ကူးယူချက် 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:00.959 --> 00:00:03.007
Systems are really important.
00:00:03.007 --> 00:00:13.114
We hear a lot about them in business and education, but what exactly do we mean by the MTSS system?
00:00:13.114 --> 00:00:15.826
That's what we're going to talk about today.
00:00:23.429 --> 00:00:26.934
Hi, I'm Jessica Curtis of Teaching Struggling Learners.
00:00:26.934 --> 00:00:29.588
I'm a boy mom and a veteran teacher.
00:00:29.588 --> 00:00:39.713
You're listening to the Reaching Struggling Learners podcast, where we talk all about helping students succeed academically, socially and behaviorally.
00:00:39.713 --> 00:00:41.908
Thank you so much for tuning in.
00:00:41.908 --> 00:00:49.908
Thank you so much for tuning in.
00:00:49.987 --> 00:00:57.176
System is really just a fancy word for the process or the steps that we take to do something.
00:00:57.176 --> 00:01:09.906
We use systems all the time in teaching, in our classrooms, in our offices.
00:01:09.906 --> 00:01:13.296
For example, there is a system to adding or subtracting fractions with like or unlike denominators.
00:01:13.296 --> 00:01:25.370
There's a system that you use every day to sign in at work, check your mailbox, go to your classroom, check your emails, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah Just about everything that we do.
00:01:25.370 --> 00:01:30.453
We have a system for A lot of the systems that we have.
00:01:30.453 --> 00:01:32.319
We just kind of naturally do.
00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:33.941
We don't have them written down.
00:01:33.941 --> 00:01:40.781
Another example of a system could be, honestly, just the habits that we have.
00:01:40.781 --> 00:01:43.984
When you walk in a room and it's dark, you turn on the light.
00:01:43.984 --> 00:01:47.489
That's your system for fixing that it's too dark in the room.
00:01:48.751 --> 00:02:01.748
Mtss is just another system, but it's an overarching system or process the steps that we take to identify and help the students who are struggling in our schools.
00:02:01.748 --> 00:02:12.050
It incorporates a lot of smaller systems in it so that we can get the kids the very specific help that they need.
00:02:12.050 --> 00:02:28.012
Now we'll talk about the specific processes over the next few weeks, but when we're looking at MTSS as a system in general the real way we look at it is that there's three steps.
00:02:28.012 --> 00:02:36.510
We call them tiers, but there's three steps to the system of MTSS and we've talked about that in previous podcast episodes.
00:02:36.510 --> 00:02:43.885
But the first step that everyone in the school is at is tier one and that is everyone.
00:02:43.885 --> 00:02:48.701
That's the baseline curriculum that everyone in the school gets.
00:02:48.701 --> 00:02:59.344
If they're struggling with that, then we have some clues, some like red flags that come up that say, oh, we need to do a little bit more here.
00:02:59.344 --> 00:03:13.651
And even at tier one, still within that tier one, some of those flags could be oh, this child is struggling with reading, so we're going to put them in a differentiated reading group.
00:03:13.651 --> 00:03:23.133
Maybe they're struggling with some math in the classroom and so the teacher gives them extra math facts to do to practice their math fluency.
00:03:23.133 --> 00:03:31.949
That can all be at tier one, as long as everybody at that group, that tier the classroom level has access to it.
00:03:31.949 --> 00:04:04.252
Now if those the differentiation or the extra practice that's at that same level, isn't enough and the student is continuing to fall behind, we have flags that go up If the student fails a class or maybe is failing or performing poorly on a state assessment or our pre-mid-post, our formal assessments throughout the year, that could be a red flag that says, uh-oh, we really need to give extra, more specific practice.
00:04:04.252 --> 00:04:12.323
So the system of MTSS is everybody gets the baseline curriculum.
00:04:12.342 --> 00:04:28.458
If these flags are noted, then they go at this higher level, tier two, where the child would get a little bit more intensive practice on specific skills that they missed at the tier one level.
00:04:28.458 --> 00:04:44.401
Over a certain length of time we perform interventions, we collect data and then, based on that data that determines whether the child doesn't need tier two anymore, can, just, will do fine in tier one.
00:04:44.401 --> 00:04:57.773
Or maybe the data throws up some more red flags and says, uh-oh, we need more, this child needs more intensive than what they've been getting here at the tier two level.
00:04:57.773 --> 00:05:13.584
When the system noted notes, went through the meetings and all that, that the child is still struggling at tier two, that's when we get to tier three and it's even more intensive, individualized, focused help.
00:05:13.584 --> 00:05:15.625
Given more intensive, individualized, focused help.
00:05:15.625 --> 00:05:17.187
Of course it goes on from there.
00:05:17.267 --> 00:05:19.129
There's other red flags.
00:05:19.129 --> 00:05:39.523
For example, if they've been in tier three for an extended length of time, if they're not making the progress that the team believes should be possible, then you have other flags, for this starts the we need to look at maybe evaluations, flags for uh-oh, this starts the we need to look at maybe evaluations.
00:05:39.523 --> 00:05:41.968
Or maybe we need to look at sight testing, hearing testing, those kinds of things.
00:05:41.968 --> 00:06:04.634
So all along the way through those tiers, there are flags or things that start the process for something else, and within that, of course, there are different, smaller systems that we incorporate, but MTSS as a system is just the overarching.
00:06:04.634 --> 00:06:14.072
This is how we do things in a general way, and then there's smaller systems within MTSS that can get a little convoluted and a little crazy, honestly.
