Let's spend some money!

[Kanin]

Hi everyone! I hope your holiday time is going well 🙂 Want to help me spend some money?

I have some money in both special education and RTI budgets that I need to spend before June, or it goes away. I'd like to do it now, so the kids can actually use everything before summer. I'm not sure of the exact amount, but it's close to $1,000. If I don't spend it, the money still goes to worthy causes, so I'm not too fussed about it... but I do like spending someone else's money! 🙂

My students are K-5, and I mostly see kids for reading, but I have a few math students. The bulk of my students are in grades 2-4. 

For reading, I'm using Wilson and LiPS, and I also have Seeing Stars. 

I'm not really sure what I need! I tend to look on alllll the websites and then get overwhelmed. I'm planning to get:

- Some High Noon sets (too bad I want ALL of them!), and the Scholastic Branches books

- Comprehension workbook for 1st/2nd grade reading levels. I have yet to find one that I like, though. 

- A phonemic awareness activity book/game. I have printouts from the FCRR, but games in a box make everything more fun, and I also like having a real book instead of papers floating everywhere. 

- Would love some decoding games, if they exist, and some math games (easy and fast - like Uno, but to practice basic math facts)

So... what would you buy, if you were me?

[exercise_guru]

Do you have a subscription to reading AToZ and also raz kids?

One year the parents raised money ans paid for the teacher subscription because it was so valuable. I think it covers up to 24 students and the kiddos can use it at home with a PC or a pad

 

[PeterPan]

I'm not ignoring you, but I wasn't having any brilliant thoughts. I think comprehension and language intervention materials are a good place to invest money, because they make good intervention more likely to happen. I had an intervention specialist tell me once she would make CUSTOM materials for my ds to merge his particular interests and his needs, and I'm like THAT'S NUTS. I get it, but it's also nuts. There are a lot of good materials out there that systematically work through concepts and skills, and with some effort my ds can learn with those. We can generalize them to other settings (reading together, building narratives, etc.), but good workbooks really have a place, I think. I know the SLPs who do literacy are all over how custom and integrated they are, but I think it all has a place. 

You have materials for Verbalizing and Visualizing? If you don't, I'd solve that pronto. It's way too useful not to have it as a tool. Oh, weren't you doing something kinda similar and extending it to composition? Nevermind then.

For reading comprehension topics, I've really liked the Spotlight series from (let me remember, a regular publisher like Carson Dellossa) and the Spotlight series from Linguisystems. 

I I had an obscene amount of money, I'd buy the letter kit from Lakeshore Learning that has tubs for all the letters with little toys for each and a magic box. You could use them a zillion ways, but I'm just all about the toys, lol. It's the kind of thing you say you'll make yourself and don't get done. I also super love their magnets, the sets that come in the flat box organizer. Super, super love those. 

You have anything for narrative language? Since you're feeling flush, go look at Story Champs. It has data behind it and has a huge kit system with books, the whole nine yards. It will probably blow 1/3-1/2 your wad, but it seems AMAZING. SKILL Narrative, Mindwings/Story Grammar Marker, all of them are fine. I'm just saying also look at Story Champs before you decide.

Back later with links and more ideas.

[Kanin]

3 hours ago, exercise_guru said:

Do you have a subscription to reading AToZ and also raz kids?

One year the parents raised money ans paid for the teacher subscription because it was so valuable. I think it covers up to 24 students and the kiddos can use it at home with a PC or a pad

 

Oh yes, we do! Yay! They are both SO awesome. 

[Kanin]

2 hours ago, PeterPan said:

You have materials for Verbalizing and Visualizing? If you don't, I'd solve that pronto. It's way too useful not to have it as a tool. Oh, weren't you doing something kinda similar and extending it to composition? Nevermind then.

For reading comprehension topics, I've really liked the Spotlight series from (let me remember, a regular publisher like Carson Dellossa) and the Spotlight series from Linguisystems. 

 

I've got V/V, and at my last school we were working on describing using the V/V words. These kids are beyond that, though. I'm pretty blown away by what regular ed kids are doing, and then I have to think about how inclusion works in these cases. I've got mixed feelings... on the one hand, wow, regular ed does HARD, awesome things! On the other hand, should I be modifying that to be within my student's grasp, or back up and work on the basics? It's a tradeoff either way, and so conflicting.

I'm off to look at the Spotlight series!

[Kanin]

I found these awesome dominoes on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00149T45S/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

They also have blends and digraphs, and long vowels. My students will probably play these for as long as I will let them!

