The October 2010 Educational Leadership focuses on the many ways schools can intervene when they see students struggling academically, emotionally, or behaviorally. Authors discuss strategies and share success stories in creating a climate where all students' needs are met and in helping students who need a little extra attention. As you read the articles in the issue, think about the students in your own school and how some of these ideas might help you support their learning.
Looking into RTI
- Before reading the article, what were your thoughts about RTI? How have you seen RTI used, if at all?
- What new insights did you gain from the article? Did it help to dismantle any of your misconceptions? What additional points would you make?
- How might your school change its intervention practices on the basis of the ideas in the article? What first steps could you take right now to make such changes? How do you believe these changes would affect student learning?
Looking for Root Causes
- For both Greene and Dawson, students who misbehave or don't get their work done often lack crucial skills. They may want to do well, but they don't know how. What do you think of this argument? How well does it fit with your experience of such students? Does it cause you to think differently about your more challenging students?
- How does seeing difficult student behavior as related to skill deficits change the way teachers and administrators might respond to such behavior?
- What does your school currently do to help students develop the cognitive and executive skills they lack? How might you incorporate such skills into your instruction and discipline programs?
Homegrown Reading Interventions
- What has your experience been with creating homegrown interventions, as opposed to using packaged programs? What are the advantages and disadvantages of such an approach?
- What is your school currently doing to support struggling readers? How might you use some of these authors' ideas to improve your current efforts? (Look for more ideas in the March 2010 EL on Reading to Learn.)
