How do you weigh the needs of one vs many? That is the question I've been asking myself for the past few days. Lately I've been questioning if what I am doing is enough. I feel like there is not enough time in the day/week/year to meet the extreme educational needs that I deal with on a daily basis.
I give the 4th grade RTI students a pre-test on the skills that we will be working during our morning sessions. I give a post test...and see that some kids are still confused. So now these kids have had direct instruction in a general ed classroom and struggled with the concept. They have been pulled into small group learning, taught the skill/concept with much more hands on and visuals and they're still confused. Now what? Hit it again or move on? Of course we will hit it again and the clock keeps ticking.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
I have just completed the first week of short a interventions with my 1st grade group. There are to be 5 students in my group, 2 boys and 3 girls. One girl was absent all week, one girl was absent Thursday and Friday. I wonder how often these 2 girls will be absent. 2 of these students are currently in the STEP process of the Child Study Team.
I have to admit I felt totally out of my comfort zone while working with my group this week. It is nothing that I haven't done before...it is just that I am not familiar with the way the RTI group suggests you teach the interventions. I am so hoping to become much more comfortable with the pace of teaching the group as well as the materials themselves.
Each level of intervention is to last 7 consecutive days. I am wondering if I can move more quickly with the short a sound since the kids who have been there do seem to be able to identify short a patterns in the CVC words as well as the sound.
It was a bit unnerving last week when I asked one student what the consonant g said and the student did not know. Of course my radar went up and I was wondering what the heck I was going to do about the lack of that skill along with the lack of knowledge of short vowels.
The 4th grade math RTI groups have also undergone a bit of a change with the addition of my student teacher. We are now able to meet with 2 groups, six students in each group, on M.W and Thurs instead of twice a week as we did before break. We are going to begin each day with a multiplication timed facts test because these kids still do not know their multiplication facts automatically and then move on to the identified skills for remediation.
Interestingly, after school on the first day of the new groupings, an irate parent called and demanded that her child no longer attend the group because it was in the EI (emotionally impaired) classroom. Her child is NOT EI and should not have to go down to that classroom. Mom does not understand that RTI is a regular ed initiative, that focuses on skills missed in the general education classroom and has nothing what so ever to do with special education besides the fact that I am one of the interventionists and I am also a special ed teacher.
I have to admit I felt totally out of my comfort zone while working with my group this week. It is nothing that I haven't done before...it is just that I am not familiar with the way the RTI group suggests you teach the interventions. I am so hoping to become much more comfortable with the pace of teaching the group as well as the materials themselves.
Each level of intervention is to last 7 consecutive days. I am wondering if I can move more quickly with the short a sound since the kids who have been there do seem to be able to identify short a patterns in the CVC words as well as the sound.
It was a bit unnerving last week when I asked one student what the consonant g said and the student did not know. Of course my radar went up and I was wondering what the heck I was going to do about the lack of that skill along with the lack of knowledge of short vowels.
The 4th grade math RTI groups have also undergone a bit of a change with the addition of my student teacher. We are now able to meet with 2 groups, six students in each group, on M.W and Thurs instead of twice a week as we did before break. We are going to begin each day with a multiplication timed facts test because these kids still do not know their multiplication facts automatically and then move on to the identified skills for remediation.
Interestingly, after school on the first day of the new groupings, an irate parent called and demanded that her child no longer attend the group because it was in the EI (emotionally impaired) classroom. Her child is NOT EI and should not have to go down to that classroom. Mom does not understand that RTI is a regular ed initiative, that focuses on skills missed in the general education classroom and has nothing what so ever to do with special education besides the fact that I am one of the interventionists and I am also a special ed teacher.
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