On 5/15/09, Kinder Gal wrote:
> Pleae, someone please explain the three Tiers that I've
> been hearing about. How does this fit into DIBELS,
> AIMSweb, and reading skils? Is Tier 1 the same as
> strategic?

Tier 1 is your Core Reading Program in which you (at least at
my RF school)spend 90 minutes teaching to the entire class.
30-40 min. are spent teaching whole group reading skills and
strategies from the Basal or Core program. Another 45 minutes
is spent teaching small groups and having literacy stations
going at the same time you have small group instruction. It
is a real juggling act but is a must at RF schools. Tier 2 is
a 30 minute time set aside to teach your struggling readers
who are classified as Strategic and Intensive. I have an
aide (interventionist) to help me at this time or it would be
almost impossible to get to all the children that I need to
focus on. While Tier 2 is going on, Benchmark readers are
going to literacy stations at their level-- another juggling
act and prep nightmare! Tier 3 refers to the 30 minutes set
aside to help the really struggling, at-risk, readers in an
intense tutoring time by the interventionists. DIBELS is our
reading test we use to see where the children are in their
fluency and what areas we need to focus on to get them
reading well. We have to progress monitor our Benchmark kids
once a month, our Strategic kids every 2 wks., and our
Intensive kids once a week. So much testing and prep but it
has brought our schools reading levels up. The only problem
is that the teachers are exhausted, stressed, and we don't
seem to have as much fun in teaching. I feel there's got to
be a middle ground somehow. I like the Tier system a lot but
I hate the prep and the organizational nightmare of so many
literacy stations. It has gotten rid of a few teachers who
were lazy and incompetent but not all of them. Personally, I
can't wait for the pressure of being an RF school to lighten
up.

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