Response to Intervention (RTI)

Image taken from http://www.sterncenter.org/resources/rti

Response to Intervention is a new way of diagnosing Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD).  Before RTI, there was only one model of diagnosing an SLD, that was called the discrepancy model, also called the wait-to-fail model.  I'm going to describe that and then go on to describe RTI.  I am going to say this on the outset so you may be thinking about it while reading everything else in this post.  RTI basically takes the discrepancy model and turns it on its head and succeeds where at every point, the discrepancy model fails.

The discrepancy model is the usual way of diagnosing students with SLD in the state of Minnesota.  I will now describe what it is.  The discrepancy model requires that students IQs be assessed.  If they are above 80 IQ, then they can be diagnosed with an SLD.  If they are below, they cannot.  Now that we have the IQ, we need to give assessment tests (tests that assess how much the student achieves).  There is then an equation that assesses whether they have a disability or not.

You might think that there isn't really anything wrong with this, and that is okay.  I am now going to give you the two main problems that I see.  Students can be diagnosed if they have an IQ of 75 and below; students can be diagnosed with an SLD if they have an IQ of 80 and above.  Do you see the problem here?  There are 4 IQ points where if students fall in those 4 points, they can't be diagnosed with DCD and they can't be diagnosed with SLD.

Here is the other problem with the discrepancy model.  The equation requires that students have a low achievement.  So let's use the example of a student in 1st grade who reads at a medium kindergarten level.  He gets to 2nd grade and reads at a high kindergarten level now, but can't be diagnosed with an SLD.  He gets to 3rd grade and now he is reading at a low 1st grade level, no diagnosis because he isn't achieving low enough.  In 4th grade, he is now reading at a medium 1st grade level, and still can't be diagnosed with an SLD.  5th grade, he is is still reading at a 1st grade level and finally, he is diagnosed with an SLD.  So, it is called the wait-to-fail model because he has to wait until 5th grade to finally be diagnosed with a SLD because he is not achieving low enough.

So how does RTI relate to this?  How does it take the discrepancy model and turn it on its head and succeeds where everything in the discrepancy model fails?  RTI first of all is A GENERAL EDUCATION INITIATIVE, this means it is not special education, but general education.

RTI intensifies the curriculum so that students can learn more.  Look above at the triangle, the intensification of the curriculum is the first tier.  There are three tiers in most RTI programs, some have four or five up to seven.  Johnny is a 2nd grade student who is in a school that just started RTI.  He is having a hard time in reading and once the intensive instruction is implemented in his class, he still has a hard time with this.  The staff decide to move him to tier 2, which means that he is receiving an extra 20 minutes of instruction per day in combination with the general education curriculum.  So, it is NOT special education because he is still in the general education class and is now getting an extra 20 minutes by the teacher.  Johnny is still struggling at this point, so staff moves him up to tier 2.  This adds an extra 20 minutes.  So now, Johnny is receiving the full general education curriculum, 20 minutes of extra instruction, and 20 MORE minutes of extra instruction.  Johnny still has a really hard time, so they refer him to special education.  And BAM! Johnny is diagnosed with an SLD in 2nd grade.

Do you see that?  The discrepancy model waits for Johnny to get to 5th grade when he is reading at a 1st grade level to diagnose him with an SLD.  RTI gives him intensive instruction, then more instruction, and then even more instruction, then finally refers him to special education.  He is not waiting to fail, he is being educated more intensively and then diagnosed with an SLD.

I just want to remind you again RTI IS GENERAL EDUCATION NOT SPECIAL EDUCATION.  Look into it more if you are curious because I would imagine that it would help students immensely whether they have disabilities or not.

Video Demonstrations of Different Assistive Technologies

I watched all of the videos and found all of them very interesting.  I like how we can get a 30 day free trial of Inspiration, I plan on trying that out and seeing in depth what the strengths and weaknesses of it are.  I also like that Prezi.com is completely free, only you don't get a few features (that are really not that great either).


I find myself asking which one do I like the most and which one do I think will be the most beneficial to use?  I continually find myself answering that Draft Builder is the best idea on the table.  Don't get me wrong, all of the other ideas are awesome and I found myself continually saying "Wow, that would really help students who has trouble with this.


The reason that Draft Builder wins in my mind is that it has parts of Inspiration in the mind maps and it has parts of the Read Out Loud program in the form of being able to change any parts of the paper.  So, in SPED 445 and 418 we are learning that Graphic Organizers really help students recognize what information is important and relevant and what isn't.  Draft:Builder does just that, it provides a Graphic Organizer option.


