Page 10: Effective Instruction at Tier 1
As part of the RTI approach, Mrs. Hernandez knows that she will need to implement a high-quality core reading program that includes 90 minutes of instruction for all of her students. This 90-minute instructional period, hereafter referred to as Tier 1, is made up of two main features:
- High-quality instruction
- Frequent monitoring
This page will make frequent reference to two types of RTI assessment: universal screening and progress monitoring. For more information on these assessments, view the following IRIS Module:
- RTI (Part 2): Assessment
High-Quality Instruction
Mrs. Hernandez knows that Tier 1 consists of high-quality instruction for all students in her classroom. Implementing high-quality instruction ensures that inadequate instruction is not a factor contributing to students’ poor learning outcomes. Moreover, the needs of the majority of her students can be met with Tier 1 instruction.
Mrs. Hernandez is aware of the five comprehensive reading components (seen in the table below) that should be implemented as part of high-quality instruction with her first-grade students. As she continues her planning, she will include these components in the 90-minute core reading block, the standard amount of time recommended by No Child Left Behind to promote reading success.
| Reading Component | Kindergarten | First Grade | Second Grade | Third Grade |
| Phonemic Awareness |  | | ||
| Phonics and Word Study | | | | |
| Fluency | | | | |
| Vocabulary | | | | |
| Reading Comprehension | | | | |
National Reading Panel, 2000; Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)
Mrs. Hernandez has learned that when students, including those who experience reading difficulties, are taught in small groups or with paired instruction, they increase their reading skills more than those who are taught using only whole-group instruction. Additionally, she can more effectively provide differentiated instruction, ample practice opportunities, and immediate corrective feedback to her students during small-group instruction.
Mrs. Hernandez has 22 students in her class. For small-group instruction, she divides her students into three groups based on ability level. For paired instruction, her pairs consist of mixed ability levels. She develops her plan for 90 minutes of reading instruction, as seen below.
| Daily Instruction Plan | ||
| 9:00–9:10 | Whole-group instruction 10 minutes | |
| 9:10–9:30 | Small-group instruction Group 1 20 minutes | Learning centers Group 2 20 minutes |
| Independent practice Group 3 20 minutes | ||
| 9:30–9:50 | Small-group instruction Group 2 20 minutes | Learning centers Group 3 20 minutes |
| Independent practice Group 1 20 minutes | ||
| 9:50–10:10 | Small-group instruction 20 minutes Group 3 | Learning centers Group 1 20 minutes |
| Independent practice Group 2 20 minutes | ||
| 10:10–10:20 | Paired instruction (Complete progress monitoring with five students per day) 10 minutes | |
| 10:20–10:30 | Whole-group instruction 10 minutes | |
A planned schedule like the one above might vary from day to day. For instance, some teachers might use more whole-group instruction on days when new concepts and skills are introduced, but they may prefer to use mostly small groups on days when students need to practice skills. In contrast to Mrs. Hernandez’s schedule above, some teachers may promote mixed groups in learning centers. For example, while Mrs. Hernandez is working with Group 1, students from Groups 2 and 3 could work together in the learning centers while other students from Groups 2 and 3 do so independently.
One of the benefits of a planned schedule is that Mrs. Hernandez can easily organize and manage her 90 minutes of recommended reading instruction. However, she will need to be able to efficiently implement quick transitions in order to stick with her schedule. Though teachers might at first feel overwhelmed with the prospect of teaching reading for 90 minutes, doing so becomes more manageable when:
- Flexible grouping practices occur
- Students understand and follow the routine
- Features of high-quality instruction are employed
Below is an explanation of the different instructional formats Mrs. Hernandez implements during her 90 minutes of reading instruction.
Whole Group
Mrs. Hernandez’s whole-group lessons provide activities that engage and motivate all of her students. She begins and ends her 90 minutes of reading instruction using a whole-group format. Mrs. Hernandez consistently begins each day’s lesson with a morning message, in which the objectives are directly connected to one of the five components of reading. In the example below, Mrs. Hernandez relates the morning message to fluency instruction. After her students add their capitals and punctuation, she asks them to read the sentences aloud as a whole group or in sub-groups (e.g., boys/ girls, first row/ second row/ third row). She reminds them to stop at the punctuation and to read the questions and the statements with different inflections.
For the last 10 minutes of reading instruction, Mrs. Hernandez reads a story to her students. The morning message and other portions of the daily reading lessons are often tied to this story.
Small Group
Mrs. Hernandez provides the core reading instruction in small groups, allowing her to better accommodate students’ individual learning needs. Her instruction continues to be explicit as she models the skills. The small-group format allows Mrs. Hernandez to scaffold the lessons and activities into manageable steps that progress from simple to more complex skills. It also allows her to recognize problem areas and to adjust the instructional approaches to fit her students’ skill levels.
Keep in Mind
The composition of student groups can be determined by universal screening or core reading placement-test results. The number of students in small groups is not always equal. Generally, the average-ability group will have the greatest number of students, while the groups of higher- and lower-performing students may have fewer members. For example, Mrs. Hernandez’s group of average readers has nine members, her higher-performing group has eight members, and her group of struggling readers has only five members.
