(1) Students with reading difficulties benefit most from instruction that is explicit, targeted, and progressively challenging, with careful monitoring of skills and reteaching as needed. (2) They need extensive guided and independent practice with feedback on reading connected text. (3) Instruction should actively involve students with many response opportunities.

2.  Students with reading difficulties benefit from
instruction that is purposeful and targeted at
important objectives that students need to
learn, progressing logically from easier to
more challenging skills.
 Within such a program, students’ mastery of
key skills and strategies is carefully
monitored so that re-teaching can be
provided if needed.

3.  Students with reading difficulties also benefit from:
(a) explicit instruction in which skills are clearly
modeled and key concepts are directly taught, so
that students are not left to infer these critical
concepts and skills;
(b) extended opportunities for guided and independent
practice with both corrective and positive
feedback, including copious amounts of engaged
practice in reading and responding to connected
text; and
(c) instructional formats that promote active student
involvement and provide many opportunities to
respond.
(Denton, 2012, p.233)

4.  Tier 1 instruction in the early grades includes explicit
instruction:
(a) in phonemic awareness,
(b) phonics, and
(c) automatic recognition of high-frequency irregular words;
(d) instruction in making meaning from text, including an
emphasis on vocabulary and the development of
background knowledge; and
(e) many opportunities to read and respond to connected
text to promote reading fluency and comprehension
(Chard, Vaughn, & Tyler, 2002; Ehri, 2004;
Jitendra, Edwards, Sacks, & Jacobson, 2004; National
Reading Panel, 2000; Snow et al., 1998).

5.  Tier II interventions can be given by a regular classroom
teacher, a reading specialist or a well trained
paraprofessional.
 Tier II interventions may start as early as Kindergarten in
group of 2-3.
 It should be provided 3-5 times per week for 2-40
minutes.
 A minimum of 20 weeks of Tier instruction is beneficial.
 Tier II interventions focus on the students needs based on
data.
 Progress is constantly being monitored. Students who do
no show progress in Tier II will be moved to Tier III after
10-20 weeks.
 Only about 25% of students don’t show progress

6.  Tier III is provided to students who are not
making progress in Tier II interventions.
 Tier III interventions should be given by the
classroom teacher in a one-on-one setting.
 The number of weeks-months the student
stays in Tier III will be determined by their
progress.

7.  Progress monitoring is required for
determining whether students are making
progress towards their instructional goals.
 Students are being monitored on phonemic
awareness, letter knowledge, word
identification, phonemic decoding, word
reading fluency, and ORF in connected text.

8.  How a student responds to the interventions
determines the placement of the child in a
more or less intensive intervention.

9.  Tell me at least 3 things that you learned, 2
things you want to learn and 1 thing that you
would do to a struggling tier II student. Post
your answers to the blog.
 Find two sources (articles, websites, etc.)
about RtI; post them in the blog and tell me
why they are good sources for teachers or
parents to use when learning about RtI.
http://benefitsofrti.blogspot.com/2012/07/m
odule-iii.html