Living the Speducator Dream

Teaching Social Skills in a Small Group Setting Teaching the Social Skill Earlier in my career, I was guilty of Social IEP goal data collection being a "gotcha." There always seemed to be more minuses than plusses. I have realized over time that my mistake was not being intentional with the way the skills were TAUGHT. I don't know how I thought students would perform a skill that they weren't taught. Also, it always seemed I caught students NOT performing the skill, rather than noticing when they did not engage in the target behavior. Now, I try to be intentional about HOW to teach the skill and then collecting data following instruction. No more gotcha! Like with all IEP goals, how the skill is taught depends on the student. For example, in a self-contained classroom, I may give a scenario (hypothetical, or it may have really happened) and then show photos of possible solutions in a field of 2 or 3. The student would use the visual supports to select an appropriate ...

 Beginning of Year Elementary Special Education Case Manager Checklist While no case manager's beginning of the year is the same, there is a checklist I use for myself to make sure I'm doing everything I need to before we start small groups - and to make sure general education teachers feel supported when new students start in their classrooms. There are so many areas we have to prepare - and it's not just setting up our room or planning for small group instruction. We have to review student IEPs/BIPs and other case management related tasks; we have to prepare our paraeducator team; create a small group master schedule (that somehow aligns to the building master schedule! 😅); give general education teachers information, materials, visuals, IEPs and BIPs at a Glance, while reviewing important accommodations; and finally, we have to prepare for small group instruction across content areas, like reading, writing, math, social skills, behavior, and adaptive. Whew! It's alw...

 Why Prompt Hierarchy Is So Important Ultimately, our jobs are to promote independence. By providing too much support, we are not promoting independence - and worse, students may even become prompt-dependent. As a special education classroom teacher or case manager, it is our job to make sure all members of our team (e.g. paraeducators, support staff) are consistent in moving from least invasive prompting to most, with the ultimate goal of fading that support over time. Least Invasive to Most Invasive Verbal Gestural Model Partial Physical  Full Physical Another important point is that the prompt level should be included in student IEP data. I like to make an extra row or column where staff record the level of prompting. (Of course if there is ANY prompting - unless indicated in the goal criteria - this would be a negative or minus in student data, as the student is not performing the skill independently.) Below is a sample data sheet with prompt data included: I also make su...

Implementing Tier 2 Interventions As a special education teacher, I have a lot of opinions about Tier 2 interventions. BUT the biggest opinion is that we have to provide them - with fidelity !  One reason I feel so strongly is that I've had K-2 students referred for evaluation and they have qualified, but then at their next re-eval, they no longer qualify. Or, after a year or 2 after initial evaluation, a small group pull-out setting is no longer their least restrictive environment. Then, I become more of a consult case manager, checking in with their general education teacher, who is providing most of the intervention. In this case, I am so glad they got extra support (especially in the case of a student with Developmental Delay eligibility), but I wonder if Tier 2 interventions had been provided with fidelity and data had been tracked over time if the student would have qualified for special education services in the first place. *CAVEAT*: Of course, if a student has a suspected ...

 Writing K-5 Grade Level CCSS-Aligned IEP Goals (and identifying prerequisite/foundational skills if students aren't quiiiiiite able to access grade level standards) Everyone knows to write SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) IEP goals. We practice those in undergraduate or graduate programs.  BUT we don't learn how to write goals for specific skills or learn a progression of skills. For example, what are the foundational or prerequisite skills a student needs to be able to access this grade level standard? It is also worth considering whether an off-grade level standard-based goal is more appropriate for a student, if it builds to a grade level standard. For example, if I have a 5th grade student who is struggling to access the grade level Reading Literature standard of " Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, summarize the text (RL.5.2) ," I reference off-grade level standards that would be foundational...

 Novel studies are a fantastic tool for elementary students in a resource/small group setting. For students who read below grade level, it may be the only time they have experienced reading and understanding a novel. Here are my tips for doing novel studies in small group: 1- My current district does trimesters for elementary, so I try to schedule one novel study per trimester for each grade level. Too much more than that and I feel it takes away from other skills we're working on, like fluency, reading curriculum, or IEP goal-specific skills. 2- I try to align grade level content or priority standards to the novel studies I select. We currently use CKLA (though only for another couple of years- and then I'll have to redo my small group pacing! 😭), so when 3rd grade is learning about the Vikings, we can do a novel study with Magic Tree House Viking Ships at Sunrise. Or when 4th grade uses details or examples to draw inferences from the text, The BFG lends itself to this stan...

  Behavioral Incidents Happen! It doesn't matter if you have the best staff/team, FBA, BIP, updated reinforcement inventory, or relationship with a student - behavioral incidents happen! What's important is how you handle the incident and how you make changes following the incident. One of my favorite tools to use following a behavioral incident is the Staff Debrief Form. That way, there is documentation of the conversation, and also - if I have action steps following the chat, I can remember what I need to do! Of course, finding TIME to debrief is always the biggest issue, but IMO, the debrief is a step that cannot be skipped.  This is also a good time to plug A-B-C (Antecedent - Behavior - Consequence) data. If you aren't already collecting this data, now is a good time to start! Link to a sample/editable ABC data sheet on TPT here . This is the debrief form my team uses (linked below): ...and here's how we use it. Date, team members, date of incident, time of inciden...