Norma- Thanks so much for your detailed response. It gave me some information and some more questions myself. I am not familiar with Reading A-Z. We currently administer DRA's to all students at the beginning of the year. The kits that we use do have nonfiction as well as fiction to choose from. I don't feel it's a perfect assessment, but it is easy to administer and provides a look at all students' fluency, comprehension, use of reading strategies, and writing skills. Our SpEd and BSI (Basic Skills Instructors) administer other assessments on an as needed basis in response to students in their case loads. I found the way you classify your students interesting - in our district, Resource Room students are a branch of SpEd. We also use mostly a push-in model though we do have some pull out for Math. Our BSI teachers teach what would probably be considered your 'remedial' students who are identified based on their below proficiency scores on our state assessment (NJ). They are not considered part of SpEd. We are short staffed and find that our teachers are doing it all much as you described. They currently work with grade levels rather than specific areas. Although I am a certified Reading Specialist, I work primarily as a classroom teacher although I am generally given the Resource Room and below level students. We wish we could provide time to pull out students in those small targeted groups as you described but there seems to be not enough staff and not enough time. The before and after school model sounds interesting but would likely cost money which, again, we don't have. Are you talking about staff flexing their days so that they would come in earlier or stay later to provide these targeted groups? That sounds interesting. Teachers feel that DIBELS won't meet the needs of the students as we move our RTI out of our primary buildings and into our intermediate (3-6). This was where the suggestion of using AIMS web came from. Some want to continue the DRA in K-2 then shift to AIMS web in grades 3 and up. I am currently trying to do some research about this idea. Thanks again...Lisa
--- On Sun, 2/7/10, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] RTI - Any info on AIMS Web? To: [email protected] Date: Sunday, February 7, 2010, 1:05 PM Hi Lisa, Our K-2 does DIBELS and Reading a-z for comprehension. I work in the 3-5 building. We use a-z and will next year use DIBELS on those that perform poorly on that assessment. It is not an ideal assessment, but we still feel it was the best choice. DRA doesn't have a non-fiction component which is all we're using from a-z. Also the DRA takes much longer to use and is more expensive. The QRI doesn't give definitive levels - just are the students above, on or below grade level. What we're looking towards next year is to make less distinction between who is special ed. and who is remedial reading. Oftentimes there are sped students in the classes in which I work which are performing on a higher level than the RR students. I think it just depends on who they've had for teachers and whether their parents advocate for them. (I'm not talking about the low-end spec. ed students. Rather than reading specialists and special ed staff being dedicated to a particular grade we're looking to finding a schedule that would let them get pulled out for ADDITIONAL reading instruction. Currently, sped students are pulled out and RR students have us reading specialists pushing it. Much of our time is spent driving the classroom instruction and not being able to attend to our students on our caseload. So, going forward if we could find slots during the day in which, for example 5th grade students would receive services, we'd all work to provide them with phonics, fluency and/or comprehension small group instruction that would be in addition to their in class reading instruction. It would most likely involve shifting staff schedules to either come in early and leave early or the opposite in an attempt to provide much of the 5th grade support before and after school. We'd specialize in areas of reading rather than a grade level as we currently do. Has anyone tried this model? Has it been successful and what do we need to do Not sure if this is of any help. I ended up asking my own questions. Norma Baker, Reading specialist Grafton Elementary School Grafton, MA “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Lisa McGilloway <[email protected]> To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group" <[email protected]> Subject: [MOSAIC] RTI - Any info on AIMS Web? Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2010 07:34:36 -0800 (PST) Hi to all- I have been a 'voyeur' on the site for quite a while now and have found many of your comments and suggestions helpful. I am a member of our district's RTI committee and we are currently looking at ways to 'roll out' our RTI from grades K-2 into grades 3 and up. We use DIBELS as one of our screening measures with this early population but are thinking it won't meet our needs as we move into the higher grades. Does anyone have any information on AIMS Web? It was suggested that we look into it as an alternative to DIBELS or to use starting in grades 3 and up? Thanks so much for your help and suggestions. Lisa Grade 6 Teacher/RTI Committee _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ____________________________________________________________ Diet Help Cheap Diet Help Tips. Click here. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2131/c?cp=GlRVPOecsxJMqrJdTfg4zgAAJz1RZyvLSDbNg1QwuFrBBUaOAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYQAAAAAA= _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
