I am so grateful to welcome Fiona Gonzalez from Adulting Made Easy as a guest blogger about all things IEP goals-focused instruction and data collection!
Every SPED classroom is different: whether you have only 1 student with 10 IEP goals, or 20 students with 2 IEP goals each. Then add in the factors of completely different IEP goals, and different levels! There’s one thing that’s common for all classrooms though – its a lot of work to manage working on every goal and collecting data on a regular basis, especially if you do not have enough staff support!
So many different IEP goals…
For classrooms like mine, a life skills – functional academics classroom, the types of goals each students have can be so completely different from one another because they are focusing on personalized behavior and life skills. It becomes hard to target those types of goals during group lessons, especially depending on how the goal is written. I’m going to share with you what works in my classroom. Please consider this may not work for every classroom depending on your variables, but maybe you can modify the idea to fit your needs (we SPED teachers are great at modification)!
IEP bins
IEP Goal bins & Data Collection! This organization & method has kept me sane with keeping up with all of my students’ varying levels & IEP goals. I bought the gray baskets from Dollar Tree and the turquoise crates from Walmart, and they are perfect for carrying a good amount of student work back and forth. I have one for each student (if you have any students that have the same goals/levels, combine into same bin to work in small groups).
These bins have everything related to a student’s IEP goals, along with materials to work on the goals (if applicable), and a binder with details on each goal along with data collection sheets. For students that have a BIP or use special materials on a daily basis (like a token board), these would also be included in their bins.
Data Collection Binder
Students with behavior goals also means more data collection, so why not have everything in one place at least at the start of the day. This makes it easier for different staff to work with different students. If a staff is subbing and is unfamiliar with a student, having everything in one bin will help. In turn, you will spend less time gathering materials and explaining what to do with a student.
What’s In the Bins?
If you use the large file crates (usually you can get them for about $5 each at Walmart), they are large enough to fit several binders, a task box or two, file folders, task cards…etc. These crates might also come in handy if your student travels back and forth to a Gen Ed classroom for part of the day.
If you have a bunch of worksheets or file folders to put in one crate, here’s a great way to help keep those things organized and easily accessible. Occasionally if I have students that have similar goals, I might combine then into the same bin that way I can do small group with those students.
Put it on your schedule
Here’s the last component to IEP Bins that has made it successful to working with goals on a daily basis. I specifically set aside a time each day that is dedicated to doing independent work or “IEP BIN/DATA COLLECTION”. This may differ from classroom to classroom on how this will work with scheduling. My students are constantly in and out of my classroom due to many services and off-campus jobs, so I never have all of my students in class for a lesson at any given time. Because of this, I am able to schedule independent work every day. Maybe your classroom only needs it once or twice a week.
The other key part to this is making this work is making it known that this is an important part of your schedule. Of course you will want to have a discussion with your staff on the importance of working on goals and collecting data, but sometimes that’s not enough. I have mine color coded and noticeable from the rest of the schedule. This lets my staff know that this is an important time to work on goals and collect data. Before I had sectioned off this time, I was having a hard time getting my aides to collect data on goals. The number one thing I heard from them was that it was hard to find time to sit down and collect data.
