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Universal Screeners, RTI, MTSS, and Navigating Parent-Teacher Conferences
905 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of Play On Words from big city readers, we're diving deep into the world of school reading support with a reading specialist and a parent who's been through the process. If you've ever wondered what a universal screener is or how Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) work, this episode is for you. We’ll also explore:
- What happens if your child needs extra help at school.
- The truth behind "words per minute" — does it really matter?
- How to make sense of your child’s report card and what their reading challenges may mean.
- Preparing for parent-teacher conferences and how to effectively communicate with your child's support team.
Tune in for practical tips, expert advice, and reassurance that you're not alone in navigating this journey.
More info: bigcityreaders.com
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Transcript
Are reading issues lifelong concerns?
00:00:04
Speaker
Wait, they need reading help? What's wrong? Did I do something wrong as a parent? like Is my child going to be different? Are they going to notice this? How long is this going to last? this Is this going to be their whole life? But like giving a timeline, like we're going to reevaluate in six to eight weeks and see how this goes. It's like a tiny blip in their school year.
Introduction to Maya and reading support
00:00:24
Speaker
that first day or two, I really try to get to know the kids, let them get to know me, and do some sort
00:00:38
Speaker
Okay, I am back here with my friend Maya, who is a fellow reading specialist. And we're going to talk all about what it looks like when your kids need help and like the progression of the school year and what to do when you get a referral and like kind of maybe the behind the scenes of before you got that referral that your child needs help. Maya, welcome back. How are you?
00:01:02
Speaker
Good. How are you? Thanks for having me. Oh, my gosh. I'm so glad. And I'm sorry, I forgot new mom, new big city mom, Maya. You have a three month old. You just had a baby. That's amazing. Yeah, it's great. Just excited. that be a big city kid. Yay. And okay, so you're getting ready to go back to the school year as most families
Role of reading specialists and starting interventions
00:01:24
Speaker
are. And you and I both kind of had a ah role in schools. Well, you still do. I'm not in the schools anymore about like, pushing and pull out and all of the things around reading that I think
00:01:37
Speaker
parents don't understand fully. And we, as like the reading support and the teachers and the admin, we kind of, I think, are more inclined to just like talk about it as if everyone understands. But I really was excited that you wanted to talk about like what RTI means and what it means when your kids might get pulled for a small group or work with a reading specialist.
00:02:00
Speaker
And right before I pressed record, we were talking about how that will happen, like not the first week of school, but usually around maybe October, you might start to
Initial assessments and progress monitoring
00:02:11
Speaker
see that. So we kind of like walk us through maybe your role and not necessarily like specifically what happens when they get pulled, but like your role in setting that stage of like, what happens in October when a parent when a parent gets the scary email or call or whatever it is. And I'm joking when I say scary, it's not scary. But we're hopefully here to make it not scary. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, the thing with, you know, reading support is that
00:02:40
Speaker
it can vary so much from you know district to district and even like school to school within a district but generally at the beginning of this school year you know the first week or two like you said like reading specialists are really like what I'm usually doing the first week of school is I'm just like pushing into classrooms and like day one we're just like you know, crowd management and, you know, maybe introducing ourselves to the classrooms and and things like that so that when we do start to um work with kids, you know, it's not like, who is this random stranger? I'm just kind of trying to like connect with with the kids and, you know, helping the teachers out however we can.
Universal screener process and issue identification
00:03:26
Speaker
And then
00:03:27
Speaker
A few weeks into the school year, again, it kind of varies from school to school what the sort of schedule is. We will usually do, you know, what's called a universal screener. And so we'll go into the classrooms, you know, say hello and then pull one kid just sort of like into the hallway or into another room one at a time.
00:03:47
Speaker
school I was at before it would be like one class would come into either like the gym or just some room that we had available and the whole class would sit there and and it was just a team of people that would kind of pull you know like so that it was a little faster. And can I pause you for a second? Yeah, totally. Can you kind of talk about the universal screener, like what that looks like for those who don't know? And when you said there was a team of people pulling, was it like, could it be parent volunteers or is there a specific training to do that screener? Yeah, so usually the screeners are, it looks a little different depending on the age of the kid, but they're very- Let's say like second grader, can you paint the picture of a second grader? Yeah, so there's short assessments where
00:04:31
Speaker
a second grader, what we would be doing is I'd have three stories. And it's just like a piece of paper with a story on it. There's no pictures or really anything like that. And which we love. We love that we can actually see if they're reading. Exactly. um So yeah, no pictures, no like little, you know, story at the beginning of what the story is going to be. And we just asked the kid to, you know, show us your very best reading for one minute.
