Editor’s Note
For comments on this article, read Lou Danielson on the promise and challenges of Response to Intervention; Libby Doggett and Jennifer Rosenbaum on Recognition & Response and quality teaching practice; Samuel J. Meisels on whether Response to Intervention can live up to expectations; and Wayne Sailor on the broader potential of Response to Intervention.
A National Center for Learning Disabilities staff member conducts an early Recognition & Response screening.
Volume 23, Number 1
January/February 2007
Response to Intervention
A new approach to reading instruction aims to catch struggling readers early
By NANCY WALSER
Response to Intervention, continued
Response to Intervention: A new approach to reading instruction aims to catch struggling readers early
Response to Intervention
It's two weeks before Halloween in Carolyn Callender's first-grade class. After sitting in a circle and reciting the October poem from Maurice Sendak's
Chicken Soup with Rice in their scariest voices, 15 youngsters split up into four groups to practice literacy skills. Working from teacher guides and scribbled notes, an intern, a student teacher, and an assistant teacher help Callender put the groups through their paces. Each adult staffs a work station, equipped with an assortment of props-computers, white boards, letter tiles, grids, and markers. Each group of students moves from station to station to count sounds, combine them to make and write words, spell out sight words, illustrate main ideas, and read silently from leveled readers.
Callender already knows ten of her students are having trouble. The good news is that it's October, not June. But she knows the clock is ticking: When it comes to creating strong readers, first grade is a pivotal year.
Four years ago, Callender's school, the Haggerty School in Cambridge, Mass., began a new approach to reading instruction when it received a federal Reading First grant. The approach, called Response to Intervention or RtI, is at once simple and complex.
This is an excerpt from the Harvard Education Letter.
Subscribers can click here to continue reading this article.
Click here to become a subscriber.
It's two weeks before Halloween in Carolyn Callender's first-grade class. After sitting in a circle and reciting the October poem from Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup with Rice in their scariest voices, 15 youngsters split up into four groups to practice literacy skills. Working from teacher guides and scribbled notes, an intern, a student teacher, and an assistant teacher help Callender put the groups through their paces. Each adult staffs a work station, equipped with an assortment of props-computers, white boards, letter tiles, grids, and markers. Each group of students moves from station to station to count sounds, combine them to make and write words, spell out sight words, illustrate main ideas, and read silently from leveled readers.
Callender already knows ten of her students are having trouble. The good news is that it's October, not June. But she knows the clock is ticking: When it comes to creating strong readers, first grade is a pivotal year.
Four years ago, Callender's school, the Haggerty School in Cambridge, Mass., began a new approach to reading instruction when it received a federal Reading First grant. The approach, called Response to Intervention or RtI, is at once simple and complex.