I have some sets of Spire Go Fish cards for various phonics skills. They're super simple, and have phrases like "the cat got wet" on them, and you play just like traditional Go Fish. I thought the kids would get tired of them after a few times, but no... it's like Uno... they never get tired of it! I mentioned to another teacher that I could probably teach a kid to read using only Go Fish cards... and I was only partially kidding! 😀

[ElizabethB]

2 hours ago, Mainer said:

I found these awesome dominoes on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00149T45S/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

They also have blends and digraphs, and long vowels. My students will probably play these for as long as I will let them!

I have some sets of Spire Go Fish cards for various phonics skills. They're super simple, and have phrases like "the cat got wet" on them, and you play just like traditional Go Fish. I thought the kids would get tired of them after a few times, but no... it's like Uno... they never get tired of it! I mentioned to another teacher that I could probably teach a kid to read using only Go Fish cards... and I was only partially kidding! 😀

The dominoes look fun! You could do build as many words as you can in a minute, and you could also do something like my nonsense word game with them:

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On Phonics/concentrationgam.html

I'm not sure if it's worth the money or not, I've never seen it in person, but Happy Phonics is just games, already on card stock, you just cut out.

https://www.amazon.com/Happy-Phonics-Winning-Program-Reading/dp/B001ELVRH4

That is funny about the Go Fish, I can see that working!! 

These dice or something similar look like a fun way to play my nonsense word game if you're looking to buy more game pieces.  It might be funner if you get 2 points for a nonsense word and 1 point for a real word, many of the nonsense words are hard to say and the kids feel a bit ripped off, but they do enjoy playing.

https://www.amazon.com/Fun-Express-Reading-Family-Phonics/dp/B013HLF8ZA/ref=pd_sim_21_6?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B013HLF8ZA&pd_rd_r=e0437cae-0a63-11e9-a088-a167811d1016&pd_rd_w=NxUp1&pd_rd_wg=qQZm3&pf_rd_p=18bb0b78-4200-49b9-ac91-f141d61a1780&pf_rd_r=DN30SQHY3WE3G1GNCE35&psc=1&refRID=DN30SQHY3WE3G1GNCE35

Edited December 28, 2018 by ElizabethB

[Kanin]

7 hours ago, ElizabethB said:

These dice or something similar look like a fun way to play my nonsense word game if you're looking to buy more game pieces.  It might be funner if you get 2 points for a nonsense word and 1 point for a real word, many of the nonsense words are hard to say and the kids feel a bit ripped off, but they do enjoy playing.

https://www.amazon.com/Fun-Express-Reading-Family-Phonics/dp/B013HLF8ZA/ref=pd_sim_21_6?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B013HLF8ZA&pd_rd_r=e0437cae-0a63-11e9-a088-a167811d1016&pd_rd_w=NxUp1&pd_rd_wg=qQZm3&pf_rd_p=18bb0b78-4200-49b9-ac91-f141d61a1780&pf_rd_r=DN30SQHY3WE3G1GNCE35&psc=1&refRID=DN30SQHY3WE3G1GNCE35

2 points for a nonsense word is a great idea! Funny to feel ripped off by a nonsense word vs. a real word.... only in the world of reading remediation... 😀

[PeterPan]

ETA hand2mind used to have dominoes . You might like the Spelling Success games for Barton. You could blow a lot of your wad buying them and they're nicely done.

[PeterPan]

https://www.languagedynamicsgroup.com/products/story-champs/. Here's that Story Champs.

[PeterPan]

Word Callers: Small-Group and One-to-One Interventions for Children Who "Read" but Don't Comprehend (Research-Informed Classroom)  Do you have this already? I've been using it with ds. 

Drawing a Blank: Improving Comprehension for Readers on the Autism Spectrum another good one

[PeterPan]

Spelling Success - Fun Educational Gameshttps://www.spellingsuccess.com/  There are videos on the site showing you how each game works. If your students like Go Fish, etc., the game play will be a good fit. They start with phonemic awareness and go all the way through morphology.

[PeterPan]

If I had money floating around, this is what I'd buy https://www.learningbydesign.com  Spell-Links. It's ideal for your older students, maybe someone who needs spelling with a touch of reading. It's not OG, but it's sort of an evidence-based new thing, building on the idea of OG. It's more targeted and organized. It has some resources that are $$, but again you have $1k. There's a word bank so you can test, target, and create word lists. It's more than just the program and you don't have to use the program to use components. But it's exceptionally popular on the private literacy lists.

