Linking Grade Level Expectations to Tiered Interventions

Examples of General Education Intervention Roles for SLPs within SRBI

Grade CT State Grade Level Presenting Possible SRBI Roles for SLPs
Level Framework Expectation(s) Concern (in collaboration with classroom teachers and other support personnel)

Tier I
Use multiple word ¾ Share personal Difficulty using
sentences or experiences connected language Teacher/SLP co-led circle time in which children’s expression of
PreK
phrases to describe ¾ Use language to convey a classroom routines and opportunities for sharing are scaffolded.
ideas, feelings, and to act out complete idea
actions simple Tier II
dramatic play
Demonstrate scenarios Supplemental small group interventions in the classroom,
understanding of ¾ Explain a piece facilitating verbal exchanges among children in the dramatic arts or
messages in of writing or kitchen center, scaffolding the language of children who are having
conversation drawing difficulty conveying a complete idea and encouraging peers to
support oral language comprehension by requesting clarification of
messages.

Tier III
Targeted interventions using picture prompts to scaffold verbal
explanations of writing samples (e.g., “ I drew a ________; I like
this because _________,” etc.).
 Donna D. Merritt, Ph.D., CCC (SERC, 2009)
 
 
 

Grade CT State Grade Level Presenting Possible Roles for SLPs

Level Framework Expectation(s) Concern (in collaboration with classroom teachers and other support personnel)

Tier I
Kinder Select and apply ¾ Blend onset Difficulty isolating
garten strategies to and rime to and producing Small group literacy “station” in the classroom through which all
facilitate word form words individual sounds * students rotate, focusing on the explicit articulatory awareness of
recognition … ¾ Produce initial consonant sounds (i.e., how they are made) in CVC words.
groups of
words orally Tier II
that begin with *hearing acuity is
the same initial determined to be Supplemental small group instruction providing multiple
sounds within normal opportunities to produce targeted initial consonant sounds in CVC
¾ Segment and limits words in response to mirror, mouth, or picture cues.
isolate initial,
medial, and Tier III
final sounds of
CVC words Intensive intervention in which the student produces individual
¾ Blend up to consonant sounds in response to modeled CV syllables presented in
three orally conjunction with manipulatives (e.g., blocks).
presented
phonemes into
a correct word
 

   

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 Donna D. Merritt, Ph.D., CCC (SERC, 2009)
 
 

Grade CT State Grade Level Presenting Possible Roles for SLPs

Level Framework Expectation(s) Concern (in collaboration with classroom teachers and other support personnel)

Tier I
First Communicate with ¾ Identify story Difficulty
others to create elements understanding that Teacher and SLP engage in joint storybook reading for the entire
interpretations of ¾ Answer “who,” the story elements class, each taking the roles of selected characters and reading their
written, oral, and “what,” of character and dialogue “in character” with exaggerated inflection and volume.
visual texts “when,” setting relate to Each character pauses at select times to reinforce metalinguistic
“where,” and people and places awareness of their roles in the story by asking each other “who”
“why” in texts and “where” questions related to character and setting story
questions elements.
about non- Difficulty providing Tier II
fiction texts correct information
in response to Small group supplemental intervention assisting students to co-
various “wh” construct simple story maps representing their personal experiences
questions or age-appropriate familiar themes (e.g., birthday party). Character
and setting story elements are extracted from these personal texts
and taught explicitly in relation to “who” (people) and “where”
(places). Targeted “who” and “where” questions are posed, using
the story context to guide comprehension.

Tier III
Intensive intervention in which a simple story is read to the child
and pictures representing character and setting information are
mounted on color-coded backgrounds (e.g., character = who =
green; setting = where = yellow). Children use these picture cues to
retell the story and respond to “wh” questions about character and
setting within the context of the story.
 

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 Donna D. Merritt, Ph.D., CCC (SERC, 2009)
 
 

Grade CT State Grade Level Presenting Possible Roles for SLPs

Level Framework Expectation(s) Concern (in collaboration with classroom teachers and other support personnel)

