If you have been reading my ramblings you probably know by now about my (embarrassing…?) data obsession. I fully blame my ABA background. And I’m kinda okay with it. I just can’t help myself. I just drool over organized data sheets, charts with upward trends, and that satisfying feeling when you know what you are doing is working. That’s why data is so amazing. It gives you some security and takes away that it’s probably maybe sorta seems to be getting better. No way. When you are taking consistent data you freaken know things are better. And that feels good.
I know not everyone feels the data love like me. I get it – it’s a pain in the butt and takes a lot of work. That’s why I am a big proponent of making it as easy as possible and subscribe to the if-it-isn’t-easy-you-won’t-do-it-school. I know. I have been there. But not I am making it my life mission to convert everyone to my data loving state of being.
I have talked before about my monthly data sheets and minutes forms. These are the backbone of my curriculum and organization. This is how I figure out where and when I am working on each IEP goal. Once I plan this – I make a monthly data sheet for each student. This really isn’t time consuming to keep up with because I update these for the new IEP goals after each annual meeting so it ends up getting spread out throughout the year. It’s not like I am making all them at once.
I keep the monthly data sheet at my teacher time (direct instruction) area. I keep it on a clipboard with enough copies to last the year – one page per month. On this page I include space for data for each goal I am working on at that station. I spend some time making these sheets. Again – you’d rather make an easy to use sheet right? I know which goals I will need to take more data on and leave more space for those ones.
Before I make this sheet – I type out the IEP goals:
and here is this student’s data sheet:
Some notes:
- I do not take data on all IEP goals at the teacher time station! My aides and I take data at our Fluency Center, independent work centers, morning group, etc.. Community, hygiene, and behavioral data are kept in an easy access location in the middle of the room. Science & Social Studies are run in centers but I include the data portion on this sheet. For science and social studies data – I use pre and post test scores so I don’t need a ton of room.
- On the bottom of this sheet – I include a note for where the data for the other goals are. (ie – Independent Functioning Goal at Language). That way I can easily glance at this sheet and know where all of this students’ data is.
- I type out the goal and the mastery criteria. Then I don’t need to look back to find out what our end goal is.
- As you can note on this sheet – I have much more space for Social Emotional and Math data than reading. I know I will be taking data on these goal more often. This student’s reading goal is answering comprehension questions. I usually take data on this type of goal once or twice a week since we do a lot of supplementary activities to support this goal (vocabulary, reading strategies, wh- question practice etc.).
Here is another example for a student who’s works on his IEP goals mostly in other stations. He has only 3 goals I work on at teacher time.
I make this data sheet on Boardmaker which super easy because you can move around the different tables easily. I highly recommend trying to fit it all on one page if possible. If you don’t have boardmaker – don’t fret. You can easily use Powerpoint or Keynote!
How to make a monthly data sheet using Powerpoint/Keynote:
- Arrange the slides in portrait (in Keynote use Inspector – Document – Slide Size).
- Open excel and make your table for your first goal.
- When it’s done – export your document to an image or PDF. You can either use the image or take a screen shot of the PDF to crop it perfectly. Then import the image into your slide.
- Continue this for each of the goals you need a table for.
- Insert text boxes above each table to include mastery criteria.
- Print and enjoy!
FYI: I have a packet of 20 data sheets on TpT if you are looking for some general data sheets!
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2 Responses
Hello. I really like that you provided examples of your student’s data sheet. I was wondering if you could post of the data sheets of the rest of your students. These were giving me ideas of how to direct my own student’s data sheets. Thank you for all your input. 🙂
Natalia
Here is one post that may help: https://theautismhelper.com/iep-goals/. Also – next week I will be during a week’s worth of posts all about data! hope this helps 🙂