A Study Guide for Enhancing RTI: How to Ensure Success with Effective Classroom Instruction and Intervention

Most of the questions contained in this study guide are ones you can think about on your own, but you might consider pairing with a colleague or forming a study group with others who have read (or are reading) Enhancing RTI.

Chapter 1: Choose Your Adventure

1. How do you explain the human learning process? Consider the various theories you have been exposed to and discuss your own philosophy.
2. Think about your experiences with each of the three learning environments presented as options for Adam. Describe your personal or professional experiences with each.
3. Identify a student in need of additional help, and talk with colleagues about assessments that can guide your instruction and intervention.
4. Using a Venn diagram, compare and contrast RTI and RTI². What additional benefits does a focus on instruction offer a school system?
5. Audit your school or district prereferral process, and identify areas that need improvement.

Chapter 2: Response to Intervention

1. As an educator, have you experienced situations in which learning outcomes varied while time and instruction were held constant? Have you experienced situations in which learning outcomes were held constant while time and instruction varied?
2. Does the cholesterol analogy relate to your personal experiences with trying to allocate interventions?
3. Describe the three tiers of RTI to someone unfamiliar with the concept. Which areas are clear to you, and which areas generate more questions for you?
4. Figure 2.3 includes an approximate percentage of students in each tier. Are these numbers consistent with your experiences? How can schools increase the percentage of students who are successful in Tier 1, so that the need for supplemental and intensive interventions is reduced?
5. Use the questions on page 27 as a needs assessment. Interview various members of your educational community and determine areas that need improvement.

Chapter 3: Quality Core Instruction

1. Discuss the four components of the release of responsibility model and identify specific areas of strength and need within your educational community.
2. What is the definition of a focus lesson?
3. How can you identify relevant content and language goals for the classroom?
4. Describe teacher modeling as it relates to the gradual release of responsibility framework. Model your own thinking for peers to get feedback and guidance.
5. What are the key features of productive group work, and why is this a critical component of classroom instruction?
6. What is meant by guided instruction? How do cues, prompts, and questions differ, and how can each be used during guided instruction?
7. What types of independent learning are appropriate within the gradual release of responsibility framework?
8. Use the Gradual Release of Responsibility Lesson Planning Tool at the end of this study guide to design a lesson with all of the relevant components.
9. Use the quality indicators on pages 49–50 as a needs assessment to determine specific areas of strength and need within your classroom, grade level, and school.

Chapter 4: Supplemental Interventions

1. What supports can be considered as supplemental interventions? Inventory the supports currently available at your school.
2. Supplemental interventions require increasing intensity. Discuss the ways that this can be accomplished, such as with group size, time, assessment, and expertise.
3. Discuss ways that teachers can implement small group supplemental interventions within their classrooms.
4. Consider the role that academic recovery can have for students. How might academic recovery efforts help schools improve and students achieve?
5. Design an academic intervention plan or learning contract with a student and his or her family. Discuss implementation of the plan with colleagues, and determine areas that can be improved in future plans.
6. Compare and contrast various extended school day and year programs, and then determine which model(s) might be useful for supplemental interventions. Work with the school leadership team to help expand the supplemental interventions already available.
7. What accommodations might be useful for students without disabilities? Meet with a special educator to get more information about these accommodations.

Chapter 5: Intensive Interventions for High-Risk Learners

1. Intensive interventions should be delivered individually to students. How can this recommendation be realized?
2. Use the rubric on page 77 to evaluate current intervention efforts at your school. Which areas of strength can you can build upon, and which areas of need can be improved?
3. Consider the three conditions necessary for effective intensive intervention efforts. Are they currently in place at your school? If so, how are they used? If not, could they be implemented?
4. Use the questions on pages 87–89 to develop an intensive intervention for a student with significant learning needs. How did the student respond to the intensive intervention? What lessons did you learn that might apply to other students?
5. Consider Raquel's experiences, as described on pages 89–92. What might have been different if the core, supplemental, and intensive efforts were not aligned?

Chapter 6: The Role of Assessment in RTI²

1. Discuss the various roles that assessment plays in education and how you can use assessment results to plan instruction and intervention.
2. Discuss the difference between formal and informal assessments. Identify specific tools that your school, district, and state use in both of these categories.
3. Select an informal assessment to develop and administer to a student. Share your results with colleagues, identify areas of instructional need, and discuss potential improvements to the assessment tools you create.
4. Make a list of appropriate universal screening tools you can use to identify at-risk students at the beginning of the school year.
5. Identify appropriate progress monitoring tools you can use to check student progress. Create a calendar for the administration of these tools.
6. Plan supplemental and intensive interventions based on assessment data. Share the results with your colleagues as you monitor student progress toward increased mastery.

Chapter 7: Feed-up, Feedback, and Feed-Forward

1. Discuss the differences between feed-up, feedback, and feed-forward. Why are each important, and how can they be used in an RTI² system?
2. Why won't feedback alone result in increased student achievement?
3. Identify language frames that you can use to increase academic discourse in the classroom. Share these frames with your colleagues, and solicit useful frames that other teachers have developed.
4. Meet with teachers who teach the same subject, grade, or class as you do. Develop a common formative assessment and administer it to all relevant students. Examine the trends for areas of weakness, and plan future instruction accordingly.
5. Discuss the concept of competencies with your colleagues. Can you agree on competencies that represent the content you want to teach? What would these do for you in terms of planning? What would these do for you in terms of implementing an RTI² system?

Chapter 8: Leading RTI² Efforts

1. What grade would you give David, based on the example situation presented on page 128? Talk with your colleagues to see if their ideas about quality differ.
2. Invite someone to observe your class and complete the classroom observation rubric (page 132). Discuss each of the expectations in advance, and assess your shared understanding of each.
3. Discuss the various roles required for RTI² to work. Does everyone on your team operate within these roles? How can these roles be strengthened?
4. Form an RTI² committee if one does not already exist in your school. As part of the first meeting, discuss the committee's roles and how work will be accomplished.
5. If your school already has an RTI² program, assess the extent to which parents are involved. What works well and what needs to be revised? As part of the overall RTI² effort, develop a plan to engage family members in the school improvement process.

Enhancing RTI: How to Ensure Success with Effective Classroom Instruction and Intervention was written by Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey. This 160-page,7 7/8″ × 9 7/8″ book (Stock #110037; ISBN-13: 978-1-4166-0987-2) is available from ASCD for $20.95 (ASCD member) or $26.95 (nonmember). Copyright © 2010 by ASCD. To order a copy, call ASCD at 1-800-933-2723 (in Virginia 1-703-578-9600) and press 2 for the Service Center. Or buy the book from ASCD's Online Store.