My choice and what I would use is definitely Draft:Builder because it has the most amount of uses.  However, I don't know what Inspriation is like or what Prezi is like and I may post again when I use them to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the programs.

Michelle Rhee Stops in GA As Part of Nation Tour

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/51114/

I have to admit that I am nervous about all of the things that have been set up in our schools.  This whole tenure thing is a great idea unless the teachers are burnt out.  A teacher who is burnt out is, if you ask me, one of the most dangerous kind of teachers out there.  In my experience, they don't want to implement any kind of new things into their curriculum such as technology, hands-on experience, or differentiated instruction.  They believe that students should just suck it up and learn the way that they are teaching, which usually is lecture.

But along comes a new teacher who loves to learn and implement new stuff into his curriculum such as technology, hands-on experience, tutoring, and differentiated instruction.  He helps his students gain two grade levels that year, and all of his students love him and he loves his job.  Well, because he is not tenured, and it was the last teacher hired, if the school has a budget cut, he is the first out of the school.

I don't think that this is morally right.  Compare these teachers using their teaching style, their relationships with the students, and the way they show the students "I see you."  I had too many teachers in my K12 school years that were burned out and I never was able to learn from them because they didn't care about what they were teaching.  I also had some teachers who loved what they did, and it was amazing to see how much I succeeded and was proud of myself in those classes.

But should we reinvent the wheel?  Should we get rid of this tenure business that some people love and some people hate?  I don't know, it would be practically impossible.

So, the question that I pose, and I don't know the answer, is: How can we relight the passion in burnt out teachers?  How can we get them to love their job and love their students?  How can we make bad teachers become some of the best teachers imaginable?  I don't know, but maybe some day I will find out and I will definitely post it on here.

Evolution of Assistive Technology Laws Part 2

Lets skip forward two years ahead of the Tech Act to 1990 when PL 94-142 was reauthorized and changed.  PL 94-142 looked different than it had previously and it was given a new name "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)."  This act introduced a very important piece that is integral to those of us special educators who will be working in the high school setting.  This piece is called an Individual Transition Plan (ITP).  The ITP is a plan for transitioning students from high school to adult life (whether that be college or work).  So, this gave added a new age group to the services, and now assistive technology (AT) was able to be used for them.

In 1997, IDEA was reauthorized and said that all students had to take the district and state tests.  It also required that more students be educated in the general education classroom for at least some part of the day.  So now students with disabilities were going to be educated in the general education classroom, so AT was required to help them succeed.

In 1998, the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 ended the Tech Act.  It required that states get grants in order to help them give AT services and AT devices to students with disabilities.

In 2004, the Assistive Technology Act was reauthorized.  In this act, it sort of did away with AT services, it required that all states just give AT to students and not just create services that would give AT.  It basically made the process much cleaner, because before the school district had to create services for devices for students.  The service had to assess the student with a disability and decide whether or not they needed AT and then had to assess what AT should be used if it was decided that it was needed.  Now, they did away with this services idea and are just giving AT to students.

Finally, in 2004, the reauthorization of IDEA happened again.  This time, they decided to limit the AT.  It was not considered AT if the device was surgically implanted.  So, school districts do not have to pay for cochlear implants or the replacement of cochlear implants.

So, we are done with our journey which started with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and ended with IDEA of 2004.  We still have a long way to go, and I am excited to see how far we will go.  Here is what I see when I look at this.  The Assistive Technology Act of 1998 was after two subsequent reauthorizations of IDEA which seems to be the catalyst for all AT laws.

Assistive Technology- Bloom's Taxonomy

I got this image from the following link: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4719

So a few weeks ago in my Assistive Technology class, we talked for a short time about Bloom's Taxonomy, which I had heard of before, but had not known anything about.  Basically, it is a triangle that is divided into 6 different parts or tiers of thinking.  Each level as it goes higher is a level that works toward higher level thinking.

So, I want to mainly talk about assistive technology's (AT) role in this Taxonomy ("the definition is:

the science or technique of classification" taken from Dictionary.com just in case you were curious).  I asked the professor about this and he seemed to agree with this idea.  And I think I finally understand why I have such a problem with the general idea of Assistive Technology.

I guess that I am very into knowledge, and that I believe that every student should know basic information.  I thought, at least when I took the teaching inventory last semester, that I was very non-information, but according to why I am having a hard time with AT, I am very knowledge-based.  So, basically, I think that students should know how to multiply or add and not just have AT thrown at them and then never be taught again.


