Chapter 1 - Defining Productive Group Work

"Educators since Socrates have know that knowledge is built and extended through the exchange of ideas and that students should be encouraged to question and push each other's understanding." (p. 13)

The idea of productive group work has been around for...ever. Socrates knew it was an essential tool in learning. Vygotsky determined its' importance in the development of a child's culture, saying that one must first learn from others in order to internalize ideas - what to think and how to think.

Many teachers, even those aware of principles that define PGW, struggle to support interaction in groups. I think we have witnessed this to be true - as observers and members of groups. The following are what define PGW. Important to remember is that ALL must be present!

Positive Interdependence:
Participation from every member and clear understanding of the group's interdependence is necessary for the task to be completed and accomplished. The group needs -

• Goals that require contribution from each member. (I am still not sure how this could not be done by another member without the teacher knowing.)
• Resources given to each member so that each member has something important and essential to share with the group.
• Rewards to motivate the group and each individual to participate. (We read on to find out this could be grades or points. I am still not sure how this will motivate those students who are not interested in them. Doesn't something more need to exist in the culture of the classroom?)
• Roles assigned so that each member has something to accomplish.

Ms. Czarnopys' example of a cumulative PGW assignment worked well as an example for the principles. The tie to positive interdependence came in when she asked the discussion questions of individual students after the group had a chance to review, discuss, and formulate ideas. As we learned from the Doug Fisher talk this fall, having students listen to others and have a means for recording it (Down and up, folded papers, etc.) does encourage participation from all members of the group.

Face-to-Face Interaction
It is SO true that in the past (and maybe even the present) we put students in groups, have them create a presentation "together" and then present. But when asked a question about another members "part", most students are clueless and cannot address anything except what they prepared.
In this model, group members must all interact and share, as well as ensure all others are prepared.

Individual and Group Accountability
Teacher observation has a lot to do with this aspect. However, the authors recommend assigning an individual assessment (which is a writing piece in the example) in addition to the group discussion and presentation of answers.
(I think it is essential to note here that our readings from FOCUS will be important to remember. We need to continue to narrow the focus of WHAT and HOW we teach before this idea of assessment will be beneficial or even reachable to our teachers.)

Interpersonal and Small-Group Skills
Once students gain experience working in PGs, they will need to become familiar and comfortable working together for the good of helping. All students need to realize that they will need help from others at some point, therefore they should give help when they can.

Group Processing
This principle is about self-assessment of the group. The authors believe this to be one of the most crucial steps, but one that is often overlooked or not planned for. In order for PGs to get better, they have to assess what went well and what could get better. It is not about pinpointing an individual but figuring out what should be continued or changed for next time.

Finally, it is important to remember that the teacher must provide students with tasks that challenge the group. It is okay for them to argue and question each other. With this, they are having to defend, support, infer and challenge - this all leads to better understanding and heightened awareness of opposing views.

Productive Group Work - Introduction

Contrary to what many believe, group work is not the same thing as productive group work. Furthermore, there is a stigma attached to group work and the fact that the teacher has to relinquish control in the classroom. This stigma is due to the fears associated with what could happen during group work. However, when teachers plan productive group work in their classrooms, the benefits are substantial and the possibility for the chaos associated with group work is reduced and/or eliminated. After reading the introduction to Productive Group Work, I found several key points that I think are the keys to transforming group work into productive group work.

*        Teachers must have a way to hold individual students accountable during PGW

*        Students must learn to communicate with one another over a meaningful task prior to engaging in PGW

*        Teachers must pre-establish the conditions for the collaborative learning of PGW

*        The teachers’ job is NOT to supervise by walking around the classroom

*        This is an opportunity for RTI while the majority of the class is engaged in PGW

*        Engage students in PGW that builds off what you did as a whole group, which was an extension of your modeling during an ‘I do’

*        Soon after PGW, students will be ready for independent work

*        Independent learning is the ultimate goal. PGW will help prepare students to achieve independent learning

Chapters 7 & 8

Chapter seven of the RTI2 book discusses three kinds of feedback, feed-up feed forward and feed forward.  Creating this system of feedback is essential to monitor progress each type of feedback is described below:

Feed-up is clarifying the goal.  The focus here is purpose.  Students are more likely to achieve, when they are aware of the lessons goal and when they believe that their chance for success is high.  The author goes on to establish a correlation to the persuasion, argumentation and facts that is an on-going theme throughout the book.

Feedback is responding to the work.  The best feedback provides the students with information about their progress and the best course of action to succeed.   The use of humor, questions and startling statistics will benefit the student to see their areas of strength and weaknesses.

