I As A Learner 1

I As a Learner;
RTI Resources
Karina Gonzalez
CIL 621
University of Nevada- Las Vegas
06/21/19
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Reflection

This was my first year teaching in the Clark County School District. Prior to teaching in

Las Vegas, I was teaching in a town in Northern Nevada. I taught there for three years, but it

wasn’t until I came to Las Vegas that I learned about Response to Intervention, or RTI. RTI is a

small group intervention that is used in the general education classrooms to make sure that at

risk students receive the supports they need. RTI has three tiers. Tier one is a whole group

approach. All students are taught using the same strategies. They are assessed for screening to

see who might be at risk. Tier two intervention is where students receive small group

intervention and their progress is monitored weekly. Lastly, we have tier three which is a more

intense form of intervention.

At the beginning of the year we administered various assessments like the MAP’s

testing, Aims Web, as well as our pre-assessments from our Wonders curriculum. We took all of

this data and as a grade level we selected four to six students for each class who we thought

could benefit from intervention. My grade level and I worked in small groups with students in

tiers two and three. Our grade level had five teachers and we met to split our students

accordingly. We all took on a tier two intervention group except for our team lead, who took tier

three. Our student groups were divided and we began our RTI process in late September.

I am the first to say that I wasn’t exactly sure what to work on during this time since we

had to find our own resources and go from there. I talked with my grade level and they were

using fluency reading passages and comprehension questions to guide their instruction. I had

previously worked a tutoring program (21 Century) using the same materials, so I delved in. My

RTI group would do cold reads (reading before practicing), we’d go over words they struggled
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with or didn’t know, we would group and partner read, they’d summarize their reading, and we

finished with a hot read (last read after practicing). I definitely think my students were doing

okay, but I always asked myself what more can I do? This is where my goal came into play,

specifically because it involves literacy.

Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak, listen, think, and understand; it is the way we

are able to communicate, express ourselves, and make sense of the world around us. My initial

goal was to create something that offered multiple literacy resources. From instructional

strategies for ELA and writing, reading and comprehension strategies, and technology

resources. I wanted to have an online platform to pull information from for the following school

year. I want to be able to better serve my students and their needs.

Our RTI time is an allotted thirty minutes four times a week. I wanted to create a few

lesson plans directed towards our standards and something that could be taught in a mini

lesson with practice and fun activities. I wanted to stray away from the regular schedule we had

this past year- fluency reading. Not to say that we won’t be practicing that, but I wanted to

explore other options.

Aside from lesson plans I wanted to focus on helpful comprehension strategies and

writing strategies to assist students when reading and in the process of pre-writing and

structuring paragraphs.I found comprehension strategies that I wanted to try with my groups

next year, such as making connections, visualizing, questioning, inferring, summarizing, and

story structure all which are fourth grade standards. I also incorporated two writing strategies

that I’ve used in my classroom and find to work well; the RACE strategy and using graphic

organizers. Another thing I wanted to provide or search for was the literacy website that I have

used and found to be helpful, plus some additional sites I found that I plan on using in the future.

I spent time searching for sites that would help facilitate learning and expand on what my
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students have been taught or are working towards learning. One of the most helpful literacy

websites that I’ve used with my students is Lexia. Lexia is a literacy based program that has 17

levels and places students at their individual level. It shows you use, progress, the grade level

they’re at, and a projection of where they will be. You’re able to access their lesson and if it

shows them struggling on a lesson it’ll show on the teacher dashboard. It even gives you a

specific lesson plan to work on with them if they’ve been struggling, because they need the one

on one instruction. Because RTI is only four days a week, this fits into RTI time on Friday’s.

Writable is a great website to have students write and even prep for the SBAC! You’re able to

assign prompts, model with your students, and it even gives them checklists throughout their

writing stages. They electronically submit their writing and you can also give feedback through

the writing portal. This can be used during RTI time, regular small groups, or during independent

time.

All of these resources can be found throughout my website. I believe I have found some

beneficial material to be used for my RTI groups next year and will help make our learning

journey a success.
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References

Building Reading Comprehension through Questioning Techniques(2019). Retrieved

from

https://www.readinghorizons.com/reading-strategies/teaching/comprehension/buil

ding-reading-comprehension-through-questioning-techniques

Morin, A. (2019). At a Glance: 3 Tiers of RTI Support. from

https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/special-services/rti/at-a-glance-3-ti

ers-of-rti-support

University Communications (2019). Resources. from

https://fcrr.org/resources/index.html