Let’s continue basic skills month at TAH! After all the helpful blogs about basic skills, it’s time to examine where students go from here…so what’s after students have initially learned basic skills? I’m so glad you asked! It is vital that students become fluent in these skills in order to be able to effectively use the skills they learned without being prompted.

It’s mid-May so you might be thinking that I’ve lost my mind having a post about setting up something new in your classroom when the year is winding down, but this is actually the perfect time to set up and “test drive” something new. If you haven’t already, this is the perfect time to try a fluency station in your classroom…you can try it and tweak it before next school year. Also, if you have some of the same students in your classroom, you already have them set up for next year! Here are five resources and materials you can use to set up a fluency station in your classroom…

1. Fluency Station Video Tutorial 

I was lucky enough to learn how to set up a fluency station in IRL by The Autism Helper herself! But, this is the next best thing…this tutorial is brief, but informative and presents simple and user-friendly steps to set up a fluency station in your classroom!

2. Set Up Your Fluency Station 

Watching the previous video was easy…setting it up is the hard part! And not because it’s actually hard, but BCBAs know that behavior change is the hardest part (and that usually means teacher/staff behavior). As anything we present to you at TAH, once it’s set-up, all you have to so is maintain it!

Here, I presented pictures of the fluency station in my own classroom. It’s very similar to Sasha’s…it doesn’t take up much room, but requires space/storage for flashcards, storage bins, a data binder and work for students who are not completing fluency (because students are only to complete fluency one at a time). Come along with me on a photo journey…

 

Mentioned in the video and above, it is key to have work for students at the station who are not doing fluency with a teacher or paraprofessional. I like having students complete TAH’s Daily Work at the Fluency Station. Spend the first month or two teaching students how to complete Daily Work and they will be able to complete it on their own while the adult at the station is working one-on-one with a student on fluency.

Figure out a way to store the flashcards. Sasha suggests in her video to have containers for each student. I have recipe card boxes, but if you have students using the same set of cards, you can also set up flashcards as a general library for all students-the adult working at the station would just need to know where each set of cards were for easy access!

3. Get Your Materials Ready

Like everything in a good cluster or special education room, everything is individualized. It is vital that pre-tests or some or another assessment is completed in order to determine what skills a student needs to retain their fluency. Once again, we have you covered! I’ve just started using the Fluency Mega Pack and it is a great jumping off point if you are setting up fluency for the first time in your classroom or are looking to revamp your fluency station! This product includes instructions for set-up, baseline assessments, editable data sheets, over 500 flashcards and more!

Check out some of the flashcard sets you get with the Fluency Mega Pack…just print, laminate and organize…you are ready to go!

4. Run Your Fluency Station

This is probably the scariest step for me…because I am a perfectionist (which, I know I’m in good company…you are spending your free time learning new things to help your students), but the sooner you implement, the sooner you can tweak all the issues and get it rolling (aren’t you glad you test-drove this in May for next year 😉

This video is a great example of how to collect data at your fluency station…I hope it gives you the courage and inspiration to kick start your fluency station!

5. Additional Resources

While the resources and materials above primarily target expressive fluency, I didn’t want to leave you without adequate resources to meet all of your students needs so I included the following two videos…one highlights using fluency for receptive language skills and the other for fine motor fluency.

I hope you are inspired to set-up, utilize and continue to utilize fluency to help your students maintain knowledge of basic skills! Enjoy and share your fluency success stories!