads at home.  Their parents comment on how much they love them.  We structured the lesson so that they had to "learn" through discussion before getting to see the video, a prize.  I put learn in quotations because I realize that learning occurs in all spaces at all times.  Even when we think kids aren't paying attention, they are!  As soon as you say something wrong they'll pipe up and correct you so fast.  I see it with my own children.  I'll think they aren't listening until they repeat something they shouldn't at exactly the wrong moment.  The timing kept their attention as well.  If we just showed video after video, they would get bored, but intermittent videos work well.

We also used Google Earth at this session.  They really loved the visual effects of moving around the globe and zooming in and out of the various continents.  Developmentally, they are not yet old enough to understand space and time, but I believe it's ok to show them things beyond their understanding as long as we explain it along the way.  Technology allows us to merge amazing images with words.  Even the teachers were stopping by to watch what we were doing.

Finally the videos.  The videos are the things they love the most.  We showed baby animals that the kids relate to.  They especially loved the baby panda bears who went down the slide and toppled over each other.  I believe they loved our visits.  They knew why we were there and got excited about it every week.

My final take-aways are:
Differentiate in the classroom.  Include technology as a supplement to lecture, discussion, and group activities.

Differentiate the technology.  It's not enough to just show video after video after video.  As much as kids love it, they get bored with it easily.  I've taken classes that were lecture - video - lecture - video.  The video was a nice change at first, but I got bored with that eventually.  What else ya got?!?

Whatever the best, most interesting technology component is, save it for the last when possible or everything else will pale in comparison.

The use of technology should supplement the learning objective, not the other way around.  There are a lot of cool learning apps out there, but they still should serve a purpose and fit in with what else is going on in the classroom.  Technology is NOT a substitute teacher.

For the technology you don't know, ask someone for help.  Even better, if your students know more about it than you do, ask for THEIR help!  This not only provides a learning opportunity for you, but the student has to consider how the lesson fits in while explaining it to you.  It can open new pathways of learning by identifying the purpose of the lesson, the key idea.

Tech Club #5 - Photo Scavenger Hunt

On Wednesday June 10 our group met at the CDC to engage the kids in a photo scavenger hunt. Another group member coordinated this activity by printing photos of things found in and around the classroom.  She had photos of a green square, leaves, a stick, a pencil, a red circle, a bucket, and a few others.  This activity had the kids moving around looking for the items and taking turns photographing them with the iPads.  Taking pictures is one of their favorite things to do, and the ways they discovered the items was awesome.  One girl found a red circle by looking at the end of a marker.

The CDC has this time slotted as "reactivity" time when the kids can move from station to station at their own pace or they can enjoy time playing on their own.  We seem to have the same kids each time we come.  Perhaps they are the ones most acclimated to technology, meaning maybe they have iPads at home and enjoy using them.  Sometimes we have an influx of kids - some will start with us and by the time we finish, we have an entirely different group.  We have 2 iPads to use, so we broke into two groups.  The activities took us outdoors and indoors and when we went outside, many of them began to play and we lost their engagement.  It took some effort to bring them back to focus.

We are a disadvantaged in that we don't know these kids nor do we know the disciplinary culture at the school.  One child brought in a stick from outside and wouldn't give it back to me.  I ended up getting a teacher because I didn't feel it was my place to take it from him.  The same child was removed from the activity earlier for not sharing.  

This particular visit felt the most chaotic, though I think it was fun for the kids.  Knowing the students is one of the most important aspects of being a teacher, so it will be easier to instruct, customize, and discipline my "own" kids.  It was our lack of exposure and experience with these kids that made it feel a little crazy.  It was a neat activity, but I suspect we will do better if we stay in one place whether that's indoors or out.  

Shout it from the mountaintops, "HEY WORLD, I CAN LEARN!"

Sometimes I fantasize about things I will say to my future students.  I want to tell them that I don't care if they know the name of the frog in Mark Twain's The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.  Any yahoo can look that up.  What I want to know is can they learn.  Can they think?  Can they integrate information across subjects?  No one learns in high school all the things he will need to know for whatever job he gets.  New information comes across all the time.  My first job out of college was at a bank.  I didn't know anything about banking, but I had demonstrated an ability to learn in my educational background, and that's what matters.

It begs the question: How will we know that students are trainable?  Educable?  We give formative and summative assessments, but those don't always capture a student's ability.  Perhaps one student does well in English but not so well in history.  I would guess that those subjects are more closely related than not and the grade difference has to do with the classroom experience and personal interest.  Do we measure a student's trainability against mastery of core standards?  I'm still searching for answers to this question, but meanwhile I am beaming with excitement for this revolution in pedagogical approaches.