00:05:01
Speaker
And so it's a little bit quicker because, again, especially if it's a bigger school, there's a ton of kids to read with. um So what we will do is we have three stories and we'll listen to them read for one minute on each story and then just send them back into the classroom and um have the next kiddo come out. And what that does is it gives us a short little picture into their reading fluency, their reading accuracy, but also as a reading specialist,
00:05:30
Speaker
we can really see a lot more than just the numbers with that assessment.
Insights from assessments and skilled assessors
00:05:37
Speaker
So, you know, I will be kind of like taking notes on um if I'm noticing like, oh,
00:05:44
Speaker
you know, maybe they repeated a word sometimes or they're leading out a certain type of word. Sometimes that's where I'll um even, you know, if it's like a student who's new, I'll even write down like maybe I should refer the student to the speech pathologist because I'm noticing um Some of those things that sometimes the classroom a lot of the time the classroom teacher will notice those things But since we're able to be one-on-one really focused with each kid one at a time We sometimes notice some stuff that you know might take a little longer to notice in a full class
00:06:16
Speaker
setting. Yeah. Yeah. I think I, when I do like a one-on-one session, I feel like sometimes parents think like, oh my gosh, they're not sitting still or they're not reading their best. And I'm like, actually in this like two minutes, I'm about to get a lot of information. I'll like be able to see if they said sit instead of said, or if they said like when instead of where, like I get like a really clear picture. I'm like writing rapid notes on the things, you know, like that might show me, oh okay, they're using, they're interchanging different sight words, so they might be memorizing words and just kind of guessing at the shape, or if they're like always changing the short vowel I to a short vowel A, like I can really see that. In this screener, do you do any writing screening too, or is it just a reading assessment? What we'll usually do is
00:07:04
Speaker
We do the the reading assessment and then a lot of the time we get the writing assessment information from the classroom teachers. So, you know, we'll have that short, you know, quick and dirty assessment you know, with each of the kids, but then also if there's some kids who, you know, like we're concerned about, um, or the teacher is concerned about and they come to us with it, uh, we kind of look at additional pieces of data, but that's sort of where we start. And then, you know, we look at the whole child as, as we kind of go.
Reassessing support and customizing interventions
00:07:35
Speaker
Okay. So then from that screener, so you are doing this and also other reading specialists at the school or who else is conducting these?
00:07:42
Speaker
Yeah, so at my school, we have there's two reading specialists. um And then sometimes our psychologists and our instructional coach will help out if you know, and so we're kind of running out of time. um but Yeah, at my previous school, there was yeah, it would be the reading specialists and sometimes like some special ah education teachers would also um help just kind of depending So I know that some schools do have parent volunteers do this. This is such an opinion question. What do you think about that? So I feel like that would, I love the involvement of parents, but I feel like that would be a piece where I might not be quite as comfortable just because
00:08:29
Speaker
um You know a little bit of like the the privacy piece of it, but also just how you know We are really using this data for you know Sometimes qualifying kids for reading intervention or looking into you know other types of evaluation That being said like I think it kind of depends on the community and you know is the parent Someone who has a background in education stuff like that But yeah, that's kind of where I would sort of land on that Yeah, I think there's like a quote I once saw that was like, it costs $1,000 to cut the wire. It's a dollar to cut the wire, $999 to know which wire to cut. And I think like that's kind of what happens in the difference between like having a volunteer do it. like Sure, you can tell them exactly how to perform this assessment, but like you said, like we're looking at it and we're noticing in 60 seconds what's probably been like the last three years of how they were trained in reading,
00:09:29
Speaker
we're noticing like, oh, he said the word said the wrong way. And then I told him the word was said, and I taught him that word. But then two pages later, he didn't say it again. Like that we know like is a sign of something that he was taught that and then instantly forgot it. So like, we're noticing those things really rapidly. So I think it's like one of those situations where it's like,
00:09:50
Speaker
Yeah, here's the manual. It's actually the same thing I talked about. Somebody once said, would you rather have a school that has great curriculum or great training for the teachers? And I always say great training for the teachers because can you imagine if a surgeon you're like handed the cur like the manual of how to perform the surgery? Well, then what happens when there's like something unprecedented in the surgery? You're like, this isn't in the manual. Like, no, you want to have the experience.
Timelines in interventions and parental concerns
00:10:16
Speaker
Yeah. And especially like,
00:10:19
Speaker
if there's students who either like you know we know that they like say it's a second grader and we know that in like in kindergarten and first grade they you know had support or they struggled a little bit with reading like even if there's people helping us like I want to be the one that's reading with that student because I really want to you know get um a little bit of like you're saying just really see those details rather than just the numbers of you know I read this many words for a minute like that only tells you so much. It basically tells me nothing.
