Group+1+Module+11

1. How has research and Dr. Richard Allington's research studied the matter of disabilities in reading and other areas? ZH-** It is unlikely that students will or should perform above grade level. Mathematically speaking it cannot be done according to Allington. __No I do not believe__, reading difficulties and struggles are a disability. We all know that students need that extra prod or push of motivation to help with the clicking of the light bulb. Reading difficulty can be attended to with many strategies and those new reading specialists' in the market. How we perceive a student has to change in society. Effective interventions need to be mustered and used. Longer support interventions need to be used for reading/learning disability student's and ELL students. The teaching field will continually check researched updates for what is available regarding progress with comprehension, fluency and phonological awareness in the autistic, learning disabled, and ELL students'. Of course more embarking on longitudinal phonological awareness studies is necessary. TD- Reading and learning disabilities have gone from being labels and a reason to have students removed from mainstream learning opportunities to a concept that forces teachers to rethink the spectrum of their instructional practices. Research shows that students can benefit, sometimes to the point of catching up to their peers, with modified instructional practices in the regular classroom. KC- Without a definition of what qualifies as learning disabled, many schools have taken advantage of this in the past and labeled students who struggle with reading difficulties as learning disabled. We need more effective intervention programs, highly trained teachers implementing these intervention programs, and lower teacher to student ratios to properly implement an effectiv comprehensive literacy instrucional program. There are intervention programs that prove to be effective for helping struggling readers in literacy skills. However, several programs do not have lasting effects.
 * Module 11 Research on reading/learning disabilities and the intervention.

ZH- Intervention is necessary for the entire classroom whether it is the small group committee of classmates or the dynamic duo. Interventions are necessary because each individual teacher monitors his or her own class. No discipline in the office and definitely no one-on-one time is included in the pull out program. There are not enough funds for it all. A student must learn or recognize something that they have relearned daily. Recapping the day's events that were stressed in the morning is a great tool. RTI and the topic of how to use what a student already knows is stressed at a big time. Students are rarely pulled out and rarely modified in the school that I taught with many years ago. It was up to the teacher to identify and contain those minor differences. ** After you teach so long and the system says, "enough identification for these children because the numbers are not able to grow in this higher echelon school, a teacher learns that change is difficult in some areas. (Reverse Matthew effect). The age for identifying children with needs was raised and one psychometrist per three buildings is never enough. Other schools in the same system have more psychometrists and more justification for teaching instruction, along with getting assistants that teach in the schools. Inadequacies and differences in Principals and or administration are factors in determining what goes on ...down to the valuable custodian in the school. ** KC- Zane, I hear you about the psychometrists. We share in our district as well and bless their hearts they are extremely busy. TD- The interventions that my daughter’s school incorporates include preschool and kindergarten, phonological awareness, add-on instructional designs, and very small group instruction in the form of reading groups, book buddies, and other teacher-designed instruction. Classroom corrective reading is utilized by many teachers- some use Four Blocks, theme-driven instruction (this is especially true for lower-elementary teachers), and many use the multi-level theme book sets offered by Scholastic and other publishing companies. (For this question, I used my daughter's school, since I am the only teacher in my facility.) KC- Last year, my school began using inclusion for small group instruction with the reading specialist/Language Arts Specialists and our educational resource teachers. Instead of pulling these groups out of their classroom, the specialists go into their classrooms and teach small groups while their classroom teacher is teaching small groups. The teacher is also supposed to meet with the students in the specialists' group either in small group or individually every day. Then the most struggling readers in each grade level meet with students in groups of three in a pull-out instructional setting. These students should be meeting with the specialist two times a day and the teacher once a day. We are still trying to work through some problems and confusions that arose last year, but hopefully we will have the kinks worked out by the beginning of next year. A handful of students are also offered free small group tutoring either before or after school by teachers or undergraduate students.
 * 2. Types of intervention used by your school or another school.**

ZH-** **3. How does this area above relate to RTI that we have and are reading about? ** ZH- **The Fuchs as researchers are able to provide "RTI" Responses to Intervention in reading in many of the Reading Teacher publications. Building on the qualities of instruction while zoning in on standards allows the IRA teacher to know why and how this intervention is done. Do not be reluctant to use it. Jump in with both feet while checking the resources that IRA and the Nat'l Council of Teachers' of English continue to update. Heinemann, an educator's dream publishing company offers many chapters for free on topics that you need resources about. Lucy Caulkins states if writing is what a student is struggling with find a topic like sharks or baseball and watch the pens fly. I found intervention and checking on each student writing encouraged them. Prior to events and after events the students would fill up a notebook page when they were only seven, and even ask to do more. My Asperger’s Syndrome children could name and pen a few of the celebs of Pokémon for years. Find a niche and a goal for this response to intervention. The students are worth the challenge and encouragement.** TD- As I understand the question, I believe that the effective intervention strategies teachers are using go hand-in-hand with RTI- they can even be one and the same. I agree with Zane in that RTI must be individualized based on the needs and interests of each student. This calls upon teachers to know their students and be aware of trends and current events to help facilitate the interests of students. KC- I think some of the problems schools have with good programs that don't seem to be working is that the implementation of the programs often have to be modified in some way due to cost of running the program, training, and materials. KC-  I think that the comprehensive instructional plan that is discussed in the chapter goes along with RTI. Instruction needs to be individualized, given by highly qualified teachers in smaller groups/classes, and high-quality professional development opportunities need to be offered. Distiricts also need to make sure that preschool and kindergarten programs have high-quality, print and language rich environments. ZH- Research based instruction has taught us to teach ...?
 * 3. How does this area above relate to RTI that we have and are reading about?
 * Questions: Module 11**

ZH-How does belonging to a Professional Organization or getting professional journals help the brand new teacher? TD-I think it just shows potential employers that the teacher is interested in professional growth and is aware of supplemental classroom/instructional resources. I think it can also speak to the flexibility and creativity of an applicant, as well. KC- I think that it also provides them with resources and information.

TD- How does one determine the cut-off for special services provided by the school (who goes, who doesn't)? Who makes this decision (I’m assuming it’s the special services department, but I’m not 100 percent sure…) I know it's a number/testing game, but I just wondered how much it fluctuates.... KC- It seems that there is never enough help to go around. I sat in on and participated in some of the decision making for the students that I see and they were not easy decisions to make. We looked at data from assessments and teacher observations and opinions to determine the students that I met with for inclusion small group instruction. KC- 1. Since the publishing of this article, is there a current definition of what qualifies as learning disabled? 2. Are we still using the “average achievement of children in any given grade” (Allington, 261) as the definition for “on grade level”? 3. How will districts ever be able to afford to offer a comprehensive program such as the one described in the chapter?