Here are the notes from Mrs. Hernandez’s lesson-plan book. Note that all three groups are working at different levels within the same reading series (e.g., Group 1 is working at the kindergarten level, Group 2 is working at the lower–first-grade level, and Group 3 is working at the upper–first-grade level.).
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Group 1 Lesson Plan
Lesson example of what teachers might find in a teacher’s edition.
Phonemic Awareness:
- Say the sounds for the following words, and students say what the word is (/m/ /a/ /s/ /t/ = mast): mast, mats, mist, mitts, past, pest, pets, pats).
- Using the same list as above, say the words and ask students to say the individual sounds (mast = (/m/ /a/ /s/ /t/).
Phonics/Word Study:
New sound: /i/
Review sounds: /m/, /a/, /t/, /s/, /e/
Practice words/ nonsense words:
| it | iss | im |
| sit | miss | tim |
| mitt | siss | sim |
| mat | sat | am | sam | mass | mast |
| me | see | tee | meet |
Vocabulary:
mass
mast
Fluency:
Provide students extra practice time for reading the practice words/ nonsense words from above.
Comprehension:
This group is not reading a story yet. Ask comprehension questions regarding yesterday’s whole-class story, “Stone Soup.”
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Group 2 Lesson Plan
Lesson example of what teachers might find in a teacher’s edition.
Phonemic Awareness:
See the list of words on p. 85 of the Teacher’s Edition. Say each word, and ask students to orally identify word parts (dig-ging, walk-ing, want-ed).
Phonics/ Word Study:
New ending: ed
Review endings: s, ing
See the list of practice words in the Teacher’s Edition. Students read words with various endings attached (skip, skips, skipping, skipped). Practice making past-tense words from present-tense words (walk–walked).
Vocabulary:
present tense
past tense
Fluency:
Complete a one-minute reading sample on the selected story; students need to read to the designated stopping point in one minute or less, with three errors or fewer. Partners practice this and yesterday’s story during paired instruction.
Comprehension:
See comprehension questions for the story on p. 87. Also, ask how they think the story would have ended differently had the girl wanted a big hole in her yard.
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Group 3 Lesson Plan
Lesson example of what teachers might find in a teacher’s edition.
Phonemic Awareness:
Students name as many words as they can containing the /ou/ sound.
Phonics/ Word Study:
New sound: /ou/
Review sounds: /oo/, /ar/, /al/
Practice words:
house
mouse
thousand
mound
found
pouch
sound
Review words:
| fool | part | call |
| fooling | cart | calling |
| loose | harm | small |
| boot | parking | also |
| tool | smart | taller |
Vocabulary:
mound
pouch
Fluency:
Complete a one-minute reading sample on the selected story; students need to read to the designated stopping point in one minute or less, with three errors or fewer. Partners practice this and yesterday’s story during paired instruction.
Comprehension:
See comprehension questions for the story on p. 115. Because the story continues in the next lesson, ask students to predict what will happen when the children count 1,000 cars.
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Click on each tab to the left to review Mrs. Hernandez’s lesson plans
Learning Centers
A learning center is an instructional format in which an individual or small group of students practices a skill or set of skills separate from the rest of the class. For example, Mrs. Hernandez’s learning centers include a listening center, computer center, writing center, skills center, and vocabulary center. Mrs. Hernandez plans these centers to offer students extended practice and review to reinforce the skills the reading curriculum has covered.
Students must complete activities in all five areas in the course of a week. In order for Mrs. Hernandez to be able to focus her attention on small-group instruction, she must be sure that the remaining students understand her expectations. Because of the variety of activities that students are expected to complete independently, Mrs. Hernandez spends considerable time during the first few weeks of school teaching the students how to:
- Work together cooperatively
- Follow classroom rules and procedures
- Access and put away materials
- Transition from one activity to another
Mrs. Hernandez is careful to require her students to account for their work during every learning-center activity so that she and the students can see their progress. Click on the links below to view some of the activities that Mrs. Hernandez uses for her learning centers.
| Vocabulary | Comprehension |
Example of a Vocabulary Learning Center Activity
Mrs. Hernandez’s classroom has a “Silly Stories” learning-center activity to help students practice using new vocabulary words. Mrs. Hernandez creates a theme for a silly story that includes one or several of the vocabulary words she has already taught to her students during whole-class instruction. Students work together to write a brief story about the theme she has given them. Vocabulary cards at the learning center allow students to review definitions (e.g., bold = very brave, timid = scared). The completed stories serve as the necessary documentation for student accountability.
Here is what Mrs. Hernandez includes on the vocabulary activity cards for each of her groups of students.
Silly Stories Group 1
Theme: A bold mouse and a timid elephant go for a walk.
Circle the pictures that mean “timid.” Put an X on the pictures that mean “bold.”
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Group 2
Theme: A bold mouse and a timid elephant go for a walk.
Circle the words that mean “bold.”
| brave run | courage coward | stop dress | drip late |
Circle the words that mean “timid.”
| shy big | cold cry | mad quiet | shoe cut |
Theme: A bold mouse and a timid elephant go for a walk. They have some trouble along the way.
