Progress Monitoring Made Easy!!!

Progress monitoring is essential to monitor our students' progress and to evaluate the effectiveness of our instruction. But where do we begin??

Assessment is on going!

"Know where your students are at by conducting basic skills assessments."

Always begin the new year with assessing your students to see where they're at and let this drive your grouping, instruction, IEP goals, and progress monitoring. As new students come in throughout the year, assess them as soon as possible. Make yourself an assessment teacher 

binder so that you'll have all of your assessment tools in one place. Use sheet protectors as pockets to hold screeners/probes in which you have multiple copies.

"Which students should I progress monitor?"

Assessment and progress monitoring should be ongoing for ALL of our students, but may be on a different frequency! For instance, you may have a student that is only in your class for behaviors, but is working at grade level. For this student, you will be progress monitoring his/her behavior, but you will likely progress monitor their academic skills less often. 

"How do I know what to progress monitor my students on?"

Your assessments will drive your IEP goals and your IEP goals will drive your progress monitoring. Don't overwhelm yourself and feel that you have to progress monitor every thing they are working on. Use your assessment data to narrow down their skill deficits and then pick 1-2 skills you will explicitly teach and progress monitor. Remember, weekly spelling tests, reading tests, math tests, etc. you give in your classroom also serve as excellent formative and summative assessments that can be used to guide your instruction as well and serve as good progress monitoring evidence. Informal observations and work samples can also be used as formative and summative data too.

"How often should I progress monitor these students?"

Research shows that our Tier 3 (special education) students should be progress monitored on a weekly basis. However, I don't feel that my students show many gains in a one week span, and therefore I choose to progress monitor my students every two weeks. 

"When do you find the time to progress monitor students?"

I progress monitor every Friday. Because I run centers in my classroom...I cancel "Teacher Table" Center every Friday in my classroom and I call students to my table to assess them. When students are not being assessed they get to go on an iPad, computer, color, read, play with the toys, etc. It works like a charm and who doesn't love "Fun Fridays!" It only takes me a few minutes to progress monitor each student. So with 14 students, I will progress monitor 7 of them on one Friday and then the other 7 will be progress monitored the following Friday, allowing me to progress monitor all of my students every other week.

"What if this doesn't work for me?"

I also leave the last 25 - 30 minutes of our school day open for social time. This is also another opportunity for me to call students back for progress monitoring if I need to. 

You could also progress monitor one student per day and get through 10 students every two weeks and start your cycle all over.

If you have parent volunteers, this is also a great opportunity to have them do an activity with your students at "Teacher Table" Center while you progress monitor students.

If you have a designated computer lab time, this is a wonderful time to pull your students for progress monitoring or even for small group instruction. 

"What does progress monitoring look like in my classroom?"

ASSESS>>>IEP GOALS>>>PROGRESS MONITOR

My assessments and IEP goals will drive my instruction and progress monitoring. To make it manageable, I only write one IEP goal for each deficit area. I typically choose 2 skills to progress monitor each student on at a time and I focus on their weakest areas. I balance it out by choosing one skill from Math, one from ELA, or one Life Skill or Social/Emotional/Behavorial Skill if applicable. For example, if I have a student that is struggling in reading with sight words and in math with missing numbers, this will be my focus point of instruction for this student and the two skills I will monitor for progress.

"When do you find time to explicitly teach these skills?"

Opportunities for teaching these skills can be built in all throughout the day during morning work, whole group, and differentiated centers. So the student I mentioned above that is struggling with missing numbers, may have a missing number practice activity for his morning work, during whole group meeting/calendar we will review missing numbers and I will call on him explicitly to answer missing numbers questions, (while calling on a student focusing on most/least those explicit questions) and he will get to work on missing numbers in each center he goes to. 

I also pull students that need that additional support and 1:1 or small group instruction when we go to the computer lab or when I'm done progress monitoring my students on Fridays. Any time I feel a student needs additional support with a skill/goal, I can assign my other students an independent activity to allow me the time to work with that student. 

"What assessments and progress monitoring tools do I have in my teacher binder?"

I have made most of my assessments and progress monitoring tools to meet my needs as a special education teacher and for what I needed at the time. Here is a compilation of those that you can download here. I also recommend making a student binder in addition to your teacher assessment binder. 

In your teacher assessment binder, keep all of your assessments, recording sheets, probes, etc. in sheet protectors so they're ready to go as needed. In your student assessment binder, make a tab/pocket for each student and store their administered assessments, work samples, progress monitoring charts/graphs, etc. within each student's tab. 

You can see a peek of what my student assessment binder looks like in this post. Click here. 

