November 22, 2023 • 14 mins
Ever felt overwhelmed by the task of progress monitoring? Rest easy, friends! We're here to demystify the process and arm you with some strategic tips to maximize your intervention time. We kick off our enlightening discussion with an in-depth exploration of ensuring your goals are precise and skill-focused. We’ll also touch on the importance of time-boxing lengthy skills, knowing what exactly you're monitoring, and making certain your interventions are in alignment with your goals.
The second part of our chat is just as illuminating, as we provide a blueprint to help you efficiently organize your progress monitoring efforts. Learn why the key to a streamlined process lies in setting skill-focused goals and aligning your monitoring with them. We also reveal handy resources that will be instrumental in maximizing your progress monitoring efficacy. And just a heads up - we're going to start diving into the world of mathematics in the context of MTSS next week. So, whether you're a seasoned educator or a rookie, this episode is your ticket to mastering the art of progress monitoring. Stay tuned!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey there, welcome to Reaching Struggling Learners
and I just want to say happyThanksgiving week.
If you're in the US, hopefullyyou have today off and I know
some schools don't give, somedistricts don't give Wednesday
off Thanksgiving week, buthopefully you got today off and
(00:26):
I mean, quite frankly, I hopeyou had the whole week off.
But welcome to Thanksgivingweek.
I hope that you have afantastic Thanksgiving and Black
Friday and Black Friday weekendand all that.
If you're tuning in and youknow this podcast episode I
(00:48):
figured I should share.
This week I am doing a wholebunch of Black Friday deals and
all that.
Gotta have a bunch of bundleson sale, including a special
education mega bundle, which isbasically everything in my store
progress monitoring focused.
(01:10):
So there's a caseload manager,there is all of my progress
monitoring materials, all of myassessments and all the
activities that I have in therethat you know focus on the
skills, the specific skills thatwe progress monitor.
All of that is on sale.
(01:30):
I think it's starting tomorrowand definitely Friday, 50% off.
So make sure you go to mywebsite and you check out the
Black Friday deals.
But even if you don't, I reallyhope that you have a fantastic
week and hey, let's get started.
We're going to talk today aboutcollecting progress monitoring
(01:54):
in less than an hour a week.
So we know that collectingprogress monitoring it's
daunting.
It is a daunting task if youdon't know a few tricks of the
trade.
So the question that I askedmyself, and continue to ask
(02:15):
myself daily, is how can Iminimize my time spent on
progress monitoring so that Ican maximize my intervention
time?
We talk a lot about theimportance of data, we talk a
lot about the importance ofprogress monitoring and, yes,
that is important, but let'sface it, we're actually here
(02:35):
doing all this stuff to maximizethe intervention time for our
students.
So that's what we're going tofocus on today.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
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 (03:20):
All right.
So today we're talking aboutcollecting progress monitoring
in less than an hour a week, solet's jump in.
The first one is the first tipor trick that I've got for you
is make sure and you can listento the recording, the podcast
episode from two, three weeksago make sure that your progress
(03:43):
monitoring goal is short andsweet.
Meaning is it skill focused?
Make sure it's skill focused sothat you can limit what your
progress monitoring so to whatyou're doing in the goal.
Okay, if you're, if you'retrying to test it, if you have a
goal for a really wide thing,that makes it really hard to
(04:06):
progress monitor.
So, instead, have your progressmonitoring goals short and
sweet so that you're only havingto test for one skill.
Make it, make it simple.
Next, put a time limit forlengthy skills.
Make sure, for example, if youhave, you know, a lengthy skill
(04:29):
like addition problems, whathave you?
Have them do a certain numberof problems in one minute.
Okay, don't flip it the otherway and say the student will be
able to collect, will be able tocomplete 30 problems.
No, just say the student willbe able to complete 20 problems
in a minute.
It's basically the same skill,but you get to stop them in a
(04:53):
minute if they didn't get to 20.
Okay, they didn't meet theskill.
You can still data collect onit.
You can still say, hey, theygot 15 in the minute instead of
the 20.
