Friday, June 24, 2016

IEP Tubs



Hello There! I'm here to talk about IEP Tubs today and how I use them in my classroom! I've used them for two years now and I really love the simplicity of them and the effectiveness!!



Each student has their own customized box, which I call "tubs"...and no I don't have 15 students in my self-contained classroom! Thank goodness! I co-teach with our Resource Room Teacher and 9 of these belong to his students. 

Inside each tub I place hands-on activities that are based on each student's IEP goals, or activities for other concepts they may be struggling with. Here are a few examples of what the inside may look like.
This student is working on short vowels, base ten addition/subtraction, and telling time to the half hour. I also include sight words on a ring and a book in EVERY student's tub.

Here is a peek at another tub. This student is working on beginning blends, nonsense word fluency, and also base ten. They also have sight words on a ring and a decodable book.

This student also has a decodable book along with sight words, and is working on word families and final -e was just introduced so I added that to his tub. He is also working on learning to write his last name on the sheets you see behind the tub. These sheets fit nicely into his tub.

It depends on the student! Each student's tub is customized to meet their needs!

Twice Daily! It is worked into my math and reading center rotations each day. Every day we do one hour of math and one hour of reading center rotations and one center is IEP TUBS. I call the center "AT YOUR SEAT," but it is when they work from their IEP tubs. You can read more about how my daily centers run here.

Again, that depends on the student. As often as needed! Most of my students need repetition and lots of practice, practice, practice, so the materials are not changed out that frequently. I would say on the average maybe every 3-4 weeks for most of my students. So not time consuming at all.

I have two aides and one of my aides manages this center. We try to collaborate as much as possible, but you know as a sped teacher how hard that can sometimes be. So I have a communication log in each of my centers for this purpose. 

They write me notes that allow me to adjust the tubs as needed. For example, one of the notes she wrote me above are that a particular student is having a difficult time with consonant digraphs. So I may add that into their tub. Another comment mentions a student needs help with counting money by 5's (nickels) so I may add counting by 5's resources to his tub.

You can grab a copy of this communication log here.

I must also add that I am blessed with the most amazing aides and can totally count on them to carry out this system!

I also change out tubs based on students' assessments, new IEP goals, and my own observations.

That's it!! Super simple! Highly effective!!

Do you think IEP Tubs could work in your classroom?


26 comments:

  1. Hi,
    Since I am moving states/schools, my goal is to become way more organized. I love this idea and plan to give this a try. Before, I was always hunting for their materials as they are located in several topic specific bins (such as money, time, etc) and I ended up wasting a lot of their time with me. Having their specific goal activities in one labeled spot is genius and so simple I can't imagine why I didn't think of this. Thanks for this post!

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    Replies
    1. Happy to hear you're going to try this out! I'd love to know how it works out for you! Good luck with your new teaching adventure!

      ~Traci

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    2. I was going to ask and then also add something.
      Do the students always do these tasks with adult? In the Structured Teach method the student works on goals with an adult and then then they have met that task, say reading the dolch word cards, then they are moved to an independent area where the student is then taught to read the words on their own with out an adult. Other tasks are moved there as they are met with an adult and the idea is for the student to have an opportunity to work on the tasks with an adult for the data purpose and then to work on the items indep. to learn confidence and this also helps them to learn in a different environment. Wondering if you are doing this also. I also love that you are sharing with a resource teacher. I have inclusion students and some that do Gen. ed. time as well. It's so hard to find a balance of what the student can do and where they can work on their goals if they need one to one time for learning. THANKS for sharing.

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    3. Hi Pamela,

      I am familiar with the TEACH system. However, I don't use a structured TEACH system in my class. Most of my students are very high functioning. But yes, most of the activities in the tub are independent once shown/taught. I do require my students to always read their book and sight words to someone though to make sure they ARE actually reading and reading them with correct articulation as we focus alot on this. I do not keep data in this center. If you read my reply below to Dannette, you can see how I get my data and track progress. Also, don't forget to visit the link in this post to get a better idea of how my centers are ran throughout the day. Every day they work with 3-4 different individuals. Thanks for commenting!

      ~Traci

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  2. I have used tubs or drawers to store similar materials for DTT. My question is how much support does your staff provide? Are these mainly independent tasks? Any data taken at this station? Also I have the Work in Progress book in my cart on Amazon...such a great book and I have crafting connections (which I love)

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    Replies
    1. Hi Dannette,

      First off, I love A Work in Progress so much! Glad you are getting it!

