Appendix D

Finally, the fourth piece of data is school process data. Bernhardt defines school processes as, “actions administrators and teachers take to achieve the purpose of the school—the vision” (2013, p. 80). These are the things that teachers and administrators do in the classroom and school that produce the student learning results (Bernhardt, 2013, p. 80). Based upon my demographic data, perception data, and student learning data, I chose to send out a short survey to the sixth grade math department to see how they feel regarding how reading is incorporated into math. Appendix C shows the survey that I gave to those teachers. Appendix D gives the results of the survey. Even though there were only three responses, the results were generally similar.

One study, conducted by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), asked fourth-grade teachers around the world about how they help students who struggle with reading (Sen, Burns, & Miller, 2009). One strategy that was asked in this study that almost all of the countries used on a consistent basis is “spending more time working with the student individually” (Sen et al., 2009). This allows the teacher to work on the specific things the student needs and meet them right where they are. Being able to work individually with RTI reading students can allow a teacher to not only help them with their reading comprehension, but also to work on the vocabulary that students encounter in mathematics word problems. Another article, this one from What Works Clearinghouse, states that if students struggle with word problems, this will prevent them from having future success in math (Gersten et al., 2009). This proves how important it is for students to know what the questions are asking them to do. If they do not have the background knowledge regarding the vocabulary, they won’t be successful in math. Gersten et al. (2009) also gave lists of recommendations to use with RTI math students. One of these recommendations is that “interventions should include instruction on solving word problems” (Gersten et al., 2009). Giving those students who struggle extra help with word problems is a crucial step to help them, because this is one of the biggest times that reading is intertwined with