That's okay, there's nothingwrong with that.
But keep your keep your goalsshort and sweet and keep your
time frame limited.
Next thing is make sure youknow what your progress
(05:14):
monitoring.
That way you can actuallyprogress monitor the goal that
you said.
We don't want to have questionson what to do.
You don't want to have thekiddo sit down in front of you
and you go oh, I forgot what thegoal is.
I know what we worked on thisweek, but it's not exactly what
the goal is.
Make sure that you know and youyou know what your progress
(05:38):
monitoring now Helps.
If the next step, make sure thatthe intervention is focused on
the goal.
So part of this is because howare you, how is the student
going to make progress in thegoal that you set if the
intervention isn't focused onthe goal?
(06:00):
Yeah, I Believe me.
I've had many a Discussion withmany a co-worker over the years
that, well, this is theintervention that we use.
But you just said that thestudent needs xyz goal.
This isn't going to touch onxyz.
How are they going to makeprogress in the goal that you
(06:22):
set, the the skill that you saidthe student is struggling and
how are they going to makeProgress there if you're not
working on it in theintervention?
So if You're not working on it,first of all, they're not going
to make progress, but also, ifthe skill isn't covered by the
intervention, it makes progressmonitoring really hard.
(06:46):
If you know that you didn't workon the skill, what even?
Quite frankly, I've sat in,I've sat with kids and I've gone
.
Why are we even progressmonitoring this if we never
worked on it this week?
No, of course they didn't makeprogress in it because we don't
work on it.
It is also super slow.
If the student isn't working onthe skill, then that's going to
(07:07):
be reflected in how long ittakes them to perform the task
that you want them to to do fortheir assessment.
And it's frustrating, it issuper frustrating to sit there
and watch a student continue tostruggle with something and in
your head you're going yes, Iknow, I know you didn't actually
work on this this week.
(07:28):
And not only is it frustratingto you, the teacher, but it is
super frustrating to the studentwho is looking at this and
going I am not getting anybetter at this skill.
That's frustrating.
It just slows everything downand you're wasting time.
If you're collecting data onthe wrong goal or if you're not
(07:52):
even working on the goal, thedata is moot anyway Because
again, you're not working on it,you're not saying what.
You're not doing what you saidyou were gonna do.
It's not your fault.
Don't start saying, well, Ican't help it.
I realize that schools havetheir specific interventions and
(08:13):
all that, but again, you haveto make sure that that
intervention is focused on thegoal or we're wasting our time.
That's the reality.
The next thing is be prepared,and we've said I've said this a
lot over the years have yourcopies and materials ready.
(08:33):
Go ahead and have it for theentire iteration, if possible.
Go ahead, and teachers love, Ilove laminating.
You can send me stuff and Iwill gladly cut that stuff out
for you.
I will sit in front of my TVand watch old reruns of Grey's
Anatomy forever and I will cutout your lamination for you.
(08:55):
I love prepping stuff.
Go ahead and get it prepped forthe amount of time.
Have your data sheets ready togo.
Have all your stuff, your cards, ready to go and all that
Because, again, if you can justpull it out and go, you don't
have to go.
Oh, I gotta push that to nextweek because I don't have the
(09:15):
copies.
Don't push it to next week,don't do it, just have it done
in the time that you hadallotted for it.
Make it easier.
Don't make yourself scrambleunless you have to.
And then part of that is havingthe data collection pages ready
to go.
I am notorious for having mypost-it notes.
(09:36):
I have lost a lot of data untilI learned that post-it notes
are not the way to go.
Make sure that you do not pulla Jessica and have your data
collection sheets ready to go.
And if you use the ones thatI've got in my bundle ready to
(09:57):
go this week, they're alreadyset up for the whole nine weeks
that you could do and you don'thave to worry about it.
It's all there and ready to go.
If you don't use mine, usesomething, just use something.
Use my FreeBee, go to get myfive steps to begin progress
(10:17):
monitoring.
Use those data collectionsheets for free.
It's a beautiful thing.