[PeterPan]

Spelfabet might seem sorta fringe because it's from Australia, but it has been EXCELLENT for ds. I think she has some games (downloadable?) though I haven't used them, my bad. What's brilliant about it for ds is the use of the boardmaker pictures with the spelling. Think ETC gets serious, and then think works for autism. And it could work for other people with comprehension issues but it's brilliant for ds. He was spelling in isolation, like some kind of parlour trick, and now he's spelling and connecting it to MEANING. 

I had said for a number of years ds was a hyperlexic dyslexic, and I'm finally seeing in the literature where that CAN BE the case. So that's your most basic level of comprehension problem there, where you get the kid decoding but he literally has no clue what he read, little to no comprehension. So we had your meta language stuff but also just really basic comprehension. The Word Callers book has them do things like multi-sorts, and it includes all the cards. It's a really good pick up for the money. 

Working on language like that has improved my ds' ability to pick up a room, pick up his toys. That's just a total aside, but it has been really astonishing to watch. Things like sorting by multiple parameters affect literacy, function in the classroom, all sorts of things. And some of that is stuff an SLP could logically do but might not get hours or have enough hours, so the IS is having to do it and make the goals. 

[PeterPan]

Inferring Resource Book Grade 5-6 - Carson Dellosahttps://www.carsondellosa.com/products/104555--Inferring-Resource-Book-104555

Summarizing Resource Book Grade 3-4 - Carson-Dellosahttps://www.carsondellosa.com/.../104560--Summarizing-Resource-Book-104560

There are 4 workbook topics in the series iirc and grade leveled books within the topic, so you'd be talking maybe 16 books total. I bought them as e-books. 

I really like some of the paired reading comprehension workbooks you can find from major publishers. I also got a science comprehension and social studies comprehension series that were good. However the trick with my ds is not to let it all be multiple choice. If I can find one with the wh-questions where he has to make his own sentences, that's stronger. 

Reading Comprehension Workbook Grade 3 - Carson Dellosahttps://www.carsondellosa.com/.../104841--Reading-Comprehension-Workbook-1048...  I'm using this series right now with ds, and I'm really keen on it for the skills it hits. As you say, the skill expectations in the mainstream classroom now can be really high! This one NAILS bringing in skills. So venn diagrams, on and on. Gives him a run for his money, and the passages are interesting. It was not our first stop, but it works for him now.

                                                                               Infographics Workbook Grade 3 / Ages 8–9 $5.99 Print $18.99 eBook                                                                                          This Infographics series is the way coolest thing ever. So fun!! It's hitting important skills, weaving in your wh-questions, open-ended questions instead of multiple choice, using inferences, etc., but it's just really engaging and interesting. And again, it has grade levels available.

I try to hit reading comprehension multiple ways, and right now my ds performs pretty acceptably on testing, which I take to validate my approach a bit (or take to mean he learns in spite of me, lol). So I try to have some fiction, some non-fiction, some with multiple choice, some open-ended, some that is challenging so he needs to work with me, some independent, and so on. So that's why I've used so many different products. We still aren't through all our narrative instruction, so he is struggling with books and long works. But these materials have helped us nail it for shorter stuff. I've done stuff with picture studies (Evan Moor, I forget), paired fiction/non-fiction... I like it all. 

[PeterPan]

Books are such a sticky thing. My ds is really liking e-books right now. Like if he were in your school and you had the book to offer both ways, he'd rather have it as the e-book version. It's a format he's used to, it reads in the dark, he can change the font size. It's just really low stress for him. And I've had to flex on that, because to me print is IT. Well my print books sit around and he likes the ebooks instead. My dd gave him a print Calvin & Hobbes that just came out, but we'll see if he reads it. He really prefers e versions.

You might invest in graphic novels if you're going to buy print books. The Amulet series is the most popular at our library, and ds really enjoyed them, gobbling them up, reading a book a night. They're GORGEOUS in person, incredible artwork. And then you could get Adventures in Graphica: Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Teach Comprehension, 2-6 and use that to develop lessons. 

For my ds, Amulet was going well till he lost track of the plot. I think he held it for the first couple books, and then it broke apart for him and he couldn't tell why things were happening. So he made it through 5 or 6 or the books in the series (at least) but got frustrated. He didn't understand that it's normal to go back and reread a book and figure out what you missed and repair your comprehension. So I think there's value in presenting a series like that, because it pushes them to realize their comprehension breaks.