00:10:52
Speaker
but like Whenever people are like my child's teacher said like they should know you know this many words per minute by the time they start first grade I was like that is so vague for parents to Understand like it means that literally nothing to me. I know some people will claim it means something, but I don't think it means anything Yeah, yeah, so I mean obviously like we're going to kind of, we'll look at the numbers, but what was really, really helping us to kind of make some of those decisions when it comes to that, right? We're, we're looking at the whole leader. Yeah. So the decisions then that come from that, you'll then look at what kids needed support with, you know, all these things and you'll talk to the classroom teacher and then you guys will decide who you're referring to for reading support. Yeah. So,
00:11:46
Speaker
And again, like this process, of course, like at different schools and with different populations and everything, like it's going to be a little bit different everywhere. But typically, there's there's a period of time where we're, you know, doing these assessments with students. And if, you know, sometimes if there's a student who, um you know, kind of pinged our attention, we might then go and do some other additional assessments with them and also, you know, have some input from the teachers, right, get to know. And that's why like the first week of school, we're not doing this, right? Because we want to kind of start to get to know the students a little bit better and also let them get comfortable in the school setting.
00:12:32
Speaker
um Yeah, so there's, yeah, go ahead, sorry. Oh, ah no, I was just gonna say, so could a parent ever like request, like, have you ever had a parent come like the first week of school, like, oh, you're the reading specialist, I know that they need help. Has that happened to you? And is that allowed? Or what what does that look like? Yeah, so I think I've actually had that as a reading specialist, and as a classroom teacher, um is sometimes, you know, like, I feel like day one, week one of school,
00:13:03
Speaker
you could come to the teacher or the reading specialist and say, I have these concerns, but it's probably not a great time to ask the teacher, like, how's my kid doing in reading? Because right that first week or two of school, like we are really getting to know the kids as people and really, you know, trying to like fill that classroom community and things like that. So really those like assessments and and getting into the ah academics,
00:13:33
Speaker
Usually we're not doing a ton of that the first week of school,
Alleviating parental guilt with medical analogies
00:13:37
Speaker
right? So I do think it is helpful though to know from parents if you know if a kid has been struggling or if there's a specific thing um that they're working on or um You know something they've been working with someone over the summer or something like that It's it's I feel like that's really helpful to know and to kind of have that background but you know, I feel like there's a lot of the time like There's like open houses and and things like that at the beginning of the school year. And parents sometimes will want to say like, okay, so how are they doing? I'm like, I don't, I don't know yet, you know, ah but you know, just to say like, I have this concern, I think is very helpful. And then I'll kind of have that.
00:14:22
Speaker
you know I'll write it down or have it in the back of my mind when I am reading with that student. I love it. okay so I guess it depends on the school. right but ok I think this is like the confusing part. For parents, is that they like how many kids are seen? so like what if It's like, okay, you get five kids in first grade, but then that sixth kid was like just one percent different than that fifth kid right before him. and How do you determine that that kid needs more help? and how often are we reevaluating? Like, would it be like, ah okay, in three months, we might reevaluate and like, then your kid might get in, like, how does that work? I mean, I know how that works. I just want you to watch. Yeah. So again, I mean, i with all of this, it depends. But um the thing is, is that
00:15:14
Speaker
we do want to make sure that in reading intervention we are having smaller groups of students like that's kind of part of the whole process is like we're we're doing this small group instruction to help um really get into the specific needs of the students and so you know we try our best to kind of adjust the the schedule and make everything kind of set up so that we can work with the most students possible but we tend to kind of take a look at um all the pieces of data that we have and then you know sometimes some of the like history right so like if a student is a third grader and they have a history of reading intervention um and and they've they've been in for a while we're probably going to kind of go towards the side of okay they probably need this support right even if they're kind of like on that cusp and i feel like a word that
00:16:10
Speaker
teachers and and reading intervention use a lot is that cusp. Because that's a tricky place to be, right? So sometimes with those students who like, they're not necessary, their scores and like how they're performing is sort of close to a reading intervention. We'll do a lot of working with the teacher.
00:16:33
Speaker
to say like, here's, here are some interventions that you can do in the classroom right now. And then we'll reassess in, say six to eight weeks. And if they still haven't made growth in that area,
00:16:47
Speaker
then that's maybe a student that that we should add into a reading intervention group. I love that timeline you just said. I think that that is such a green flag to like listen for the timeline. Or even like parents hearing that, like not like your child's going to be receiving reading intervention help, but like maybe even like knowing that like for the next three months, your child will be receiving intervention in school.
