Hey, hey! I’m in the middle of working on 100+ progress reports at school, so my evening pretty much looks like this:
Also, there might have been wine. #sorrynotsorry Thus, no new content tonight. Instead, here’s one of my posts about kindergarten RTI, as well as links to other RTI packs featured on my blog which are worth a glance if you’re unsure of what you could be working on with your kiddos. And, ATTENTION SECOND GRADE TEACHERS: an RTI pack is coming your way and due out mid-week next week 🙂
Kindergarten RTI: Letter Identification & Recognition
Originally posted on September 17, 2012.
So, how scary is RTI to everyone? Or, is that just me?! I don’t know what it was about RTI, but it has always terrified me. What was I supposed to do? Was I doing it right? Was I serving the right kids?
And, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, is it Response to Instruction or Intervention?!?!?
Seriously, it boggled my mind for at least the first two years I taught, and even crept into the first year I taught first grade.
Well, now that I’m part of Team RTI at our school, it was pretty much mandatory that I hop on the RTI boat and ride those intervention waves like it is my dang job. Well, it is my dang job, so AHOY!
I started pulling a kindergarten group last week, made up entirely of English Language Learners. Let me just tell you a little bit about them:
A) They stole my heart within the first .5 seconds of meeting them. So. Dang. SWEET.
B) Three out of five speak very little English. No bueno.
C) Most of them thought an ‘A’ was a F…or G…or Q…or anything but an A. This just made me want to love on them a little more! No, really, it made me so EXCITED to teach them…if only for 30 minutes a day! {Sidenote: I could *totally* see myself going back to K someday! I didn’t realize how much I miss it!!!!}
Since letter recognition and identification is a key building block to reading readiness, it became my mission last week to figure out a way to manage my time and resources so that I could provide the most intensive 30 minutes of letter recognition and identification I possibly could! {Sorry. That was a long sentence. This is a long post. I’m feeling talkative tonight. What’s new? Moving on…}
Bottomline: I created an RTI pack to help me focus on this skill with my kiddos.
Here’s how our typical RTI block goes right now:
Introduce our daily objective via an I can… statement. {~1 minute)
I start off singing and pointing to the alphabet 1-2 times. Only two kiddos semi-know it. {~2 minutes)
I display an alphabet mat for our focus letter(s). I’ve slid it into a plastic sleeve, and we do various activities with it as a whole group (i.e. trace it with a dry-erase marker, shape play-doh into As, find the As in the words, sort tactile letters onto it, etc.). {~5-7 min}
Next, I pass out individual activity mats. Each mat is different, but focuses on letter identification and recognition. All of them are kept in plastic sleeves for durability purposes. You could laminate them. But there’s a lot less fuss when you just slide them into a plastic sleeve. And a lot less static laminate tagging around on your clothes. Depending on the kiddo, they usually get to work on 1-2 mats during this time (~10 minutes). This is a good time for me to observe and instruct individual students.
We spend the last part of our time together working on other activities TBBAS (to be blogged about soon) or a very speedy assessment. I give each pumpkin a notebook where they (or I) can record what we’re working on. This helps me keep data on them, too.
At the end of our work on the focus letter, I give them a little half-sheet assessment that I paste into their notebooks. The bottom half of the page is used for a variety of purposes. Here, you see the student dabbed the letter B and gave me three words that began with B.
I will probably spend a lot of this week telling you about different activities that we do, so I’ll be back on Wednesday with some new activities, strategies, and freebies!
Have a great week, all! I’m off to watch Luke Bryan shake it for me, now!!!!! 😉
Click on the links below to see my other RTI packs with pictures and explanations from previous posts!
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AbbyMullins
Abby is a former kindergarten and first grade teacher who channels her passion for education into creating engaging activities and resources for the kindergarten and first grade classroom. When not dreaming up or working on her next project, you’ll find her enjoying her family – most likely in her minivan on the way to a soccer field.
Categories
kindergarten, RTI, intervention
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Hi, I'm Abby
Hi, I’m Abby! Thanks for stopping by. I love supporting kindergarten and first grade teachers with engaging, skill-based activities that are easy to use in their classrooms. Let me help you be the best teacher you can be!
