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00:00:00 --> 00:00:05 Welcome to Your Morning Boost, your daily leadership advice to help you lead your school community.
00:00:05 --> 00:00:09 Brought to you by AWB Education and sponsored by Grundmeyer Leader Services,
00:00:10 --> 00:00:14 where together we are transforming education, one leader at a time.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 Now here's your host, Adam Bush.
00:00:17 --> 00:00:22 Good morning, leaders. Happy Wednesday. Welcome back to Your Morning Boost from AWB Education.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:26 I'd like to take a quick moment to thank Grundmeyer Leader Services,
00:00:26 --> 00:00:27 our sponsor for this show.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 If you haven't had a chance to check out some of the resources that are on their
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 page, I would invite you to do so. The link is in our podcast description today.
00:00:36 --> 00:00:39 Also, if you are not receiving their Fitting 5 newsletter, that will be coming
00:00:39 --> 00:00:43 out here shortly when we get into April, which is just right around the corner. It's crazy.
00:00:43 --> 00:00:47 But if you don't already subscribe to that newsletter, I would certainly suggest that you do so.
00:00:47 --> 00:00:51 We always have great tips in there to help, again, help give you the tips and
00:00:51 --> 00:00:57 tricks you need to excel at your job of leading schools, that job that only a few can do.
00:00:57 --> 00:01:00 And again, thank you for being one of those few.
00:01:00 --> 00:01:05 Today, we are going to continue this deep dive into MTSS that we're going to do all week.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:08 And today we're going to focus on developing some quality Tier 2 interventions.
00:01:08 --> 00:01:12 And we're going to talk both about academic and behavioral interventions.
00:01:12 --> 00:01:16 I think too frequently we worry so much about the academic piece,
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19 we don't always remember that a lot of times those behavior interventions may
00:01:19 --> 00:01:22 actually have a strong impact on the academic side as well.
00:01:23 --> 00:01:27 Now, quick definition, Tier 2 interventions, these provide targeted support
00:01:27 --> 00:01:30 for students who are not making adequate progress in Tier 1.
00:01:31 --> 00:01:35 These are designed to be more intensive and focused, but they're honestly designed
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38 to be still delivered within the general education setting.
00:01:38 --> 00:01:41 This means small group instruction or extra time with the teacher,
00:01:41 --> 00:01:47 or maybe if your schedule allows, a special MTSS period where we can strategically
00:01:47 --> 00:01:50 plan to group students together to provide this intensive instruction.
00:01:50 --> 00:01:55 Now, it's crucial to address both academic and behavioral needs, as I stated before.
00:01:55 --> 00:02:00 Students who struggle academically often struggle behaviorally and, frankly, vice versa.
00:02:01 --> 00:02:05 This interconnectedness means that we need to look at the whole child.
00:02:05 --> 00:02:09 When we talk about academic interventions, think about some small group instruction
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 that's based on a specific skill deficit.
00:02:12 --> 00:02:17 Targeted skill practice within that skill deficit, and try to use some research-based programs.
00:02:17 --> 00:02:21 We also may need to increase that progress monitoring, make this a little bit
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 more frequent so we can effectively track student growth.
00:02:25 --> 00:02:29 Now, examples of this might be including reading fluency groups or math fact
00:02:29 --> 00:02:33 practice and writing workshops around those specific skills.
00:02:33 --> 00:02:36 Again, a smaller group of students, so our teachers have the opportunity to
00:02:36 --> 00:02:41 get a little better glimpse of what their skill deficits may be and use that
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 formative data to be able to drive what's going to be next in that tier two intervention.
00:02:45 --> 00:02:49 Now for behavioral interventions, we want to focus on maybe teaching social
00:02:49 --> 00:02:54 emotional skills like self-regulation, empathy, problem solving.
00:02:54 --> 00:02:58 This can include providing some positive behavior supports through systems like
00:02:58 --> 00:03:02 some token economies, PBIS type stuff, point systems.
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 I mean, there's a lot of things out there that can help guide this work,
00:03:04 --> 00:03:09 but really the important piece is creating a consistent and a predictable environment
00:03:09 --> 00:03:13 for our students that have some clear expectations and routines.
00:03:13 --> 00:03:17 Those consistent expectations are going to help our teachers to be able to get
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 a great grasp of what this progress monitoring data is going to look like.
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 And again, much like we talked about in the academic interventions,
00:03:24 --> 00:03:25 give us that glimpse into what
00:03:25 --> 00:03:29 should be next, how we can adjust our instruction to meet student needs.
00:03:29 --> 00:03:33 Now, when we talk about behavior, a typical challenge comes at the secondary level.
00:03:33 --> 00:03:38 A lot of times teachers at that level, just they don't see behavior as their job to teach.
00:03:38 --> 00:03:42 And as a former secondary teacher, I probably had that mindset as well.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 But the truth is, it is. It's still a skill.
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 We're still teaching the whole
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50 child, and we need to be able to teach to what their skill needs are.
00:03:50 --> 00:03:54 So if behavior is the issue that is keeping students from achieving at the level
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 they need to achieve, we need to teach behavior.
00:03:57 --> 00:04:01 This might be a time where we need to lean on each other a little bit to learn from each other.
00:04:01 --> 00:04:05 This means it might be time to provide some professional development opportunities
00:04:05 --> 00:04:10 on behavior management and bring your elementary staff in to talk with your secondary staff.
00:04:10 --> 00:04:14 Frequently, they are experts in behavior instruction and behavior intervention.
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 Bring them in and create that opportunity for collaboration.
00:04:17 --> 00:04:21 It'll help foster this culture of shared responsibility across the system.
00:04:21 --> 00:04:25 Now, research from the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports,
00:04:26 --> 00:04:30 the aforementioned PBIS, this emphasizes that importance of teaching social skills.
00:04:30 --> 00:04:35 They state explicit instruction in social skills is essential for creating a
00:04:35 --> 00:04:36 positive and supportive learning environment.
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 And by the way, they provide a lot of free resources on their website.
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 I'd advise checking out that PBIS site.
00:04:43 --> 00:04:47 Now just remember though that Tier 2 interventions, they should be data-driven,
00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 research-based, and tailored to meet the specific needs of each student.
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 This means we want to use data from assessments, observations,
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 and our student work to inform our intervention decisions.
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 Let them tell us where we should go next.
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 Working together to provide effective Tier 2 interventions, So that's going
00:05:03 --> 00:05:04 to empower our students to succeed.
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 Work hard in Tier 2 so we don't make that quick jump to Tier 3.
00:05:08 --> 00:05:10 That's always going to be our goal.
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 Thanks for listening today. I hope you had a great Wednesday.
00:05:13 --> 00:05:16 Also, one more quick reminder, our special Your Booster Shot episode with Dr.
00:05:17 --> 00:05:18 Chad Lang is coming out today.
00:05:18 --> 00:05:22 So if it's a little later in the day on Wednesday, that episode's probably already
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 available on your favorite podcast platform.
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 If you have a chance to give us a rating or review, we would always take that
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 as well. Try to help keep our mission going.
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 Otherwise, again, thank you for listening. Thanks for joining us today.
00:05:33 --> 00:05:36 Have a great Wednesday, and we will talk with you again tomorrow.
00:05:36 --> 00:05:40 You have been listening to your Morning Boost by AWB Education in partnership
00:05:40 --> 00:05:42 with Grundmeyer Leader Services.
00:05:42 --> 00:05:47 You can find out more about our services by clicking on the links in the description.
00:05:47 --> 00:05:52 Remember, you are doing this vital job that only a few can do.
00:05:52 --> 00:05:56 So until next time, thank you for your service to your community.