Feeding forward is modifying instruction.  This involves greater flexibility in lesson planning and delivery.  We also need to include the use of data to drive instruction.  Without a feed forward system we risk the use of feedback creating the need for more interventions and confused expectations for students.

Checking for expectations daily is an imperative to this process.   The checks need to inform and measure.  Focusing on fostering oral language and use of questioning techniques are pivotal.  Compelling evidence exists that student talk is a great mechanism for learning. 

Common formative Assessments will allow teachers to effectively communicate and discuss student achievement.   These assessments are usually based on units of instruction and become a part of the dreaded pacing guide.  This data will spur conversations and focus the discussion.

Creating formative assessments will guide future lessons and provide data to drive any interventions that might be needed.  They will create a clear picture of the areas in which students are progressing.  The author includes a brief section on engaging in professional discussions.  In y opinion we have developed these conversations nicely in the data team process. 

State assessments are also discussed in chapter seven.  The authors argue that a consistent reliance on the feedback system will boost student performance on sate mandated tests. 

Chapter eight deals with the idea of hardwiring excellence into our expectations school wide.    Utilization of the RTI2 process n\must become accepted and institutionalized.  We need to focus on three things purpose, worthwhile work, and making a difference are all components of this pursuit of excellence. 

A common definition and understanding of quality work will assist both teacher and building leader improve conversations; either among peers or with students. 

Family involvement in RTI2 is essential.  They Are the keepers of the child’s history and can be used as experts to help school personnel to understand the learning styles and what has worked for the student in the past. 

Coaching is discussed in this chapter and many of the author’s assertions were demonstrated more than adequately last year at JB.  Unfortunately, this model is not as widespread as it was and we all look forward to the possibility of fully staffing this model. 

In short, the final chapter of this book deals with improving the professional dialogue in meetings forming a structure that is designed to pursue excellence and including all stakeholders in the RTI process. 

Joe Flaherty

RTI - Chapters 5 and 6

Hi! Don't forget to respond to Jen's entry on Chapters 3 and 4. Time flies...

Chapter 5 - Intensive Interventions for High-Risk Learners:

Mobilizing Experts and Resources

Tier 3 is about intense and further time, expertise and assessment. It is also important to make sure that the Tier 3 and the core lessons relate to each other. The chapter starts off with an example of a Tier 3 meeting that is predetermined through teacher collaboration and careful consideration of that individual student's needs and interests.

Conditions Necessary for Effective Intensive Intervention Efforts

Condition 1: High-Quality Core Program "Struggling readers struggle more because they get far less appropriate instruction every day than the achieving students do" (as quote from Allington, p. 78).

Condition 2: Access to Expert Teachers - computers, volunteers, and paraprofessionals are not experts.

Condition 3: Individual Instruction - has to be one-on-one.

For interventions to matter, these five components must be in place:

1. The teacher should play a critical role in assessment and instruction - only teachers can make those important split-second decisions that are responsive to individual students' needs.
2. The intervention should reflect a comprehensive approach to reading and writing - students need to see the whole picture in each subject as tied to and provide engagement and understanding of meaningful and real text.
3. The intervention should be engaging - students NEED to see the relevance and feel successful to be motivated and have a chance at being life-long learners.
4. Interventions should be driven by useful and relevant assessments - F&F recommend engagement in literacy tasks in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes.
5. Interventions should include significant opportunities for authentic reading and writing - students need many opportunities to actually read in authentic situations more than they need practicing skills and strategies related to literacy.

Planning Intensive Interventions

Consider the following questions: (these are things I am reminded of that we are already doing that could be considered for Tier 3 lessons as well)

• What is the purpose of the lesson? (TYWL)
• What are the student's background knowledge and prior experiences? (Do Now or Pretest)
• What are the targeted skills or strategies for this lesson? (TYWL or Step 4 in Data Teams)
• How will essential vocabulary be taught?
• What will students produce? (TYWL, Guided/Independent Practice or Closure)
• What future skills will the student need? (Closure, Check for Understanding, Posttest)

Is this similar to what happens when students are pulled out of classrooms now?

What will need to change for this to take place?

Does our district have the funding to provide the time, expertise, etc.?

At our level, will these interventions be done by classroom teachers, special education teachers, or others?

Chapter 6 - The Role of Assessment in RTI2:

Progress Monitoring for Student Success

There are four broad purposes for assessment:

• progress monitoring
• diagnosis
• program evaluation
• accountability

"Assessments drive the entire RTI2 system!" (p. 95). See figure 6.1 on page 96 for assessment types, purposes, and administration guidelines.

