Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The NEW RtI: Response to Intelligence

Houston Area Cooperative Professional Development GT book studies are designed for participants to gain a deeper understanding of gifted students and strategies to meet their needs by combining professional literature with teacher reflection and discussion. The blog format of the book studies allows everyone to participate in a meaningful way.

The various classes offered within this course category are specifically designed to meet the needs of teachers of the gifted who have already completed their initial 30 hours. No initial GT credit will be given for any of these classes.

By each published meeting date, participants must respond to posted prompts about the reading and comment on at least 2 other participants’ posts. For book studies in the summer, the first face-to-face meeting is optional. It is for participants who are new to blogging and would prefer direct, hands-on instruction to get started. These participants must bring their own computers to the first meeting.

The focus of the book study is gifted education. Participants who complete all requirements will receive 6 hours of update credit in gifted education.

About the Book



The NEW RtI: Response to Intelligence
by Dr. Sally Walker and Penny Choice

Yes, you read it correctly; RtI is known by many as Response to Intervention and was created to raise student’s academic achievement by using a tiered level model of services initially in reading with math following. The concept of “all children have a right to one year of educational growth each year they spend in school” was the thinking behind the design of RtI…with the intervention focused on children who were behind in their educational growth. Clearly gifted children were over looked…again. The authors take the tiered intervention model and turn it on its side to create a continuum of learning to support and challenge students with high potential who are so often bypassed in the regular academic classroom thus creating the NEW RtI: Response to Intelligence.

Some of the topics addressed in this book are intelligence, differentiation skills, categories of giftedness, dual/multiple exceptionalities, “survival” in the classroom for the educator and the students.

Expectations for 6 Hours GT Update Credit

Expectations for the blog:

1st Session: Read Preface->Chapter 3 (pages 7-44)
1) Participants need to have the first assigned reading completed BEFORE the first session. Participants who choose to attend the face-to-face session will post their responses to the first set of questions during the session. Those who do not choose to attend the face-to-face session are expected to post their responses by midnight.
2) In addition, all participants are expected to comment on at least 2 other participants' responses within 48 hours of the first session.

2nd Session: (by blog) Read Chapter 4 (pages 45-92)
By the meeting date, participants must post their responses to the Session 2 questions. Participants must also post at least 2 comments that specifically address fellow participants’ responses.

3rd Session: (by blog) Read Chapter 5 (77-92)
By the meeting date, participants must post their responses to the Session 3 questions. Participants must also post at least 2 comments that specifically address fellow participants’ responses.

4th Session: (by blog) Read Chapter 6->8 (93-129) AND (pages 130-139)
By the meeting date, all participants must post their responses to the Session 4 questions. Participants must also post at least 2 comments that specifically address fellow participants’ responses.

Instructions for the Blog:

• Blog page: houstoncoopgtbookstudy.blogspot.com
• Click on "comments" below the post to which you want to respond.
• Type your comment in the box. If you write a lot, you can use the light gray bar on the right to scroll up and down within the comment box to see your words.
• When you finish typing your comment, click on the little black arrow beside "Select profile…"
• Choose "Name/URL" which is near the bottom of your choices.
• In the box under "Name:" type in what you want to be known as in our book study. You can use your school district, last name, first initial, or school district, last name, first initial, and your school name – something that lets us know who you are. (For example, I could call myself sbisdcoferb or sbisdcoferbadvancedstudies.) Leave the URL box blank and click on "Continue".
• You'll notice that whatever you typed in replaced the "Select profile…"
• Now click on "Post Comment".
• Another box will pop up for a word verification. This step prevents spam from being posted by computers onto blog sites. Just type the word or combination of letters that you are given in the box. Then click "Finish". If you didn't quite get the word/letter right, it will give you a different word.
• It might take a minute or two, but then your comment will be posted. You'll know your comment is posted because you'll get a notice saying it was, and the comment will appear on the page, just below the original post.
• Hint: The blog page does not have spell check. In addition, there have been times when the blog page “hiccupped”, losing the response you typed in the comment box. To reduce frustration, protect your thoughts, and allow for spell check, we advise that you compose your response in Microsoft Word (or other word processing software) and then paste it into the comment box.

Session 1 – Question 1

What were AhHa moments for you during the first three chapters? (site page numbers for others)

Session 1 - Question 2

What ideas or concepts were new learning for you or what were concepts mentioned in the reading that confirmed what you already knew. (remember to state page numbers for fellow participants)

Session 1 - Question 3

What questions do you have and what text (include page numbers) inspired the questions?