As we are beginning the new school year we will be looking towards our Professional Learning Communitties to examine our teaching practices. A large portion of the conversation will be centered around Differentiated Instruction and Response to Intervention. Both of these concepts, DI and RTI, essentially ask us to consider what intervention efforts we are making in the classrooms and in the school to ensure all students are successful.
So, a little proverbial food for thought… instead of viewing DI and RTI as reactive measures to help our students ‘catch up,’ what if we expand our view of DI and RTI to encompass a proactive vision of preventing our students from falling in the first place? I know, I know… I have many of the same thoughts running through my head as well. But, we can not control what has happened before the student has come to us; however, we can and must control what happens to the student while they are in our charge.
To begin the conversations of DI and RTI, and sharing of resources on this Blog for East, I offer three (3) items for your consideration…
First of all, why would one of the smartest people ever known to humankind define insanity in that fashion? Is ‘Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’ really that insane? How might this apply to our practices in the classroom? If we are not reaching our students instructionally, and we follow that up by not making an effort to change the manner or approach by which we reach out to our students, by differentiation of our instruction, can we honestly expect different results in student learning?
Secondly, I offer a visual depiction of ‘The 7 Building Blocks of Differentiated Instruction’ for your consideration:
Finally, here are some bulleted point, provided from Staff Development for Educators, on how DI and RTI fit together.
Connections Differentiation & RTI:
• Differentiation provides the classroom structure that makes RTI doable.
• Differentiation helps students learn in different ways; RTI depends on this happening.
• The Interventions (the ‘I’) in RTI = Differentiation Strategies
• RTI and Differentiation both rely on pre-assessment and formative assessment.
• RTI and Differentiation focus on students’ progress toward learning goals.
• RTl and Differentiation lead students to understand their own learning preferences.
Five important concepts for RTI and DI are:
1. Flexibility
2. Planning
3. Choices (”The one choice you never have is the choice to do nothing.”)
4. Resources
5. Frequent monitoring
As the conversation of our Professional Learning Community grows, hopefully more resources and information will be shared by all of us to contribute to our understandings. More resources and conversation threads will be coming soon. Please add your comments, thoughts, insights, and expertise and help build our Professional Learning Community here at East.