Have it all ready to go andthen don't worry about it.
And then the last thing is getand stay organized Again.
Have the things ready to gowhen you need them and know
where they are in the space.
Have it organized for quick andeasy use For me.
(10:42):
I am a weirdo because I like acombination of file folders and
three ring binders.
Don't ask me why I just do, andI've got certain skills in
three ring binders.
That just it just works for me.
And I've got my sheetprotectors in there and for some
(11:04):
reason letter sounds.
I have them in that.
But you ask me to progressmonitor for time, for example,
and I've got my little ring withall my clock faces on it and
that's.
That is absolutely the way togo.
That doesn't fit in a threering binder.
That is in my hanging folder.
And so do what works for you,and it can be a combination of
(11:27):
different things, but choosewhat works for you, have it
organized and keep it that way,and that will save time forever
and ever and ever, because youdon't want to be switching
different organizationtechniques unless you again,
unless you have to.
But also that way you're notlooking for stuff and if
(11:52):
goodness knows if you have anextra set of hands in the
classroom one day and you canpoint over to the cabinet and
say, hey, my time progressmonitoring is in there.
Would you go get that for me,okay, okay, we're going to do
some progress monitoring.
That is one of the most joyfulexperiences that I could ever
(12:15):
have is to just have an extraset of hands in the classroom
and I can get my stuff done andwe can move on.
So, all that being said,progress monitoring if you set
yourself up for success,starting with making a skill
focused goal and making surethat what you're doing in your
(12:37):
groups is skill focused, isfocused on the skill that they
need to work on the goal thatyou made, and that the progress
monitoring lines up with thatgoal and the skill, you're going
to be just snapping rightthrough your progress monitoring
.
It's not going to take long.
It's when those three thingsaren't in line with each other
(13:01):
that progress monitoring reallybecomes a massive, massive
headache.
So if you need help with any ofthat, make sure that you get to
teachingstrugglinglearnerscom.
I've got lots of resourcesthere for you, but in the
meantime, I hope you have, likeI said, an absolutely fantastic
(13:22):
Thanksgiving, black Friday weekand next week we're going to do?
We're going to actually starttalking about some math, because
the fact is, math doesn't gettalked about nearly as much as I
think it should when we'retalking about MTSS, and so I
think we're going to spend sometime and we're going to focus on
that for all my math people outthere, but in the meantime, may
(13:46):
your coffee be strong, yourstudents calm and your week,
your time off, relaxing.
Bye.
Hey there, welcome to Reaching Struggling Learners
and I just want to say happyThanksgiving week.
If you're in the US, hopefullyyou have today off and I know
some schools don't give, somedistricts don't give Wednesday
off Thanksgiving week, buthopefully you got today off and
(00:26):
I mean, quite frankly, I hopeyou had the whole week off.
But welcome to Thanksgivingweek.
I hope that you have afantastic Thanksgiving and Black
Friday and Black Friday weekendand all that.
If you're tuning in and youknow this podcast episode I
(00:48):
figured I should share.
This week I am doing a wholebunch of Black Friday deals and
all that.
Gotta have a bunch of bundleson sale, including a special
education mega bundle, which isbasically everything in my store
progress monitoring focused.
(01:10):
So there's a caseload manager,there is all of my progress
monitoring materials, all of myassessments and all the
activities that I have in therethat you know focus on the
skills, the specific skills thatwe progress monitor.
All of that is on sale.
(01:30):
I think it's starting tomorrowand definitely Friday, 50% off.
So make sure you go to mywebsite and you check out the
Black Friday deals.
But even if you don't, I reallyhope that you have a fantastic
week and hey, let's get started.
We're going to talk today aboutcollecting progress monitoring
(01:54):
in less than an hour a week.
So we know that collectingprogress monitoring it's
daunting.
It is a daunting task if youdon't know a few tricks of the
trade.
So the question that I askedmyself, and continue to ask
(02:15):
myself daily, is how can Iminimize my time spent on
progress monitoring so that Ican maximize my intervention
time?
