Understanding the Process

Goals of Tier I
1. To ensure that all students, regardless of background or special population status, are
provided high-quality instruction in every core academic class (i.e., ELA, mathematics,
social studies, science).
2. To prevent students from being referred to Tier 2 or Tier 3 interventions
inappropriately or unnecessarily because the quality of instruction was inadequate.
3. To engage all campus teachers in constructive and productive dialogue about
monitoring student's progress and effectively implementing practices designed to
improve outcomes.
Adapted from RTI for Reading at the Secondary Level by K. Harris and Steve Graham, 21012.

Implementing Effective Tier I Instruction

Features of effective instruction for all learners requires:
Communicating clear expectations,the process of determining students learning focuses on
standards that all students must master to be able to succeed in the future. The RTI teacher teams
would work collaboratively to define each essential standard; deconstruct the standard into
discrete learning targets (determine what each student must be able to know and do to demonstrate
proficiency); identify the prior skills needed to master the standard; consider how to assess
students on each target; and create a scope and sequence for the learning targets that would govern
their pacing.

Teacher Modeling, teachers must scaffold content, process, and product on the basis of student
needs, utilizing different groupings of students to address gaps in learning.
Providing opportunities for students to acquire new knowledge via direct, explicit instruction
model that includes structures through which differentiation can take place. In this model, students
learn self-monitoring and fix-up strategies based on the learning style of the learner.

Enabling students to apply new understandings to real world applications by incorporating

student choice in materials, activities, and product promotes more authentic opportunities to
enhance learning of new concepts and skills.
Emphasizing student engagement for students who may struggle can be a motivating factor and
help support learning goals by implementing instruction that provides guided practice and
feedback on a consistent basis during instruction, creates opportunities for students to achieve
academic success.
Cultivating students to analyze, synthesize and create information through rigorous instruction
that is aligned with state and national standards, encourages students to become critical thinkers in
the 21st century.