      How much support my staff provides really depends on the student of course. Some need more than others, some need very little. My staff provides support as needed and basically monitors the center to make sure students are working, understanding their tasks, doing them correctly, and then my students are always required to have their independent finished worked checked by staff before they can put it away. I only have 2-3 students in this center at once, so she is working with all of them.

      Most of the tasks are independent, some are not. They have to read their book to the aide in this center and also their sight words. And again, she has to check all of their work to make sure it was done correctly.

      I do not keep data in this center. I use a progress monitoring system much like GE to see if my students are making progress. I progress monitor them every other Friday on the skills/goals they are working on to check progress and guide my instruction. I cancel my center on Fridays to allow me time to do this. So on Fridays instead of coming to my center, they get to go on iPads. Hope this answers your questions!

      ~Traci

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  3. Traci,

    I LOVE this idea! I have a self contained 8th grade ED group, I think having independent stuff is always good. I noticed your tubs are more geared to elementary, any suggestions on how to incorporate into a secondary program?

    Thanks,
    Ashleigh
    ahiggins@elmiracityschools.com

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  4. I really love this idea. I have a self contained classroom and I can see this being a great way to consistently work on IEP goals and take data. This could even be made into a center. Love this.

    Thanks,
    Amy

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  5. Looks and sound great,how do u arrange this goods,since our school doesn't charge anything frm parents it gets difficult for me to arrange things and seek permission for the same.

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  6. Looks and sound great,how do u arrange this goods,since our school doesn't charge anything frm parents it gets difficult for me to arrange things and seek permission for the same.

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    Replies
    1. Hi, my district gives us a budget each year to spend on classroom materials.

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  7. What a brilliant idea! Thank you so much for sharing!

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  8. I had to laugh when you said you don't have 15 students. I usually do have 15 or so in my inclusion class (out of 23-25 total). Do you think this would be feasible to use in an inclusive setting?

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    1. Kelly,
      I think you could easily implement this in an inclusive setting.

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  9. Hello! I've taught special education for 25 years-EMH,EMR,MR, and now ID...lol. I do something similar in my room. I use empty gallon ice cream buckets (the ones that have a handle and lid) and they are known as "Busy Buckets". Our busy buckets are filled with activities such as folding face cloths, mating socks, story sequencing cards, 25 piece puzzle pieces, sorting activities, etc. The kids and I love our Busy Buckets. ☺

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  10. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these! I can't wait to implement something similar in my classroom this year. :)

    I was just wondering where do you get your resources? I teach K-4th grade. Most of my students are working on letter identification, letter sound fluency, blends, nonsense word fluency, number identification, missing number, and finding the bigger/smaller number. My students are also all working on their sight words. It is difficult for me to find tasks that they can complete independently. Do you have any ideas of where I could find some resources to put in IEP Tubs for this?

    Thanks!!!

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    Replies
    1. Pretty much everything in my tubs are my own resources on teacherspayteachers.com, resources I've purchased from other creators on Teachers Pay Teachers, Lakeshore, or Dollar Tree die cuts I've written on with sharpies like the glasses of milk die cuts shown in one of the tubs above. These come with matching cookie die cuts to provide a super quick matching game.

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  11. I love this idea, and using it as a center rotation sounds like the perfect time to do it. Your teacher assistant supervises students as they work with their boxes? The very simplicity of the box sounds perfect! I definitely am going to try this! thank you, Paula

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  12. Wow I love this so much! Great ideas,thoughts for secondary students ?

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  13. This is such an awesome idea! I am a special ed teacher for grades K-4. I do some push-in and some pull-out, but I am always looking for ideas to keep my paras busy and organized. I love that this would be an easy thing for my paras to do when they go out in the classrooms to support or during station time. I would always know that my students are working on skills or activities that will help them meet their IEP goals. Thanks!
    Bekah

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  14. I have been wanting to start something similar for independent time. Thank you for sharing these examples. It did give me some good ideas.

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  15. Do the students work on these tubs independently or with the aids? I like the idea but I am not sure if my students can do it independently.

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  16. Hi can you please tell me what brand of flashcards you are using, specifically the minus 8/plus 8. I cannot find premade flashcards split up by number this way! thank you!

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    1. Hi, these cards are from EAI Education. It is from their "Match Cards" selection. I own several of their sets and love them. They are perfect for IEP Tubs. Here is the link to their match sets.
      http://www.eaieducation.com/search.aspx?Keyword=match+games&category=-1

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