Response to Intervention: Response to Intelligence
Meeting the needs of gifted learners in all educational settings
Deborah L. HoltLBSD School DistrictGifted Coordinator
January 2013
What Does RtI Mean for the Gifted Student?
TIER 1 is the foundation
or the core curriculum.
80-85% of students are
learning and growing
in a grade level
curriculum.
TIER 1
TIER 2
TIER 3
Tier 2 includes supplemental instruction and intervention in addition to the core curriculum.
Tier 3 consists of intensive instructional interventions in addition to the core curriculum. Students are identified for Tiers 2 and 3 through ongoing assessment. Data-based decision making is applied across the tiers.
Definition of Giftedness
• Children who possess:
• General intellectual ability
• Specific academic aptitude
• Creative and productive thinking
• Leadership ability
• Visual and performing arts, and/or
• Psychomotor ability (Marland 1972)
Most Recent Brain Research
What Does This Mean?
• We need to pay close attention to what happens in the primary and intermediate grades. What happens in the classroom has the potential to raise or lower I.Q.
• A disturbing trend is the high number of gifted individuals who drop out of high school.
~Dr. David Sousa (2009)
What Can We Do?
Offer:
Differentiated curriculum beyond grade-level standards
Differentiated instruction
Using a faster pace, greater independence in study and thought, and increased complexity and depth in subject content
A supportive learning environment also addressing social and emotional needs
Curriculum content initiatives for gifted learners including acceleration when needed, curriculum compacting, and flexible grouping
Also…
Instructional processes for gifted learners include:
Higher-level thinking
Creative thinking
Problem-based learning
Independent study
Tiered assignments
Discovery-based teaching that focuses on long term memory processing
Appropriate products for gifted learners
The New RtI: Response to Intelligence
TIER 3
Intense individual interventio
nsLonger
duration
TIER 2
Small targeted group interventions
Supplemental to the core curriculum
TIER 1
Academic/Behavioral Universal
Interventions for
students who can master content WITH
teacher support
(differentiation in the regular
classroom)
TIER 2
Individual and/or small
groups of students who need
extra support for appropriat
e challenge
TIER 3
Individual students who need intense
support for growth
~Penny Choice (2008)
The goal of teaching is to constantly strive to move students to the right.
Tier 1
• This is where 80-90% of students will achieve high levels of growth at this stage in the regular classroom.
• Curriculum addresses what is the big picture and what is worth knowing and doing?
• There still needs to be differentiation at this tier-the more differentiation at Tier 1, the fewer provisions for students at Tier 2.
Differentiation Opportunities in Tier
1:• Thinking at different levels
• Open-ended opportunities for responses
• Tiered opportunities to respond based on prior knowledge (i.e., graphic organizers with varying degrees of difficulty);
• Product choices
• Primary sources
• Research studies
• Problem solving
• Cluster grouping of gifted students
Tier 2
• This tier is for students who need additional support and opportunities based on their learning needs and their rate of learning.
• Students to the left are not making adequate progress in the core curriculum, but students on the right find the core curriculum redundant. They need intensive instruction matched to their levels of performance and rates of progress.
Supplemental Opportunities for Tier 2
Right (Gifted)• Self-contained gifted class
• Replacement class (in a content area that is occurring at the same time in the regular classroom) Example: Accelerated math
• A separate school within a school (which would include cluster grouping, cooperative learning grouping, and cross-ability or age grouping)
Also…
• Concept-based curriculum for this group is desirable
• Right Tier 2 students can complete anchor activities and extensions while other learn basic curriculum.
• Right Tier 2 needs advanced resources available to them.
• Exposure to inquiry experiences, problem-based learning, debate, future studies, contracting through compacting, or competitions work well in Right Tier 2.
Tier 3
• This group should have very few students on the left and to the right. These students need intensive, more individualized attention.
• Students to the left are not making adequate progress in the core curriculum and need increasingly intensive instruction which is matched to their levels of performance and rates of progress. Students to the right also need their core curriculum replaced. Students at both ends deserve to have individual attention in order to have the opportunity to learn new content and to grapple with new, challenging information.
• Right Tier 3 students have intense needs that extend beyond the curriculum of that grade level.
Right Tier 3 Opportunities• Right Tier 3 need accelerated, concept-based content since they
already know the content of the curriculum. Their advanced mastery gives them time to devote to intensive study of an area.
• Independent Study
• Research
• Problem Solving
• Delving deeper into the content
• Exploration into related areas
• Acceleration opportunities such as grade advancement
• Dual enrollment
• Early Advanced Placement Classes
• Early college classes
Ways to Assess RtI Effectiveness
observations vocabulary lists experiments
book review problem solving graphic organizers
booklet portfolios oral summaries
charts questionnaires pre-tests
Checklists Class or small class discussions
Sample problems to solve diagram with labels concept map/web
Student-produced exhibits thumbs up/down Venn diagrams
KWL charts ticket out the door quizzes
Standardized tests and many more!
Development of Creativity and the New
RtI• Creativity is the highest form of
giftedness (Barbara Clark, 2005)
• Creativity belongs in all tiers of the New RtI, but is essential in Right Tier 2 and Right Tier 3.
• Underachievers are often very creative. This group may have high potential but not high performance.
Also…
Truly gifted and talented persons who make significant contributions to society have three characteristics:
Above average ability
Strong task commitment
High levels of creativity~Renzulli and Reis (2008)
Curriculum Models That Provide
Appropriate Tier 1, 2, or 3 challenges • The Enrichment Triad Model-This model is appropriate
for any content area and grade level in multiple grouping arrangements. It is perfect for RtI because it consists of three enrichment levels. (Renzulli)
• Betts’ Autonomous Learner Model (1999)
• The Parallel Curriculum (Tomlinson 2002)
• Schlichter’s Talents Unlimited (1986)
• Dr. Calvin Taylor’s Multiple-Talent Totem Pole Model (1978)
“Until every gifted child can attend a school where the brightest are appropriately challenged in an environment with their intellectual peers, America can’t claim that it’s leaving no child behind.”
~Jan and Bob Davidson
Genius Denied