Tier I
Second Produce written, ¾ Use Difficulty using
oral and visual appropriate regular and Teacher and SLP team teach lessons explicitly contrasting the
texts to express, syntax for irregular plurals formation of regular vs. irregular plural nouns and regular vs.
develop and regular and and past tense in irregular past tense drawn from sentences in classroom literature
substantiate ideas irregular oral communication selections. Pictures are used for the words. Instruction is provided
and experiences plurals and by teaching morphological markers (-ed) and their phonological
past tenses expressions (/t/). Children contrasts pairs by finding their visual
counterpart, describing their picture and asking a question (e.g., “I
have a picture of one book. What do you have?” “I have a picture
of a girl catching a ball. What do you have?”).
Tier II
Small group intervention in which the SLP makes syntax errors
involving irregular plurals and irregular past tense formations when
reading aloud. Students signal the presence of an error and repeat
the corrected sentence when modeled. Support is decreased as the
students demonstrate the ability to spontaneously correct errors.
Tier III
Intensive intervention in which the concepts of one (singular) and
more than one (plural) are reinforced using pictures, modeling, and
sentence repetition. Similarly, direct instruction is provided on
present tense (the here and now) vs. past tense (what happened
yesterday). Regular formations are stressed to teach the concept
prior to introducing irregular formations. Nouns and verbs are
selected from grade-level texts and comprehension is reinforced
within the context of stories or non-fiction.

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 Donna D. Merritt, Ph.D., CCC (SERC, 2009)
 
 
 

Grade CT State Grade Level Presenting Possible Roles for SLPs

Level Framework Expectation(s) Concern (in collaboration with classroom teachers and other support personnel)

Tier I
Produce written, ¾ Sequence ideas Repertoire of
oral and visual logically with transition words in SLP teaches a whole group lesson based on selections from a
Third
texts to express, effective writing is limited to grade-level literature selection. Paragraphs containing transition
develop and transition “and” words are extracted and alternative words are substituted,
substantiate ideas words to prompting a class discussion about how the meaning of the text is
and experiences connect words altered.

Tier II
Small group instruction using highlighters to signal students’
restricted use or misuse of selected connector words in their own
written work. SLP prompts/cues corrections to create metacognitive
understanding of them. Students revise their written work
incorporating a word bank of targeted connector words.

Tier III
SLP provides explicit instruction, teaching the meanings and uses
of selected connector words (e.g., the difference between and vs.
and then vs. suddenly, etc.). Individual sentences are modeled,
contrasted, and discussed for meaning. Additional sentences are co-
constructed until students can independently construct them from a
word bank list.

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 Donna D. Merritt, Ph.D., CCC (SERC, 2009)
 
 

Grade CT State Grade Level Presenting Possible Roles for SLPs

Level Framework Expectation(s) Concern (in collaboration with classroom teachers and other support personnel)

Tier I
Fourth Select and apply ¾ Explain words Difficulty learning
strategies to with multiple vocabulary, Within Guided Reading groups, the teacher and SLP each target
facilitate word meanings specifically multiple meaning words in that are typically more difficult for
recognition and multiple meaning students to comprehend. Explanations are provided within the
develop words context of the text. Students are asked to explain selected words by
vocabulary in linking their interpretation to the text or their personal experiences.
order to
comprehend text Tier II
Supplemental instruction from the SLP who targets selected
multiple meaning words in texts and asks students to draw visual
representations of the words as they are conveyed in the text.
Alternative meanings for the targeted words are discussed and the
students draw pictures representing them. Students pair their
pictures with written words, creating contrastive pairs. Meanings
and non-meanings are discussed within the context of the text.
Students explain the multiple word meanings using the visual and
written words are cues.

Tier III
Within intensive intervention students are presented with pictures
representing the contrastive meanings of selected multiple meaning
words drawn from grade-level texts. Sentences are modeled.
Students then create their own sentences. Their explanations are
scaffolded until they can demonstrate an understanding of the word
pairs.

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 Donna D. Merritt, Ph.D., CCC (SERC, 2009)
 
 

Grade CT State Grade Level Presenting Possible Roles for SLPs

Level Framework Expectation(s) Concern (in collaboration with classroom teachers and other support personnel)

Tier I
Fifth Produce written, ¾ Pose questions, Difficulty
oral and visual listen to ideas comprehending the Teacher and SLP use a parallel co-teaching structure to divide the
texts to express, of others, and main ideas in non- class, each instructing one group. The students are given an
develop and contribute own fiction texts and opportunity to read a brief non-fiction text, create a question with a
substantiate ideas information responding to partner, ask another pair of students the question (and respond to
and experiences and ideas in questions about their probe), and then rate the completeness of the students’
group them response using a simple rubric. Within a group discussion the
discussions students substantiate their responses with their background
knowledge and experiences.
Tier II
Supplemental intervention involves collaborative reading of a text,
identifying its essential content and asking the students to write
these main ideas in a list. The students’ oral language is then
supported, creating questions appropriate for the text, asking the
questions of other students, and responding to student-directed
questions. Support is decreased as students become more successful
applying the strategy to new texts.

