January 2012

VOL. #1 ISSUE #4

The Intervention Insider

Monitoring Marshalls Progress in the Elementary World of RtI Welcome Back!
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a well-rested (much needed) break! I know that a magical season has passed and there are some gloomy winter months ahead, but theres no reason January and beyond cant be magical as well. If you are thinking to yourself that I am crazy or that I am possibly drinking expired eggnog, you are wrong well, partially wrong. This can be a magical time because January allows us to all have a fresh start. It renews the idea that we can erase all of our blunders, mistakes, and forgotten intentions, and replace them with a spirit of hard work, dedication, and perseverance in completing the goals that we have set for ourselves and our students. And scarily enough, we are on the backside of this school year. Just a few more short months and we can put another year in the books. So now, its time to decide how we want to finish this race. Remember that its never too late to try something new and now is the perfect time to begin. If a student needs to switch groups, what better time than now to make those changes? If your flex time set-up just didnt work, why not take this opportunity to try something new? If students just didnt view the school guidelines as important, then why not strive to make that a focal point for the remainder of the year? Now is the time to either continue a great path that you started in August or chart a new path for success that you will finish in May. Lets end this year just like we started this year in the balcony!

My New Years Resolutions to You

Unlike many resolutions I make for myself, I will strive to keep the resolutions that I am making to you for a few reasons. First, the success of all kids is very important to me. Second, I believe in what Im doing. Finally, you all will keep me much more accountable than I will keep myself!

I resolve to

Be in the classrooms more often.

I always begin with this idea in mind and then meetings, troubleshooting, and trainings tend to happen in between my good intentions. Nevertheless, I truly want to get in your classrooms and observe, work with, support, and understand your most puzzling kids.

Keep you informed of the most upto-date trainings

I realize that I provide a list of trainings in my newsletters and on my website, however with the hustle and bustle of everything it sometimes goes unnoticed. At the beginning of each month I will try to e-mail a list of trainings that will be occurring with information on how to register for these trainings.

Hold an Intervention Boot Camp

Jackie Reid

I, along with Diana Shadowen, am working on a training that will incorporate intervention information. Sort of a how-to and when-to intervene with your students. Along with this training, we plan to include core activities and lessons from teachers that would benefit an entire classroom as well. Information about this training will soon follow this newsletter.

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~Benjamin Franklin

January 2012

VOL. #1 ISSUE #4

Perplexed by How to Use Flex?

Upcoming Trainings
Reading First K-3 Literacy Training by Carolyn Downing o Jan. 20th, Feb. 17th, Mar. 23rd @ WKEC Conf. Center Math Intervention Bootcamp o Jan. 24th @ BOE Reading Intervention Bootcamp o Jan. 27th @ BOE Dominoes, Dice, & a Deck of Cards o Feb. 9th @ WKEC Conf. Center
Is flex time more of a hindrance than a benefit to your schedule? If so, then lets re-examine the purpose and use of flex time. Flex time was originally established to allow for time to meet the instructional needs of RtI students, however, that was not the sole purpose behind the idea of flex time. Flex time should be designed to meet the instructional needs of ALL students; not just students in need of RtI services. It should be a time where we are growing all students in their identified areas of need. Yes, our RtI kids are serviced during this time based on data and teacher discussions, but kids that do not receive services should be receiving some type of instruction during this time that will allow them to grow in their area of need. There have been several ways that I have seen flex time utilized across the district that I would like to share with you so that you can decide if what you are doing works for your students.
Option 1: Interventionist pulls RtI students for RtI flex groups while other students stay in homeroom for enrichment and/or re-teach. Option 2: Interventionist pulls RtI students for RtI flex groups while other students are separated by RIT ranges between grade level teachers. Grade level teachers then focus on skills to help students grow in their particular area. One month may focus on Math RIT ranges while another month may focus on Reading RIT ranges with all grade level teachers teaching the same subject during flex time, but differentiating their instruction based on their particular RIT range group. Option 3: Interventionist pulls RtI students for RtI flex groups. Other students are separated by RIT ranges from MAP scores in the areas of Reading and Math. A Reading teacher for the grade level works with a group of students in their reading RIT range for the week while a Math teacher works with another group in their math RIT range. Then, these groups are switched for the following week so that students receive assistance in both areas. Option 4: RtI reading students receive reading interventions from grade level Reading teacher. RtI math students receive math interventions from grade level Math teacher. This can happen on the same day (30 min. reading/ 30 min. math) or days may need to be alternated. While grade level reading teacher is assisting Tier II and III students, interventionist/instructional assistant is also in the room to support interventions that are delivered by grade level teacher. The rest of the students are separated between other grade level teachers and challenged, enriched, or re-mediated, in their area of need. If RtI groups are small, the interventionist/instructional assistant can be utilized in the other classrooms to reduce group size.

* Register for trainings at WKEC Conf. Center by following this link: www.wkec.org

AIMSweb Benchmark for January Jan. 23rd Feb. 3rd Just a reminder that January is the month for the AIMSweb Winter benchmark. Remember that all students grades K-1 will be participating in this benchmark. Students grades 2-5 are benchmarked by request or if your school counselor arranges to administer these for all students. Students in grades K-1 will be the only grades where the benchmark data is entered into the AIMSweb database. If you have any questions concerning the winter benchmark session, please contact me.

ponder Something to ponder

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. This is a quote that Ive often heard and dismissed as just another feel good saying. However, recently, I stopped to ponder what this really meant and the implication of these words. Each day is a new day and a chance to start over, so-to-speak. Each day has the opportunity to be a new beginning. What if we were to view teaching and providing interventions in this same light? Each day is a chance to help a child close the gap that they have been struggling with for so long. Each day is our opportunity to approach our intervention times with these kids as the day that learning will happen and they will begin to take steps to close that gap. I know that it can get rather monotonous and it feels like some of our kids are never going to get it, but we have to approach each session with them as if it may be the first session where they will begin to catch on to what you have been working so hard to accomplish. We have to approach our intervention times with the attitude that this could be the first day for the rest of that childs academic life. How do we want to teach them? When I take time to think about what this quote truly means, it makes me want to approach any task with an enthusiasm and a hope to foster incredible learning situations for these kids. I hope that you will take a minute to reflect on your intervention times with our struggling students. Are we making them everything we want them to be? Do we truly believe that this could be the beginning of something great for this child? Just something to ponder.