So here is my thinking, AT skips the first step of Bloom's Taxonomy.  It skips the Knowledge component of higher level thinking, but it replaces it with automaticity in calculators, screen readers, text-to-speech, etc.  One might think that this is a bad thing, but I invite you to think about this, think about a student who can't read, can they ever evaluate or synthesize (the new version has create under this term) a text?  No, they cannot evaluate the text if they have a difficult time reading.  


Comprehension, according to my teacher in SPED 418, has to do in some part with fluency.  If a student can't read fluently, she or he is much less likely to focus on what they are reading because they are focusing on trying to read what they are reading.  But if they are reading fluently, they are much likelier to be able to focus on comprehending what they are reading.


Anyway, let's get back to AT and Bloom's Taxonomy.  So, take out that need for fluency (which requires understanding of phonology underneath it) and give an AT such as text-to-speech.  The student can now comprehend what they are reading.  Comprehension is the second level in Bloom's Taxonomy, and after they have comprehended what they "read" or heard, they can apply it to the worksheet that they have to fill out.  They are able to analyze what they just "read" or heard.  They are able to create after hearing it and they are able to evaluate it.


This is an important thing, AT bypasses the first step and becomes the first step.  The student no longer has to remember how to calculate because there is a calculator right there.  This lets the student go on to the higher levels of thinking.  Higher levels of thinking in our society is absolutely integral, if the student sees the website Tree Octopus and is focusing entirely on the first level of higher level thinking (reading it), then they won't go up to the highest level to evaluate it.  Does the tree octopus actually exist?  No, it does not.  But students who have a hard time with reading don't get that high with higher level thinking because their disability keeps them at the bottom of the triangle.

Field Experience Day 1- Substitute Teachers

I started field experience today at Tech High School.  This week, my cooperating teacher is gone, so we get the experience of working with a cooperating teacher who is a substitute.  In the future, I recognize I will be working with substitute teachers.

As I write this, I want to answer how I will be working with substitute teachers.  Let's say a student with conduct disorder is educated in a 9th grade English class.  Because IDEA requires all students are educated and the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA requires that students be educated in the general education setting at some point, so this is an example that could happen.  The teacher has a baby and goes on maternity leave for 2 months which leaves a long-term substitute who may not know anything about conduct disorder.  I have to go in to the substitute's classroom and offer her help with understanding conduct disorder as well as shaping her classroom environment so that it is the least restrictive environment for the student.

Substitute teachers are a very important piece of our education system.  We, as teachers, are not immune to sickness, so we may need to miss school.  And substitute teachers are there to help us when this happens.  Therefore, it is absolutely essential that we, both regular and special education teachers, help the substitute teachers feel welcome in our school.  We must accept that they may do things differently than we do them, but we must still help them and provide resources to help them successfully teach all our students.

Evolution of Assistive Technology Laws Part 1

Assistive technology (AT) is something that I have posted about before, and will probably post about again after this one.  But for this one, I really want to focus my attention on the evolution of AT laws for the past 30 years in America.  This is/was an assignment for my AT class, so I wanted to go into even more detail here.

So, it all began in 1973 with the passage of the Rehabilitation Act.  The act talked about rehabilitating people who had just gotten back from the wars.  The two wars at that time were Vietnam and Korea (Korea was a few years before Vietnam, but there were still soldiers who had disabilities from it) and the Rehabilitation Act required that they be rehabilitated so they could be responsible citizens.  There was a section in this law called Section 504 which truly set the stage for PL 94-142 (Education of All Handicapped Children Act).  Section 504 "required that reasonable access be provided for all individuals with disabilities" (Beard, Carpenter, and Johnston, 2007).  This law was applied to both public schools and the society outside of the school building.

Now here is where the plot thickens, in 1975, PL 94-142 was passed.  This law went farther than Section 504 by saying that "all students with disabilities had access to a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)" (Beard, Carpenter, and Johnston, 2007).  So, Section 504 said "reasonable access" and PL 94-142 required "All students to have FAPE."  The law also required an individual educational plan (IEP) be created.  The IEP would have in it how much education the student was to recieve in the General Education classroom.  In order to successfully educate these students, teachers were creating their own devices to help students succeed in their classrooms.  These devices would later become known as AT. 

This law was reauthorized in 1986 and added a new a new age group, infants, toddlers, and their families.  They would have an Individualized Family Services Plan (IFSP) which was basically an IEP for the child.  This new age group was now allowed and given the devices mentioned earlier which later became AT.  Very young students with disabilities could now participate in the general education classroom because of AT.

