Knowing the challenges that I, and other classmates have experienced in getting placed for observation & student teaching though, I’m wondering how much districts have bought into this framework thus far. Do districts, department chairs, sponsoring teachers viewing this as extra work for them? Also, in comparison to the Danielson framework, I think I'd prefer Danielson, because it appears more straightforward (less academic jargon) and more focused on concrete learning as opposed to language usage. 

2.    Honestly, this is still confusing to me.  Is a gang-ridden school a climate or a culture issue? Is diversity a climate or a culture? I realize that a strong football or band tradition = culture and an annual homecoming bonfire would be culture. I really don’t see a lot of value in understanding this distinction other than knowing that subtle changes that rub against cultural norms will likely fail. 

3.    Positive school climate leads to academic success, increased student feeling of belonging, decreased bullying, teacher retention, etc. 

4.    Defining, altering, and assessing school climate is a significant undertaking that is typically lead by administrators and results can be seen in 3-5 year to feel the change. 

5.    There many grants and 3^rdparty organizations to assist schools in improving their climate. 

2.    Differentiated instruction a work in progress for teachers; it’s not something that will be mastered in year.  It’s an ongoing commitment

3.    Differentiation = responsive teaching. Catering the activities and instruction to the individual needs of students.  Requires on-going formative assessment.  

4.    Diversity and differentiation is the interesting aspect of teaching. If all our students had the exact same needs and emotions, my career choice would be tragically boring

5.    We cannot just teach content, we have find ways to relate it to student schema’s nurture meta cognition as they participating into the lesson so they can internalize the content and make it their own. 

I could see how this this philosophy could be prevalent amongst secondary teachers who are used to channeling struggling students toward vocational programs. Many of these teachers have view the motivations of struggling students in decline and rather than “fighting an uphill battle” in trying to remediate their challenges, they see an easier path in training them to be productive in the vocational ranks. I think the gravest fallacy with this mentality is that vocational occupations require less literacy and math rigor. I believe this is largely the opposite in this day and age where many vocational occupations require diligent usage of schematics, geometry, and technical literature.  If we wish to direct some students more toward technical literacy and math, that has merits, but to track them in a way that requires less math and reading all together isn’t setting them up for success in any well-paying career.  

                                                                                                          

RTI will assist secondary educators in getting the specialized assistance they need for student who are struggling but do not meet the benchmarking criteria needed for special education.  Rather than trying to coach the students on literacy or math, they can use an outside source to help catch the student up and also ask for their assistance in providing these students with differentiated instruction. 

 

Master scheduling issues and the required credit courses for graduation were getting in the way. They needed a system of enabling students to move fluidly in and out of classes and to get more creative with credits to enable the students to meet requirements while also getting the extra needed help. 

 

 

Initially screen every student coming from middle school and for those who are placed in a program additional screen in takes place to ensure they are slotted in a place where there needs are most met.  Two tier intervention = 15% slotted in a program that requires moderate interventions, and 1-5% slotted in a position to get significant interventions. 

 

Reading intervention became the actual English class and they also added another English course as an elective, so that they get a double dose.  Class sizes are smaller, and giving them time to absorb the content to constantly scaffold and overlap.

My question is more about curriculum.  Can a teacher do this on their own or do we rely on a district-wide program?

It's looking at a abundance of info rather than basing the student's RTI consideration solely an initial standardized test.  

 
�How does this approach differ from the structure provided at Tigard? Argue for the approach that you think is more compelling in responding to student needs?

The Shawano method is superior to Tigard because they used multiple methods to assess students, they got some outside coaching to retrain teachers to implement activity based learning as well.  

2.    Shawano school district’s assessment practices were robust for identifying students who require intervention (F)

3.    15% of students in most districts require the highest amount of intervention and accommodations (F)

4.     Accommodations are practices and procedures in the areas of presentation, response, setting and timing/scheduling that provide equitable access to the general (core) curriculum during instruction and assessments for students with disabilities (T)

5.    Interventions require either the teaching of a researched based strategy or a skill that is focused on increasing the at-risk student’s proficiency in the targeted area, either academically or behaviorally. (T)

6.    Pulling a student out of class to work with a reading specialist is an example of an accommodation (F)

7.    There are very few RTI curriculums designed for high school (F)

8.    RTI is more prominent in elementary schools than secondary schools (T)

9.    RTI was a trend in the 1990’s that has fallen out of favor because of its focus on quantitative data (F)

10.  RTI is has similarities to tracking (T/F - It could go either way, time will tell)

 

Question 2: The physical arrangement can be improved by removing the storage sections and sliding the teacher’s desk left.  This would enable some to the tables to be brought forward; enabling more space for walking.  On the desk, I’d slide the monitor to the right so that I wouldn’t have to look over the top of my monitor to see students. Finally, I’d ask the maintenance team to hang hooks on the walls for back packs.  These backpacks are currently a hazard for those walking between tables.