[PeterPan]

We used and liked the Vowel Owls. Vowel Owls™ Sorting Set

Rhyme & Sort Rockets™ These might be good. I'm still looking to see if they have the dominoes I got. They had 3 versions (initial sound, final sound, rhyming).

Alphabet Soup Cans Set with Photographic Cards, Set of 26  This isn't as nice as the Lakeshore Learning set, but it's a lot less $$$.

Word-Building Dominoes, Set of 200  Did you see these? These would be good for your morphology kids, 4th and up. They're siblings to the ones you linked. 

         Daily Word Ladders: 80+ Word Study Activities That Target Key Phonics Skills…      Rasinski's stuff is classic and he has vocabulary, word ladders, etc. My ds can't retrieve words well enough to do these, but I don't know if a dyslexic without the ASD language challenges on top could. Our library had them.

         Junior Learning Spelligator Board Game       Lakeshore sells Spelligator, but it's here on amazon too. I've wondered if my ds could play it. It's hitting on some of your basic skills (addition/deletion of sounds, etc.). 

What’s the Rhyme? Sorting Houses This isn't the dominoes I have, but it would be great.

Phonemic Awareness Instant Learning Centers - Complete Set These would be a bit more independent possibly, since it's the kind of stuff we did in Barton the most boring way humanly possible (say the word, do it).

Magnetic Sound Sorting Boards - Complete Set These look stellar

Magnetic Long Vowels Word Building Board I eye this series of word building boards every time I go in the store, ugh. Comes in 3 letter, 4 letter, long vowels, etc.

Vowel Sounds Learning Locks  Ok, you can laugh, but the locks are fun!! We have them for subtraction. You can lock them around the room and play games.

In other words, you could blow a lot of your wad at Lakeshore, lol. If you go through their reading comprehension, you'll find more. I just got three sets on clearance that are synonyms, dictionary skills, multiple meanings. Grab & Match Leveled Synonyms Quickies  Here's one in the series. They had a math reasoning series that is AMAZING btw, over the moon about. But you didn't ask for math. LOL

Anyways, I'm still milking Lakeshore, trying to find things that work for intervention that are mature enough and hitting the skills. It's really hard once you say you want hands-on reading stuff for 4th/5th graders, lol. So try using their age/grade filters and then filter by subject and see where it gets you. The products are always well-made, though the intervention value varies. Like they have reading comprehension card kits that would have been good but were WAY beyond my pricepoint for the amount of use for one kid. And are those better than my cheap e-version workbooks? No. But would I have used them if I had had access, sure. 

They have a reading comprehension board games set that I picked up on a super deal. We haven't even played them yet. Reading Comprehension Games Library - Gr. 4‑5  There, it's $150 for the set so obviously get their text coupons and buy it at 25% off or BOGO. They have bogo right now and they pretty much always have a coupon. Online you get the coupon OR free shipping, not both. But the products are really nice and there hasn't been anything where I was like wow that was not useful.

https://www.lakeshorelearning.com/search/products/page-1/sort-price-asc/num-24?view=grid&Ntt=reading comprehension games library  Looks like they have file folder games for reading comprehension too. If they're already made up, that would be HUGE. My ds would play file folder games, but I do NOT have time to sit there cutting and making them, mercy.

https://www.lakeshorelearning.com/products/games/file-folder-games/reading-writing-skills-folder-game-libraries-gr45-complete-set/p/AA790X Ok, here's that set. See it's such short use for me that if I find it on clearance half-price it's still $$. But for a school with lots of use, amazing. And I'm looking at these and thinking maybe pick two and do the BOGO coupon, kwim? Unless there's a pricebreak for doing the whole set. But for me, maybe I don't need some and find utility with others. I just find it really helpful to have things open and go like this. And you could BOGO the file folder set and the board games set and that would be a good deal.

[Kanin]

4 hours ago, PeterPan said:

We used and liked the Vowel Owls. Vowel Owls™ Sorting Set

 Rhyme & Sort Rockets™ These might be good. I'm still looking to see if they have the dominoes I got. They had 3 versions (initial sound, final sound, rhyming).

 Alphabet Soup Cans Set with Photographic Cards, Set of 26  This isn't as nice as the Lakeshore Learning set, but it's a lot less $$$.

Word-Building Dominoes, Set of 200  Did you see these? These would be good for your morphology kids, 4th and up. They're siblings to the ones you linked. 

