Hedgetoad Teaching

Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) tests are a test of how fast a student reads. Literally, how many words per minute can the student competently read out loud… for 8th grade and beyond, a student should be able to read 145 words per minute. There is some data out there about how fast a high school student should read. The 145 is something we’ve decided to go with – your district may have something different. I get a lot of parents who ask me why this is even something we test. Who cares how fast someone reads out loud? They probably read faster when they are silent… which is probably true. The ORF doesn’t really test how fast someone can speak or even read out loud. It tells the proctor if the student is an automatic reader. Automaticity in reading basically means that the student is no longer reading word for word, but is, instead, chunking ideas together. An automatic reader may not even read every word on the page, but still fully understand the concepts the author is putting forth. A ...

Once you have the screening data, you can start the process of sorting. Below is my process for reading  – you may find that something else works for you. I print out all of the RIT scores for all students and then high light every student who did not hit the grade level cut score. Then I create a spreadsheet listing all the names and actual scores. I use a spreadsheet because it’s easy to make and print out a bar graph. Bar graphs are the gold standard in RTI. Then I send out an email to all English teachers asking them to send me a list of students of students they believe are having problems reading. The English teacher have access to the screener scores for all of their students, so they know who scored what. They also know who is a real stinker, who doesn’t care about their scores, who broke up with boyfriend 10 minutes prior to taking the test and who was really too sick to be at school that day. Nine times out of ten, their lists pretty much match mine. If I’m sent a stu...

Once you’ve learned all about the RTI pyramid (which is already being phased out in favor of a new circular model) now you just have to figure out where all the students fit in that pyramid. RTI is data driven. Scared? Don’t be – you get to choose what data you use (or rather the powers that be get to choose, so get out your persuasion skills). First you need some sort of screener. Unless you are teaching is a rural necessary school , there are just too many students to constantly be evaluating.  Our school used MAP testing as a screener. At one time we did do oral reading fluency tests on ALL freshmen and sophomores. It was a major undertaking and required A LOT of staff members to get it done. I don’t recommend it for that reason and the fact that it mis-identifies students at the high school level. The screener should be given three time a year. The first one, early in the school year, is the baseline for that student, that year. The screener given in the winter should ...

At the beginning of the school year, I and another ‘coach’ were tasked with explaining to the rest of the district staff as what RTI is… at least it got me out of the refresher course in PBIS. (and if you understood that last part, you probably don’t need to read this anyways, unless you want to correct my typos) RTI or Response to Intervention is, originally, an idea that seems very logical and student centered. Basically, any student, whether they qualify for Special Education services or not should receive instructional supports at their level. If Johnny isn’t reading, then teachers need to know why. If Johnny is being a butt-head, the teacher needs to find a way to counter that. However, if Johnny is having difficulty reading because of a skill deficit, then Johnny should get some sort of support to help him fill that deficit. If the classroom teacher can work with that, all the better. If not, then Johnny needs that support from somewhere else. Even if he is put into a Special E...

Friday morning, I found myself crowded in a room with several people in order to start planning out an RTI Manual. This manual is needed so that if anyone "decides to leave", someone else could step in to replace them... preparing for coming lay-offs? Ha! We fooled them! No one has a minute to actually work on the manual until this summer. While doing that the state department of Ed. representative go to be all impressed with what we're doing at the high school. Of course, if you look at all the research, doing anything at the high school level is impressive. Even more impressive would be something that was proven to work... which we haven't found yet. But I am supposed to expecting calls from other schools. God, help me, I'm going to sound like Tim Gun*... "make it work!"

