The NEW RtI: Response to Intelligence

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The NEW RtI: Response to Intelligence is the recognition of and commitment to providing academic challenge and social/emotional support to children of high potential. Response to Intelligence understands that all children, including the gifted, have the right to grow at least one year for every year spent in school so they are prepared to thrive in the 21st Century.

Advocating for gifted students is an endless, on-going task as the support pendulum swings, sways, dangles, swerves, shifts, and fluctuates back and forth, decade by decade. But its advocates persistently struggle through trends, bandwagons, politicians, and laws. Enter Response to Intervention a 3-tier triangular model purportedly providing success for ALL students.

But will the RtI movement leave Gifted students behind . . . again?

Response to Intelligence advocates for gifted children while supporting the concept that all children on the learning continuum grow and continue to learn. RtI is not just for those who struggle but also for those who demonstrate the capacity for excelling, going beyond the norm.

Supported by their 50+ combined years of commitment to gifted education, author and consultant Penny Choice and co-author Dr. Sally Walker, Executive Director for the Illinois Association for Gifted, turn the original RtI model on its side, create a mirror image, and place Tier 2 and Tier 3 students on a continuum, finally providing for ALL students in the classroom including gifted students.

This NEW movement is then, in fact, a Response to INTELLIGENCE.

Sally Yahnke Walker, Ph.D., is a consultant, an educator, an advocate for gifted children, and the Executive Director for the Illinois Association for Gifted Children. She has piloted programs to create a broad-based level of support for talented students in public school districts, provided in-service training for teachers, and facilitated workshops for parents of gifted children.

Sally's background includes classroom teacher, a Professor at Rockford College, a Professor at Rock Valley College, Former Chairman of the State Task Force on Early Identification and Intervention of Young Gifted, as well as an author.
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Penny Choice is retired Staff Development Coordinator for the Regional Office of Education, Grayslake, IL. She is a specialist in Gifted Education, differentiation and problem-based learning. She received her Bachelor's degree in Speech and Drama from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, an M Ed in Gifted Education from National-Louis University, Evanston, IL, and an MA in Educational Administration from Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago.

Penny s areas of expertise include curriculum development, staff development, gifted education, the Visual-Spatial Learner, social science, problem-based learning, process learning, and fine arts education with a focus in integrating the arts and the use of process drama. She is co-author of the The New R.T.I.: Response to Intelligence.