We talk a lot about theimportance of data, we talk a
lot about the importance ofprogress monitoring and, yes,
that is important, but let'sface it, we're actually here
(02:35):
doing all this stuff to maximizethe intervention time for our
students.
So that's what we're going tofocus on today.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
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 (03:20):
All right.
So today we're talking aboutcollecting progress monitoring
in less than an hour a week, solet's jump in.
The first one is the first tipor trick that I've got for you
is make sure and you can listento the recording, the podcast
episode from two, three weeksago make sure that your progress
(03:43):
monitoring goal is short andsweet.
Meaning is it skill focused?
Make sure it's skill focused sothat you can limit what your
progress monitoring so to whatyou're doing in the goal.
Okay, if you're, if you'retrying to test it, if you have a
goal for a really wide thing,that makes it really hard to
(04:06):
progress monitor.
So, instead, have your progressmonitoring goals short and
sweet so that you're only havingto test for one skill.
Make it, make it simple.
Next, put a time limit forlengthy skills.
Make sure, for example, if youhave, you know, a lengthy skill
(04:29):
like addition problems, whathave you?
Have them do a certain numberof problems in one minute.
Okay, don't flip it the otherway and say the student will be
able to collect, will be able tocomplete 30 problems.
No, just say the student willbe able to complete 20 problems
in a minute.
It's basically the same skill,but you get to stop them in a
(04:53):
minute if they didn't get to 20.
Okay, they didn't meet theskill.
You can still data collect onit.
You can still say, hey, theygot 15 in the minute instead of
the 20.
That's okay, there's nothingwrong with that.
But keep your keep your goalsshort and sweet and keep your
time frame limited.
Next thing is make sure youknow what your progress
(05:14):
monitoring.
That way you can actuallyprogress monitor the goal that
you said.
We don't want to have questionson what to do.
You don't want to have thekiddo sit down in front of you
and you go oh, I forgot what thegoal is.
I know what we worked on thisweek, but it's not exactly what
the goal is.
Make sure that you know and youyou know what your progress
(05:38):
monitoring now Helps.
If the next step, make sure thatthe intervention is focused on
the goal.
So part of this is because howare you, how is the student
going to make progress in thegoal that you set if the
intervention isn't focused onthe goal?
(06:00):
Yeah, I Believe me.
I've had many a Discussion withmany a co-worker over the years
that, well, this is theintervention that we use.
But you just said that thestudent needs xyz goal.
This isn't going to touch onxyz.
How are they going to makeprogress in the goal that you
(06:22):
set, the the skill that you saidthe student is struggling and
how are they going to makeProgress there if you're not
working on it in theintervention?
So if You're not working on it,first of all, they're not going
to make progress, but also, ifthe skill isn't covered by the
intervention, it makes progressmonitoring really hard.
(06:46):
If you know that you didn't workon the skill, what even?
Quite frankly, I've sat in,I've sat with kids and I've gone
.
Why are we even progressmonitoring this if we never
worked on it this week?
No, of course they didn't makeprogress in it because we don't
work on it.
It is also super slow.
If the student isn't working onthe skill, then that's going to
(07:07):
be reflected in how long ittakes them to perform the task
that you want them to to do fortheir assessment.
And it's frustrating, it issuper frustrating to sit there
and watch a student continue tostruggle with something and in
your head you're going yes, Iknow, I know you didn't actually
work on this this week.
(07:28):
And not only is it frustratingto you, the teacher, but it is
super frustrating to the studentwho is looking at this and
going I am not getting anybetter at this skill.
That's frustrating.
It just slows everything downand you're wasting time.
If you're collecting data onthe wrong goal or if you're not
(07:52):
even working on the goal, thedata is moot anyway Because
again, you're not working on it,you're not saying what.
You're not doing what you saidyou were gonna do.
It's not your fault.
Don't start saying, well, Ican't help it.
I realize that schools havetheir specific interventions and
(08:13):
all that, but again, you haveto make sure that that
intervention is focused on thegoal or we're wasting our time.
