Best Fit Groups: An RtI Model

Harvest Elementary School ~overview~

Response

to Intervention (RtI) is the practice of providing high quality instruction and interventions that are matched to student needs and monitored on a frequent basis. This information is used to make decisions regarding a student's educational program. The goal is to prevent problems and intervene early so that all students can be successful.

RtI focuses on high quality instruction and intervention for all our students. RtI has three tiers that build upon one another. Each tier provides increasing levels of support. After assessing our students using Dibels.next and other data sources, we evaluate whether or not an individual student needs additional support. Below is a explanation showing the increasing levels of support .

Tier 3 Intervention
Tier 3 intervention involves more individualized and intensive intervention for students to meet grade level goals. As estimated 1-5% of students will need this level of support in addition to Tier 1 instruction.

Tier 2 Intervention
An estimated 15-19% of students may need additional, targeted intervention within Tier 2, in addition to the Tier 1 core instruction, in order to meet grade-level expectations

Tier 1 Instruction
Tier 1 is high quality instruction of the core curriculum that all students receive in their room. Tier 1 alone is expected to sufficiently meet the needs of at least 80% of students.

RtI Multi-Tier System of support is our mode of delivery

What is Best Fit ? This is how we deliver the RtI model

Students are placed in groups by need for additional reading support across the grade level in addition to their reading instruction in the classroom; These groups are reviewed routinely and may change based on individual needs. Students may work with a variety of teachers. Intervention: Tier 2 and 3 Intervention- These are very small groups working closely with the Literacy team, classroom, or special education teachers on various targeted skills like phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, accuracy, and/or comprehension. Students are monitored biweekly to keep track of their growth. Instruction is planned based on this progress.

Enrichment: Beyond Tier 1 - These students are on pace with their grade level but would benefit from support in certain reading areas. These are mostly classroom teachers working with larger groups of students in a specific area of need like phonics, fluency, accuracy, and/or comprehension. Though most grade levels are regrouping their children to really target instruction, third grade is keeping their own students for the first cycle and working on targeted skills in their classrooms. Teachers are working collaboratively across and within grade levels to accommodate their learners when regrouping occurs.

Extension: Beyond Tier 1 - Instruction is designed for students who need to expand their knowledge and depth of understanding through broadening their comprehension and other reading skills. These students are working above grade level but need to learn to use higherlevel reading skills like inferring, synthesizing, compare and contrasting, summarizing, to

Who is teaching Best Fit?

Everyone! All hands are on deck. Classroom teachers, Special education teachers, Speech & Language, and the Literacy Team (MTSS coordinator and three reading tutors) are all working with together to meet the needs of every learner.

What exactly is reading?

Reading is putting sounds together to make words that mean something. Its putting meaning to print. It is decoding words accurately. It is reading at the proper rate and speed with prosody and phrasing (reading fluently and with expression). It is understanding what you are reading. It is above all complicated because it is comprised of many parts- all equally important. Here is a snapshot of the Big 5 that Best fit targets.

The Big 5 parts of reading (defined by Fountas & Pinnell

Phonemic Awareness- the ability to hear individual sounds in words and to identify individual sounds. Phonics- the knowledge
of letter-sound relationships and how they are used in reading and writing. Teaching phonics refers to helping children acquire this body of knowledge about oral and written language systems; teaching phonics also helps children use phonics knowledge as part of the reading and writing

The Big 5 continued...

Comprehension- the process of constructing meaning while reading text. Vocabulary- words and their meanings.

The Big 5 Continued...

Fluency in Reading- to read continuous text with good momentum, phrasing, appropriate pausing, intonation, and stress.

Accuracy- In oral reading, the percentage of words the child reads aloud correctly.
Decoding- Using letter-sound relationships to translate a word from a series of symbols to a unit of meaning.

Best Fit Schedule for Harvest School

Students meet daily for their Best Fit time Monday through Friday. 10:30-11:00 Kindergarten 11:20-11:50 First Grade

12:00-12:30 Second Grade

12:40-1:10 Third Grade

Final Thoughts
Please ask your childs teacher if you have any questions. They are planning lessons daily to meet the needs of your child in the core curriculum and know your child well. We are working together to deliver Best Fit instruction. I would be happy to answer any other questions you might have! Mrs. Taggart 944-8901 or taggartm@salineschools.org

Look for me at Conferences with a reading information booth! Please checkout our website and look for our new parent information corner right outside the office.
Thanks for coming tonight!