RtI Update: Bad Work, Good Work and Great Work

Dr.  Mary Howard was the keynote at the Wisconsin Title One Conference

Laser Focus Turned Inward 

Instructionally ask yourself, "Why are we doing this?  Why?  What are we not doing?  Why?"

*Bad Work - every teacher does bad work some of the time, teachers are human - using flimsy instructional strategies or giving students flimsy tasks

Adjectives that describe this: time wasting, unproductive, frustrating
This relates to the complexity of the task.  Students don't like worksheets even if it is done on a SMART board or has been scanned in to Google docs or a tablet

*Good Work - intentional teachers spend most of their time having students work in good work, this is planned and purposeful.

Adjectives that describe this: purposeful, Meaningful Engaging
Teachers look at their students and choose a book versus choosing a book and then look at the students.  Are we planning for our guided reading time?  CAFE = comprehension, accuracy, fluency and expanded vocabulary.  Do not sit in your desk when students are present in the room.

If your room is visited, would Dr. Howard find your anchor charts that were created with the entire class.  Would there be further mini-anchor charts that students are working on together.

*Great Work
Will my choices enhance student learning potential? Teachers need to ask themselves this.  Teachers need to ask other teachers this.  This needs to be the conversation.

Tier I - Universal
This is not just during ELA but all core universal instruction.  Tier II and Tier III must be in addition to a student reaching the entire Universal Tier I instruction (during any new teaching).  Tier II and Tier III is for additional support to provide more additional practice or unique skill needs.

80% proficiency rule - Dorn and Schubert said if more than 20% of students in the classroom are not getting what they need in the Tier I - Universal Instruction, then the classroom instruction needs intervention.

Best Practice - serious, thoughtful, informed, responsible, state of the art teaching

• students talk more than teacher
• student feedback always includes dialogue - grades, stickers, etc without dialogue are not considered feedback according to the research with Hattie