         Daily Word Ladders: 80+ Word Study Activities That Target Key Phonics Skills…      Rasinski's stuff is classic and he has vocabulary, word ladders, etc. My ds can't retrieve words well enough to do these, but I don't know if a dyslexic without the ASD language challenges on top could. Our library had them.

         Junior Learning Spelligator Board Game       Lakeshore sells Spelligator, but it's here on amazon too. I've wondered if my ds could play it. It's hitting on some of your basic skills (addition/deletion of sounds, etc.). 

What’s the Rhyme? Sorting Houses This isn't the dominoes I have, but it would be great.

Phonemic Awareness Instant Learning Centers - Complete Set These would be a bit more independent possibly, since it's the kind of stuff we did in Barton the most boring way humanly possible (say the word, do it).

Magnetic Sound Sorting Boards - Complete Set These look stellar

Magnetic Long Vowels Word Building Board I eye this series of word building boards every time I go in the store, ugh. Comes in 3 letter, 4 letter, long vowels, etc.

Vowel Sounds Learning Locks  Ok, you can laugh, but the locks are fun!! We have them for subtraction. You can lock them around the room and play games.

In other words, you could blow a lot of your wad at Lakeshore, lol. If you go through their reading comprehension, you'll find more. I just got three sets on clearance that are synonyms, dictionary skills, multiple meanings. Grab & Match Leveled Synonyms Quickies  Here's one in the series. They had a math reasoning series that is AMAZING btw, over the moon about. But you didn't ask for math. LOL

 Anyways, I'm still milking Lakeshore, trying to find things that work for intervention that are mature enough and hitting the skills. It's really hard once you say you want hands-on reading stuff for 4th/5th graders, lol. So try using their age/grade filters and then filter by subject and see where it gets you. The products are always well-made, though the intervention value varies. Like they have reading comprehension card kits that would have been good but were WAY beyond my pricepoint for the amount of use for one kid. And are those better than my cheap e-version workbooks? No. But would I have used them if I had had access, sure. 

They have a reading comprehension board games set that I picked up on a super deal. We haven't even played them yet. Reading Comprehension Games Library - Gr. 4‑5  There, it's $150 for the set so obviously get their text coupons and buy it at 25% off or BOGO. They have bogo right now and they pretty much always have a coupon. Online you get the coupon OR free shipping, not both. But the products are really nice and there hasn't been anything where I was like wow that was not useful.

https://www.lakeshorelearning.com/search/products/page-1/sort-price-asc/num-24?view=grid&Ntt=reading comprehension games library  Looks like they have file folder games for reading comprehension too. If they're already made up, that would be HUGE. My ds would play file folder games, but I do NOT have time to sit there cutting and making them, mercy.

 https://www.lakeshorelearning.com/products/games/file-folder-games/reading-writing-skills-folder-game-libraries-gr45-complete-set/p/AA790X Ok, here's that set. See it's such short use for me that if I find it on clearance half-price it's still $$. But for a school with lots of use, amazing. And I'm looking at these and thinking maybe pick two and do the BOGO coupon, kwim? Unless there's a pricebreak for doing the whole set. But for me, maybe I don't need some and find utility with others. I just find it really helpful to have things open and go like this. And you could BOGO the file folder set and the board games set and that would be a good deal.

Yeaaaa, thank you! I will explore all of these!

The file folder games look like they're pre-made, and there are a couple of different games for each skill. Score!

[PeterPan]

Did you see the 30% coupon on the Educational Insights site? https://www.educationalinsights.com/search.do?query=dominoes  They have all the dominoes sets (long, short, blends, word morph, sentence), and you can get all 5 kinds for $87.47 with the coupon. Now to see what other goodies they have before I order. 

My ds will benefit from all of them, but the sentence building will be good for working on flexibility. The Cartwright Word Callers book talks about this, and it's an issue he has had, recognizing sentences other words, unscrambling sentences, etc. We've been working on that flexibility, but this will be a fun tool to make it hands-on. The pieces are color-coded, so we'll see if he catches on for that.

Edited December 29, 2018 by PeterPan

[PeterPan]

Also, you can get flex seating at Lakeshore Learning. Well they don't have the tallest wobble stool. I bought the teen version on Wayfair (or was it Overstock? I forget) and he likes it. I also got the foldable cushion floor seating Lakeshore sells. They're AMAZING. You can spray them with fabric protector to keep them clean. I used the BOGO coupon in-store, so I didn't have to pay shipping. We work on the floor a lot, so my age 42 butt is looking forward to these. 

