November 15, 2023 • 13 mins
What if the progress monitoring tool you are using is not aligned with your academic goals? How will this impact the data you collect and the progress you can report? Let's explore these questions and more in this enlightening episode where we delve into the nitty-gritty of progress monitoring for academic goals. We'll shed light on the importance of focusing on the skill area pertinent to the goal and offer valuable insights on how to review goals effectively and select the correct progress monitoring collection tool.
Imagine having a five-step guide to kickstart your progress monitoring, complete with the right materials, examples, and actionable tips. That's exactly what we have for you in this episode! Get ready to learn how to prep your progress monitoring in advance, dodge printer jams and paper shortages, and organize your materials with intervention materials for stress-free access when you need them. As a bonus, we're also going to reveal how you can get your progress monitoring done in less than an hour a week in our next episode. So, stay tuned and let's master progress monitoring together.
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Links Mentioned in the Show:
https://teachingstrugglinglearners.com
5 Steps to Getting Started with Progress Monitoring
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Goals, smart goals, progress monitoring, data, chats
, graphs, mtss, man if thesewords stress you out, first of
all, know that you are in somefantastic company, but also know
that you are in company thatknows how much is riding on all
(00:25):
of this stuff.
You work hard to make our goals.
Now we need to make sure thatthat time that we spent making
those goals, thinking about whatthe student really needs, isn't
wasted.
This week, let's talk aboutprogress monitoring, the goal
that you actually made.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Hi, I'm Jessica Curtis of Teaching Struggling
Learners.
I'm a boy-mom and a veteranteacher.
You're listening to theReaching Struggling Learners
podcast, where we talk all abouthelping students succeed
academically, socially andbehaviorally.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So last week we talked about making good goals.
We talked about how important itis that our goals are not test
focused, they are skill focused.
If you need a refresher ormaybe you missed it, make sure
you go back to last week'spodcast episode talking about
making sure that we make a goodgoal that makes sense.
(01:41):
This week, we want to actuallymake sure that we are progress
monitoring that beautiful goal,that focus goal, that skill
driven goal that we made, sothat we can report the awesome
progress that we know ourstudents are going to make
because we focused on the rightthing.
So there's a couple things thatwe need to do to make sure that
(02:06):
we actually progress monitorthe goal that we made.
The first one is we need toreview the goal.
Before we do anything else,before we jump into doing
interventions and all that, weneed to look at the actual goal
and we need to take note of theactual skill level or the skill
area that we talked about, theparameters of that goal and how
(02:30):
often.
So the first thing is actualskill area, and this is one that
I probably harped on and you'reprobably getting tired of it,
but making sure that we arelooking at that.
We are aware of the actualskill area, not just over.
We're studying phonics, butknow what part of phonics.
(02:51):
Are we working on CVC words?
Are we working on silent ewords?
Are we working on blends,digraphs, are we working on
addition and subtraction,fluency, whatever the specific
skill area is, that's what thatis mentioned in that goal,
that's what we need to beprogress monitoring, that's what
(03:12):
we need to be checking and wealso need to figure out what did
we put for parameters?
Did we say that it's going to bea timed assessment?
Are they going to have to beable to do a certain number in a
certain length of time?
Or did we say that the you know, the student was given a field
(03:36):
of five.
That's I see a lot of IEP, iepgoals with.
We have a field of five and thestudent would be able to pick
one.
Sometimes we'll put on therethat hey, the site words that
the student is going to see.
It shouldn't be on a big sheetof paper with a hundred site
words, it's going to be onflashcards.
(03:56):
We need to make sure that weknow the parameters that we put
in our goal, because that isimportant.
That is the set of limitationsthat we've said that we we think
that child should be able to dothat skill, be able to perform
that skill within.
And then, finally, how oftenare you going to be doing this?
If you're tier two, you'reprobably only testing the kiddo.