So, two years after the reauthorization of PL 94-142, in 1988, a new law was created.  This law was was the Tech Act (the full name is Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act).  And it provided funding for states to create programs to develop and train people in using AT.  It defined AT as two separate parts, AT services and AT devices.  Services were "any service that directly assists an individual with a disability in the selection, acquisition or use of an AT device" (Beard, Carpenter, and Johnston, 2007).  And devices were "any piece of equipment or product system, whether acquired commercially, off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities" (Beard, Carpenter, and Johnston, 2007).

So, when I look at this, I see that in all reality, AT laws are quite dependent on PL 94-142 (Which we will soon find out becomes Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA] in 1990).  Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act created the stage for PL 94-142 to come about.  PL 94-142 in turn required that all students, disabled or not, have the right to FAPE (free and appropriate education).  The IEP required here lets schools know how much education the student will recieve in the general education classroom.  In order to help the students who ended up in the general education classrooms, devices were created which would become AT in a law 13 years after the original PL 94-142 was signed into law.  So, the Tech Law came about after lawmakers finally realized that AT existed in the classrooms because of PL 94-142 and that AT helped students succeed in general education classrooms.

Questions from Students

I don't know if you agree with me or not, but I think that our American society really doesn't like questions.  I find that during class when there are too many questions being asked, I start getting antsy and want the questions to just stop NOW!

However, we, as teachers, need to be open to questions and love them.  Because when a student asks a question, they are putting themselves out there to look foolish that they do not know the answer.  We cannot let them to feel foolish once they have asked the question, or else they will not want to ask questions.

So what can we do to help foster questions inside of students?  Well, I think in the early grades, we should teach how to ask a question.  They will begin to understand the way to ask a question, which is an important piece.  It is an important piece because they will just ask questions that are not that deep, they ask surface questions.  But as they understand more about themes in literature (which they are supposed to start covering in about 3rd grade according to the Minnesota Board of Education literature standards), they will begin to ask deeper questions.  Now, for a side story that will bring me to my next point

A few weeks ago, I was hanging out with a friend who has a developmental disability, and I noticed how she would ask questions.  Unfortunately, though, I was the only person who answered her questions.  I was shocked at how the other friends we were hanging out with just looked at each other for a second after she asked the question and moved on.  I would always praise my friend for asking the question, because asking questions is the most important thing that we can do in our world.  It helps us better understand our world, so if we don't ask questions, we may be very limited of our knowledge of why we do certain things.

We can also help foster questions inside of students, and this is the best way, by praising them for asking question.  Praising them and answering them.  Granted, a behaviorist would say that by just answering their questions, we are praising them, but I think we need to go the extra centimeter by praising them AND answering their question.  That way, we are praising them twice and they are much more likely to ask a question again.

The Boy who was Raised as a Dog

So, for Behavior Theories and Practices, I have to read a book.  I chose to read the book The Boy who was Raised as a Dog and I am not going to lie, it is a really hard book.  The book talks about large stress in the early years of life and how it truly effects everything once the child is older.

One thing that is the hardest for me is that I realize that working in the field of emotional behavioral disorders (EBD), I am going to be dealing with students like this.  I don't know if I have what it takes to teach a student who was molested between the ages of 4 and 8 (the first story in the book.).  I don't know how to teach them, I don't know how to teach a child who grew up in a cult (The fourth story in the book).  I don't know how to teach a student who had their throat cut twice and survived and tried to drink some milk and the milk came out of the cuts.  How can one teach in the midst of so much pain?

A few weeks ago, one of my teachers said that we are supposed teachers, not counselors or friends or anything like that, we are teachers, so we should teach.  I understand what she means, but I don't think I agree with it.  Last semester, a teacher from an alternative school came in and talked to us about how some of her students can't focus during the school day because at 3AM, the police came in to their house and put a gun to their head. How can a student learn when 5 hours later they are supposed to learn.  I think that a good teacher IS a counselor and a friend and anything that the student needs.

I don't understand Maslow's hierarchy of needs very well, but I realize that he basically says that in order for a student to learn, they must have certain needs met.  I agree with this, and I need to help my students get what they need, which will be tough because many people think that I should be just a teacher.  But I need to be more than a teacher in order to be the best EBD teacher.  I need to realize and recognize when my students are getting stressed and find out why.  And some may say that my teaching is very counselorish or friendish, but I am being the best teacher I feel I need to be.