Sarah Herman & Taylor VanMeighem

Special Education 420

March 8th, 2017

Pre-Referral Activity
Student Selected: Viktor

1. Description of the problem: Viktor is an English language learning student who is in the
sixth grade. Viktor is new to the United States, arriving January of last year. Viktor is
originally from Russia where he attended school for four years. Socially and emotionally
Viktor is a stable and well rounded student, but due to the fact he is an ELL student he is
struggling in reading and is currently at a second grade reading level. Another issue is
that he is making no progress with his English. Since Viktor struggles with reading, it is
believed that he cannot progress academically or with his English. He is now falling
behind in math and other content areas as well due to his inability to read and work
independently.

2. Analysis of the problem: Due to being an ELL student Viktor has struggled
academically and as a result is failing all of his core subjects. Since he isn't proficient in
English he was excused from the state standardized testing. However, we received an
analysis of his Russian reading and writing skills and they showed that he is still behind
the typical sixth grader by one year. It is likely that Viktors lack of English proficiency
over the year has also made it difficult for him to keep up with the students his age. Due
to the language barrier, Viktor could be struggling in the silent period, a typical stage in
which ELL students face during the beginning of their English language learning. This
leads us to believe that the struggle he is facing in school is due to a language barrier,
rather than academics. Other factors that have been considered but do not show evidence
towards his learning are the involvement of his family and a lack of medical problem.

3. Development of the Plan: When considering a plan that addresses Viktors academic and
language delay we plan to first look at Tier 1 in the RTI process. Although Tier 1 allows
for specialized differentiation, due to the fact that Viktor is failing academically, not
progressing in his English, or showing any signs of progressing in other content areas, he
will be considered for Tier 2. This means pulling the student out for part of the day, but
also allowing them to participate in the general education classroom. Viktor needs to be
working with an ELL teacher at least for part of his day. With the support of and ELL
teacher he can be encouraged to exit the silent period and have a scaffold approach to
learning English rather than being thrown into an academic setting with no support.
While working with the ELL teacher, much of the focus will be on reading and writing to
insure that he is getting the language support he needs. In order to help him academically,
Viktor will be provided with certain tools to help him understand the school work, rather
than being given complex instruction in English. With the adaptation and differentiation
of the lesson there should be less of a language barrier effecting him academically and
therefore allowing Viktor to progress through the sixth grade in hopes of catching up with
his peers. Since Viktors lack of academic success may be due to his language barrier, we
are not currently recommending RTI supports.
4. Implementation of the plan: Since we have determined that Viktor does not benefit
from Tier 1, we plan to implement Tier 2. The goal of Tier 2 is to close the achievement
gap as quickly as possible. Something particular about Tier 2 is that the student is
receiving intensive small group services, as well as participating in the general education
classroom. Tier 2 usually lasts 6-9 weeks. Therefore, if Viktor does not reach his set
benchmark/goal he will be reevaluated at that time. Based off of this benchmark Viktors
specialist will work with him to build proper instruction. Viktor will leave the classroom
during the duration of reading, and work with an ELL professional in the resource room.
The general education teacher will also often participate in professional development that
is focused on the needs of ELL students, in hopes of benefiting Viktor. Throughout
Viktors 6-9 week experience he will participate in frequent monitoring and screening to
follow his progression. Some of the ways in which Viktors language progression will be
tested with the specialist is through fluency tests. Every week he will be given a passage
to practice fluency and then at the end of the week the teacher will record his progress.
Formal tests such as DIBELs and other fluency testing will be used as well. This will help
Viktor in ELA as well as his progression throughout learning the English language. Along
with testing for fluency, Viktor will be working with word meaning as well. He will work
towards furthering his comprehension skill level which will be evaluated through
observation and formal testing at least 3 times throughout Tier 2. Later throughout his
formal testing, the benchmarks in which Viktors instruction was based off of will be
reevaluated at the end of 6-9 weeks, determining the next steps for Viktor. Throughout
this process, Viktor's parents will be kept up to date on his progress through weekly
progress reports.

5. Conclusions and steps forward: Based off of Viktors prior testing and failing
academics, he will be monitored for 6-9 weeks in Tier 2. Throughout the implementation
of Tier 2, Viktor will be working in small groups with other ELL students with an ELL
teacher to increase reading and comprehension skills. After 6-9 weeks a formal
assessment will be given to measure the improvement of Viktor. If Viktor shows progress,
then the RTI team will determine whether Viktor could move down to Tier 1 supports. If
there is no noticeable progression then he will be reevaluated to continue with another 6-
9 weeks of Tier 2 supports.