Pierce 1 Taylor Pierce CI 407 2/14/14

Monticello/Urbana RTI and PBIS

When comparing and reflecting on the RTI and PBIS services between the schools I have student taught in, there are several major differences. I was in Monticello completing my two-day student teaching experience, and am now student teaching full-time in an Urbana elementary school. The programs instilled by the different schools are directly related to the needs of their students; the RTI and PBIS programs in Urbana are much more intrinsic and expanded than those that I observed in Monticello, yet neither have gifted student programs. Id like to say first off that neither of my schools have gifted student programs. I have to admit this surprises me. From what I can remember I grew up with gifted programs in schools and even though there were only a few children in the program it was still around. It wasnt until this school year that I started to see how controversial the term gifted can be in education and I guess I had never given it very much thought- it was just one of those things I think I took for granted and never took the time to consider closely. But now that I think about it, I still challenge the idea of gifted programs being controversial and rare to find. I believe that children can be gifted in more than one aspect. Yes, perhaps there are very few kids who are gifted in their natural rate of cognitive development and ability. However, I think there are also children who are gifted in other aspects such as skills like paying attention to detail, organization, following instruction, etc. This is a much different way of thinking about the term gifted, and maybe Im using it improperly. Yes we have enrichment programs that pull out kids but why not take it a step

Pierce 2 further and truly create meaningful and detailed activities that incorporate things such as mechanics, engineering, artwork, music, everything you can imagine. Why not take the kids who are capable, and do these things with them during fourth grade rather than moving them onto 5th grade material? Lets talk about RTI. For starters, the school I was teaching in in Monticello contained students PreK-1st grade and the Urbana school is PreK-5th grade. One of the most basic reasons why Urbanas RTI services are more evolved and routine is because they are serving students at varieties of ages who have fallen behind. Meanwhile, the oldest students in the Monticello school have more than likely had formal reading instruction for no more than a year or so. With that little experience and exposure, there isnt a lot of room for them to fall behind. Thats not to say that there werent students who struggled or who were a part of RTI. In my classroom there were several students whom were suspected to have learning disabilities such as dyslexia. For these students, our school had outside resources who were trained reading specialists who would pull the students out several times per week. In Urbana, our 4th grade team has dedicated an hour every morning to reading intervention. During this time, half of our class is out of the room and in ESL or Native Language instruction. Those who are left are a majority native English speakers. There are three 4th grade classes; ours combines with another class for reading intervention. The third classs teacher has opted out of group intervention time and prefers to do it with her class on her own. During my classs combined intervention time, the children are mixed in with the other class and theyre divided into groups based on reading levels and ability. The groups are paired with a teacher and work on readings and activities. This reminds me of

Pierce 3 the small group teacher portion of Daily Five. Some groups switch between teachers halfway through the session but most of the groups stay with the same teacher. Those who are leading the groups include my cooperating teacher, the other classs homeroom teacher, the school Tier 1 reading specialist, a teachers assistant, and myself. I was successful with reading groups in Daily Five during my time in Monticello. By the time I had my two day takeover I was independently working with each of the reading groups along with managing the other Daily Five activities and rotations. However, before I was allowed any control over Daily Five activities or groups, I observed them closely for two months both independently and alongside my cooperating teacher in Monticello. This was the best way to introduce my to the system and observe what was happening and how different behaviors and materials were approached on a variety of levels. This also showed me ownership and responsibility of my cooperating teacher, and that she wanted to make sure I was capable and experienced before unloading all five reading groups onto me. My experience in Urbana has been much different. For starters, I only observed their reading intervention time once, and during that time I was monitoring student behavior and honestly did not know much about their intervention time because it was my first day student teaching in Urbana. The following week after my first day our classes used that intervention time to work on our science fair projects. The next time we came together to have reading intervention groups, I was selected to be leading a group, even though I had never been properly modeled how to do so. I think this was a huge mistake and frankly unprofessional of the teachers involved. Yes I am educated and have learned about reading strategies and comprehension strategies, but I am a newcomer into the school. At the time I had NO understanding of the school atmosphere or even a firm understanding of their daily

