Tasks Week #3

Article 4

Journal Reflection
Title: Response to Intervention (RTI): What Teachers of Reading Need to Know

Authors: Eric M. Mesmer, Heidi Anne E. Mesmer

It is journals like the one above that encourages teachers to help their struggling readers with successful Response to Intervention.  Monitoring your students work with in a specific time frame, with strategies to help struggling readers might scare a teacher at first, because if the student fails maybe the teacher would feel like they failed or think they are held responsible for not being able to help their student.

The journal provides an excellent example with the steps and strategies using the Response to Intervention method.  Starting in the first step, the student was assessed with the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening.  The student was monitored in the fall of second grade with a first grade word list and a spelling assessment.  The second step, involved planning and designing of the intervention, in which accurate, fluent reading in context was the problem.  An increase in the amount of reading practice to build up his reading level was implemented.  The third step, involved the monitoring of the student with reading passages from a second grade levels to those of different levels.  Word accuracy and reading rate, words read per minute, were recorded.  Step four, was implemented because the student was continuing to struggle.  The Word Attack Test was administered which would give results in difficulty decoding words, vowel patterns, which lead the student struggling with accuracy and fluency.  A new strategy with practice for the problem words was developed, that guided the student to analyze word parts and reading the words sentences.  By the fifth step it was decided that special education was not necessary, because of the growth of the student.

The student started the RTI reading 55% to 60% accuracy.  After six weeks, the students Response to Intervention showed a 100% of correctly read words.  The student should continue using the reading strategies and practice over the summer.  Providing the student with exercises or assignments may help keep the student on task and parents involved in their child’s academic achievement.