[Kanin]

6 hours ago, PeterPan said:

Did you see the 30% coupon on the Educational Insights site? https://www.educationalinsights.com/search.do?query=dominoes  They have all the dominoes sets (long, short, blends, word morph, sentence), and you can get all 5 kinds for $87.47 with the coupon. Now to see what other goodies they have before I order. 

My ds will benefit from all of them, but the sentence building will be good for working on flexibility. The Cartwright Word Callers book talks about this, and it's an issue he has had, recognizing sentences other words, unscrambling sentences, etc. We've been working on that flexibility, but this will be a fun tool to make it hands-on. The pieces are color-coded, so we'll see if he catches on for that.

Awesome, thank you!

Unscrambling sentences with actual word tiles is such a great idea. You can eventually use the ones with prefixes/suffixes, and he'll have to figure out that there's a word part in there, and where should it go? So cool!

 

[PeterPan]

Some reviews suggested playing Word on the Street Junior and having them write the words on a whiteboard, sneaking in some spelling. 

[Hilltopmom]

I second anything Lakeshore!

Do you have a set of the Alphabots? Great to use as a motivator in sessions with the young elementary age crowd.

I gave them to my 4&5 year olds for Xmas so I can use them for work when they outgrow them, lol. They were a hit with the teens too 🙂

[Kanin]

54 minutes ago, Hilltopmom said:

I second anything Lakeshore!

Do you have a set of the Alphabots? Great to use as a motivator in sessions with the young elementary age crowd.

I gave them to my 4&5 year olds for Xmas so I can use them for work when they outgrow them, lol. They were a hit with the teens too 🙂

Those are adorable!

[prairiewindmomma]

For math, have you looked at the Ronit Bird stuff? She works as a math interventionist in the UK. Most of her materials are game based. It takes some footwork to get it all up and running, but if you don't have a closet already stocked with counters, dice, spinners, playing cards (we use the ones for low vision people), cuisenaire rods, ten frame blanks, etc. I'd buy some of those materials.

The RTI at my daughters' current elementary school seems to be limited to special print-off worksheets from Pearson learning and math drills.  At my daughters' previous elementary school, they had a lot more effective intervention. They did regularly screening with software tools and more focused (and earlier) intervention with both group time working on thinking about numbers and equations flexibly (developing number sense) and with paired groups playing games with teacher oversight.  

So, I'm not sure what you're doing, or what works in the framework of your school, but the more interactive you can get the better.  

 

[Kanin]

15 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

For math, have you looked at the Ronit Bird stuff? She works as a math interventionist in the UK. Most of her materials are game based. It takes some footwork to get it all up and running, but if you don't have a closet already stocked with counters, dice, spinners, playing cards (we use the ones for low vision people), cuisenaire rods, ten frame blanks, etc. I'd buy some of those materials.

The RTI at my daughters' current elementary school seems to be limited to special print-off worksheets from Pearson learning and math drills.  At my daughters' previous elementary school, they had a lot more effective intervention. They did regularly screening with software tools and more focused (and earlier) intervention with both group time working on thinking about numbers and equations flexibly (developing number sense) and with paired groups playing games with teacher oversight.  

So, I'm not sure what you're doing, or what works in the framework of your school, but the more interactive you can get the better.  

 

Yes, I love Ronit Bird! She is great. 

I'm finding that the scheduling portion of public school is maybe the biggest barrier to having RTI work well. Here, there's no intervention block or anything, so the RTI teachers have to pull kids from their regular instruction... and it's usually halfway through a period, or right when they should be IN class... not ideal. We try to make up for it with good interventions (working on that!), but scheduling is tough. 

Do you find that RTI is benefiting your daughter?

[prairiewindmomma]

My daughter improved greatly in TX with her elementary teacher who had math intervention training. She did full class work as well as small group work—no pull out. She sent home 15 min of specialized homework daily and all work came home so that I could monitor progress and coordinate efforts at home. 

She backslid when we moved to our current state. Neither last year’s teacher nor this one are effective in teaching math nor are they concerned that she is measuring 18 months behind national norms. (Most of the class does not meet national norms.)

I am afterschooling her in math and she is catching up, but had I not had a kid with dyscalculia whom I homeschool I would have been unaware that there was an issue nor would I have been aware of the seriousness of it. No work or tests come home. No homework is given. 

(My other daughter has a fantastic teacher who is using great teacher made materials and methodology.)