Alternative Assessments aligned to IEP Goals

Close up of young female teacher sitting at desk with a Down syndrome schoolboy using a tablet computer in a primary school classroom, smiling, close up, side view. Stock Photo. Clipart.com School Edition, Vital Imagery Ltd., 01-04-2019, https://schools.clipart.com/download.php?iid=1595552&tl=photos. Accessed 29-09-2021.

 I am going to be working to align my students IEP goals and our daily curriculum to connect to the alternate assessment's essential elements. The essential elements are the equivalent of the common core standards for our Level 3 students. Kerri, Teresa and I are hoping to create a more streamlined program that flows through the grade levels and supports all of our students.

This would be great for helping to create IEP goals that not only support the student's needs but also gives them more support for their assessments. 

We also feel that this will help point out more specifically and on a broader level, the skills that they have mastered as well as the ones they are struggling with. This allows us to break those skills down into even smaller steps to see how we can better support our students.

Literacy Footprints in Early Kindergarten

 

Female infant school teacher working one on one with a young white schoolboy, sitting at a table in a classroom writing, looking at each other, close up. Stock Photo. Clipart.com School Edition, Vital Imagery Ltd., 01-04-2019, https://schools.clipart.com/download.php?iid=1595800&tl=photos. Accessed 29-09-2021.

I am going to be doing my ICDP on the topic of using the Literacy Footprints Kit to improve my guided reading instruction.  By using these kits consistently as they are intended to be used I believe our kids will show greater growth in the are of guided reading.  I believe this will be beneficial in helping to prepare them for kindergarten, which is my goal as an Early Kindergarten Teacher.  I will work to improve my note taking during guided reading time and I will work to get to groups consistently so they have plenty of opportunity for growth in the area of literacy.  We also have plans to implement some shared reading strategies that we learned this summer that will help support the work we are doing in our guided reading groups.

This school year the goals for EK have changed.  We have the expectation of getting our students to a level C by the end of the school year.  When looking at our data from the end of last year only 34% of our Early Kindergarten students were reading at a level C.  I want to use these kits to  accomplish this goal for more of our students.  Last year we only had the kids for part of the school year so I am looking forward to using the Literacy Footprint Kits all year.  

I plan to focus my research on the progress that can be made by consistently using the Literacy Footprints Kits to improve student achievement when it comes to literacy.  I will focus on strategies in Jan Richardson's book as well as the kits to improve my teaching.  I plan to use the resources that came with the kit, the resources I have received from Jennifer Burns on the topics of shared reading and guided reading, and Jan Richardson's books:  "The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading" and "The Next Step Forward in Word Study and Phonics".  

I will know that growth has been made in this area by using our EK leveling data from last year.  If we are successful in implementing the Literacy Footprints Kits for the school year then our leveling data will improve from last spring to this spring. 

Morning Meeting in Preschool

Elevated view of infant school children in a circle in the classroom giving high fives to their smiling female teacher, vertical, close up. Stock Photo. Clipart.com School Edition, Vital Imagery Ltd., 01-04-2019, https://schools.clipart.com/download.php?iid=1595730&tl=photos. Accessed 29-09-2021.

 I will be focusing my ICDP for 2021-2022 on developing strong morning meetings with preschoolers. I chose to focus on this after I attended a Nevada PhD session on morning meetings that really intrigued me. I have always done calendar and good things but it never felt complete to me and after my morning meeting session, I realized I needed to add a classroom community piece that connects to social emotional learning. As a building, we have a goal to incorporate more social emotional learning throughout a student’s day and this is an excellent way to do just that.  Adding a morning meeting will help my students feel connected to each other as a classroom family and build social emotional and academic learning.

I would see implementing morning meetings more of an area of growth rather than an area of concern for me. I want to grow my student’s relational capacity and understanding with their peers as well as merging social emotional skills and academic learning. I will read The Morning Meeting Book by Roxann Kriete & Carol Davis as well as reading blogs or social media posts that gather ideas to strengthen morning meetings.  

I will use my Teaching Strategies GOLD data from Fall, Winter, and Spring to see the growth in my students. The areas in GOLD I will mainly focus on is social-emotional, language, and cognitive. I will know I have improved in creating strong morning meetings is the growth I will see in GOLD by increasing over the color bands.

Guided Reading with Intentionality

 

Cute cheerful little girl reading book wearing glasses, isolated over white. Stock Photo. Clipart.com School Edition, Vital Imagery Ltd., 05-09-2013, https://schools.clipart.com/download.php?iid=639741&tl=photos. Accessed 29-09-2021.