00:17:13
Speaker
So that sounds so good even like having that plan. I feel like that's the scary part for parents is that it's like often can seem like vague. Like is my child going to be different? Are they going to notice this? How long is this going to last? Is this going to be their whole life? But like giving a timeline, like we're going to reevaluate in six to eight weeks and see how this goes. It's like a tiny blip in their school year. I think that is, that's really helpful for reading interventionists and parents to know, like ask for the timeline.
00:17:43
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. And that being said, one of the things that I feel like sometimes parents want to know is like, okay, when will they be done? And it's like, well, I can't, you know, we're going to reassess in six, to eight weeks. I can't promise you that they'll be out because we have to see if the instruction, you know, helps them to grow. And it really is kind of, you know, based on the kid and, and depending on, you know, how they're growing.
00:18:09
Speaker
Yeah, I kind of like maybe like I just got the analogy of like but having a baby, right? Like it's probably going to be around 40 weeks. It might be sooner. We're going to look at if you're healthy, we're going to look at like how the baby's doing the positioning. So it's not going to be necessarily an exact date, but you're like, we're going to assess along the way. And you know, the doctor is going to say, okay, for the last couple of weeks, you're going to come in every week. So we're going to monitor that. So think about it like that.
00:18:35
Speaker
I like to make medical analogies because I feel like it feels more like it's too abstract when we think about like, oh, our kid needs reading help. We can't like see it. So I think if we can like compare it to something like we could see and what happens in something physical, that might be a little bit easier than just being like, wait, they need reading help. What's wrong? Did I do something wrong as a parent? Like all of the things that happen when parents hear that.
School resources and support availability
00:19:01
Speaker
Yeah, and another thing that you just kind of made me think of is, like, at certain schools, if, you know, they are highly staffed, and there's not that many kids who are struggling with reading because their classroom instruction is so great, like, they might be able to take on more kids who like, aren't really struggling that much with reading, but like, oh, I've got this, you know, empty slot in my schedule. So,
00:19:30
Speaker
you know, we can help to support some additional students where, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're, you know, really having a hard time. But, you know, that's a good problem to have if you're, you know, having a lot of, you know, extra staff and able to do that. I don't know how often that's happening, but Right. Okay. I want to talk about two things. I want to talk about like phrasing that parents might hear um like RTI, i MTSS, um what those like response to intervention or their tiered system of support that what that means and like some of the key components of it. But then I also want to, and these I'm saying both of them because I think there might overlap, but
00:20:14
Speaker
I want to give parents, ah you know, you and I talked about parent-teacher conferences before, so I want to give parents some tangible things that they can ask when they find out that their child is being pulled out for reading support. You know, the questions that they can ask. So first, let's start by breaking down what popular phrasing you might hear for your child being pulled out for reading. So will you talk about a little bit about that?
00:20:42
Speaker
Yeah, all the acronyms. Yes, I know that you're gonna hear a lot of letters. Yeah. So there's RTI, which stands for a response to intervention. And then there's MTSS, which stands for multi tiered system of support. And they're very similar, right? um They kind of like an umbrella term, right? And This is a little bit of a sidetrack, but this isn't just for reading, right? So there can be MTSS for reading, but also for math, also for like behavior and social, emotional. Um, so yeah, obviously I'm dealing and you're dealing more with the, you know, the reading and writing aspect, but just as a side note, um,
00:21:27
Speaker
And so when we talk about the tiers, I feel like if parents are hearing like tier two, tier three, like I think that as teachers, we forget that like parents aren't also teachers for the most. I mean, some of them are obviously, but I'm like, they're not doing this every day.
Understanding RTI, MTSS, and tiered support
00:21:47
Speaker
which is like reminding me of your medical analogy. Like like sometimes doctors do that too. I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. So yeah that can be a, I don't know, helpful thing to keep in mind for teachers, right? like Not everyone is doing this every day. But so there's three tiers. And depending on who you ask, sometimes people will say there's four. But tier one is literally just the instruction that all kids are getting in the classroom. So that can be like the whole class instruction from the teacher. But also there's small group instruction too. So right. Like
00:22:27
Speaker
teachers might be doing, you know, like small group instruction and sort of like their own interventions, right? Like if a student is struggling in your classroom, you're going to do something for them. It's not like just, you know, let them kind of sink or swim. but So that's the tier one instruction. So everyone's getting that no matter what. Oh, hey, it's me interrupting myself to tell you if you're liking what you're listening to, then you're probably going to love my big city readers on demand courses.
On-demand courses for parents
00:22:57
Speaker
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00:23:14
Speaker
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00:23:41
Speaker
And you can help your child and yourself by getting one of these courses. They are jam-packed into 15-minute on-demand lessons. And you're going to feel confident. Your child's going to feel confident. And be warned, this is no exaggeration. At least 20 parents have told me that at parent-teacher conferences, their teacher has said, oh, are you a reading specialist with the kind of questions they ask? So you're going to learn a lot. Your child's going to learn a lot. You're both going to feel confident. I promise you.
