Possible classroom setting: student group together by different desks; there are a few study stations. The CBM assessment takes place in one of the stations, with teacher sits by the student who is being assessed.
Cognitive level: above average intelligence. In the mediate-high intelligence among the students in the class/
Social skill level: sociable, in the range of norm.
Behavior skill level: well-behaved in general, talk sometimes but does not interfere with his study and others.
2. Academic area: ESL / English
3. Instructional materials I will use to develop the content of my CBM
Children’s novels for 4-7th grade that I use during daily reading period
Masterpiece by Elise Broach (publisher: Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2008)
Also Known As Harper by Ann Haywood Leal (publisher: Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2009)
The CapturebyLasky, Kathryn (publisher: Scholastic, 2003)
Dark RiverbyHunter, Erin (publisher: HarperCollins, 2008)
The key words from these books have been taught in particular in the previous class.
4. Standardized procedures by defining:
In contrast to less formal methods of monitoring classroom academic skills, the hallmark of CBM is that it follows standardized procedures of administration and scoring.
1)Materials
A) Two copies of the numbered reading material will be prepared. One for the teacher, one for the student.
The CBM reading test is a two-paragraph segment of about 250 words that the teacher has taken from the bookMasterpiece with the vocabulary and fluency difficulty for a grade level between 4th grade and 7th grade, as a reading-fluency measurement tool to monitor the students performance in the daily reading literacy program.
B) stopwatch
C)Pen or marker
D)Score sheet
2) Directions for administration:
The exam takes place once every two weeks.
The teacher and the student sit across the table from each other. The examiner hands the student the unnumbered copy of the CBM reading passage. The teacher takes the numbered copy of the passage, shielding it from the student's view.
During the reading proficiency exam, the teacher sits down individually with the student, gives testing instructions. The instructions include the student should read aloud for 1 minute from each of two separate reading passages. If the student does not know a word, she should try her best or the teacher will tell her.
The teacher begins the stopwatch as soon as the student starts to read. As the student reads along in the text, the teacher records any errors by marking a slash (/) through the incorrectly read word. The errors include mispronunciations, substitutions, omission, transpositions of word-pairs, and words read to the student by the examiner after 3 seconds have gone by. At the end of 1 minute, the examiner says, “Stop”and marks the student's concluding place in the text with a bracket ( ] ).
3) Time limit: each CBM reading probe is timed for one minute.
4) Scoring rules:
The student’s performance on the CBM reading probe is scored for speed, or fluency, and for accuracy of performance. For each of the three reading probes, the teacher calculates the number of words that the student correctly read from the total word numbers attempted per minute, errors that the student makes, and then get a score in percent accuracy. The teacher then choose the median scores out of the three CBM reading probes (for both the correctly read words and errors made), as the more accurately obtained reading fluency of the student.
The teacher also gets the student’s reading fluency baseline from three CMB probes that take place over a period, for example, a week or three weeks.
Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery-Revised Clinical interview
Summary
Based on three instrumental assessment scores, Travis is currently functioning within the average range of intellectual ability, with weakness in verbal skills, which reflects on vocabulary, spelling, oral language, reading comprehension and some aspects on writing (basic writing skills, punctuation and writing fluency), and serious difficulty in attention span and free from distractions in class and in assessments.
The assessment scores on Conners’ Continuous Performance Test show that Travis has attention deficit. He has difficulty sustaining attention on some tasks, demonstrates weakness in short-term auditory memory as well as long-term retention of factual information, which may have caused his difficulty in listening in class, finishing tasks, test taking, time management, study habit, and the reason of his dropping his foreign language course (Spanish).
However, Travis performs well in comprehension reasoning in two instrumental assessments. In Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition assessment, his scales score on Matrix Reasoning is 14 and 12 on Comprehension, both of which are quite beyond the average scaled score 10. His Picture Completion scaled scores 12 is beyond average, which demonstrates some strengths in his visual perceptual organization of nonverbal stimuli. The difference between his Verbal IQ scores 95 and Performance IQ 110 indicates that he is able to use nonverbal strategies rather than verbal strategies for most problem solving. This may explain the reason he does well with his economics class.