Formal assessments provide data that allows us to compare student performance to expected levels. I think of the annual assessment calender that is provided by the district each year. These tests measure knowledge of what was previously discussed and provide a snapshot of a student's progress at a certain moment in time.

Curriculum-based measurements (CBM) are the day-to-day and frequent checks for understanding that occur in the classroom that "are meant to gauge progress and determine effectiveness of instruction and intervention" (p. 98). A good instruction and intervention plan ensures that a student gets both opportunities to master and apply knowledge.

Informal assessment can include CBMs, observations, checklists, rubrics, and self-assessments. It is important for teachers to keep track of these as well. Notes and any other documentation will provide a teacher with specific information to inform their teaching, share with other teachers, and communicate with parents.

"Data collection is useful only if the next step is data analysis" (p. 102). This goes right along with data teams. Data should result in improvement in student work and teacher practice.

Can each teacher come up with one thing to universally screen and track among their classes?  Is this too much?

If we stick to non-fiction writing, what will our report show - rubric score overall?

Is there a way to track the use of CBM or checks for understanding? We always say, what gets checked gets done...

 





Chapter 3: Quality Core Instruction: A Necessary First Step

“It shouldn’t go without saying that all students need access to quality instruction. Without high-quality initial instruction, significant numbers of students will require supplemental instruction and intensive intervention that are costly and time-consuming.” p. 29

How can we ensure that all students are receiving quality instruction? I think the feedback sheets that Marianne and Joe are going to use will help.

The first part of quality instruction is establishing a purpose. We expect teachers to post and go over Today You Will Learn but I don’t think this has been implemented with fidelity. I like how today we decided that TYWL needs to be in a complete sentence and use a skill/verb and concept/noun. This will make it more clear for students and teachers. The students need to know what they are learning and why.

Teacher modeling is a critical component of releasing responsibility to the students. Teachers must provide an example of what they are thinking when they “solve problems, read, write, or complete tasks.” Modeling is NOT a “detailed explanation, nor is it a time to question students; rather, it is an opportunity to demonstrate the ways that experts think.” p. 34 Teachers need to model how they comprehend, solve unknown words, and use text structures (grammar) and features (charts, figures, etc).

The next part of quality instruction is guided instruction-the “we do” of the lesson. Guided instruction should be based on the teacher’s check for understanding. “Guided instruction provides teachers with an opportunity to engage students in thinking without explicitly telling them what to think.” p. 39

Quality core instruction involves productive group work (you do together). Students must first be taught how to work together. “Students learn more and retain information longer when they work in productive groups.” p. 40. I think group work is essential but how to we ensure that it’s being used effectively? I know some teachers used Becky and Amanda’s different colored marker idea.

Next, students must work independently (you do alone). The independent work should be a review and reinforcement of what was previously taught. It should not be based on new. This step allows students to build confidence. Homework should be based on content that students have been exposed to for at least 3 to 5 days.

Chapter 4: Supplemental Interventions: A Second-Level Defense

Remember, 75-85% of students should make sufficient progress through core instruction alone. Tier 2 is supplemental intervention and approximately 10-15 percent of students at one time or another requires supplemental instruction in addition to the core instruction. This chapter focuses on Tier 2.

One takeaway point I think we all need to keep in mind is “providing every student with the same thing a every other student isn’t fair; providing each student with what he or she needs is fair.”

I like this analogy: “Supplemental instruction is much like the medication that doctors order. The prescription comes only after a careful analysis of the symptoms and the patient’s medical history. A treatment is prescribed, and the patient’s progress is monitored. The dosage and duration of the treatment are determined in advance, but that doesn’t preclude the doctor from running further tests if the medication does not seem to work.” p. 52-53. This is where continuous checks for understanding are vital. We need to monitor the effectiveness of the intervention.

Interventions should include:
*A feedback mechanism for student and teacher to continuously foster learning gains

*Peer interaction to further scaffold student understanding

*Explicit instruction that emphasizes skill building

*Contextualized instruction that emphasizes skill application

*A process for informing parents of gains so that they can celebrate success and offer praise and encouragement (p. 53)

The interventions need to be aligned with the quality core instruction and delivered by a highly qualified teacher. When implementing interventions, students should be working in small, similarly skilled groups and given. The interventions need to be in addition to quality core instruction-not take it’s place. Page 54 offers some times that supplemental intervention could be used.

