Response Intervention popular in the elementary

by Shelby Strang

The elementary has started a new program for grades K-8 called Response Intervention. This is a program for children who struggle in the language arts department.

Every child is given the DIBELS assessment three times a year. The score from this test identifies specific learning deficits (phonemic awareness and phonics). Elementary principal Mr. Shaw believes this is a good program for children because it “attacks” the problem with reading and helps practice vowels. This is more beneficial to the kids than what was already in place. “Thankfully, it replaces the previous system of identifying learning disabilities with the ability-achievement discrepancy model, which requires children to exhibit a severe discrepancy between their IQ and academic achievement as measured by standardizing test,” said response intervention teacher Mrs. Duvall.

Mrs. Duvall uses some techniques to help the younger kids sound out the letters of the alphabet and sound out words. She makes them stretch out the word and as they sound it out they have to write it on the board of how it sounds. They also learn to make sentences. Some students of Mrs. Duvall’s class really get into the learning of the alphabet and sounding their words. One student says he really likes it rather than his other classes.

In this intervention they use phonics to help children read. Phonics is a method for teaching children to read English. It is also used to teach them to blend the sounds of letter together to make words that may be unknown to them. Mrs. Duvall also uses Phonemic Awareness, which help recognize the common sounds that different words make. The program also improves the child’s reading comprehension and helps them spell. The goal of the intervention is to find out what specific problem each child has with reading and get them back to grade level reading by the end of the year. If they can’t get the child back to the reading level with their grade they will use “Biologically-based learning disabilities” which basically means that the child would need special education in the future. “With RTI we can provide intervention as soon as children exhibit difficulty, instead of waiting for them to fail,” says Mrs. Duvall.