Seriously, I've never abandoned a resolution so quickly! I've not had a moment to actually plan anything out fully. My lunches have been spent on the phone, my prep period trackdown other people and so on. This first week back, a new student arrived. Now, this student was expected and had actually attempted to enroll just before the holiday break. Mostly that week was spent in a furious round of emails being sent from various people within our district. Why such a flurry? Oh, this student speaks no English. Now, we have plenty of students who do not speak english as their first language, but according to the information we recieved this student spoke very little english and had even less formal education. What do we with this student? What do we use for evaluative tests? What classes should this student be placed in? Now that this student is here, we discover that actually, he/she has no english skills at all. Nada. Everything that we have pretty much requires some english ...

So, we're starting to make some headway in the RtI areana. Another district in the area is actually paying to do RtI training over the year and generously offered to allow myself and another colleague sit in. At times I can actually feel like I'm understanding things. I still have a to-do list, but at least pieces are starting to fit together. Of course, there are also snags. Such as miscommunications about scheduling and people not being clear about their expectations. The biggest one right now is differentiating the Level 2's (strategic interventions) and Level 3's (intensive interventions... generally those with IEP's) and now one goes from Level 2 to Level 3. It's communicated that this process has "to be x", while "x" changes according to each person being spoken too. That could be due to differing levels of involvement of each of these people or hearing what they want to hear... this is one of the things on my to-do list. The to-do list...

Since accepting the position of RtI coordinator for my school I've learned the following things... My school is guided by people who need to think more long term... last year's RtI team was made up of all new teachers, most of whom did not return this year. It also has almost no support from any staff members who have been at the school for more than two years. They also paid to train a bunch of teachers last summer who are not, nor ever have been, on the RtI team. Again, because no one supports it. My school is guided by really nice people who want to make a difference in student's lives. Sadly, many of their ways of doing this annoy the crap out of me. RtI is a law. The way to implementation is not... thus people can actually screw around with it in many obnoxious and unhelpful ways. RtI is now a step to special education. I now get numerous emails asking for student X or Y to be tested. I get almost no other information because apparently it doesn't matter. Just...

The other day I was informed that my name and number had been given to another school district as the RTI Guru . Four weeks on the job - two of which were spent trying to figure out a poorly designed assessment matrix - and I'm a guru . The word scared doesn't even cover that feeling... this is federal and state mandates and money, people! You can't screw around with that stuff! And that last thing I want to do is be telling people how they should do it. Or showing them when they visit... how do I get myself into these things? To be honest, although our district is really into this RTI thing, the high school implementation has been haphazard at best. The reading intervention existed for one year and then it was gone, replaced by math. Now it's back with math. The materials for reading however, are spread all over the campus hiding in drawers and dusty boxes belonging to various people, some of whom are no longer at the high school. It's taken nearly four weeks, but ...

I was just saying that the month hasn't been going by that fast, but since it's been 10 days since I last posted, I guess I will have to rethink that view. It's taken three weeks, but I finally figured out the testing matrix for the reading portion of RTI . All it took as a conference call with the creator, becuase it IS backwards (still no reason why!) and there are two "first"s because they are meant to be done simulteanously. Again, why they are in separate boxes listed in a linear continum that seems to indicate a progression is not explained why. But I do understand what I need have people do, so good 'nough. The teacher who was hired to teach these reading intervention courses seems a little disconcerted that there isn't really a set curriculum, but there is. Basically, we have all these curriculum books that must be used, but they're not a planned curriculum. He'll have to cobble them together. While I don't have reservations that he can...

Before school started, I was asked to be the lead person for an intervention project going on within the district. No one really knew what I was supposed to be doing, but it did not require any traveling or extensive meetings after school. So I agreed to do it. I figured it would be good experience and I might learn something. Today I discover that I am, apparently, supposed to be attending a meeting every Thursday of the week during school hours. My last class of the day. You see, I do get an extra free period in the day to do all the work needed for this new program. The free period, however, is not during the time when the weekly meeting is scheduled. In fact, no one in my building was told of a particular day or time needed for this position. Thus a sub has to be found for one class period every week. I'm not happy - middle of week days off are a pain. The continuum of the class is ruined and students are never ready to jump back in after having a sub, no matter how good he/she...