Response to Intervention (RTI)

What is RtI?

You may have heard the acronym RtI around Timber Trail and wondered what it means.  RtI is short for Response to Intervention and is a system we operate under in Douglas County to ensure all students are getting the appropriate support through instructional interventions. Students meet with classroom teachers and support staff in flexible groups to receive the literacy instruction they need in order to progress.

We like to use the analogy of building a house.  A solid foundation is needed in order to build a strong structure. Likewise, strong skills in the five areas of literacy (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension) are needed in order to produce good readers. The key to success in literacy with many students is early intervention.

Classroom teachers are constantly evaluating student performance and adjusting instruction as needed in order to address these five areas of literacy. School-wide screenings help to identify students who are "at risk" in reading or who may simply need support in a specific area on a short-term basis. Classroom teachers use data from the screenings to plan literacy instruction for their entire class.  They also plan lessons for our RtI support staff to "double dip" students in small, flexible groups that meet several times a week.  In this way, students receive additional instruction as needed.

In order to achieve this goal, we hired two RtI support staff this year to assist classroom teachers with instructional interventions. Glenna Beasley provides support for teachers in grades K-2. Caren Keller is the RtI support person who works with grades 3-5.  You may hear your child talk about working with Mrs. Beasley or Mrs. Keller.

We want you to know that our goal at Timber Trail is to provide all students, English as a Second Language (ESL), GT (Gifted and Talented), special education and regular education students with the necessary instruction to move them forward in all content areas.  We are very excited about our vision in literacy and have excellent teachers who are trained to assess, prescribe and instruct your children.  We have many literacy specialists in our building that we rely upon as we continually strive to be a high achieving school.  RtI is an important part of this instruction for all students.

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