(04:18):
You're only assessing the skillarea bi-weekly, so every other
week.
If it's tier three or you'retalking about special education,
you probably are testing themor doing that assessment weekly.
So make sure that you know whatlevel you're at, what skill
you're at and what are theparameters.
(04:39):
What exactly are the assessingrules for when you're sitting
down with them?
The next thing that you need todo after you have that clear in
your mind, you have to chooseyour progress monitoring
collection pieces based onwhether it meets the goal
exactly.
So, for example, you don't wantto choose a progress monitoring
(05:03):
assessment that is spellingwords out instead of reading
them.
There is a specificintervention program that I will
not name because we're notnaming things to criticize, but
in I don't get me wrong.
I actually think that theintervention program is high
(05:25):
quality.
I think it does a very good jobfor certain students, but the
assessments that they use testthe spelling of words instead of
the reading of words.
It also tests sight words andfluency and some.
It tests a lot of differentthings and that's not
(05:48):
particularly effective whenyou're looking at progress
monitoring.
So if your goal and I see this alot of the times is that the
student will be able to read CVCwords, cvc e-words, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, and we'll beable to read them, you know,
with 80% accuracy, because forsome reason everybody puts 80%
(06:10):
accuracy four out of five times.
I don't know why, but that'swhat they put.
And but then when yourassessment comes around and you
have them, spelling the words,guys, spelling the words is not
the same thing as reading thewords.
That's actually two differentskill sets, two important skill
sets, but two different skillsets.
(06:31):
And so if you're working ontrying to get kids to read the
words and that's your focus thenmaking the progress monitoring
tool more difficult by requiringthem to spell the words is not
actually progress monitoring thegoal that you made for that
(06:51):
child.
Again, if, again, if your goalsays that the student will be
able to read the words you knowindividually instead of in
sentences, but your progressmonitoring tool has the words in
sentences, you're not progressmonitoring what you said you
(07:12):
were going to, what your goal is, you're progress monitoring,
something related, but the datadoesn't actually reflect what
the goal is.
Why am I being a stickler forthis?
Because when you bring, when webring not just you, I've done
it in the past, don't get mewrong when we bring data that
(07:34):
doesn't actually reflect thegoal that's put up there, then
we're not giving a good pictureof what's going on and we can't
actually make a good decision onwhether the intervention was
effective or not.
Because, okay, my example withthe student spelling the words
instead of reading the words.
(07:54):
The student may actually verywell be able to read the words
now, but we're requiring them tostick with that same
intervention, that same skillset, even if they've really
mastered it.
We don't know if they masteredit, but they might have mastered
it because, again, spelling itis more difficult.
There's a big differencebetween encoding and decoding,
(08:18):
and so we're bringinginformation to the meeting, to
data chats, to whatever you'retalking about.
You're bringing flawed data,which means it's not actually
reflecting what that student'sable to do, and that can be
quite the impediment forstudents making the progress
that we actually think theyshould be able to do.
(08:41):
So, once you have figured outyour progress monitoring
collection steps or your piecesthere.
The next thing you want to do isgo ahead and print and copy
your data sheets and yourprogress monitoring pieces for
however long it is the durationof your time frame.
(09:03):
I suggest that you do a littlebit more.
But that's just me.
And the reason I say go aheadand print and copy and have all
this stuff ready to go isbecause the last thing that you
want on week four of your datacollection stuff is for the
paper, the printer, to jam,because it's going to at some
(09:24):
point in there.
The printer is going to jam,the copier is going to blow up,
and, like in my one school wherethere is ink, just the ink, the
stuff, the dust all over thecopy room, and that was just a
disaster.
Just don't do that.
That's going to happen at somepoint and then you're going to
(09:45):
be sitting there going, but Idon't have my assessment.
Well, I guess I'll just pullthis other thing.
And now again, you have skeweddata that doesn't accurately
reflect what the student does.
