Real, thoughtful information? Reginald Thelonius Innoway? Really, TI, (are you in trouble again?)? Response to Intervention? If you marked D, Response to Intervention, you are a teacher who will soon be adopting a new bell schedule for this module. Some may already be living in the lap of luxury that RTI provides. Oh, don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about our PLC (Professional Learning Community), but we’re rolling out some RTI next year.
I don’t care. And when I write that, I don’t mean that I don’t care for the program–I just don’t care. We will, inevitably, always be doing something for kids, so this is it. It’s not like it’s my choice; it’s also not like I won’t adopt it like anything else we’ve ever done at school. I didn’t care much for homeroom many years ago. A teacher got a whole period off during the workday to design 20 (maybe?) homeroom lessons for kids, which teachers implemented throughout the year to their kids, a random selection of students. I did that, as did everyone else. Another teacher’s idea was for a mentor program, where we would take students at risk under our wings and help them out. While she used this for her Master’s degree, we helped out kids. As soon as those teachers got their degrees, or positions, homeroom and the mentor program went away, as if they had never happened.
Two years ago, I went to Common Core training classes once a month. The entire English and Social Studies departments of all schools did the same. Every single teacher got training, subs were provided, the leaders of the program didn’t have to teach as many classes at school because they were preparing our lessons, and we received a binder.
Teachers do Common Core lessons all the time with their students, whether they know it or not. I’m a big fan of returning to the text for close readings. Hello, Common Core! We mentor students all the time. Kids who eat lunch in my room, or used to eat in my wife’s room, were always asking for our sage wisdom to be passed along. I got nothing for homeroom. We do activities with kids? Either way, we’re always teaching something. Teachers are in there battling, no matter what name or tagline is assigned to the actual work.
So welcome, RTI, and your two 30-minute modules per week. I don’t know what that will look like yet, but I don’t fear you. If we’re helping out kids and getting more time to do that, then let’s get it on, RTI, and see what we can do.
One of my questions was brought up at our conference period meeting today. What happens for enrichment? Because if this is remediation-based (and, like I wrote, I don’t know what it looks like yet), then what does your straight A/E kid do during this time? My kid has tutorial at his middle school. Same thing–half an hour for a couple of days a week. His does his homework during that time.
My other question is harder. How do we intervene for kids who don’t care? We have students sitting in classes who have many F/U grades. What should we do there? Do we have a lifetime supply of olive branches for these students?
Speaking and listening. Last year, our school scored so woefully, as did MANY other local schools, on the standard of listening. Yeah, reading and writing are front and center for most people, but, believe it or not, there are life skills that also revolve around speaking and listening. We have students write essays, but what about speaking? Group projects are great, and all, but at one point in their lifetimes, our kids are going to have to communicate like humans.
If not, the terrorists win.