That's the reality.
The next thing is be prepared,and we've said I've said this a
lot over the years have yourcopies and materials ready.
(08:33):
Go ahead and have it for theentire iteration, if possible.
Go ahead, and teachers love, Ilove laminating.
You can send me stuff and Iwill gladly cut that stuff out
for you.
I will sit in front of my TVand watch old reruns of Grey's
Anatomy forever and I will cutout your lamination for you.
(08:55):
I love prepping stuff.
Go ahead and get it prepped forthe amount of time.
Have your data sheets ready togo.
Have all your stuff, your cards, ready to go and all that
Because, again, if you can justpull it out and go, you don't
have to go.
Oh, I gotta push that to nextweek because I don't have the
(09:15):
copies.
Don't push it to next week,don't do it, just have it done
in the time that you hadallotted for it.
Make it easier.
Don't make yourself scrambleunless you have to.
And then part of that is havingthe data collection pages ready
to go.
I am notorious for having mypost-it notes.
(09:36):
I have lost a lot of data untilI learned that post-it notes
are not the way to go.
Make sure that you do not pulla Jessica and have your data
collection sheets ready to go.
And if you use the ones thatI've got in my bundle ready to
(09:57):
go this week, they're alreadyset up for the whole nine weeks
that you could do and you don'thave to worry about it.
It's all there and ready to go.
If you don't use mine, usesomething, just use something.
Use my FreeBee, go to get myfive steps to begin progress
(10:17):
monitoring.
Use those data collectionsheets for free.
It's a beautiful thing.
Have it all ready to go andthen don't worry about it.
And then the last thing is getand stay organized Again.
Have the things ready to gowhen you need them and know
where they are in the space.
Have it organized for quick andeasy use For me.
(10:42):
I am a weirdo because I like acombination of file folders and
three ring binders.
Don't ask me why I just do, andI've got certain skills in
three ring binders.
That just it just works for me.
And I've got my sheetprotectors in there and for some
(11:04):
reason letter sounds.
I have them in that.
But you ask me to progressmonitor for time, for example,
and I've got my little ring withall my clock faces on it and
that's.
That is absolutely the way togo.
That doesn't fit in a threering binder.
That is in my hanging folder.
And so do what works for you,and it can be a combination of
(11:27):
different things, but choosewhat works for you, have it
organized and keep it that way,and that will save time forever
and ever and ever, because youdon't want to be switching
different organizationtechniques unless you again,
unless you have to.
But also that way you're notlooking for stuff and if
(11:52):
goodness knows if you have anextra set of hands in the
classroom one day and you canpoint over to the cabinet and
say, hey, my time progressmonitoring is in there.
Would you go get that for me,okay, okay, we're going to do
some progress monitoring.
That is one of the most joyfulexperiences that I could ever
(12:15):
have is to just have an extraset of hands in the classroom
and I can get my stuff done andwe can move on.
So, all that being said,progress monitoring if you set
yourself up for success,starting with making a skill
focused goal and making surethat what you're doing in your
(12:37):
groups is skill focused, isfocused on the skill that they
need to work on the goal thatyou made, and that the progress
monitoring lines up with thatgoal and the skill, you're going
to be just snapping rightthrough your progress monitoring
.
It's not going to take long.
It's when those three thingsaren't in line with each other
(13:01):
that progress monitoring reallybecomes a massive, massive
headache.
So if you need help with any ofthat, make sure that you get to
teachingstrugglinglearnerscom.
I've got lots of resourcesthere for you, but in the
meantime, I hope you have, likeI said, an absolutely fantastic
(13:22):
Thanksgiving, black Friday weekand next week we're going to do?
We're going to actually starttalking about some math, because
the fact is, math doesn't gettalked about nearly as much as I
think it should when we'retalking about MTSS, and so I
think we're going to spend sometime and we're going to focus on
that for all my math people outthere, but in the meantime, may
(13:46):
your coffee be strong, yourstudents calm and your week,
your time off, relaxing.
Bye.
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