Here's an excerpt from a book I am currently reading for Exceptional Learners.

In the United States, each state has attempted to define what all students must learn, and as a result many American schools and districts have abdicated their responsibility to define essential learnings to the state. Unfortunately, in their well-intentioned attempts to create academic content standards, states have identified far more than can possibly be learned in the amount of time available to teachers. After studying and quantifying this problem at McREL (Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning), Marzano came to the following conclusion: “To cover all of this content, you would have to change schooling from K– 12 to K– 22. The sheer number of standards is the biggest impediment to implementing standards” (in Scherer, 2001, p. 15). The process used to create state content standards might help shed some light on this problem. James Popham (2005) describes the process as one of convening subject-matter specialists and asking them to identify what is significant and important about their subject. This typically results in a document that concludes that almost everything about their subject is important. Popham adds, “These committees seem bent on identifying skills that they fervently wish students would possess. Regrettably, the resultant litanies of committee-chosen content standards tend to resemble curricular wish lists rather than realistic targets” (2005). In too many schools, facing an overwhelming amount of content that they must cover, teachers pick and choose the standards they believe will be most beneficial to their students— or even worse, the standards they like to teach. In other schools, realizing that this haphazard approach to determining what students must learn may negatively impact student performance on high-stakes tests, teachers frantically attempt to cover all of the standards equally— even if this means that many students can never truly understand what they are learning or demonstrate mastery of a standard. When everything is important, nothing is. Both of these approaches are disastrous for student learning.


Buffum, Austin; Mattos, Mike (2011-10-29). Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles (Kindle Locations 1201-1212). Ingram Distribution. Kindle Edition.        

Tech Club Visit #4 - Color Alive

On Wednesday June 3, our group met at the CDC to work with the students on coloring, mythical creatures, and the Crayola Color Alive app.  This visit's plan was one for which I wrote a lesson activity plan using LucidChart.com.  I apologize for the blurriness of the image.  I'm still working on my own tech skills to convert a .png into an image I can import into blogspot.

The Tech Club meeting went well.  The students, or "friends" as they call one another, are used to seeing us, so the same kids came to play with us that came the week before.  Kids this age are eager to get their hands on the technology, so it was distracting having an iPad around while we tried to get them excited to color.  They did not want to wait long.  One or two kids took the time to color as we talked about mythological and fantasy creatures.

The Objectives:
1.  They colored.  The point was practice developing a fine motor skill.  Some students had better pronounced skill than others.
2.  Students were definitely engaged as much as we, the teachers, were!  The other teachers in the classroom were also curious about what we were doing and thought the Color Alive app was awesome.
3.  Students were able to name some mythological creatures, but that was not the information they attended to best.  The technology component above all held their attention.

Activities and Tech Integration:
1.  We attempted to engage the students in discussion or excited talk about enchanted creatures, but I felt they honestly wanted to rush through all of that to get to play with the iPad as quickly as possible.  One boy cried because we made him wait.
2.  As I thought might be the case, some students colored independently but others preferred to color together or asked for help to add more color to their pictures.
3.  We used the Color Alive app to make their drawings come to life.  This worked, mostly.  One issue was the speed at which the app could be used.  I don't know if the iPad was short on memory or if the app is generally slow, but I would have thought the images would load and interact more rapidly.  Getting a 3 year old to wait is taxing, and we risked losing their interest.  Also, the images work better within the app when there is more color on them.  One student scribbled with purple crayon allover the page which confused the app.  The app was not able to scan the image.  I did not anticipate that.  Also, the app would randomly crash forcing us to start over.

Take-aways:
1.  Kids this age want the prize.  Immediately.  They get impatient and due to the structure of this particular school, the kids have free play during this hour and are allowed to come and go as they please.  If we can't hold them, they depart.  Make it cool right away.

2.  Apps can sometimes appear better than they are.  The Crayola Color Alive app IS really cool, but it's limited.  The user can add and subtract glitter and a few other color effects, and the image can come alive.  That's it.

3.  I suspect the iPads didn't have much memory available or they are older iPads that are not equipped to use the app.  Sometimes technology isn't up to speed for the intended use, and sometimes it just poops out.  Be prepared that this could happen, and either match the hardware to the software or have a backup plan.

Overall the kids and teachers loved it.  Even parents who arrived to pick up their child were interested and said they would look into the app when they got home.  This was a time intensive activity.  Before we knew it, it was 4 o'clock and I was not ready to leave.  Success!