Sep 27 at 9:04am

Manage Discussion Entry

This year my focus for my ICDP goal is going to be guided reading.  I feel like I've focused on math instruction a lot in past years and need to spend time focusing on reading instruction.  Last year I was able to dabble in Literacy Footprints with my online students and then when I moved back onsite, I was able to continue.  I want my guided reading groups to be calm and intentional.  I want the kids to walk away with a love for reading and writing and having grown in their abilities everyday.   Looking at Leveled Benchmark data from the end of the year last year, I have quite a few 1st graders that did not meet end of year goal in Kindergarten.  I will be taking the Literacy Footprint Guided Reading class once a month with Jenn Burns and Erin Klopstad.  I will be using Next Steps Teacher's Guide to Guided Reading text along with videotaping myself working with students and digging deeper into the why and how of each piece of a guided reading lesson.  I will know students have been impacted by this goal when I do the Jan Richardson Leveling Benchmark at the end of the year and students will have grown at least 1 year or met the end of year goal.

Folk Dancing in the Music Room

Image from Unsplash (Yan Berthemy)

 For my ICDP this year I would like to focus on integrating more folk dancing into the music room!  

4th quarter last year (20-21), I started using a few folk dances as a way to get students' bodies moving either at the beginning of class to wake us up or at the end as a reward for hard work (because they are fun!!- at least most students think so).  The first time I did this in class with the 3/4 students, I got tons of eye rolls and groans that I was going to make them dance... by the second class period they were begging to have enough time to "Sasha" and wanting to know when we were going to learn a new one!  I quick checked with Shawna and Lisa about what dances they knew that I could learn/teach quickly and I made a list of 4/5 that we did throughout the remainder of the school year.  

I would like to spend more time researching and learning new dances that I can integrate this year with the students because movement is so important to our learning and (I am working on this next part) but research shows that dance teaches so many different parts of music as well (beat reinforcement, form, phrasing) as well as many other areas outside of music (posture, cooperation, SEL), not to mention it can be very fun!  I know though that I have to be purposeful in how I teach the dances and what I emphasize if I want to be able to actually teach those areas so I want to spend time a) finding more dances and b) planning how I will incorporate the teaching of form, beat, SEL, cooperation, etc.  

Wilson Reading System for 1:1 Instruction

Image from Wilson Language Training

 I am focusing on the Wilson Reading System with one of my students who will be new to it this year. I have decided to focus on this, again this year, because this student is significantly behind in her reading.  I will be working with her 1:1 during our time together.  This is a change because typically I work with students in small groups.  Individual student needs 1:1 instruction. 

I will have to revamp the class time she is with me because I had her grouped with two other students. I can tell that won't work and I will have to adjust things.  This should impact student learning by give her 1:1 attention and time.  It will also allow the other students who were going to be with her the ability to move at a faster pace.  

I do not need additional resources for this goal.  I will continue to talk with colleagues who are also trained in Wilson and continue to use their site for resources.  I will have to research for specific progression of skills.  

She currently reads 49 words per minute, has no work attack skills, and does not use or understand context clues.  She will reread a sentence again and again (due to her low speed) hoping to comprehend.  She verbalizes her frustrations.  

I will use weekly Wilson data, IEP data,  and FAST testing throughout the year to gage her progress.  

Self-Care

 This year I am going to focus on self care. I attended Kody Asmus and Meg Frieders sessions during Nevada PhD and found that self care is a missing piece for me, especially now with a little one at home. While attending Emily Kruse's session I learned that adult self care is even part of the SEL standards for the state. 

Last year self care was not a priority for me and I often felt frazzled and overwhelmed with the demands of my career. I did not give the extra time or effort to my students that I might have in the past. Personal factors such as having a baby and dealing with my father's cancer diagnosis was, of course, a big part of this but I suspect that if I gave myself the care I needed there would be more to go around to not just my students but also my family. 

I plan to read the book Heart! by Timothy Kanold. I have heard him speak on this topic a few years ago at a PLC training and feel this book will give me good information. I also plan to look into the resources Kody listed. I believe exercise will be a place for me to start to get back to walking 10 minutes a day at lunch time as well as develop my own yoga practice. In years past yoga my practice has been spotty but I fully believe in it. Through training and practice with kids I see how powerful it is. 

I will reflect back on the year and collect perception data on this goal as well as look at how many times per week I actually have been practicing mindfulness. While this might not have a direct link to student data, the health and mental well being of adults around them plays a part in their own development of social-emotional learning.