This post may be of interest to you too! Click here.

If you have any other specific questions about progress monitoring, please drop them below. :)

The Ins & Outs of Data Collection

Data collection is not every teacher's cup of tea and some even cringe at the word! But let's face it. Data is the driving tool of our instruction and interventions, whether we're talking about academics or behaviors. 

Today's focus is on BEHAVIOR data collection. Here are some simple "ins & outs" to make data collection your cup of tea and a breeze!

1. If you're taking data on every single thing and every single day, STOP! You don't have to take data on every.single.thing! Or even every.single.day! Stop killing yourself!

2. Pick ONE behavior to target and collect data on at a time. Once you shape that behavior, you can move on and target another behavior. Start out slow with the least difficult behaviors first.

3. Decide if you'll be collecting data on the frequency, duration, intensity, or all three? This will depend on the behavior you are targeting.

4. Pick a day/time that you will take data...and NOT every day!

5. Delegate some of your data collection to your paras. 

6. Toss out all of those data sheets. You don't need 50 million data sheets. Don't make it rocket science! Find 3-4 sheets that are versatile and that work for you! I'll share mine below.

7. Whenever possible, let your students take your data for you! YES!

8. Keep a separate "Behavior Binder" for each student that you are working on behaviors with.

These are the only 4 data collection tools I use in my classroom for behavior. They work like a charm for every behavior I need to collect data on. Let's take a look!

This tool below (front & back) is really the only tool you need as you can record duration, frequency, intensity, and documentation ALL on this one form alone! You can also note the setting and see the times of day the behaviors are occurring. I love having everything in one place.

 I use this tool for my students that have more severe behaviors and exhibit multiple behaviors throughout the day. Severe behaviors are always documented. These forms are stored on a clipboard like so, and then filed in their "Behavior Binder" at the end of each day by one of my paras. 

For these students, I then graph the percentage of the day they were off task or engaging in inappropriate behaviors on my "Percentage Graph." 

I do this by adding up the number of minutes the behavior occurred and then divide it by the number of minutes the child was charted or observed. That gives me the percentage of time they were off task each day. I circle it on the graph and connect the dots for a simple graph. I can analyze it quickly to see if there has been a decrease in behaviors which tells me if my interventions have been effective. It is also a nice visual to show to parents and other individuals involved with the student.

I can delegate this task to my paras or I can collect this percentage data on the day/time that I chose to cancel whole group/teacher directed center to collect data.

While I CAN use the first tool for collecting data on any behavior, for mild behaviors or when I'm targeting a single behavior like whining, hand flapping, being out of seat, etc. I like to use this simple, self-graphing frequency tool. 

 It doesn't get any simpler than this. Each time the behavior occurs, the chart is marked and at the end of each day circle the last number marked and connect the dots for an instant graph. The BEST PART! My students collect my data for me! If your students are capable, have them mark their own charts each time they engage in the targeted behavior. This holds students accountable for their own behaviors and self-monitoring is so powerful! Read more about the power of student self-monitoring here and grab more self-monitoring tools. 

I don't use this one as frequently, but if you're collecting data on a behavior that occurs too frequently to count, or a behavior that doesn't have a clear beginning and end; such as "stimming" for example, Momentary Time Sampling is the perfect tool to use.

Print these four data collection tools off here and simplify your data collection today!

Also includes this Cheat Sheet to assist you with calculating how to measure each behavior.

If you're looking for more specific tips  
on simplifying academic data collection, you can read more about that here. 

For even more on Behavior Data Collection, check out "The Ultimate Behavior Toolbox" here.

Student Self-Monitoring is SO Powerful!

I am a huge fan of student self-monitoring! Whenever possible, students should be self-monitoring. While my focus of this post is on self-monitoring behavior, students should also be self-monitoring their academics too! 

Self-monitoring is SO powerful! It makes students more conscientious of how often their behavior occurs, holds them accountable, decreases behaviors, teaches them independence and the best part for teachers, it puts the data collection in your students' hands; allowing them to collect your data for you! Who wouldn't want someone else to take their data, right!?

When we are constantly reminded of something over and over, we tend to change it or remember it. If you, the teacher, is the only one monitoring their behavior, are they even aware of how often they are engaging in a behavior?? Let's say I have a student that hand flaps. If I silently mark a tally every time she hands flaps, yeah, I've got my data, but how am I teaching her not to hand flap? Or furthermore, how do I teach her how to stop hand flapping!? Self-monitoring also teaches the appropriate behavior to your students!!!

