Carol Rothenberg

Product Description: This practical, hands-on guide outlines strategies for creating and managing environments that spur sophisticated levels of student communication, both oral and written. Paying special attention to the needs of ELLs and using numerous classroom scenarios, the authors detail steps for designing lessons that spark student talk; describe easy-to-use assessments for all grade levels; provide rubrics, worksheets, sentence frames, and other imaginative tools that encourage academic communication; and offer guiding questions to help teachers plan instruction.

Using a case-study approach, the authors address the placement of English Learners within the RTI framework, including some of the most vexing questions of implementation: Because English Learners require some differentiation, should they automatically be placed in Tier 2? What criteria should be used to establish Tier 2 groupings? How do you distinguish language learning from learning disability? What screening tools should be used and how often to monitor student progress? How do you fit intensive Tier 3 interventions into the school day?