Summary Notes

As a group, we are grateful for the opportunity to meet and work together as colleagues, proactively addressing our vision of an RTI model for Newark Valley. Whether it was learning about and implementing Socratic Seminars, learning to administer and interpret the Woodcock Test, modifying current approaches to writing, or exploring a new program such as SAS, all participants would agree that our time was well spent.

To date, Newark Valley's English department has conducted no fewer than twenty-five Socratic Seminars across the five grade levels at our facility. Through student interest and support from our administration, Lynn Moshen and Scott Stratton, two of the eight member team, conducted two after school sessions with the Social Studies department, exposing and training them to be facilitators in the practice. Five possible seminars were produced by the group, assessment tools were refined, and confidence in the practice was developed. We are hopeful that this best practice will become a standard for them as well.

We continue to seek out successful RTI programs, including visits by Lynn Moshen to Whitney Point schools. Our goal remains to provide appropriate, challenging, scaffolded instruction as the model for level one of RTI