I can also say from firsthand experience, when students monitor their own behavior, behaviors diminish at a much quicker rate. Depending on the behavior, sometimes in a matter of days. For instance, I recently broke a student from putting his hands in his pants in 4 days, because he got tired of going all the way across the room to mark his chart every time he did it. As students become more conscientious of their behavior, I see them begin to catch themselves and refrain from engaging in the behavior. 

Here are some different examples of how I have my students self-monitor their behaviors. Keep in mind...just like we have to differentiate everything in our classrooms, self-monitoring is no different. 

This is my utmost favorite data collection tool that I use in my classroom. I simply LOVE the way it graphs itself. You'll see a sample below. 

This is the one I used for my student that was putting his hands in his pants. Each time he engaged in this behavior, I say, "Go mark your chart, your hands are in your pants." He puts a line through the next number for the date and at the end of each day, I circle the last number marked and connect the circles for an instant graph! It doesn't get much easier than that! And by all means, we do not want to make it convenient for them, so I always place the chart on the other side of the room, requiring them to get up, walk to it, and mark it. This is very important!

I'm sure some of you are saying, "My students wouldn't be able to that." A third of my students in grades 3-5 are high functioning, so they are able to do this, and for some I do hand-over-hand. For others that don't get this and need something more visual, I use this self-monitoring tool, which is the same concept. 

I still say, "Go mark your chart [and state the behavior]", but the student places a sad face on the Velcro strip. I then count those up at the end of the day and transfer them to the frequency sheet/graph I showed you above.  

For my students that have more aggressive and defiant behaviors and are escalated by being asked or may even refuse to mark a chart, these kids LOVE their "Cool Points Charts!" And I do too! This is second favorite tool for self-monitoring. 

This is one I am currently using with a newer student that just joined The Bender Bunch Family in December due to behaviors only. I have had great success with my Cool Points Charts and have been using these with my students for over 4 years! Every hour he and I do a "Cool Points Check." He fills it out. If he did it, he gets 3 points, if he did it sometimes, he gets 1 point, and if he didn't do it, he gets 0 points. Then, he gets the reinforcement that matches his points earned on the right. This allows for even those most aggressive and challenging students to still reap some reward and feel some success in life by at least earning a simple snack for trying. Just one point earns this child a snack for his efforts, but again I differentiate these depending on the student and the severity of their behaviors. He is self-monitoring his behaviors and these are filed in his binder as data....and might I add, his transformation has been remarkable. He can't wait to check his Cool Points every hour. 

This is a great self-monitoring tool that I use with students that have trouble marking the frequency chart, but can color, and only have up to 10 incidences per day. Each time they engage in the behavior, they color in a rectangle.

 This one is like above, but for students that engage in their behavior more frequently and need to self-monitor each hour. 

 The template below is copied on the back of the charts above and lists the student's pre-determined reinforcer menu according to reduced number of incidences. So, on this one it is the opposite of the Cool Points Charts. They will earn their best reinforcer based upon less points.

 For students that are having difficulties in Specials; Art, P.E., Library, etc. I use these. With these, students receive their best "A" reinforcer for "Awesome," a smaller "B" reinforcer for "OK," and in this case, "No Reward" for "Not Cool" Behavior. Again, it really depends on the student as to how I critique these. 

 This one is like above, but adapted for students that need more visuals, and not words.

 Some teachers like to use a Behavior Contract. I personally rarely use this tool for my students, as they need daily, minute-by-minute, or hour-by-hour monitoring, but it serves as a great tool for students that may have less frequent behaviors that don't occur on a daily, minute, or hourly basis and for students with long term goals. 

I hope you will try self-monitoring in your classroom and that it will be as successful for you as it is in my classroom! As an exclusive follower of The Bender Bunch and a WE TEACH SPED fan, you can download all of the EDITABLE self-monitoring tools I explained above {here} for free and start student self-monitoring in your classroom today!!!

Follow along next month where I will be posting about free classroom websites to use in your classroom and how I run and color code my differentiated classroom centers. 

Data Collection Simplified!

Today I'm here to talk about how I've simplified and found the perfect academic and IEP goal data collection system for my classroom. Data collection! Such a struggle right? We're always looking for ways to simplify it and make it doable! We try this and we try that. It always seems unmanageable! 

Well last summer I perfected my academic/IEP data collection system and I can finally cross it off my to-do list for GOOD!! My year ran so smoothly with this system last year and my data was so thorough, timely, and organized. 

I started with a 2 1/2 inch binder! I kept all of my students' academic/IEP goal data in this one binder. If you're wondering, I separate behavior. My students with behavioral goals have separate behavior binders, as there is so much more data involved for behavior. This post strictly focuses on academic data collection. 

Here's a peek at the inside of the binder. 

