WEBVTT

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I am Carol McDonald Connor,
and I am an associate professor

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at Florida State
University in the Department

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of Developmental Psychology.

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I was on the expert panel
for the RtI [Response

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to Intervention]
Practice Guide on Reading.

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When we go into schools, we
see teachers doing a great job

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of providing Tier 2
intervention in small groups,

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but they frequently
have more difficulty

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when they start thinking

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about differentiating
Tier 1 instruction.

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There is classroom
instruction provided

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to all the students
in the classroom.

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And yet, our research shows

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that when we differentiate
Tier 1 instruction,

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all the children do much
better, and in fact,

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it can reduce the
need for Tier 2.

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The evidence on differentiating
Tier 1 is growing stronger.

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Just to summarize it briefly,
we now have randomized trials

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that show that differentiated
Tier 1 in kindergarten,

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first grade, second grade, and
third grade is more effective

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than even high-quality
Tier 1 instruction

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that isn't differentiated.

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And the other interesting
finding that's just beginning

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to emerge is that the effects
of differentiating Tier 1 appear

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to be accumulating over time.

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So when we followed
children from first grade

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into second grade, the children
that had differentiated Tier 1

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in both first and second
grade did better than children

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who had differentiated
Tier 1 only in first grade,

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or only in second grade.

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And these children did
better than children who were

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in the control group for
both first and second grade.

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And so these results suggest
that we really need to look

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at RtI as a system that starts
when children enter school

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in kindergarten and
that follows them

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and that provides the
differentiated instruction

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in Tier 1, the opportunities

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for more intensive
Tier 2 and Tier 3.

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And that even if you finish
first grade and you don't seem

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to be getting much and
the effects are small,

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there is a good chance that
these effects are going

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to accumulate over time.

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So we see teachers
differentiating Tier 1

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instruction in many ways.

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Probably the favorite way is
to use stations or center time.

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So what happens is, teachers
have divided their classroom

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into small groups where
children are grouped according

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to their learning needs.

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So for example, the group

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where the children
are really struggling

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with decoding well
during their center,

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their independent time-they
might be working on phonics

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or phonological awareness
activities

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with the other members
of their group.

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When they come to the teacher
table, she might, again,

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really work on fluent
decoding with that group.

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For the group of children that
are really good comprehenders,

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she may not spend as much time
at the teacher table with them

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because they're doing very well
and she might have them doing,

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say, a writing project
where they're reading books

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and they're writing
their own stories

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and then they're
reviewing their stories

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and helping each
other edit them.

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In that way, during
literacy block,

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even though they are all
working on comprehension,

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they're working on the kinds
of comprehension strategies

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that are really going to help
them become better readers.

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One of the most challenging
things

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about differentiating Tier
1 instruction is classroom

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management, right?

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So you envision the teachers
working with a small group

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of children at the table;

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the other children are
working independently

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or in a small group
with their peers,

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and there is a recipe for chaos.

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There are a number of things
school administrators can do

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to help teachers with this
classroom management issue.

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First and foremost, enough
time at the beginning

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of the school year, so that
teachers can actually teach

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children how to do
centers, how to do stations,

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how to transition from
one table to the next

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or one activity to the next.

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Next, school administrators can
watch who is in what classroom.

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Classrooms that have
a lot of children

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who have behavior problems make
it difficult for the teacher

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to provide effective
instruction to all the children

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in the classroom, and we have
research that shows this.

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So school administrators
need to think about who is

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in the classroom as
they're assigning classrooms

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at the beginning
of the school year.

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Next, school administrators
can make more staff available

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to teachers.

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There is a number
of ways to do this.

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One is to actually
stagger the literacy blocks

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so that classroom A has their
literacy block from 9 to 10;

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the paraprofessionals,
speech pathologists,

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reading specialists
converge on that classroom

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and make sure all the children
get the teacher time they need.

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Another is to provide
literacy coaches

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that can rotate among
classrooms.

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Teachers and administrators
should work together to figure

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out the system that's going
to work best for their school.