Educational Outreach

Two Courses at UMF next Summer Can Help You Implement RTI in Your School District

As school districts across Maine move to meet the 2010 deadline for implementing RTI, UMF has developed two courses to help educators and administrators in that process.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS:

EDU 527/Response to Intervention (RTI): Designing a Teaching/ Learning Environment in Support of All Students, Part 1

This two course series (second course, required if you enroll for this first course, will be offered in Fall 2009) is appropriate for K-12 teachers and administrators. The courses together are designed to help school districts begin to implement an RTI initiative. In this first course, participants will study the research that continues to emerge on RTI, its effectiveness and its challenges. They will learn about the critical role of professional learning communities in RTI implementation.

Participants will also examine data collection and monitoring systems available to help teachers and administrators analyze individual student’s learning challenges and how to use the data to set goals for each student, monitor student progress, and design appropriate instructional strategies to address student’s individual learning needs. Through case studies, participants will critically examine and develop RTI action plans for students in various Tiers of the RTI process. They also will begin work on a position paper that will be completed in the second course of this series.

EDU 528/Response to Intervention (RTI): Designing a Teaching/Learning Environment in Support of All Students, Part 2

This is the second course in a two-course RTI sequence. In this second course of the series, participants will apply what they have learned from the first course. They will work in their own school or school district to move the RTI planning and implementation process to the next step. If their school/district has already begun the process of implementing an RTI initiative, they will work with their peers to move the process to its next step. If the RTI process has not begun, the participants will work to establish an RTI Professional Learning Committee and plan the steps necessary to ensure that their district will continue to move the RTI initiative forward. They will document their work in a work plan that demonstrates where they begin their process (at the beginning of the course) and where they are at the end of the course. The plan will also project activities and steps planned over the next semester to ensure the RTI initiative moves forward.

Participants will discuss their progress online with the instructor and other students, and they will present their plan in a class session in December. During this semester, participants will also complete their position paper started in the first course of the series and will develop a presentation for their peers and instructor for the November class meeting.

Also available:

SED 502/Methods and Techniques for Meeting the Needs of TIER II Children in the Primary Grades

This course is designed for teachers and support personnel who work in the primary grades, especially K-2. In the RTI model, students who are not keeping up with the majority of their peers will need small group interventions based on what the scientifically sound research tells us about how best to teach them. Whether you use mostly centers-based or whole-class-based teaching, this course will help you rethink the activities and teaching strategies for these struggling children.

Topics will cover phonemic awareness, decoding, spelling, and fluency in reading, writing, and arithmetic.

FMI, contact us at educationaloutreach@maine.edu