Write a story that tells where they are going and what kind of trouble they have on their walk. Use the words bold and timid two times each in the story.
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Example of a Comprehension Learning-Center Activity
Mrs. Hernandez’s classroom has a “Get the Gist” learning-center activity that allows students to practice their comprehension skills. Mrs. Hernandez provides three levels of activities so that all members of her class can participate in the learning center. This activity uses the “Stone Soup” story that Mrs. Hernandez read during whole-group instruction.
Group 1. Think about the story “Stone Soup.” Draw a picture of all of the food the old woman put in the pot.
Group 2. In the story “Stone Soup,” what foods did the woman put into the pot? Write down the names of these foods.
Group 3. In the story “Stone Soup,” the old woman put lots of foods into the pot to make soup. Write a paragraph that describes the story.
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Independent Practice
Independent practice is often used to reinforce, enhance, or enrich the skills taught during small-group instruction. Mrs. Hernandez has developed her schedule so that both Group 1 (the lower-performing group) and Group 2 (the average-performing group) receive their independent practice immediately after small-group instruction. Meanwhile, the students in Group 3 (the highest-performing group) work independently prior to their small-group instruction with Mrs. Hernandez. Teachers should be cautious that independent practice activities are not simply busy work but, rather, that they support and strengthen the skills taught during whole- and small-group instruction.
Paired Instruction
During the paired-instruction portion of the lesson, each student works with a partner and practices reading words, sentences, and paragraphs from his or her reading lesson. Partners model good reading practices and give corrective feedback to one another.
Listen to Lynn Fuchs talk about Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), one method teachers can use to implement paired instruction (time: 0:38).
Lynn Fuchs, PhD
Nicholas Hobbs Chair of Special Education and Human Development
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
View Transcript
Transcript: Lynn Fuchs, PhD
Young children are working with each other, they’re conducting activities with each other, providing feedback to each other when errors are made, so that children can become better at the activities.
These kinds of activities can promote better learning if young children do them. But the challenge has been for teachers to figure out how to incorporate those activities into a normal classroom so that everybody in the class gets lots of structured practice with corrective feedback. PALS is one way for teachers to take those research-based activities and implement them in a normal classroom.
Mrs. Hernandez has formed her pairs of students based on methods described by research-validated studies that have measured the effectiveness of paired instruction or peer tutoring. The students are grouped by mixed ability levels. Follow the steps below to see how easily Mrs. Hernandez pairs her students.
Step 1: Rank the students
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Step 3: Move the halves next to each other
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Teachers must recognize that some adjustments to the pairings may be required. For example, there may be a discrepancy between students’ abilities too large to accommodate learning. If the stronger reader does not work well with the struggling student, the teacher may have to shift the partners. In other cases, pairs of students who have difficulty following instructions may not work well together as partners. Therefore, some changes may be required by rates of progress, behavior issues, or students’ needs.
If you wish to learn more about Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies, please see the following IRIS Modules:
- PALS: A Reading Strategy for Grades K–1
- PALS: A Reading Strategy for Grades 2–6
- PALS: A Reading Strategy for High School
Frequent Monitoring
In addition to high-quality instruction, frequent monitoring should be incorporated into Tier 1. When it comes to progress monitoring, teachers have two options: 1) conduct progress monitoring for all students at the Tier 1 level, or 2) conduct progress monitoring for only those students who are identified as struggling readers based on universal screening results.
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progress monitoring
A form of assessment in which student learning is evaluated on a regular basis to provide useful feedback about performance to both learners and instructors.
Mrs. Hernandez decides to monitor her students’ progress every week while they are engaged in paired instruction. By implementing progress monitoring with her entire class, Mrs. Hernandez can determine whether she is implementing high-quality instruction, and she can use the data to inform her instruction. Additionally, informal assessments such as class-wide observations, in-class assignments, and homework can provide useful information. By using these various types of assessments, Mrs. Hernandez can determine whether there are reading skills with which a number of students are having trouble. For example, if the majority of students in a class struggle with the silent-e rule then Mrs. Hernandez will know that her instruction has not been adequate. She will have to determine a different and more effective way to instruct the students about the rule.
Finally, progress monitoring data can be used to guide the RTI decision-making process for struggling students. For example, because of her low score on the universal screening, Megan was initially identified as a struggling reader. However, the progress monitoring data that Mrs. Hernandez has collected during the ensuing 10 weeks indicate that Megan’s skills have improved and that high-quality Tier 1 instruction has been adequate to meet Megan’s instructional needs.
The table below offers a brief overview of Tier 1 instruction.
| Tier 1 Instruction | |
| Who receives instruction | All students |
| Amount of daily instruction | Instruction should occur for at least 90 minutes |
| When instruction is provided | During core reading time |
| Duration of instruction | Entire school year |
| How instruction is implemented | Flexible grouping, which includes: |
| Frequency of progress monitoring | At least one time every 1–2 weeks |
| Who provides instruction | General education teacher |
| Where students are served | General education classroom |