In kindergarten, RTI is a very overwhelming thing. I believe that kindergarten RTI is arguably the most difficult part of the job. It’s heart-wrenching when you try to reach a student and you can see them struggling. Sometimes it takes more effort to grasp their letters and sounds. There are a lot of factors that can cause your students to struggle. Luckily, there are some intervention strategies that will work with all your struggling readers.
What is RTI in Kindergarten?
First, let’s look at the breakdown of what RTI means.
RTI stands for response to intervention. “Response to intervention (RTI) is a process used by educators to help students who are struggling with a skill or lesson; every teacher will use interventions (a set of teaching procedures) with any student to help them succeed in the classroom—it’s not just for children with special needs or a learning disability.” -Special Education.com
Now, take that definition and see that you are doing RTI every day. Anytime you try to break down something for a student that is struggling, you are using RTI. However, when has anything in education been THAT SIMPLE? (Insert eye roll.) NEVER.
When we really use a methodical and recorded version of RTI in kindergarten, it will be with our TIER 2 & 3 students. These are the students that are struggling and working far below grade level. You can gather this data from different standardized assessments although you probably already know based on classwork.)
Kindergarten RTI Binder
This kindergarten RTI binder is perfect for your struggling readers. RTI in kindergarten can be overwhelming, especially when students come in knowing so little at the beginning.
These kindergarten RTI interventions will help keep your students engaged while providing the support they need to begin internalizing letters AND sounds simultaneously. Teaching letters and sounds together just flows naturally. Personally, I wonder why letters have names in the first place. If we just called the letter a… /a/… what would be the harm? There are actually phonics programs that teach this way. I created an RTI binder that flows with a natural progression:
Identification, Sounds, Writing, Reading, and Assessing.
Daily RTI Progression
This resource can be used to target fine motor development. There are several options for differentiating the activities for your learners therefore, more students will be reached.
This can be used for RTI letter recognition and letter-sound correspondence as well. Teaching these in isolation will cause your RTI groups to drag on forever! AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT! OR for two programs/binders that are teaching these separately.
Each skill has two mats and a variety of ways to practice the skill.
First, introduce the letter with a song to get your auditory learners engaged.
Music is proven to help retain information. I use this daily, as a result, students retain information quicker.
Day 1- Identify
This day focuses on recognizing the letter.
Day 2- Sounds
This day focuses on attaching the sound to the letter and hearing it in words. To begin, I read these as /a/ /a/ apple.
Day 3- Writing and Sorting
This day focuses on writing the letter and sorting them.
Day 4 – Reading and Assessing
Lastly, there is a one page fold-able reader that is perfect to take home and practice nightly.
Also, there is an assessment piece that is perfect for tracking. Whatever method or program you use, you will want an assessment piece to show growth.
Works with any Program
You can print these in ANY letter order to fit your reading program! Also, you receive tracking sheets to record data. The RTI data that you observe during your intervention groups will be useful for meetings.
Students will write, trace, sort, sing, make letters, and begin reading! Next, application is a crucial part for making the learning stick! The fold-able reader is perfect for small group AND to send home for reinforcement.
These binders will help you reach your kindergarten goals and I can’t wait to see your results!
Also, you can find this product here.