You said at the beginningyou're going to test this one
thing, you're going to assessthis one skill area.
(10:06):
Well, this is very similar,it's not the same.
And you're skewing your owndata.
You're causing yourself morework.
So go ahead and start off andmake yourself successful by some
sheer imagination.
We know that at some point thecopier is going to explode, the
(10:29):
school is going to run out ofpaper, you're going to be
running late.
Just go ahead and print andcopy your data sheets, your
progress monitoring pieces, allof that for the duration.
Have it ready to go and keepthat stuff for next time,
because you know you're probablygoing to need it again anyway.
(10:49):
And that goes right into thenext thing.
Step number four Organize thosematerials with the intervention
materials so that it's easy toaccess when you need it.
So have your data sheets, allthat stuff ready to go with what
you need, because, again, youcan do, depending on the
(11:11):
parameters of your progressmonitoring.
You might be able to get thisstuff done sitting on the floor
with a student after they getsomething else done.
You never know when you'll beable to just slip in.
Hey, I forgot, we got to getthis done.
Okay, good, read those words.
Okay, do it.
It's possible, it is absolutelypossible to get progress
(11:33):
monitoring in on the fly if youhave all your stuff ready to go.
So, with that in mind, if youneed a little bit of help
getting started with progressmonitoring, I'll put the notes
or I'll put the link in the shownotes, but I do have a getting
started get started withprogress monitoring freebie.
(11:54):
It's just five steps and thatwill absolutely help you with
getting all this off the groundfor you.
And if you already are ready togo, go ahead and check out my
website it'steachingstrugglinglearnerscom,
where you can see a whole bunchof different examples of
progress monitoring that I'veused over the years and you'll
(12:17):
be able to see how you can drilldown to the very specific skill
not test focused, skill focusedbut you can drill down to the
skills that your students needand you can have your progress
monitoring materials ready to goall there for you without with
very, very minimal prep andstress for you.
(12:39):
I mean, nothing is stress free,but it doesn't have to be
nearly as stressful as what wehave had to deal with in the
last few years.
So, again, I hope that you'vegot something from this.
Hopefully it was, you know, ahelpful little bit of
information for you.
Next week we're going to talkabout pulling all of this
(13:01):
together and how you can getyour progress monitoring done in
less than sometimes way lessthan an hour a week.
So I really hope you tune innext week to when we're going to
talk about that.
But in the meantime may yourcoffee be strong, your students
calm and your parents supersupportive.
(13:24):
Bye.
Goals, smart goals, progress monitoring, data, chats
, graphs, mtss, man if thesewords stress you out, first of
all, know that you are in somefantastic company, but also know
that you are in company thatknows how much is riding on all
(00:25):
of this stuff.
You work hard to make our goals.
Now we need to make sure thatthat time that we spent making
those goals, thinking about whatthe student really needs, isn't
wasted.
This week, let's talk aboutprogress monitoring, the goal
that you actually made.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Hi, I'm Jessica Curtis of Teaching Struggling
Learners.
I'm a boy-mom and a veteranteacher.
You're listening to theReaching Struggling Learners
podcast, where we talk all abouthelping students succeed
academically, socially andbehaviorally.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So last week we talked about making good goals.
We talked about how important itis that our goals are not test
focused, they are skill focused.
If you need a refresher ormaybe you missed it, make sure
you go back to last week'spodcast episode talking about
making sure that we make a goodgoal that makes sense.
(01:41):
This week, we want to actuallymake sure that we are progress
monitoring that beautiful goal,that focus goal, that skill
driven goal that we made, sothat we can report the awesome
progress that we know ourstudents are going to make
because we focused on the rightthing.
So there's a couple things thatwe need to do to make sure that
(02:06):
we actually progress monitorthe goal that we made.
The first one is we need toreview the goal.
Before we do anything else,before we jump into doing
interventions and all that, weneed to look at the actual goal
and we need to take note of theactual skill level or the skill
area that we talked about, theparameters of that goal and how
(02:30):
often.
