"Oh, there's a WONDERFUL amount of paperwork when it comes to RTI!"
In the Response To Intervention discussion group I was placed in on February 11, I learned the implications of RTI as far as it concerns me, the teacher, and other faculty and staff that are required for the method to work correctly. RTI is a deeply involved process that cannot be implemented in just one classroom, but rather, an entire school, as one teacher’s observations of select students who cannot meet the same standards as their peers must coincide with other teachers’ reflections of that student as well. RTI takes place in three tiers, wherein the first tier is a general education classroom, and all students who do not already have special education modifications or an IEP. If a student is consistently falling behind in his classes, then he will be moved up to tier two, where additional instruction and observation is required. That student may then move up to tier three if all other methods are not working, and this is where he may move into a special education classroom. The RTI process takes many weeks to implement – as well as a load of paperwork – and cannot just take place at the word of one teacher. In addition to the general education teacher, guidance counselors must also be involved, as well as the parents, members of the administration, possibly a school social worker, and an interventionist. In some cases, a school nurse may even be involved to advise others as to the effects of certain medication on the student and his schoolwork.
Our discussion of differentiated instruction, I have to say, was informative, if not frustrating, as this method of teaching seems to be the most complicated and in-depth process I’ve heard of so far in education school. The idea of separating all students into various learning types and interests in a formal and organized way – and in some cases even designing multiple lesson plans for all students – is just a little too much for me to take in before I have even become a hired professional. It is not to say that I am not resentful of having learned about it; I just don’t think it is a method I will be able to approach until I am much more comfortable in my teaching. Once again, differentiated instruction is something that an entire school must implement, and for a teacher to handle it alone seems counterproductive, because it is such an elaborate process and the strategies of teaching involved may get in the way of the actual lesson being taught – as I learned in Ms. Cosby’s class at Phillips Academy.
