RTI in the Classroom: Guidelines and Recipes for Success

This text was required reading for my grad class. I did it begrudgingly, but I ended up getting a ton of valuable information and strategies to better help my struggling students.

I did not find this book helpful or very informative. It seems more like a manual for implementing RTI in schools, when schools are already mandated to have such systems in place. The authors seem intent on the reader using their particular forms and "recipes" or activities that are included. The activities are okay, however, they do not list accomodations or modifications that would be needed to meet students' individual needs within those tiers that the activities address. Also, the authors say to implement a certain amount of "Intervention" time during the day to work with each tier of students in small groups, but fail to say what the other students will be doing when the teacher is working with the small groups. This is of particular concern because it can cause behavior problems. My biggest pet peeve is that they use the triangle graphic to illustrate the RTI model, saying that 95% of the students should be in Tier 1. Depending on the school or your teaching situation, that will not happen. I am an Intervention Specialist that co-teaches with a Regular Ed teacher at a school that primarily teacher students with ADHD, ASD, and behavior problems. 80% of our student population is on IEP's for learning disabilities and behavior problems, so that triangle graphic and the corresponding "95% of students can succeed with regular teaching" just does not get it. The book also fails to address that student groups should be flexible to meet the needs of the students. I am in a 4th grade classroom and I have students who read at a 1st grade level all the way up to students who read at a 5th grade level. The book fails to address those large gaps, and that small amount of intervention time during the day, provided by 1 teacher, would not meet all of those students' needs. The triangle model for RTI is more of an ideal, and in schools like mind where 80% of more of the kids are on IEP's, the tiers have to be flexible. This book just does not demonstrate that. This is written for someone who really knows nothing at all about RTI or a school who is just implementing RTI, and really should have a long time ago. This is definitely not a good book for Intervention Specialists or Special Education teachers, or any teachers working in a high-need school where there are many students on IEP's and/or student achievement is low.

This book explains RTI so well and in such a simple way. The interventions at the end presented as recipes was the best! I would definitely recommend this book for anyone in a school that is working with RTI.

As a regional Cooridinator for the implementation of Response to Intervention, I have found this book to be one of the best teacher friendly books on the subject available today. I have referred to it often as I visit with other schools beginning their RtI journey. I recommend this book to teachers and principals for their Professional Learning Communities because it is easy to read and apply it's researched, practical guidance. There are many useful forms to help with every level of implementation. The research based sample intervention "Recipes" serve as an excellent format for teachers to build a repertoire of interventions for use in their classrooms. Every teacher should have this book in their resource library for researched, best practice of Response to Intervention.

I love this book. If you are new to the RTI process this book has everything you need. Teachers, SST coordinator and Intervention Specialist would learn the basic and ways of improving their craft of RTI, how to create a plan for their school and much more. It's well written and should be in the personal library of all educators.

I am the RTI Facilitator for an elementary school, and this is the best RTI book I have read. It's an easy-read but not a flimsy one - it's full of ideas and resources. Many of the other RTI books only skim the surface and give information that seems like Education 101. This book is for teachers and administrators who do the real thing -- planning, designing, training, teaching, and monitoring the RTI program.

Great read for RTI. This book contains just about everything you need to know about interventions. It covers reading, writing, math, and behavior as well as giving recipes for the Tier 2 and 3 interventions.

This book is fantastic. It puts RTI in real, easy to understand terms and its fool proof! I love the recipes in the back. I'm a school psychologist and this is my go to reference tool for my teachers!

Fantastic RTI classroom teacher resource.