Reading Interventionist Joins Our Groups

We received exciting news about a week ago that we would be getting some more help during our intervention times!  Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!  We have had a Reading Interventionist for the last four years, but were told that we did not receive the grant this year that funds this position.  Something has obviously changed since we now have the funds to have an interventionist this year who will be working with grades K-2.  Our intervention teacher began working with students last week.  She works with the primary grades during their intervention time and also works with 1st grade students after school for tutoring.  She is able to work with one literacy group of 8 1st grade students after school on Mondays and Wednesdays & another literacy group after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  She also works with one math group of 8 1st grade students after school on Fridays.  These groups have been going for a week and the students attending seem to enjoy this.  We are very excited to have these opportunities for our students to work on the skills they struggle with in a small more focused group. 

Random Venting

I just wanted to post a paragraph from a book we are reading for our class - The RtI Edition of our No Quick Fix book...
    "It costs more to educate some children than others. Leven (1989) sugggests that, generally, we can expect to spend about 50 percent more to educate the at-risk child. Obviously, the costs vary from child to child depending on the nature of the child's difficulties and the intensity and duration of the needed intervention."

Why then, Mr. Governor and Mr. Superintendent, is our funding being cut when we don't make AYP? Obviously we don't need less money...we need more.

1st Grade Group Updates

Well, we are two weeks into our second set of intervention groups.  The groups changed slightly; which was expected.  We were given another aide to help with the highest group of students who work in the computer lab and in literature circles.  We have also been told that we may possibly have yet another aide to assist us, which would be great!  Most of the groups are working on the same type of skills, but at a little more difficult of a level.  The activities used have changed some, too.  Some of the groups are using rhyming and fluency passages, retelling using 4-square organizers, on-level text reading, answering questions based on the text reading, and looking all the way through words when reading.  The assessments given are comprehension, word fluency and dictation sentences.  Things seem to be going well and the students really are enjoying intervention time.  There are some rough patches, but this is expected since this is our first year having an intervention time.  We are learning what works and what doesn't and trying hard to get everything done in the short amount of time we have each week to prepare. 

A Word From the RtI Guy...

Here are a few words from Pat Quinn, "The RtI Guy".... speaking of his book Ultimate RtI.

Greetings Fellow Educators…

Like many of you I quickly became frustrated with the lack of concrete strategies and techniques available for teachers who are trying to implement Response to Intervention in their classrooms. One weekend I read three books about RTI and I STILL didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I don’t think we need more theory – I think we need real answers to tough questions about time, resources and most importantly: where do I find good interventions?

This book is written for real teachers in real classrooms. You know, the classroom with 35 kids of varying abilities. The classroom where you are expected to do it all – there is not help on the way. How does RTI look in that classroom? I will not only answer that question, but dozens of others I get every week from my newsletter readers. Questions about time management, handling paperwork, using RTI for eligibility purposes and many, many more.


-Pat Quinn
“The RTI Guy”

Check out his website at http://thertisite.com/