00:24:11
Speaker
um This is really all I think about ever. Oh, I sound kind of boring when I say it like that. But anyway, check out the big city readers on demand courses. Let me know if you need any help deciding what the right course for your child is. And also like, let me know how the lessons are going if you're already doing them. Okay, back to the episode.
Explanation of Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions
00:24:28
Speaker
But then if we're, you know, we're talking about reading intervention, there's then there's tier two, and then there's tier three. and So tier two,
00:24:39
Speaker
I feel like it can, there's a really wide range of what it could look like. And so that's what's kind of hard, right? So tier two, again, it's, they're getting the tier one instruction and then on top of it, they're getting something extra. And the extra could be, you know, the reading specialist is coming in to the classroom and pushing in three days a week.
00:25:03
Speaker
right? And just giving a little extra support. It could also look like, you know, a small group of students being pulled out like four days a week into like a, you know, a reading room and doing like a special kind of intervention or curriculum with the reading specialist. Right. So I feel like those are, you know, ah it's kind of a wide range. And I've also If there's a kid who's like, we talked about like the kids who are like on the cusp, I've also done like, you know, just checking in with one student, like for 30 minutes, one day a week. Um, if there's just one sort of like specific thing that they're working on either, you know, like a student who didn't quite qualify for reading intervention or a student who's like kind of ready to be done with reading intervention, but we want to kind of just like make sure that they're able to, um,
00:25:58
Speaker
you know, put that on what they've learned in the practice in the classroom. So again, that can look a lot of different ways. And then tier three is a little more intense than tier two. If the student is in tier three, though, they're still getting that tier one in the classroom, right? So I think that's a really important piece. um Yeah, and and tier three is typically a little more intensive, right? It might be, you know, 30 minutes,
00:26:27
Speaker
every um every day it's usually a smaller group right so tier two might be like five or six kids in a group tier three might be two kids in a group sometimes even one really kind of just depends again on like how many students are in reading intervention what the scheduling looks like um and what much this yeah yeah yeah So, okay. So, and then do kids kind of walk us through how often, or I know it's different for every kid, but how often are you assessing to see if they are, you know, technically in tier two now, or like, Oh no, we need to bump them up to tier three. How often can parents expect that kind of um information? Well, I guess that might be two things. How often are you assessing and how often can parents expect information on their developments?
00:27:21
Speaker
And that's another difference between tier two and tier three. For me, what we'll do is well, and this is another thing that I feel like maybe should be explained is progress monitoring. So yeah, tell um yeah so it.
00:27:36
Speaker
There's a lot of different ways it can look depending on like what skill the student is working on. But it's usually a ah short assessment that is very similar each time. And then we're able to, you know, graph their progress and, you know, hopefully they're they're making progress and kind of see where they are in comparison to like their goals that they have. So for me, it might be let's say it's those second graders that at the beginning of the year, they read those those three stories. it's Again, it's a short, like one minute, where they're just reading aloud to me. And again, I'm just sort of looking at and looking at the words for a minute and the accuracy, but also
00:28:21
Speaker
you know, their expression and are they using their, you know, decoding skills, you know, if we're working on, let's say, like, vowel teams or something, and there's a lot of words in the story with vowel teams, and they're not reading them correctly or decoding them in the way that we've been working, like, that's kind of a sign to me that we need to kind of go back and practice and and do some more instruction with that.
00:28:48
Speaker
So that's sort of progress monitoring. There's so many pieces. I didn't even I know. Another thing. Yeah. Basically, we're here to say there's a lot happening behind the scenes. Okay, so maybe this is a good time to jump into what might be good questions for a parent to ask. Because, okay, I think one, like we talked about in the episode about parent-teacher conferences, like remember you're on a team and it doesn't mean anything about you if your child is going to be pulled for reading support.
