What is RtI?

RtI or Response to Intervention is a reading program to help students in kindergarten learn letter names and sounds and students in other grades build reading fluency. In our classroom we like to refer to RtI as Really thorough Investigators. We investigate and learn different strategies to become better readers.

All students in kindergarten and first grade are given benchmark assessments three times a year; September, January and May. Based on the results of the benchmarks, students qualify to receive extra reading instruction. Kindergarten students working in groups of four are immersed in learning letter names and sounds and first grade students, working in groups of five, learn phonics and various reading strategies to build reading fluency.

The benchmark is given to second grade students who are recommended by their teacher or identified by MAP scores. Students who qualify work in groups of five and learn phonics and reading strategies to build reading fluency.

Benchmarks

Kindergarten

In September, Kindergarten students are benchmarked on letter names and letter sounds. On the letter name benchmark students are shown a page of letters and asked to name as many letters as they can in one minute. On the letter sound benchmark, students are shown a page of letters and asked to make as many letter sounds as they can in one minute. In January the phoneme segmentation benchmark is added. Phoneme segmentation is saying the sounds you hear in a word. An example would be the word cat; the word "cat" has three sounds: /k/ /a/ /t/. These benchmarks let us know what reading stage a child has reached. Some children progress quickly through the stages and others may need a little extra help along the way. In May, all children are given letter sounds, phoneme segmentation, nonsense words (CvC), and sight words.

First Grade

In First Grade, students are given a reading benchmark during all three benchmark periods. The Reading benchmark consists of three stories to check reading fluency. Students are given one minute to read each story.

Second Grade and Third Grade

Second and third grade students are given a reading benchmark during all three benchmark periods. The Reading benchmark consists of three stories to check reading fluency. Students are given one minute to read each story.

Progress Monitor

All students in the program are monitored every 10 days to assess progress, this is called progress monitoring.

Kindergarten students are checked on letter names and letter sounds. Progress checks in phoneme segmentation and decodable words are added as the year progresses.

First grade students are given a story to read for one minute to check reading fluency. They may also be checked in phoneme segmentation and nonsense words until they master the skill.

Second and third grade students are given a story to read for one minute to check reading fluency. Sight word fluency is also progress monitored as well.