Tier III
Intensive intervention requires students to visually represent the
essential elements of a non-fiction text using a combination of
drawings and words. Questions are presented utilizing a
developmental progression (i.e., “who” first, “what” next, etc.).
One student answers the question and another student connects the
question and answer to personal experiences.

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 Donna D. Merritt, Ph.D., CCC (SERC, 2009)
 
 

Grade CT State Grade Level Presenting Possible Roles for SLPs

Level Framework Expectation(s) Concern (in collaboration with classroom teachers and other support personnel)

Tier I
Sixth Communicate with ¾ Interpret cause Difficulty
others to create and effect understanding and Teacher and SLP explain cause and effect relationships in Social
interpretations of relationships explaining cause Studies class by drawing analogies that relate the content
written, oral, and and effect information to students’ personal experiences (e.g., resolution of
visual texts relationships personal conflicts). Students develop personal graphic organizers
that convey the essential information within the cause and effect
relationship of the SS unit and then use these to explain what
happened and why.

Tier II
Supplemental intervention during which students co-create
drawings or other graphic organizers that visually represent the
essential elements of the cause-effect relationships. Using the
graphic organizer and a word bank of content vocabulary and
connector words, the students orally explain the relationships
expressed in the SS unit. Their responses to “what” and “why”
questions are supported with prompts or cues.

Tier III
Students are provided with a Cloze map representing some of the
ideas in the cause and effect relationships expressed in a SS unit.
With support they complete the graphic organizer with a
combination of words, pictures, phrases, or sentences and then
practice explaining the relationships and responding to “what” and
“why” questions with this information and verbal prompting.

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 Donna D. Merritt, Ph.D., CCC (SERC, 2009)
 
 

Grade CT State Grade Level Presenting Possible Roles for SLPs

Level Framework Expectation(s) Concern (in collaboration with classroom teachers and other support personnel)

Tier I
Seven Communicate with ¾ Explain the Difficulty
others to create similarities and expressing Enhance students’ comprehension by assisting their organization of
interpretations of differences in similarities and ideas into two categories (similarities and differences) as they
written, oral, and how an idea or difference between prepare to debate different perspectives expressed in multiple texts
visual texts concept is ideas or concepts expressing.
expressed in
multiple texts Tier II
Supplemental small group intervention, explicitly teaching an idea
or concept by connecting the term to concrete examples and simple
synonyms relevant to one text. Then, contrast this meaning with
another text and then another. Overemphasize similarities and
differences between the meaning of the idea or concept across texts
through visual representations created in Microsoft Word (e.g.,
Venn diagram). Students summarize similarities and differences
using the visual representation for support.

Tier III
Intensive intervention pre-teaching the similarities and differences
between a concept or idea using sentence “stems” and modeling
responses (“These ideas are the same because _________.”).

   

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 Donna D. Merritt, Ph.D., CCC (SERC, 2009)
 
 

Grade CT State Grade Level Presenting Possible Roles for SLPs

Level Framework Expectation(s) Concern (in collaboration with classroom teachers and other support personnel)

Tier I
Eight Select and apply ¾ Explain and Difficulty
strategies to evaluate the comprehending Teacher and SLP co-teach a literature selection by role playing key
facilitate effectiveness persuasive characters, over-emphasizing their emotional vocabulary choices
word recognition of persuasive vocabulary and explaining euphemisms within the context of the role play.
and vocabulary Students engage in their own role plays with cues cards providing
develop authors across support to use specific vocabulary words and phrases.
vocabulary in all content
order to areas use to Tier II
comprehend influence
text reader’s Explicit supplemental intervention examining readers’ reactions to
opinions or exaggerated or emotional vocabulary choices in texts and
actions , e.g., explaining the purpose of selected euphemisms. Students connect
loaded words, vocabulary to real-life situations through guided application.
exaggeration,
emotional
words,
Tier III
euphemisms.
Intensive intervention incorporating simpler synonyms for
vocabulary words or euphemisms, gradually increasing the
complexity of the synonyms until the student can explain the
targeted words and use them in sentences related to the text, with
support as needed. Words are also taken apart to teach word
prefixes (e.g., unfaithful). Students are supported in explaining
word meanings by separating root words from prefixes, relating the
words to their personal experiences, and then connecting these to
the text.
 

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