RtI and Adolescent Literacy

RtI and Adolescent Literacy


Describe the problem, develop an intervention to address the problem, monitor for growth or lack of growth and adjust the interventions. These are the basic steps of Response to Intervention. RtI is a proactive process. It is designed to catch the students before the fail. Unfortunately, sometimes the struggling readers are not caught before the fail. They continue to struggle and they move right on into the upper grades.

Most of the internet resources that I have had an opportunity to view dealt with young readers and their problems. Well, I just ran across a website directed at adolescents and their literacy difficulties. This website can be found at http://www.adlit.org/. It is a sister site to reading rockets. Reading Rockets is a wonderful site that I have been using for some time. I feel very confident that the site for adolescences will have the same quality resource found on the Reading Rockets web site. You can experience this reading help at http://www.readingrockets.org.

Please take a minute to visit both of these sites. I think you will find a lot of helpful information.

RtI and Technology

RtI and technology

RtI continues to have an impact on teachers and their instruction. RtI is to be used by teachers as a problem solving model. Describe the problem, locate the intervention, and document the results. This is as easy as 1, 2, and 3 . . . right? Well, it seems easy but locating researched based interventions that will help the close the learning deficit that your student has is not always that easy. This is where the internet comes in to play.

There are many wonderful sites available to the classroom teacher right on the computer. One of the sites I would like to describe in this blog entry is called Intervention Central. You can find it at www.interventioncentral.org.

If you have not had a chance to visit this web site please take this opportunity to tour this site. I must warn you, visiting Intervention Central will be no quick journey. It has so many different things to see and experience. You will want to stay for a while.

After your trip to this site, let me know what you think.

RtI - Response to Interventions!

Response to Intervention

In 2004 the Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA) was signed into law. This law was written as a special education law, but it really has a large impact on regular education. IDEA was signed into law in an effort to reduce misdiagnosis of students with learning disabilities.

Through this act there have been a series of changes. Now, as we all know nothing ever happens too terribly fast in education. I believe these changes take so long because there are so many different ways of interpreting the changes. RtI is definitely no exception to this rule. RtI has been discussed and cussed at many different levels of education. I believe this year teachers in the classroom and becoming aware of the act. In fact, in our district it is being called a year of recognition. I take that to mean was are to recognize the act, become familiar with the act and get ready to start following the recommendation of the act.

RtI is explained as a problem solving model. Teachers notice students with learning difficulties. The teacher documents these difficulties. They locate research based interventions. Try the interventions, document the results. If the students do not make progress in a given amount of time a different research based intervention is then tried, and documented.

Using Technology to Improve Teaching

Using Technology in the Classroom



In talking about technology and the classroom it is important to mention the use of the internet and how it has helped teachers. Several years ago while I was still teaching kindergarten I used the internet daily. I used it as a teaching/lesson resource and I also had my kindergarten students use internet sites to gain experience with the computer along with practicing and reinforcing skills we were working on in class.

One of my favorite sites for kindergarten practice is www.starfall.com. This is a great site that offers free literacy practice and reinforcement. If you have not visited this site in the past, please take a minute and go there right now. It is such a nice site because it offers bright colorful reinforcement of kindergarten skills, but it is also ad free. While visiting Starfall you do not have to worry about pop-up ads. It also includes the option of printing worksheets. This is a great source for lower elementary students.

Another site that I visited often as a kindergarten teacher was www.dltk-kids.com . This is a great resource for teachers of primary students. It offers an amazing assortment of games, name tags, craft ideas. It is not a site that I ever had my students go to; rather it is a teacher resource site. This site is a nice site, however, keep in mind you do have to deal with pop-up ads, but it is worth the distraction.

Teaching With Technology

What are some of the ways we use technology in our classrooms? The first thing that comes to mind of course, is the computer. However, the computer isn't the only piece of technology used in our classrooms today.

• We use the tape recorders at our listening centers.


• We use the DVD player.


• What about the digital camera? What would a field trip be without it?


• We would be lost without the printer.


• The copier is a piece of technology. Oh, sometimes we really have a piece of . . . in our building. :)

The purpose of this blog is to discuss the different types of technology used in the classroom. How technology enhances the way we teach, and what effect technology has on learning.

What technology do you depend on the most in your classroom? Write back and let us all know!