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Home > Doing Your Homework > 1 1/2 Years of RTI: Still Not Reading at Grade Level by Sue Whitney |
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Doing
Your Homework by Sue Whitney, Research Editor, Wrightslaw
There is something fishy about a situation where a child:
If your daughter was in a real RTI continuum of reading instruction, RTI would have provided intensified instruction until it met her needs. She would be on level with her peers. Your Child's Needs You need to focus on your daughters eligibility for special education. You are waiting for someone to notice there is a problem rather than solving the problem yourself. Take on the role of her case manager for the rest of her school career. If you do not do that, she will not get what she needs. If your daughter is far behind she will need intensive services in and out of school to catch up. Students who are far behind at this age often do not catch up in all areas of reading. The reading program and instruction she requires will vary depending on her particular skills and deficits. Essential Components of Reading
Your school district is free to use any reading program it wants, whether it is effective or not. Some schools use programs even though there is no research anywhere that says that the reading program has ever been used successfully to teach anyone to read. The voters have a say in that when they vote for school board members. Does the reading program used at your school meet the National Reading Panel standards based on the essential components of reading outlined in NCLB? Is the district curriculum director aware of these standards? Intensive Reading Instruction
If your daughter is in third grade, and has had a tutor for 2 years, and the tutoring is effective, why is she still behind in reading? Your school district has not provided your daughter with an effective reading program, at any level of their RTI continuum. Pray that tutoring outside is all it will take. You do not need to change the school. You need to get your daughter effective instruction. They are similar, but vastly different, goals. The number of hours may not be enough, or the program may not be addressing the area of deficit that must be addressed first. Wilson Reading assumes that the child already has phonological awareness. Some children need an auditory discrimination program first in order to strengthen that skill. Go back and look at the evaluation you had done. Check with the evaluator to be sure that Wilson Reading is a program she recommends. Also ask the evaluator how many hours per week reading instruction is necessary. A good advocate will have recommendations for attorneys, evaluators, and tutors. An advocate will also be able to answer any questions you have about reading evaluations. Learn How to Help Your Daughter I suggest reading this book, From Emotions to Advocacy, to get an idea of what you need to do, and how you need to do it, to get effective reading instruction for your daughter. Call your state branch of the International Dyslexia Association. See if they can recommend an advocate. The advocate will guide you to tutors. Make sure your school has the copy of your independent evaluation. But find an advocate first. Increase your chances of finding a skilled advocate. Try finding an advocate through:
If you search through these means you will hear the same few advocates named several times. Let the advocate advise you on how to proceed. The differences that flip a meeting from a failed one to a successful one can be almost invisible to the untrained observer. When I start working with a family I am frequently asked, "Why do they do that when you are there and not when I am there alone?" The answer is that an advocate frames things in a particular way and asks questions in a particular way. It matters. To Top Meet Sue Whitney
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My daughter is dyslexic and in 3rd grade. She has been on Response to Intervention (RTI) for over a year and a half. She is still not reading at grade level.
