RTI%20Teams:%20Improving%20Problem-Solving%20Through%20Effective%20Case%20Management%20%20Jim%20Wright%20www.interventioncentral.org

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RTI Teams Improving Problem-Solving Through
Effective Case Management Jim
Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
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Case Manager Role

• Meets with the referring teacher(s) briefly prior
  to the initial RTI Team meeting to review the
  teacher referral form, clarify teacher concerns,
  decide what additional data should be collected
  on the student.
• Touches base briefly with the referring
  teacher(s) after the RTI Team meeting to check
  that the intervention plan is running smoothly.

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Case Manager Tips

• If you discover, when you meet with a referring
  teacher prior to the RTI Team meeting, that his
  or her concern is vaguely worded, help the
  teacher to clarify the concern with the question
  What does teacher concern look like in the
  classroom?
• After the RTI Team meeting, consider sending
  periodic emails to the referring teacher(s)
  asking them how the intervention is going and
  inviting them to inform you if they require
  assistance.

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Case Manager Pre-Meeting

• Prior to an initial RTI Problem-Solving Team
  meeting, it is recommended that a case manager
  from the RTI Team schedule a brief (15-20 minute)
  pre-meeting with the referring teacher. The
  purpose of this pre-meeting is for the case
  manager to share with the teacher the purpose of
  the upcoming full RTI Team meeting, to clarify
  student referral concerns, and to decide what
  data should be collected and brought to the RTI
  Team meeting.

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Case Manager Pre-Meeting Steps

• Here is a recommended agenda for the case
  manager-teacher pre-meeting
• Explain the purpose of the upcoming RTI
  Problem-Solving Team meeting The case manager
  explains that the RTI Team meeting goals are to
  (a) fully understand the nature of the students
  academic and/or behavioral problems (b) develop
  an evidence-based intervention plan for the
  student and (c) set a goal for student
  improvement and select means to monitor the
  students response to the intervention plan.

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Case Manager Pre-Meeting Steps

1. Define the student referral concern(s) in clear,
   specific terms.. The case manager reviews with
   the teacher the most important student referral
   concern(s), helping the teacher to define those
   concern(s) in clear, specific, observable terms.
   The teacher is also prompted to prioritize his or
   her top 1-2 student concerns.

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Case Manager Pre-Meeting Steps

1. Decide what data should be brought to the RTI
   Team meeting. The case manager and teacher decide
   what student data should be collected and brought
   to the RTI Team meeting to provide insight into
   the nature of the students presenting
   concern(s).

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Case Manager Pre-Meeting Steps
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RTI Problem-Solving Teams Promoting Student
InvolvementJim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org

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RTI Promoting Student Involvent

• Schools should strongly consider having middle
  and high school students attend and take part in
  their own RTI Problem-Solving Team meetings for
  two reasons. First, as students mature, their
  teachers expect that they will take
  responsibility in advocating for their own
  learning needs. Second, students are more likely
  to fully commit to RTI intervention plans if they
  attend the RTI Team meeting and have a voice in
  the creation of those plans.

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RTI Promoting Student Involvement

• Before the RTI Team Meeting. The student should
  be adequately prepared to attend the RTI Team
  meeting by first engaging in a pre-meeting with
  a school staff member whom the student knows and
  trusts (e.g., school counselor, teacher,
  administrator). By connecting the student with a
  trusted mentor figure who can help that student
  to navigate the RTI process, the school improves
  the odds that the disengaged or unmotivated
  student will feel an increased sense of
  connection and commitment to their own school
  performance (Bridgeland, DiIulio, Morison,
  2006).

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RTI Promoting Student Involvement

• A student RTI pre-meeting can be quite brief,
  lasting perhaps 15-20 minutes. Here is a simple
  agenda for the meeting
• Share information about the student problem(s).
• Describe the purpose and steps of the RTI
  Problem-Solving Team meeting.
• Stress the students importance in the
  intervention plan.
• Have the student describe his or her learning
  needs.
• Invite the student to attend the RTI Team
  meeting.

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RTI Promoting Student Involvement

• During the RTI Team Meeting. If the student
  agrees to attend the RTI Team meeting, he or she
  participates fully in the meeting. Teachers and
  other staff attending the meeting make an effort
  to keep the atmosphere positive and focused on
  finding solutions to the students presenting
  concern(s). As each intervention idea is
  discussed, the team checks in with the student to
  determine that the student (a) fully understands
  how to access or participate in the intervention
  element being proposed and (b) is willing to take
  part in that intervention element. If the student
  appears hesitant or resistant, the team should
  work with the student either to win the student
  over to the proposed intervention idea or to find
  an alternative intervention that will accomplish
  the same goal.
• At the end of the RTI Team meeting, each of the
  intervention ideas that is dependent on student
  participation for success is copied into the
  School Success Intervention Plan.