Im sure there are other options that are being utilized, however these are the ones that are occurring most frequently. Basically, flex time needs to be a time for student growth. Since our accountability model stresses the importance of growth, flex time is the perfect opportunity to target areas of strengths and weaknesses, intervene, and close gaps. Then, if instructional gaps are closed, students are more likely to be successful in retaining, processing, and performing on grade-level material. Flex time is also a great time to enrich those kids that are performing on or above grade level. Even though they may show proficiency for their grade level, they are still expected to grow! So when considering a flex time that will work for all students, please keep them in mind as well. Active, engaging, direct instruction should be occurring to help grow our kids, no matter their performance level. Flex time can be such a benefit to students and to your core instruction if it is utilized in a way where the intended purpose is to fill instructional gaps or enrich a students current level. Its all about student growth and, if we can have that mindset when designing flex time instruction, our students will reap the benefits.

January 2012

VOL. #1 ONE ISSUE #4

What Whats in an IQ? Part 1

Because a vast amount of information is available for this topic, I will be addressing this question in its entirety in subsequent newsletters.

I hear you say his IQ is 95, but what does that really mean???
A persons IQ, or intelligence quotient, refers to his/her cognitive ability. Simply stated, it is an assessment of a persons ability to think and reason. An IQ also takes into account a persons mental age, as well as chronological age. For example, a child that is 6-years-old, could be functioning like that of a child that is 3-years-old. In which case, the childs IQ would be lower than an average 6-year-old child and this lower IQ would be determined by taking both the childs chronological and mental ages into account. A score is determined using standardized tests that basically use the following formula: Mental Age/Chronological Age X 100 = Intelligence Quotient. So, thats a very brief version of part of the technical ideas behind the IQ number that people receive. Now, to the part where most people question what makes up a persons cognitive ability? IQ tests are designed to test intelligence on different levels of thinking. These areas include: 1. Verbal Intelligence 2. Mathematical Ability 3. Spatial Reasoning Skills 4. Visual/Perceptual Skills 5. Classification Skills 6. Logical Reasoning Skills 7. Pattern Recognition Skills Because there are a variety of standardized IQ tests available, it is important to note that they are all structured a little bit differently, however they assess for these different levels of intelligence abilities within their subtests. In this newsletter, I will address the areas of Verbal Intelligence and Mathematical Ability.
Verbal Intelligence Verbal abilities include reading, writing, and communication with words. The verbal component of IQ tests examines a persons vocabulary, his capacity to learn verbal material, and his ability to utilize verbal skills in logical reasoning and problem solving. This section of an IQ test possibly contains items such as analogies (to find the most likely match), verbal classification, antonyms/synonyms, and verbal puzzles including jumbled words. Mathematical Ability Mathematical intelligence generally represents a persons ability to reason and perform fairly simply arithmetic computations. This intelligence also helps someone to understand geometric shapes and manipulate equations. This section of an IQ test could include series problems, filling in the missing numbers, and mathematical puzzles. The above-mentioned information just covers the basic concepts that these areas of intelligence address. Once I cover each area and the basic concepts addressed in each, I will then give you an overview of the tests we generally use in our district to determine a childs IQ, along with sample questions that are found within these tests. Hopefully this will give you all some insight as to what a student is asked to do during an IQ assessment.

Delete text and place photo here. Websites of the Month: Reading Comprehension
http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/tools.htm

Edible Math
http://floridarti.usf.edu/resources/topic/academic_support/index.html

Social Skills
http://www.angelfire.com/pa5/as/socialskills.html

I want to hear from you

Just a reminder that I would love to hear about RtI success stories or ideas you have developed through interventions. These could be ah ha! moments that you have had when providing an intervention or it could be a simple story about a students motivation for improvement. I would like to share this information with other schools so that they, too, can experience success with RtI implementation.

The intelligent man is one who has successfully fulfilled many accomplishments, and is yet more. willing to learn more. Ed Parker

January 2012

VOL. #1 ONE ISSUE #4

Reminders:
These are the following RtI days for the schools this month: o o o o o o Benton Ele. Jan. 25th Calvert City Ele. Jan. 23rd Central Ele. Jan. 26th Jonathan Ele. Jan. 5th Sharpe Ele. Jan. 4th South Ele. Jan. 17th

If a student moves from your school to one within our district, please let me know and I can transfer their AIMSweb information if needed.

Stay consistent with enforcing your school guidelines!!!

Contact Information: [email protected] http://rtiformarshall.blogspot.com If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, words of wisdom, etc., please contact me. I am here to help YOU. I may not know the answer, but I will search for you until I can find the answer or someone who can help you.

newsletters What to expect in upcoming newsletters

Whats in an IQ? Part 2 Information on Progress Monitoring Using our MAP scores to determine appropriate interventions

Accommodating the Un-accommodated Any other random tidbits I pick up along the way

but mostly, I just want to be inspired.

Renee Zellweger as Dorothy in Jerry Maguire.