One point I found that contradicts what we have to do is the tutoring. It should be aligned with the core instruction. In the tutoring that we offer, we are doing programs that are not related to what is being taught in class. I’m not sure how this is supposed to help the students.

Enhancing RTI
How to Ensure Success with Effective Classroom Instruction and Intervention
Douglas Fisher / Nancy Frey


Chapter 1 – Choose Your Adventure:
How RTI2 Affects the Educational Environment

“Teaching every child is hard work. With that hard work, though, comes a group of learners who are prepared to participate in society. This learning occurs in the classrooms or well-prepared teachers who are undaunted by student learning variations because they believe that each child is an individual and that individuals exhibit differences in growth due to many factors, including carefully selected instructional interventions.”

The focus of Chapter 1 is a comparison of the interventions and supports in three scenarios which include a traditional school, a RTI school, and an RTI2 school. In the traditional school earlier iterations of the prereferral process were often seen as a necessary formality that almost always led to special education testing. The RTI school the focus was to examine interventions that might prevent referral to testing. The difference in the RTI2 school is to enhance the RTI process and continually examine classroom instructional design. Consultation and collaboration with other professionals and families is essential.


Chapter 2 – Response to Intervention:
Defining and Refining the Process

RTI was designed as a way to encourage teachers to vary instruction and time to create a constant level of learning. A core assumption of RTI is that all students can reach high levels of achievement if the system is willing (and able) to vary the amount of time students have to learn and the type of instruction they receive. In the old view of learning instruction and time were the constant and outcomes/learning varied, but in the new view of learning instruction and time vary and outcomes/learning are the constant.

Tier 1 is the core instruction and 75-85 percent of students should make sufficient progress through core instruction alone. Tier 2 is supplemental intervention and approximately 10-15 percent of students at one time or another requires supplemental instruction in addition to the core instruction. Tier 3 is intensive intervention. Approximately 5-10 percent of students will require an intensified approach that includes more time, a lower teacher-student ratio (typically 1:1), individualized lessons that target weaknesses while leveraging student strengths, and a sophisticated cadre of assessment tools to monitor progress and diagnosis difficulties. It is imperative that teachers first consider individual students’ responses to quality core instruction before recommending supplemental and intensive interventions. They must also determine which students respond to the interventions and continue adapting instructional routines and time to achieve the desired results. RTI2 begins with a strong core instruction built on a gradual release of responsibility model (Fisher/Frey) with strong assessment to monitor progress, and improve instruction in all tiers. RTI2 emphasizes a collaborative approach to classroom support and anticipates that some students will periodically cycle through interventions.
-Marianne

Chapter 7 Making Math Meaningful

Chapter 7 starts off talking about the same type of teaching methods as the other subjects. He says again that we need to take a look at our standards for math. We need to figure out if the standards we have are preparing students for their futures, and not just their educational futures, but their lives in the workforce. It seems our current system prepares kids for more math classes, but not necessarily for the way they will be using math in the "real world". Thought the chapter he reinforces the idea that most people do not sue more than basic math skills in complex situations. Most people don't use algebra in their jobs or lives. With that in mind, does it make sense for students to take certain classes if there is no connection to the real world? Schmoker also went right along with what one of our speakers at the conference said also; we need to teach fewer concepts, but teach them deeper.

From my experience I can agree that students need to take the basic math skills and learn to apply them in many different situations. Unfortunately students continue to struggle with word problems, even when it is an addition problem.

Schmoker also made the point that we need to make math more "real world". To do this, we need more reading, thinking, and writing in math. Math has two fundamental aspects: calculation and interpretation. Students need opportunities to express their "quantitative interpretations in arguments and proposals". We can do this with text books and real world documents. Schmoker had the idea of collections several really good newspaper articles that allowed student to read, think, write, and argue about while using numbers. I really like this idea. He suggested doing it weekly. He also stated that raw data is a great way to get kids talking.

Along with other chapters, he mentioned again that we need to teach kids to read the text book. He says that math problems can come down to understanding one word and if a kid isn't reading the book correctly they could be getting it all wrong. He says that we need to teach them to read the texts slowly and deliberately and make sure they understand every word and sentence. I liked the writing prompts on p. 213, I thought these would be a great way to get kids to write out what they are thinking and then they will be understanding math more deeply. I like these prompts better than the "explain" that is in our texts. Theses give a little more guidance.

The best thing I took from this chapter is having kids read articles and using those to get them to work out some problems using basic math skills. I am sure we have done this some, but doing it consistently could help a lot of our students.