October is here and it’s time to up the ante a bit in our classrooms. September was all about routines and reinforcement. It was the essential foundation of a successful classroom. Now that we’ve got that accomplished – it’s time to build on that success. Let’s be real teachery about it and focus on our ABCs. The focus in October should be on Assessing your students’ level of learning, implementing any Behavior interventions, and beginning to set up your Curriculum. This is no small undertaking or easy feat. We are getting into the meat and potatoes of our school year and it’s time to get after it.

If you are reading this section in eager anticipation of my recommendation for the most perfect assessment that can be easily implemented and will tell you exactly where each of your students are at while covering all skills (academic, foundational, functional, social, and communicative), you will be sorely disappointed my friends. Unfortunately that unicorn assessment doesn’t exist because our students are all so vastly differently. No assessment will work perfectly for each and every student. We have too much ground to cover. This month I will be talking a lot about different ways to assess your students so you can create tasks perfectly at their level!

Get Organized

My Assessment Binder is my one stop shop for all of my assessment related materials. Check out what’s inside!

Peak inside!

The ABLLS

The Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills is my favorite resource for assessing and tracking progress of a wide range of basic skills! Check out all of our posts about the ABLLS.

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The honeymoon period is over. You’ve probably had your share of come-home-and-get-straight-in-bed-with-ice-cream-days by now. It’s time to tackle the most disruptive, dangerous, and inappropriate behaviors first. Prioritize. Don’t take on too much or you won’t be successful with any of it. It’s time to spend the time taking baseline data and getting the root of the issue! It’s time to create a kick ass behavior plan so your sad pants ice cream turns into celebration sundaes.

What's the function?

Now that we are seeing some inappropriate behaviors, the first thing to do is to determine the hypothesized function. You will never know for sure why the behavior is occurring but it’s important to make a good guess. Don’t develop an intervention until you spend some time determine the why behind this behavior!

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Don’t get scared at the idea of creating a curriculum. In our positions, unfortunately the general education curriculum doesn’t always work for our students. We get the lucky job of creating a curriculum all on our own. (I’m still advocating that we shouldn’t get a second paycheck for that, right?!?) It’s time to take the information from our assessments and make a plan for what each of our students will be learning this year, sequence it out, and create the material. Jeez – I’m tired just writing that all out. Take it step by step. Make it manageable. It doesn’t need to be pretty and perfect. We just need to get the basics down.

Leveled

I felt horribly overwhelmed by the curriculum part of my jobs for years. I created a structured and sequenced curriculum to guide my math and language arts instruction. It completely changed the way I approached my curricular planning, efficiency, and overall stress level!

See It In Action