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RTI Promoting Student Involvement

• After the RTI Team Meeting. If the school
  discovers that the student is not carrying out
  his or her responsibilities as spelled out by the
  intervention plan, it is recommended that the
  staff member assigned as the RTI contact meet
  with the student and parent. At that meeting, the
  adult contact checks with the student to make
  sure that
• the intervention plan continues to be relevant
  and appropriate for addressing the students
  academic or behavioral needs
• the student understands and call access all
  intervention elements outlined on the School
  Success Intervention Plan.
• adults participating in the intervention plan
  (e.g., classroom teachers) are carrying out their
  parts of the plan.

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RTI Writing Interventions Jim
Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
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• "If all the grammarians in the world were placed
  end to end, it would be a good thing."
• Oscar Wilde

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Graham, S., Perin, D. (2007). Writing next
Effective strategies to improve writing of
adolescents in middle and high schools A report
to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington,
DC Alliance for Excellent Education. Retrieved
from http//www.all4ed.org/files/WritingNext.pdf
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The Effect of Grammar Instruction as an
Independent Activity

• Grammar instruction in the studies reviewed
  for the Writing Next report involved the
  explicit and systematic teaching of the parts of
  speech and structure of sentences. The
  meta-analysis found an effect for this type of
  instruction for students across the full range of
  ability, but surprisingly, this effect was
  negativeSuch findings raise serious questions
  about some educators enthusiasm for traditional
  grammar instruction as a focus of writing
  instruction for adolescents.Overall, the
  findings on grammar instruction suggest that,
  although teaching grammar is important,
  alternative procedures, such as sentence
  combining, are more effective than traditional
  approaches for improving the quality of students
  writing. p. 21

Source Graham, S., Perin, D. (2007). Writing
next Effective strategies to improve writing of
adolescents in middle and high schools A report
to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington,
DC Alliance for Excellent Education.
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Origins of the Latin AlphabetEarly Greek Alphabet
Boustrophedon ox trail Script alternates
between left-to-right and right-to-left
Source http//www.translexis.demon.co.uk/new_page
_2.htm
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• "The difference between the right word and the
  almost right word is the difference between
  lightning and the lightning bug."
• Mark Twain

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• "Your manuscript is both good and original. But
  the part that is good is not original, and the
  part that is original is not good."
• Samuel Johnson

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• Domains of writing to be assessed (Robinson
  Howell, 2008)
• Fluency/Text Generation Facility in getting text
  onto paper or typed into the computer. (NOTE
  This element can be significantly influenced by
  student motivation.)
• Syntactic Maturity This skill includes the
• Ability to discern when a word string meets
  criteria as a complete sentence
• Ability to write compositions with a diverse
  range of sentence structures
• Semantic Maturity Writers use of vocabulary of
  range and sophistication

Source Robinson, L. K., Howell, K. W. (2008).
Best practices in curriculum-based evaluation
written expression. In A. Thomas J. Grimes
(Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V
(pp. 439-452). Bethesda, MD National Association
of School Psychologists.
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Domains of writing to be assessed (Robinson
Howell, 2008)

• 5-Step Writing Process (Items in bold are
  iterative)
• Planning. The student carries out necessary
  pre-writing planning activities, including
  content, format, and outline.
• Drafting. The student writes or types the
  composition.
• Revision. The student reviews the content of the
  composition-in-progress and makes changes as
  needed. After producing an initial written draft,
  the student considers revisions to content before
  turning in for a grade or evaluation.
• Editing. The student looks over the composition
  and corrects any mechanical mistakes
  (capitalization, punctuation, etc.).
• Publication The student submits the composition
  in finished form.

Source Robinson, L. K., Howell, K. W. (2008).
Best practices in curriculum-based evaluation
written expression. In A. Thomas J. Grimes
(Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V
(pp. 439-452). Bethesda, MD National Association
of School Psychologists.
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Evaluating the Impact of Effect Size Coefficients

• 0.20 Effect Size Small
• 0.50 Effect Size Medium
• 0.80 Effect Size Large

Source Cohen,J. (1988). Statistical power
analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nded.).
Hillsdale,NJErlbaum.
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• Elements of effective writing instruction for
  adolescents
• Writing Process (Effect Size 0.82) Students
  are taught a process for planning, revising, and
  editing.
• Summarizing (Effect Size 0.82) Students are
  taught methods to identify key points, main ideas
  from readings to write summaries of source texts.
• Cooperative Learning Activities (Collaborative
  Writing) (Effect Size 0.75) Students are
  placed in pairs or groups with learning
  activities that focus on collaborative use of the
  writing process.
• Goal-Setting (Effect Size 0.70) Students set
  specific product goals for their writing and
  then check their attainment of those
  self-generated goals.

