Getting Started with R&R

How Can Early Educators Get Started in Implementing Recognition & Response in their Classrooms?

R&R is an emerging early childhood practice, and all of the factors necessary to support its implementation are not yet known. Some decisions will need to be made at the program level to support teachers to use R&R effectively in their classrooms. These include establishing a planning process involving key stakeholders (e.g. create a collaborative problem solving R&R team); providing classroom resources and ongoing, intensive professional development for teachers; and making implementation decisions (e.g., select assessments and interventions).

In the meantime, there are several steps that early educators can take to begin applying the principles of R&R.

1.    Incorporate universal screening and progress monitoring into your existing assessment plan (recognition).

• • Consider all of the assessment information that is already being gathered in your program’s early childhood classrooms.
• • Think about which measures are linked to the curriculum and early learning standards and could be used repeatedly throughout the year for universal screening and progress monitoring.
• • Consider when and how you will share assessment information with families and other professionals.

2.    Begin organizing instruction and intervention (response) into three tiers.

• • Identify all of the instructional strategies that are already being used from least to most intensive, beginning with your core curriculum.
• • Think about all of the ways in which teachers and specialists scaffold learning for young children.
• • List strategies that are effective and easy to implement with a small group under Tier 2. Think about ways of achieving a balance between explicit instruction (e.g., the use of a supplemental literacy or math curriculum with a targeted small group of children) and embedded approaches (e.g., incorporating activities that address targeted skills such as printing names in the dramatic play area).
• • Finally, list all of the intensive, individualized instructional strategies under Tier 3. Some examples of Tier 3 strategies are prompting a child with the correct answer, physically assisting a child during writing activities, or giving the child a directive and waiting for a response.

3.    Develop opportunities for collaborative problem-solving to support instructional decision-making.

• • Think about methods already being used to communicate and collaborate with families, specialists, and other professionals.
• • Consider who might serve on a collaborative problem-solving team.
• • Plan regular collaborative problem-solving meetings and determine ways to document and share assessment information with other members of the team including parents, professionals, and specialists.