00:29:19
Speaker
But two, like, so like, remember that this is this is not a bad thing. But just going in and calmly like saying like, Hey, can you explain to me why my child's being pulled out for reading help because that might be a big surprise to some parents, especially if it's like kindergarten or first grade, like they might and and they might not be aware that this is going to be happening. It might feel really overwhelming and a sense of guilt might come on. So I think just like remembering that you can ask, like can you explain to me how it was determined that my child needs additional reading support? and
00:29:54
Speaker
asking, because like you said, every school is different. But so like asking like, what assessments did you use to decide
Encouraging parental engagement and communication
00:30:01
Speaker
this? And can you explain the specific reading challenges? Whenever I'm working with a parent, I always remind them, like you can ask for the specifics because a lot, oh my gosh, a lot. I i want to ask your opinion on this because people, oh, I think, did we talk about this? That somebody messaged me and they're like,
00:30:18
Speaker
I got like at the end of the year, the report card, it says like not meeting expectations in reading, but like that was the first time they heard it. And they were like, I don't that's so vague. So like asking the specialist to explain the child specific reading challenges. And I think One more note on this before we dive into this is that people think that that's rude to ask questions, but like that literally is the person's job. like We would love to explain it. like There's nothing I would love more than to just talk about the specifics of what I analyzed of your child's writing. like I love it. so like ask like and And you don't have to feel silly or anything. like Just say, can you explain
00:30:58
Speaker
they're reading challenges to me. like i I'm new to this. like Tell me about the kind of help that they're going to receive. Who's providing for this? What is their background? like That's okay to ask. Yeah, I know I kind of just jumped on a bunch of things, but Asking those questions and the structure like the timeline how often they're gonna be assessed and like what specific areas and then what is the Training and qualifications of the person because I think that's like a big a big thing too So take take anything from what I just said and tell me what you want to jump in on Yeah, no, I mean
00:31:33
Speaker
The thing is, is for for me, like we try to kind of like when we're reaching out to families about, um you know, if if there's their child qualified for reading intervention, one, we kind of try to walk the line of like giving them as much information as we can, but also not like totally overwhelming them. Because sometimes, you know, if we're throwing, you know, like this percentile or this many words per minute, or, you know,
00:32:00
Speaker
all these different things like I think sometimes that can be overwhelming so we kind of try to you know strike a good balance and then some parents we won't hear from and some parents you know have other questions so like if if you're getting this information from um you know like the classroom teacher or a reading interventionist like and you have questions ask them um and like throughout the whole process right so like I've had parents you know reach out and say you know, like, can you share, um you know, their progress at this specific date or something like that, right? Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, because, you know, like, all, everyone is going to be kind of like sharing in a different timeline. But um like, if if a parent reaches out and asks for that, like, absolutely, right. But I would say for parents, like,
00:32:52
Speaker
definitely ask what was qualifying my student to get this support. And then I would definitely ask also just like, what does this look like? Right? Because like I said, it could be such a wide range. And and what we don't want to happen is for a kid to come home one day and say like, this new teacher took me into a different room and like, with you know, like, you do you have to have, do you have to talk to the parent before that starts happening?
00:33:21
Speaker
Yeah, so especially with our younger kids, usually the classroom teacher will reach out first because it's just, you know, a familiar person and kind of let them know, hey, the reading specialist is going to be reaching out. Do you have any questions before that? um Just to kind of give them a heads up. And then, yeah, we'll reach out to the parents.
00:33:45
Speaker
before we get started with intervention. That being said, with some of that like universal screener where we're assessing all the students in the whole school, I'm usually not reaching out to every single parent, but like there might be a blurb in the newsletter or something. So okay I do feel like a lot of the time you know that might get missed in all the communication that parents are getting at the beginning of the school year. But usually there should be something that says,
00:34:14
Speaker
like you know, everyone is going to be assessed at the beginning of the year. So I feel like sometimes for parents, it can be like a little alarming where, you know, at the beginning of the school year, their, you know, kindergartner is saying like, I went in the hallway with this person. And I'm not sure who it was, right. But yeah That's probably what's happening. But, um yeah you know. Oh my gosh. I just like got a flashback of like PTSD of conducting those in like September and October and then January and February and then like May. Like there's just so many and it is so boring. Like, I mean, it gets so boring to like, I was at a school that there were 250 kids and I was the only one conducting them. And I was just like, I was so sick of hearing the same. over and over again.
Challenges in conducting assessments
00:35:05
Speaker
And then like the I didn't mind the little ones, but like when I would do like eighth graders and like those passages, I remember it was like the assessment that I had was about a um ah homeless teen and their dad living like between cars. Do you know this one? plus And I like hated hearing this story read every time. Over and over again, yeah.
00:35:30
Speaker
over and over and I was like, oh gosh, this is, but I, you know, you know, you got to do what you got to do. Yeah, yeah, I agree. So okay, so I think okay, let's talk a little bit about social and emotional impact. So I know a lot of parents I'm looking here have some questions about like, how is being pulled out going to affect my child's self esteem and social interactions? Do you do anything to like support that? Or how can we help parents not feel worried about that that their kid is singled out or going to feel embarrassed?
