RTI

     My principal is an advocate of the RTI reading program. Our school implemented RTI in kindergarten four years ago. Two years ago, first grade began using RTI. This is the first year we have done it second grade. Before using RTI, I would identify struggling readers and experiment with alternative ways of presenting the material. RTI has not taken the place of trying new strategies with students, but it quickly identifies low achievers. I continue to address student's individual needs with peer reading or tutoring, small-group lessons and literacy centers. All of my students have strengths and weaknesses that must be addressed for quality learning to occur. The Greenville County School District uses a website called AIMSweb to record, track, and reflect student RTI data. We benchmark every student (universal screening) three times a year. The RTI groups are fluid as students gain or fall in reading achievement.  Currently, my RTI group consists of three students, which I progress monitor every five days. All three students have been in RTI since K5. One student is beginning to show measurable progress while the other two have demonstrated little growth. Since there is an established pattern of a learning (reading) difficulty, the two underachieving students are in the A-Team process. One student just qualified for resource today and the other one is very likely going to qualify for a processing delay.
     An area that I could improve on is using SBR practices in all aspects of teaching. When I encounter a challenging student or concept the first resource I use are my peers. Although they offer wonderful suggestions, they are not always scientifically based. I am constantly searching for new ideas and strategies to use in my classroom, but I do not always research the validity of the methods. The RTI program we use only addresses reading fluency. Some students can read above average, but reading comprehension may be difficult for them. A student's word recall is different than what they understand about the text. Another improvement for my school or district would be to implement a RTI program for math. I also believe that RTI should be used as a "pull-out" program. At my school, the general education teachers conduct RTI groups daily for 20-30 minutes. This can total almost two and half hours of a school week that the majority of the class must do independent assignments and can not interrupt the teacher. In my opinion, this feels like an injustice to the non-RTI students.
       In the future, I will invest more time and energy into researching SBR to use in my classroom. Reading Rockets is a website that I do not use often enough. It provides a wealth of knowledge for strategies and modifications for grade level specific reading activities. Reading Rockets can help me to better address students who are weak in reading comprehension. The RTI program we use is considered "teacher proof", which means we follow a script. There is very little wiggle room on the daily lessons. Unfortunately, the teachers do not have the freedom to adjust the lessons as we see fit. I can take my concerns and suggestions for improving RTI to my principal, but she also has a small amount of control over the RTI program. Funding determines a great deal of how RTI is used in the district. Hopefully as the economy improves, RTI can be a "pull-out" program and we can add a math RTI to identify students who struggle with math concepts or reasoning.