MTSS Monday: Documentation

Happy MTSS Monday!

This is my last MTSS Monday post before spring break!  In an effort to keep your expectations low when it comes to me posting on a regular basis, I will be taking spring break off ;)

Cheryl of Primary Graffiti decided to jump on my MTSS Monday train! It's nice to see her inspired by another one of my ideas!

Maybe MTSS Monday will become a "thing" and I will be the creator.  Kind of like that time Dr. Seuss created the word 'nerd'!

MTSS is basically RTI, if you're familiar with that term, but with a different name.  We used to call it RTI but then the 'man' changed the name (probably just to confuse me) so now it's MTSS or Multi-Tiered Systems of Support....fancy.

MTSS happens everyday from 9:15-9:45 in our school.  EVERY student works on individualized activities. (Don't stop reading here...it's possible and can even become easy if you can find a way that works for you!)  Some grade levels exchange students across the whole grade level...it's a circus.  I can't deal.

My first grade team and I decided we wanted to do MTSS in our own rooms.  With our own students.  This opens up our collaboration time to share resources....see last weeks post....as opposed to catch up on our own students progress in another teachers MTSS group.

Tier 1 instruction is the general education program.  This means that ALL students are receiving core instruction with flexible grouping and differentiation.  Screening and progress monitoring are utilized to determine instructional needs and measure student progress.

For students who are not making adequate progress, teachers combine their core instruction with additional interventions depending on the needs of the individual students.  This additional support is considered Tier 2.  In this tier you will see targeted, supplemental interventions aligned with the core curriculum.  Tier 2 supports can be provided by the teacher or school support faculty (a reading or math coach) 3 times a week for 30 minutes.  These interventions should be delivered through a small group format.  Progress monitoring data is used to adjust instruction and intervention.

There will be a small percentage of students who still may show learning difficulties with Tier 2 intervention.  These students will need more intensive interventions.  Tier 3 interventions are designed for students who do not respond to Tier 1 or 2 interventions.  This is the highest level of support and is much more individualized.  Students will meet one-on-one or in very small groups (2-3 people) 4-5 times a week for 30 minutes.

At our school they almost always need 6-8 weeks of intervention data to move from Tier 2 to Tier 3 and beyond that to testing.  Tier 2 documentation should show assessment results bi-weekly.  Tier 3 assessments should happen weekly.

In a couple of my previous posts I shared with you how I structure and organize MTSS in my classroom so I won't do that again here.  I know this is starting to get a little long.  I will share with you how I'm monitoring my students progress and keeping track of the extra practice and enrichment activities I provide my Tier 1 students.

I posted an early version of these in my first MTSS Monday post.  Since then I've fine-tuned each tier and added some very basic graphs that could be used to graph either Tier 2 or Tier 3 progress.  I print the Tier 3 progress monitoring page and graphing page back to back.  You will need a Tier 3 page for each Tier 3 student but you will be able to use it for the whole course of your intervention.  You can download these Progress Monitoring sheets for FREE from my TpT Store!

MTSS Monday: Collaboration

I've tried to plan out this post on collaboration for MTSS Monday all day and I really can't get past the title.  Vanilla Ice distracts me every time....

You're welcome....for that :)

Now let me see if I can get past Vanilla to talk to you about how I collaborate....and listen.

I work on a grade level with 6 other fabulous women.  We decided to "beef" up our MTSS materials.  Since it's not like we were provided with any teaching materials...or given money to purchase materials...or really even given a clear idea of what MTSS should look like.  It's like being in a boat without a paddle.  Is anyone else out there paddle-less?!?

In an attempt to "beef" up our resources we have decided to pick a skill or strategy and find 1 resource (game or activity) we could use to teach it and then share it at a grade level meeting.  Last week we met for the first time and everyone printed each other copies of their activity and then shared and explained them at the meeting.  It was amazing to walk away with 7 new games!  I've already laminated, cut out, and added several to my MTSS buckets!

Click here to get this game from The First Grade Sweet Life!

Click here to check this out on Have Fun Teaching!

We also shared links to products on TPT that we really like.  I just love this comprehension packet.  I printed the story and graphic organizer back to back and laminated them.  My students can read them and complete the organizer using a dry erase marker.  I also use them during guided reading!

Click here to purchase this game from Read Like a Rock Star!

For our next few meetings we are compiling activities for synonyms, antonyms, and homophones.  Here's a sneak peek at the homophone resources I'm planning on sharing!

Click here to get my homophone fishing game!

Click here to get homophone match up from The First Grade Sweet Life!

Click here to download Homophone Memory!

Click here to get this homophone cut and paste worksheet!

How do you collaborate with your grade level and co-workers?

Do you have any great synonym, antonym, or homophone activities I could share with my grade-level?  If you do, leave the link in the comments so I can check them out!

I hope you can use some of these resources during your MTSS/RTI time!

MTSS Monday: Organization

Do you thrive on classroom chaos and find order in disorder?

Do you believe there is a place for everything and everything belongs in it's place?

I lean toward the "place for everything" mentality, especially at work.  During our last planning day, I spent 4 hours in my classroom closet getting organized (it was a disaster, I'd like to blame it on my students but they don't go in there).  I do this every 2 years or so.  Stuff piles up and I need to change the way I store it so that I can find it/get rid of things I don't use anymore (I hate clutter!).

Since I've found, created, and bought (thanks Pinterest and TPT!) multiple reading and math activities for almost every skill I teach, it made sense to put them all in Ziploc bags and group them into magazine holders.  I've been collecting the wonderful array of magazine holders in each picture from the Tar-jay dollar spot :).

Reading activities

Math activities

As you can see I labeled the front of each box and grouped my games and activities according to the labels.

