RTI from All Sides: What Every Teacher Needs to Know » (New Edition)

Mary Howard is the author of the Heinemann title RTI from All Sides. A "teacher's teacher," she's been an educator for almost four decades. Mary combines extensive experiences as a special education, Title I, and Reading Recoveryteacher with continued in-school support as a reading consultant and literacy coach. She understands the realities of today's classroom and supports teachers across the country in creating high-quality literacy experiences for every child.

This book is desperately needed in districts and state departments everywhere. It is loaded with interventions that are right for kids and right for the educators who serve them. It profiles RTI as a framework for increasing intentional instruction...keeping the emphasis on knowledgeable educators rather than "programs." If this book could become a prerequisite to implementation, I fully believe that the goals of RTI may well be realized.

-Linda Hoyt

Author of Revisit, Reflect, Retell, Updated Edition

Response to Intervention (RTI) is here, but what do teachers need to know about it? As Mary Howard investigated that question, she was surprised: the more she knew about it, the more this "teacher's teacher" was excited by it. That's because RTI promises to use the great teaching you know to catch readers before they falter. With RTI from All Sides, she shows how to make RTI live up to its promise.

In RTI from All Sides, Howard points the way toward thoughtful and effective RTI-and away from potentially dangerous, rigid implementations. She offers suggestions for instructional design, collaboration, and troubleshooting-even for avoiding mediocre RTI products. Most important, she demonstrates how to apply the principles you trust to RTI:

• teaching reading and writing in authentic ways to help students choose just-right books that set them up to read in and out of school
• using simple, ongoing assessments to know when to intensify instruction inside and outside the regular classroom
• differentiating reading instruction to maintain the flow between whole-class, small-group, and one-on-one instruction while meeting specific students' needs
• designing interventions to amplify instruction instead of sidelining students to skill-and-drill that takes them further from engaged, proficient reading
• coordinating efforts within and between instructional supports to emphasize acceleration through the targeted instruction students need to succeed.

In addition, Howard includes helpful questions that lead book study groups to a better understanding of RTI, its structure, its implementation, and its daily application.

RTI has the potential to return instructional decision-making to teachers and to galvanize schools to design effective practices for helping all readers achieve-especially those who struggle. Read RTI from All Sides and get the information you need to create a safety net that can save struggling readers before the learning gap widens forever.

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 The Paths Leading to the RTI Crossroads 1

Chapter 2 RTI: A Framework for Responsive Differentiated Teaching 20

Chapter 3 Tier 1 Intervention: High-Quality Instruction for All 34

Chapter 4 Tier 2 Intervention: Establishing a Coordinated Continuum of Support 56

Chapter 5 Tier 3 Intervention: Intensifying the Instructional Support 78

Chapter 6 Broadening the Role of Assessment in an RTI Model 91

Chapter 7 Maximizing the Success Factors: Making RTI Work Schoolwide 112

Book Study Guide 117

References 127

Index 133