I love these pocket dividers! They are vinyl and very durable. I labeled a pocket divider for each of my students. I label them in pencil so that I can easily reuse them year after year!

I use the pockets to store their test items and work samples for easy access! Everything else is 3-hole punched and placed behind their pocket. I use AIMS web to progress monitor my students academic goals whenever possible. They have so many progress monitoring tools available that even my lowest students working on letter recognition and basic number recognition can be progress monitored and assessed with AIMS Web. It's easy and reports and graphs are so easy to print! Fortunately, my district provides AIMS Web. It is largely used across the states by numerous school districts for progress monitoring and accountability; however it seems few special education teachers use it. If your district has it, I highly recommend using it. If your school doesn't use AIMS Web, they may use DIBELS. This program is very similar to AIMS Web. Either way, check to see what your school uses and take advantage of it.

Here's a peek behind a student's pocket. Each student's may look differently depending on what skills they are working on.   

This is the first page for every student. I always include a blank sheet of paper as the first page. This is where I put notes of things I see they need to work on, or where I can quickly jot down those ah-ha moments that hit me about that student!

This is the second sheet in the binder for students being monitored using AIMS Web. This student has a goal of reading CVC words, so I am progress monitoring her on NWF (Nonsense Word Fluency) and ORF (Oral Reading Fluency). 

AIMS Web also offers basic math computation assessments. This is a 5th grader that I was assessing using first grade probes. She mastered 1st grade and then moved on to 2nd grade.

I love that it provides a running record that is easy to view progress. My students also have open access to this binder so that they can see their scores. They look at their scores before each assessment and try to beat their score!!! Each time they do we make a big deal of it! We shout it out in the class and everyone applause's. I give my student a little something for increasing, like a hershey kiss or a starburst. 

I print the reports I need each quarter or prior to an IEP meeting or conference, 3-hole punch them and stick them in the binder. 

My students that can read also have this assessment behind their tab. This is the San Diego Quick Reading Assessment. I love this reading assessment. It can be administered in less than 5 minutes and is SOOOO accurate in assessing a student's reading level. You can access it here.

For readers, the third page is always this. This is my phonics quick screener. It clearly identifies what level students are at in their phonics skills, where they need remediation at, and where lessons should start. You can get the phonics screener here.  

It also includes their Fry's Word List Recording Sheet, as we practice these daily. You can see our Fry's Word Lists and get access to this sheet here. 

Some students will have different sheets, such as this student that is working on play skills.

Here are the sheets I use to track IEP goals in my classroom that I can't use AIMS Web for. I like to track goals using trials when the goal allows for it, as it is much easier to track. Some goals require a percentage criteria. You can still use this sheet to track those goals. So for example, if a student got 6 out of 10, that would be a 60% achievement. For students that have a mastery criteria of 5 trials, I use a sheet with only 5 trials listed. The goal tracking sheets allow for 6 goals so you can keep each student's goals on one page for simple organization. I rarely have a student with more than 6 goals. I typically stick with one goal for each area. This keeps it manageable.

So when do I fit all of this in!? Simple! I collect academic/IEP goal data every Friday, but each student is every other week. So for example, I'll do half of my students this Friday, then the other half the next Friday.

I decided to stop wasting my time trying to collect IEP goal data daily or every few days. Let's face it, most of our students do not make progress at that rapid of a pace. So in order to see growth for my students and simplify my data collection system, I assess (progress monitor) my students every two weeks. One of our classroom centers is "Teacher Table" where I do direct, explicit teaching Monday through Thursday. On Fridays, "Teacher Table" is cancelled and I call students back one at a time to do my assessing. Rather than my students coming to their "Teacher Table" center on Friday, they go on iPads or computers during this center while I assess.

My school is on a quarter system, so there are approximately 9 weeks in a quarter. So if I assess my students every two weeks, for example, on week 2, week 4, week 6, and week 8, this allows me to have a good amount of data by the end of each quarter. 

Lastly, I can't forget the front of the binder. In the front of my binder I keep my benchmark targets, norm charts, standards, etc. in sheet protectors so I can easily refer to them when I need them. 

And that's it! My data system simplified! One binder, some pocket tabs, a few simple recording sheets, and you too can simplify and organize your data to make it manageable. I'm at school to work with kids, not take data all day! Stop letting your data consume you and take the fun out of teaching! Remember you don't have to take data every.single.day and on every.single.thing!!

Grab the student progress monitoring and goal tracking sheets here for free and start simplifying your system!

If you're in need of more support on simplifying and managing behavioral data, check out this post.

Stop back tomorrow for some SPEDtacular Freebies!