So the first thing is actualskill area, and this is one that
I probably harped on and you'reprobably getting tired of it,
but making sure that we arelooking at that.
We are aware of the actualskill area, not just over.
We're studying phonics, butknow what part of phonics.
(02:51):
Are we working on CVC words?
Are we working on silent ewords?
Are we working on blends,digraphs, are we working on
addition and subtraction,fluency, whatever the specific
skill area is, that's what thatis mentioned in that goal,
that's what we need to beprogress monitoring, that's what
(03:12):
we need to be checking and wealso need to figure out what did
we put for parameters?
Did we say that it's going to bea timed assessment?
Are they going to have to beable to do a certain number in a
certain length of time?
Or did we say that the you know, the student was given a field
(03:36):
of five.
That's I see a lot of IEP, iepgoals with.
We have a field of five and thestudent would be able to pick
one.
Sometimes we'll put on therethat hey, the site words that
the student is going to see.
It shouldn't be on a big sheetof paper with a hundred site
words, it's going to be onflashcards.
(03:56):
We need to make sure that weknow the parameters that we put
in our goal, because that isimportant.
That is the set of limitationsthat we've said that we we think
that child should be able to dothat skill, be able to perform
that skill within.
And then, finally, how oftenare you going to be doing this?
If you're tier two, you'reprobably only testing the kiddo.
(04:18):
You're only assessing the skillarea bi-weekly, so every other
week.
If it's tier three or you'retalking about special education,
you probably are testing themor doing that assessment weekly.
So make sure that you know whatlevel you're at, what skill
you're at and what are theparameters.
(04:39):
What exactly are the assessingrules for when you're sitting
down with them?
The next thing that you need todo after you have that clear in
your mind, you have to chooseyour progress monitoring
collection pieces based onwhether it meets the goal
exactly.
So, for example, you don't wantto choose a progress monitoring
(05:03):
assessment that is spellingwords out instead of reading
them.
There is a specificintervention program that I will
not name because we're notnaming things to criticize, but
in I don't get me wrong.
I actually think that theintervention program is high
(05:25):
quality.
I think it does a very good jobfor certain students, but the
assessments that they use testthe spelling of words instead of
the reading of words.
It also tests sight words andfluency and some.
It tests a lot of differentthings and that's not
(05:48):
particularly effective whenyou're looking at progress
monitoring.
So if your goal and I see this alot of the times is that the
student will be able to read CVCwords, cvc e-words, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, and we'll beable to read them, you know,
with 80% accuracy, because forsome reason everybody puts 80%
(06:10):
accuracy four out of five times.
I don't know why, but that'swhat they put.
And but then when yourassessment comes around and you
have them, spelling the words,guys, spelling the words is not
the same thing as reading thewords.
That's actually two differentskill sets, two important skill
sets, but two different skillsets.
(06:31):
And so if you're working ontrying to get kids to read the
words and that's your focus thenmaking the progress monitoring
tool more difficult by requiringthem to spell the words is not
actually progress monitoring thegoal that you made for that
(06:51):
child.
Again, if, again, if your goalsays that the student will be
able to read the words you knowindividually instead of in
sentences, but your progressmonitoring tool has the words in
sentences, you're not progressmonitoring what you said you
(07:12):
were going to, what your goal is, you're progress monitoring,
something related, but the datadoesn't actually reflect what
the goal is.
Why am I being a stickler forthis?
Because when you bring, when webring not just you, I've done
it in the past, don't get mewrong when we bring data that
(07:34):
doesn't actually reflect thegoal that's put up there, then
we're not giving a good pictureof what's going on and we can't
actually make a good decision onwhether the intervention was
effective or not.
Because, okay, my example withthe student spelling the words
instead of reading the words.
(07:54):
The student may actually verywell be able to read the words
now, but we're requiring them tostick with that same
intervention, that same skillset, even if they've really
mastered it.