00:06:14.072 --> 00:06:15.252
Load full transcript
But there are smaller systems within MTSS that can get a little convoluted and a little crazy, honestly.
00:06:15.252 --> 00:06:26.872
But there are smaller systems within that that help us to figure out should the student move on to Tier 3 or do they not need Tier 3 anymore?
00:06:26.872 --> 00:06:35.351
There's very individualized for school or districts ways to figure out where we need to go from there.
00:06:35.351 --> 00:06:44.187
It incorporates a series of formal meetings and, of course, there's a system to those meetings.
00:06:44.187 --> 00:06:48.300
You can have an agenda and you can have a.
00:06:48.300 --> 00:06:56.321
Maybe you do a school-wide data chat and that's how you figure out that these are the kids that we need to be working on.
00:06:56.321 --> 00:07:12.122
So you can see there's hundreds of smaller systems or steps, processes that we use to figure out how to review the school data, how to review classroom data and then, specifically, student data.
00:07:12.903 --> 00:07:14.687
Honestly, let's look at it.
00:07:14.687 --> 00:07:24.321
If we think about just one student, we don't just look at Susie Q and say, oh, your hair's nice today, we should put you at tier three.
00:07:24.321 --> 00:07:25.944
We don't do that.
00:07:25.944 --> 00:07:27.107
That would be ridiculous.
00:07:27.107 --> 00:07:32.103
We sit with the data and we look at it systematically.
00:07:32.103 --> 00:07:53.740
We look at the pre-med post information, we look at previous year's information on a specific test, we look at grades, we look at attendance, we look at behavior, we look at all of these different things and, let's be honest, we give a little bit more weight to some things over others, depending on what the concerns are for the student.
00:07:53.740 --> 00:08:11.502
But there really is, and there should be, a system to that Meaning there should be steps, specific steps that we know we're going to take to address the data, look at the data and figure out what are our next steps.
00:08:11.502 --> 00:08:25.552
If we're just taking a binder full of information and throwing it on the table and haphazardly looking at it and going, oh, I think the kid needs tier three, no, they really need special education, that's not helping the student.
00:08:26.214 --> 00:08:39.163
We do need to have steps that we take to figure out what is the best course of action for each student, and of course we also.
00:08:39.163 --> 00:08:45.226
Part of that is figuring out what interventions should the student have and what type of progress monitoring would be best for a child.
00:08:45.226 --> 00:08:53.837
For example, our students that are high anxiety, we probably shouldn't be doing a whole bunch of timed testing.
00:08:53.837 --> 00:09:01.759
That's not going to help them and it's probably not going to give us accurate information on what they actually know.
00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:10.258
We could do, you know, for students that have anxiety, we could do some other things to help them reduce their test anxiety.
00:09:10.258 --> 00:09:12.812
For time tests, there's lots of different things we can do.
00:09:12.812 --> 00:09:24.745
But when we're just starting out and the student we know has high anxiety for taking tests, we don't want to give them really crazy high intensity time tests.
00:09:24.745 --> 00:09:25.631
That would be ridiculous.
00:09:25.631 --> 00:09:26.913
It's not going to give us good data.
00:09:26.913 --> 00:09:36.143
But again, there are steps, systems that we can take to figure that kind of stuff out and a lot of it is just ingrained.
00:09:36.484 --> 00:09:50.352
When you're sitting with your teacher besties and you're figuring out what would work best for your child or your students or your classroom, everybody in their head has their own little system that they're going through check boxes, if you will.
00:09:50.352 --> 00:10:00.580
In their head they're going oh, that program would be good, it would take the right amount of time, it would hit the right skills for that goal, but it's all timed.
00:10:00.580 --> 00:10:07.370
I don't think that would be good for that anxiety, that student that has anxiety, next program Okay, and they go down the check boxes.
00:10:07.370 --> 00:10:09.094
It's the exact same thing.
00:10:09.094 --> 00:10:36.514
So over the years, taking all that into account, I've really come to develop a framework that encompasses the large processes and the smaller parts, because it can get overwhelming, convoluted, intimidating honestly, included, intimidating honestly to look at the whole system and try to break it down.
00:10:36.514 --> 00:11:25.513
And all that especially if you're an administrator or a teacher who's going into MTSS and you know you have to follow the process, you have to follow the systems, but there's just so much to it, there's so much breadth to it, and so I've, over the years, just kind of slowly developed my own framework that I use to help smooth out the process, make the smaller bites more manageable, and over the next coming months I'm going to be sharing some of that with you, just because I feel like obviously I developed this framework to make it easier on myself to understand and to follow the steps, so hopefully it'll also make it a little bit easier for you in your classroom or your school your teachers, however it is.
00:11:26.433 --> 00:11:30.639
If you have any questions, please feel free to message me.
00:11:30.639 --> 00:11:36.206
You can message me on Instagram or on Facebook at Teaching Struggling Learners.
00:11:36.206 --> 00:11:39.860
Also, my website is teachingstrugglinglearnerscom.
00:11:39.860 --> 00:12:19.066
I'm always there ready to answer questions and, yeah, over the next few months we're going to talk about the different systems that you could put in place, just basically the checkbox systems that you could put in place, just basically the checkboxes that you can put in place to help streamline your MTSS process, your system, so that it's more manageable, it's not taking as much time and, probably most importantly, it's actually creating impact for your students, because you can focus on getting the kids what they need instead of figuring out what the steps are that you need to take.
00:12:19.066 --> 00:12:29.481
So, until next time, may your coffee be strong, your students calm and your summer break fast approaching Bye.