Pierce 4 routine and objectives. Those students are their responsibility and honestly I am their responsibility as well and it seemed to me the way I was tossed into the mix with zero preparation or direct guidance was very lazy (I hope this paper never leaves our coursework). Im learning and improving my techniques as we go along and I have many ideas for upcoming lessons, but especially after my experiences last semester in Monticello I know that I could be much more effective and develop more thoughtful lessons, readings, and activities for my group if I had been modeled how to do so at least several times. Reading intervention is too important for them to be totally trusting in my skills without providing examples and watching me go through the motions before working with the kids. Its very upsetting to me, however it is their choice and their responsibility and Im going to do the best I can not to mess it up. I think that there are positive aspects of the reading intervention we use with the Urbana 4th graders, not just because theyre getting additional reading instruction but also because the students are in groups with similar abilities and needs and receiving close guided instruction from a teacher. There arent any children that are left out or assigned to independent reading; every child is receiving the benefits of monitored instruction. I think before I came to the school there was a rotation of children who were not with adults and who were told to sit in a section in the room and read to themselves until the next rotation when a teacher would become available. Although I wish I could have seen the group instruction modeled more thoroughly before I received my own groups, Im still glad to be a part of the process and in a way be a solution to their problem (not enough staff). Moving on to PBIS in the schools, there were also large differences between the programs in Monticello and in Urbana. There were many reward systems in Monticello for

Pierce 5 positive behavior such as popcorn parties, wearing hats to school, pats on the back, etc. There were not very many procedures in place for poor behavior at that time. I had discussed with my co-op about a student she once had where she and the other staff members had to develop a system for him universally where he could earn specific rewards for behaviors, etc. During my time in Monticello I only knew of one student who had his own behavior plan with various steps. Of course there were things in our classroom that were consequences of poor behaviors and choices, but truthfully I never had to administer much other punishment than a card pulling (once) because I genuinely had a positive and friendly group of first graders. Urbana has been a complete contrast. There are several incentive programs schoolwide as well as staff members whose job is to intervene and help manage high flying students. High flying students are described as students who can go from 0 to 60 in behavior and anger very quickly without much provoking or warning. These students also typically get in to more trouble than other students and seem like theyre on peoples radars throughout the school. In Monticello they did not track their students where Urbana clearly does. The staff that I referred to previously for high flying students are for refocus where the students are sent to their room and discuss issues theyre having that daywhether it be personal, behavioral, or both. There are buttons on the walls in the classroom for teachers to press during student meltdowns that buzz into the office to let them know to send a refocus staff member to the room for assistance. Ive seen my co-op and other teachers in the building simply tell their students to go to refocus, which is their dismissal of the student.

Pierce 6 The school in Urbana has a weekly and monthly reward system for their students positive behaviors. There are star charts where students can write their names when a teacher rewards them for a behavior. At the end of the week a section of the chart is called and those randomly selected students get a prize from the office. Every month there is an additional incentive for children. This month, February, they are throwing a sweetheart dance. Those who do not receive any referrals (write-ups) during the month will receive an invitation to the dance. I made sure to check with my co-op- children who are sent to refocus can still attend the dance. Being sent to refocus is not the same degree as a referral. At first, coming into the school with this system seemed really intense to me. I did not grow up in a district where these enforcements were necessary and have never encountered them first hand. Now that Im having the opportunity to engage in and witness this type of program, so far I like it. Its difficult, because it many of our courses were taught to believe childrens best learning and behaviors and choices come intrinsically. Personally thats the type of learning and environment that I would love to witness. However, many of the children attending the Urbana school are used to reinforcements at home. Ive come to realize that as teachers, we can never change our students. We can guide them and condition them to act a certain way in our classroom or school. But we cannot truly change their decision-making without their consent. Meaning, the choice will ultimately be theirs. And so, as much as I wish our school could create a reinforcement-free learning environment, I just dont think that its realistic (or the best) for our students. Its very sad for me to know what some of my students are going home to. Some of them dont even know if there will be a home to go to at the end of the day. I think that now more than ever I understand that kids truly bring more to school with them than whats in their

Pierce 7 backpacks, and Ive seen the way that the refocus staff addresses negativity, anger, selfresentment, respect, etc. It may not be perfect but I think that the staff members are a very positive resource presence in the building for those students in particular who need more guidance. There are huge cultural and procedural differences between both of my teaching experiences, but I am so glad to have experienced both of them and to become better prepared for student and instructional diversity in the field.