00:36:03
Speaker
because I will say I did feel embarrassed when I saw a reading specialist in second grade and it was in a closet and her name was Mrs. Green and it was the worst time of my life. I i held my tears in all day and I cried when I got home and I never wanted to go to school again. I was so embarrassed and no one, I don't even remember if anyone likes that. Maybe the teacher said like these guys are going to go get some reading help, but it wasn't like a horrible experience, but I carry it with me.
00:36:33
Speaker
Oh, I'm sorry. but No, it's actually okay because i mean I remember saying in that moment, I'm going to grow up and I'm going to make a place where everybody wants to go. And I remember when I became a reading specialist at an elementary school, that was in everything I did. So I like would go on the playground and
Strategies for student comfort in interventions
00:36:51
Speaker
play with the kids. So then like everyone was begging to get to come to my classroom. You know, I designed it. So it was like,
00:36:56
Speaker
Oh, sorry, i I won't get to take everybody today. And like, so it was not, there was no embarrassment of that. So how, what would you say you think probably most reading specialists do so that parents can feel a little bit more calm about their kids' embarrassment?
00:37:13
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think it totally is like up to the reading specialist and the classroom teachers to kind of frame it in a positive way. But the goal also of like reaching out to the parents prior to, you know, getting started um and, you know, giving them time to ask questions and things like that. The hope is that like they will also be having a conversation with their kid about, you know, and and that's why it's important to kind of know, like, what does this look like? Right. So they can prepare ah their child before the first day of you know either getting pulled out of the classroom or or something like that to kind of you know frame it in a positive way.
00:37:53
Speaker
um and um that's that's what's been really nice when you know like that's what i like about those first couple days of the school year is i can come and just like introduce myself and you know sometimes the teachers will say you know like it's just like she's a reading expert and she's gonna help us with reading and also that time when we are doing those assessments with all the kids at the beginning of the school year. I think that also is kind of helpful to get the kids sort of having a little bit of like a positive connotation. I try to really like you know make connections with all the kids and like you said with recess I would do like lunch duty or you know different things like that. But I do feel like sometimes it is a little bit of like a school culture thing.
00:38:40
Speaker
and then just you know at the beginning right like same thing as with the classroom teachers the first week of school they are probably not doing any like really big academics that first day or two I really try to you know get to know the kids let them get to know me and do some sort of fun reading stuff to kind of get them comfortable in the space but I have heard stories from from other people though too right where they were like I had to you know go with this mean reading teacher and um and and it makes me sad because
00:39:17
Speaker
a lot of the time those are kids who like don't have super positive feelings about reading to begin with and then you know having those experiences. So I think and I hope that it's started to get a little bit better as you know like different um you know schools are are becoming more collaborative and and students are going to different teachers for a lot of different things. I think that can be really helpful like I know at some schools like even like in first and second grade they're like switching classrooms for different activities and you know just kind of talking about like everyone needs something different and sometimes they'll talk about um you know like when you're your classroom teacher teaches small groups right and and does that small group of instruction you're just you know doing some small group instruction with me you're so lucky that you get to come to this special room right it is special
00:40:16
Speaker
yeah Luckily, I don't have a closet. Yeah, you don't have a closet. um I have a question for you that's not really about RTI. It's you when you just said small groups that made me think of this. So I got a DM this week, and I kind of get a lot of DMs like this of a kindergarten teacher saying that in their small group time, that one of the stations is for kindergartners to go off and read on their own for 20 minutes. What are your thoughts on that? Well,
00:40:47
Speaker
they are probably not doing a ton of you know really focused, sustained reading. And I mean, I think it's a great opportunity for those kindergartners to look at books and um you know learn to kind of like take care of the books in the classroom and look at the pictures. and But especially at the beginning of kindergarten, like I don't know a whole lot of five-year-olds who are you know sitting and reading a book for 20 minutes, right? yeah And, and I know, like, it's one of those things where the other kids who you're not teaching, they do need to be doing something, right? But um yeah, maybe
00:41:34
Speaker
Yeah, i so I straight up say like I don't even do centers at that point. I take that time for a whole group instruction. like I'm like, reader's workshop like is not it's not appropriate for kindergarten, especially in the first half of the year. like I'm like going to do a whole group phonics instruction, multi-sensory phonemic awareness, like all these things, because I'm like,
00:41:53
Speaker
These kids, what is happening in that 20 minutes? If you have to do small groups for sure, do it. But like I'm more like, you know what? Let's spend this time doing whole group instruction. And then maybe like in March, go small groups. But I'm a rebel. I'm unhinged. You said that you're you're ready to start becoming less hinged. You're not even ready to say unhinged yet, though.
00:42:19
Speaker
That is so like iconic. You're not unhinged, you're you're a little less hinged. Just a little less, yeah. um Okay, do you see one more question and then I have like two personal questions for you. Do you see like the framework of RTI and MTSS evolving in the next few years or what innovations do you or changes do you think um think will happen or think should happen?