We don't know if they masteredit, but they might have mastered
it because, again, spelling itis more difficult.
There's a big differencebetween encoding and decoding,
(08:18):
and so we're bringinginformation to the meeting, to
data chats, to whatever you'retalking about.
You're bringing flawed data,which means it's not actually
reflecting what that student'sable to do, and that can be
quite the impediment forstudents making the progress
that we actually think theyshould be able to do.
(08:41):
So, once you have figured outyour progress monitoring
collection steps or your piecesthere.
The next thing you want to do isgo ahead and print and copy
your data sheets and yourprogress monitoring pieces for
however long it is the durationof your time frame.
(09:03):
I suggest that you do a littlebit more.
But that's just me.
And the reason I say go aheadand print and copy and have all
this stuff ready to go isbecause the last thing that you
want on week four of your datacollection stuff is for the
paper, the printer, to jam,because it's going to at some
(09:24):
point in there.
The printer is going to jam,the copier is going to blow up,
and, like in my one school wherethere is ink, just the ink, the
stuff, the dust all over thecopy room, and that was just a
disaster.
Just don't do that.
That's going to happen at somepoint and then you're going to
(09:45):
be sitting there going, but Idon't have my assessment.
Well, I guess I'll just pullthis other thing.
And now again, you have skeweddata that doesn't accurately
reflect what the student does.
You said at the beginningyou're going to test this one
thing, you're going to assessthis one skill area.
(10:06):
Well, this is very similar,it's not the same.
And you're skewing your owndata.
You're causing yourself morework.
So go ahead and start off andmake yourself successful by some
sheer imagination.
We know that at some point thecopier is going to explode, the
(10:29):
school is going to run out ofpaper, you're going to be
running late.
Just go ahead and print andcopy your data sheets, your
progress monitoring pieces, allof that for the duration.
Have it ready to go and keepthat stuff for next time,
because you know you're probablygoing to need it again anyway.
(10:49):
And that goes right into thenext thing.
Step number four Organize thosematerials with the intervention
materials so that it's easy toaccess when you need it.
So have your data sheets, allthat stuff ready to go with what
you need, because, again, youcan do, depending on the
(11:11):
parameters of your progressmonitoring.
You might be able to get thisstuff done sitting on the floor
with a student after they getsomething else done.
You never know when you'll beable to just slip in.
Hey, I forgot, we got to getthis done.
Okay, good, read those words.
Okay, do it.
It's possible, it is absolutelypossible to get progress
(11:33):
monitoring in on the fly if youhave all your stuff ready to go.
So, with that in mind, if youneed a little bit of help
getting started with progressmonitoring, I'll put the notes
or I'll put the link in the shownotes, but I do have a getting
started get started withprogress monitoring freebie.
(11:54):
It's just five steps and thatwill absolutely help you with
getting all this off the groundfor you.
And if you already are ready togo, go ahead and check out my
website it'steachingstrugglinglearnerscom,
where you can see a whole bunchof different examples of
progress monitoring that I'veused over the years and you'll
(12:17):
be able to see how you can drilldown to the very specific skill
not test focused, skill focusedbut you can drill down to the
skills that your students needand you can have your progress
monitoring materials ready to goall there for you without with
very, very minimal prep andstress for you.
(12:39):
I mean, nothing is stress free,but it doesn't have to be
nearly as stressful as what wehave had to deal with in the
last few years.
So, again, I hope that you'vegot something from this.
Hopefully it was, you know, ahelpful little bit of
information for you.
Next week we're going to talkabout pulling all of this
(13:01):
together and how you can getyour progress monitoring done in
less than sometimes way lessthan an hour a week.
So I really hope you tune innext week to when we're going to
talk about that.
But in the meantime may yourcoffee be strong, your students
calm and your parents supersupportive.
(13:24):
Bye.
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