Source Graham, S., Perin, D. (2007). Writing
next Effective strategies to improve writing of
adolescents in middle and high schools A report
to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington,
DC Alliance for Excellent Education. Retrieved
from http//www.all4ed.org/files/WritingNext.pdf
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• Elements of effective writing instruction for
  adolescents
• Writing Processors (Effect Size 0.55) Students
  have access to computers/word processors in the
  writing process.
• Sentence Combining (Effect Size 0.50) Students
  take part in instructional activities that
  require the combination or embedding of simpler
  sentences (e.g., Noun-Verb-Object) to generate
  more advanced, complex sentences.
• Prewriting (Effect Size 0.32) Students learn
  to select, develop, or organize ideas to
  incorporate into their writing by participating
  in structured pre-writing activities.
• Inquiry Activities (Effect Size 0.32) Students
  become actively engaged researchers, collecting
  and analyzing information to guide the ideas and
  content for writing assignments.

Source Graham, S., Perin, D. (2007). Writing
next Effective strategies to improve writing of
adolescents in middle and high schools A report
to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington,
DC Alliance for Excellent Education. Retrieved
from http//www.all4ed.org/files/WritingNext.pdf
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• Elements of effective writing instruction for
  adolescents
• Process Writing (Effect Size 0.32) Writing
  instruction is taught in a workshop format that
  stresses extended writing opportunities,
  writing for authentic audiences, personalized
  instruction, and cycles of writing (Graham
  Perin, 2007 p. 4).
• Use of Writing Models (Effect Size 0.25)
  Students read and discuss models of good writing
  and use them as exemplars for their own writing.
• Writing to Learn Content (Effect Size 0.23)
  The instructor incorporates writing activities as
  a means to have students learn content material.

Source Graham, S., Perin, D. (2007). Writing
next Effective strategies to improve writing of
adolescents in middle and high schools A report
to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington,
DC Alliance for Excellent Education. Retrieved
from http//www.all4ed.org/files/WritingNext.pdf
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Sentence Combining

• Students with poor writing skills often write
  sentences that lack syntactic maturity. Their
  sentences often follow a simple, stereotyped
  format. A promising approach to teach students
  use of diverse sentence structures is through
  sentence combining. In sentence combining,
  students are presented with kernel sentences and
  given explicit instruction in how to weld these
  kernel sentences into more diverse sentence types
  either
• by using connecting words to combine multiple
  sentences into one or
• by isolating key information from an otherwise
  superfluous sentence and embedding that important
  information into the base sentence.

Sources Saddler, B. (2005). Sentence combining
A sentence-level writing intervention. The
Reading Teacher, 58, 468-471. Strong, W. (1986).
Creative approaches to sentence combining.
Urbana, OL ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and
Communication Skill National Council of
Teachers of English.
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Formatting Sentence Combining Examples
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Team Activity Use of Sentence Combining as a
Writing Strategy Across Content Areas

• Discuss the sentence-combining strategy discussed
  in this workshop.
• Brainstorm ways that schools can promote the use
  of this strategy across content areas to
  encourage students to write with greater
  syntactic maturity.

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Miscellaneous Slides
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RTI Advanced Group 15 January 2010
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Networking Activity Sharing RTI Status

• Appoint a spokesperson.
• Consider your schools or districts current
  state of RTI implementation.
• What is an area of relative strength that you
  would like to share with the group?
• What is your most significant current challenge
  moving forward?
• Has your school or district yet reached the RTI
  tipping point?

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HELPS Reading Program www.helpsprogram.org

• HELPS (Helping Early Literacy with Practice
  Strategies) is a free program that targets
  student reading fluency skills. HELPS was
  developed by Dr. John Begeny of North Carolina
  State University. The program is an
  evidence-based intervention package that includes
  the following effective treatment components
  adult modeling of fluent reading, repeated
  reading of passages by the student, phrase-drill
  error correction, verbal cueing and retell check
  to encourage student reading comprehension, and
  reward procedures to engage and encourage the
  student reader. HELPS can be used as an RTI
  intervention for reading fluency at Tiers 1
  through 3.

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Team Planning Time

• As a team, use the next segment of the workshop
  to work on any aspect(s) of your RTI plan.
  Consider
• using your challenge(s) identified during the
  morning activity as a focal point for this
  planning activity.
• networking with other teams to share ideas to
  address your planning question(s).
• planning to roll out your next RTI element(s) by
  September 2010.