00:42:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think that like it actually kind of goes along with what we were just talking about with, you know, some of the potential like shame and, you know, going to this extra, you know, different room. I would love to see sort of within like grade levels, I would love to see a little bit more of like, say there's four teachers in this grade level and you know, a learning specialists and a reading specialist and a math specialist like we're all working together and these are all our kids rather than you know you're in Miss Brown's class and so you're in her classroom all day unless you go to a special teacher right um where there's just a little bit more like collaboration in order to meet all the kids specific needs
00:43:38
Speaker
ah And I think that in some schools that's happening, ah but I think that that would be really great and I i hope that we're already seeing um that research face, really explicit instruction in the intervention setting and in the classroom setting, but more of that would be great. Yes, but that would be great. I love it. Yeah. um Okay, then two things I want to ask you. Number one, do you have a favorite children's book either currently or that was yours, like as a child?
00:44:17
Speaker
Okay, I have two answers. Oh, good. Um, I remember in like, I don't know, like fourth or fifth grade, reading A Wrinkle in Time. And like, I had some sort of like book report that I did about it that I like, was so excited about for some reason. Like, I don't know what kid gets so excited to write a book report, but I had it in like, you know, like a plastic cover. And I just was, I really was excited about that book.
00:44:46
Speaker
your book covers. Well, yeah. And I know that got turned into a movie, but i I haven't seen it. So I should probably watch that at some point. Yeah. And then with um my new baby, I've I actually went in and ah bought a bunch of the books from one of your lists. ah And yeah, yeah, and I've been loving the cows meow.
00:45:13
Speaker
Oh, fun with the flaps. Yeah. Yeah. So we've, we've read that a lot. That's one of the favorites right now for us. I can't wait for him to pull off um the flaps. Yeah, me too. I have a couple of copies where the flaps are all gone, but you know what? Here's a great tip. Just put post-its on them. smart If you get the post-it or if you get the flaps pulled off, you can just make your own, or you can make any book or lift the flap book with post-its.
00:45:41
Speaker
but um And then, okay, my other question is, what's um something you're cooking lately or eating lately? I feel like a lot of people are like, I don't know what to make. And I've noticed this because I keep sharing what I'm eating. People are like, this is genius. And I'm like, this is just because I was bored. So inspire us. It could be something as simple as like, oh, I've just been eating chipotle taco bowls. Like, but give people, give the people what they want. Well, so I am not a huge cook, but I think I told you this recently. I have been doing the dense bean salads. You're changing, right? i Yeah, that's like a different one every week. What's your favorite one?
00:46:25
Speaker
There was some like Mediterranean one with like lunch meat in it that I guess. Yeah. Why isn't that one? Okay. So the dense bean salad, I can't take credit for it. I just do it. Um, but I'll share it. Maybe I'll find the creator that does it, but the dense bean salads are like so filling. And if, especially if you're trying to hit your protein goals, it's just like salads with beans in them. But like, they're so easy and delicious. Yeah. I mean, it's basically just like chopping and Yes. How long do you keep them in the fridge? Because I read in the comments of one of the posts, like somebody was like, Oh, these are really only good for three days. But and then she said she doesn't all week. So I've been doing them for five days. What what do you do? It kind of depends. I feel like on like just how much there is and how quickly like it just disappears. But I mean, I'd say anywhere between like three to five days. Yeah. i like and towel Yeah, exactly.
00:47:23
Speaker
You can tell if you should stop eating it, I feel like. Yeah. Um, do you shop at Trader Joe's? um I've been doing a lot of Aldi recently, but. Oh, do you have any Aldi finds for us? I mean, there's, yeah, there's so much good stuff. Just like all the different sweets. That's usually what I, or those are my like impulse buys. Do they have sour candy? Any good sour candy? I think they do. One of the things that we got recently,
00:47:51
Speaker
it was like a ice cream cupcake. So like the bottom was a cupcake and then like the frosting part was actually ice cream. Yum. Yeah. Okay, now I have to go to the grocery store. Yeah. Oh, amazing. Okay, well, thank you as always for being here to share all of these things with us. Anything else that you want parents to know? Good luck with the beginning of the school year. And just I feel like If you're unsure about something, just ask. Right. And I feel like as long as like I feel like you say this a lot, like, you know, as long as you're coming from like a respectful place, like no one's going to get upset that you're asking a question about your child. Right. So, you know, don't assume and and also don't sit and just like wonder. Right. Just ask. And all the teachers at school, they're there to to help. So, yeah, I love that.
00:48:47
Speaker
Well, you're the best. Thank you for being here. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me. Of course.