This has made MTSS (formerly RTI) a lot simpler for me.  Games and activities are easy to find and already bagged and prepared to go into each groups bucket.  It literally cut my planning/prep time in half.

Tier 1-enrichment, Tier 1-practice, and Tier 2-remediation buckets containing MTSS activities.

Beyond MTSS, it's made literacy and math centers a breeze as well.  I might be married to this plan for more than 2 years (I hope)!  It took me a while to find, print, laminate, cut out, and prepare all of these activities but it was time well spent.

My go-to places to find new games and activities are:

Pinterest

Teachers Pay Teachers

Blog Hoppin'

Freebie-licious

My questions for you are:

*How do you stay organized?

*Where do you find your games and activities?

MTSS (RTI) Monday

It's been a minute since I've posted about MTSS (formerly RTI) Monday because of the holiday break. I hope you all had a wonderful one!  We went back to school last Wednesday so my students have started a new round of activities for MTSS (Multi-Tier System of Supports).

Tonight I've got a few pictures that I hope will convey how I set up my MTSS activities.  Essentially, I run them as tiered centers.  For almost all activities in my classroom I prefer to have mixed skill levels working together.  MTSS is a great opportunity for my students to work on activities with other students who are operating on similar skill levels.

This is the chart I use to communicate with students what activities they will be working on for the day/week (students names are blurred).  I like to use index cards because I try to keep the groups very fluid and every week or two I'm moving someone to a different group to work on a different skill.  The stars match the bucket they will be using.  I could make it cuter but what-ev!

This is an example of an activity card I use to help them understand what they will be doing.

Below the MTSS chart is this book shelf where the tiered activities are stored.  In the folders there are fluency lists, sight word songs, and books for early finishers to read.

In my first MTSS Monday post I explained that I have 3 groups at this time.  A Tier 2 (REMEDIATION) group, an (ON TARGET) Tier 1 group, and another Tier 1 (ENRICHMENT) group for students working above grade level.  For some reason it's easier for me to think of them as a remediation, on target, and enrichment group instead of which tier they are working on.

I've also got a few pictures and a GREAT resource to share with you tonight that I like to use with my enrichment group.

The first 2 pictures are of the enrichment activity that my students are currently working on.  They chose a story, read it, then draw the characters, setting, problem, and solution.  This isn't a very high order activity but I was trying to ease them into their independent work after two and a half weeks off.  I try to be nice....sometimes :).

I usually prepare a lot of activities at once, paper clip them and then store them in ziplock bags with all of my other activities.

Here are a few activities I have prepared.  I'm looking forward to breaking out the book report and forming questions activities with them over the next month or so!

I got all of these wonderful activities from The Teacher Wife's Reading Comprehension pack!  It's A-MAZING!  There are several games and she provides opportunities for students to predict, summarize, compare, write about the plot and other story elements.  Check it out!

MTSS Monday

I've been wanting to start blogging about what I'm doing during MTSS (Multi-Tier Systems of Support) formerly RTI (Response to Intervention) formerly tutoring that teachers did on their own before someone felt the need to dictate exactly what they need to do and how they need to do it...WHAT?

Did I digress?

I know myself well enough not to commit to doing this every Monday but hopefully I will be able to share what I'm doing in MTSS at least once a month.

I actually enjoy MTSS.  We do it every morning for 30 minutes, school-wide.  In the past we have had to split every single student in all 8 classes on our grade level.  Splitting up 135 students right after you get them settled into the school day was, as I'm sure you can imagine, pure chaos, and not very effective.  Now we are able to do it in our classrooms with our own students.

Instead of collaborating over which student needs to move up or down a tier and how each of our students are doing in all 7 of the other classes they are spread amongst we actually get to share activities and how each of us are addressing specific needs.

We hold our grade level meetings and PLC's in different classrooms each time so we can see each others system for running MTSS (as well as literacy and math centers).  I don't know about you but sometimes I can get more out of visiting another teachers classroom than I can an entire Professional Development workshop.

We decided to have a general form of data tracking so that when an administrator comes in our room they will see the same thing.  I'm going to share it here for free.  I've already changed it 3 times and I've got a couple of new elements I'm thinking about adding so when I update it I will repost it in another MTSS Monday post.

You can grab these tracking forms here for FREE!

At this time I don't have any Tier 3 students.  I do have 4 Tier 2 students and the other 16 are Tier 1.  I split Tier 1 up into a medium and high group.

The students in the high group are working on enrichment and high order thinking activities.  My medium students are provided extra practice with skills and concepts we are working on in class (they are the biggest group, of course).

The Tier 1 recording sheet is pretty basic, I just list the activity they are doing, Readers Theatre, for example, the students names, materials they need and there is a place for notes.

Finally the Tier 2 students are given activities for remediation in areas that I have identified a deficiency.  For example, we spent about 3 weeks working on Kindergarten high frequency word identification.

In the Intervention Focus I wrote KG HFW.  I listed their names with their baseline scores 12/20 (meaning they were able to identify 12 out of 20.  Each week, after retesting, I recorded their new scores 15/20 then 19/20.  Once students show good growth or achieve the standard I move onto another area of focus.

I like this system because I can also throw in a couple of Tier 1 (medium) kids who need a little extra practice as we remediate different skills.

I have our MTSS time set up like centers so I am free to work one on one with students or in small groups.  I try to meet with each group once a week and my Tier 2 students one on one and in a small group once a week during our MTSS time.  I will post more about all of that another time.

*Please note-I created the MTSS tracking forms because they are useful to me and my colleagues.  If you have any suggestions I'm open to hearing them.  I'm considering separating Tier 2 and Tier 3 and adding a chart to Tier 3 with Time, Program and Frequency.

For more information about MTSS check out these Educator Resources!