Test Interpretations
According to Travis’s test scores in Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition assessment, he is currently functioning within the average range of intellectual ability (Full-scale IQ: 96 out of the standard mean of 100). He performs with poor skills on vocabulary (scores 9), arithmetic (scores 8), digit span (scores 8), information (scores 8), and picture arrangement (scores 9); and performs with strengths on similarities, picture comprehension, block design, and matrix reasoning. This is consistent with other two assessment instrument results, which show that he is weak in language skills and speed of processing information, altogether causing his inability of retaining his attention and grasping information during a short period of time. However, he shows strengths in reasoning and overall comprehension. His higher scores on picture completion shows that he has strengths in comprehend visual and nonverbal stimuli. Also, the score discrepancy between his verbal IQ (95) and performance IQ (110) can indicate he is strong in nonverbal O discrepancy IQ, and therefore the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition assessment result may not represent his true intelligence.
According to Travis’ assessment result from Conners’ Continuous Performance Test (which is designed to test a person’s attention), he has attention deficit when performing some tasks. On the instrument, the more measures found to be within the atypical range, the greater the likelihood that attention problem exists. Among twelve measures that he was assessed, he showed abnormality (scores were not within the average range) on half of them, which include number of omissions, hit rate standard error, attentiveness, risk taking, and hit rate block change. While his performances scores were within normal range on half of measures, the other half poor performance scores indicate that he may have difficulty sustaining attention to some tasks (as large number of omission errors indicates) and highly inconsistent in responding and an impulsive responding pattern (as the large number of standard errors indicates).
Travis’ assessment scores on Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery-Revised Clinical interview (which is designed to assess a person’s English proficiency on oral, reading and writing) also support the conclusion we have drawn from Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition assessment result: he is weak in verbal language skills. His subtest standard scores on verbal analogues is 81, which is much below his college freshman level (only equaled to a 6th grade’s level); his punctuation scored 71 and his proofing scored 70, which are only the equivalent of a 5th grader; his usage of language gets 86 which is an equivalent of an 8th grader. On cluster scores, his basic writing skills are only 77, an equivalent of a 7th grader; his oral language scores 88, an equivalent of a 9ththth grader), his writing sample scores as high as 136, much higher than his peers’ average, an equivalent of 16.9th grader; his broad written language (scores 107) and written expression (scores 110) are both superior (an equivalent of 1 16th grader) compared to his peers. His reading skills are poor or modest (basic reading scores 93, an equivalent of a 10th grader, broad reading scores 99, an equivalent of a 12th grader. His other language skills are also under his grade level: picture vocabulary scores 85, oral vocabulary scores 86, dictation scores 90, writing fluency scores 9.5, all of which are only on a 9 grader’s level. In addition, he test results also are consistent with other two instruments’ results that he is strong in comprehension and nonverbal skills in some ways: he is strong in listening comprehension (scores 103, beyond his grade level – an equivalent of a 14 grader).
Overall, Travis’ performance on Language Proficiency Battery-Revised Clinical interview demonstrates that he is weak in verbal language, and strong in nonverbal skills. He is poor at spelling, oral speaking, punctuation, vocabulary, and fluency. He needs to strengthen his reading, and improve some aspects of his writing skills.
The Present Levels of Performance for Travis
cognitive abilities
The current assessment data indicate that Travis is functioning in the average range of intelligence. Travis’ strengths are in the area of performance or nonverbal skills.
reading
1)basic reading skills
Various formal assessments indicate that Travis is performing poorly or modestly in reading decoding – especially in vocabulary recognition and phonemic awareness. His reading skills are at the 10th to 12th grade level.
2)Comprehension
verbal comprehension is poor. Passage comprehension is on 10th grade level.
3)Fluency
Both reading and writing fluency is below the grade average.
spelling
Travis’ spelling skills are poor. They are only at 10th grade level. He has letter-word identification difficulty.
written language
Overall writing skills are superior compared with peers, which is at 16th grade level.
listening
Nonverbal comprehension is strong. His listening comprehension is on 14th grade level, above his grade level.
oral
Oral language skills are the weakest part of his language skills. They are only at 9th grade level.
Recommendation
1. Travis may benefit from additional educational support in the area of reading and language arts. For example, he may join a particular literacy or reading program and get help on spelling, vocabulary and reading.
2. New material should be presented for him to reach the following language goals:
make phonological and phonemic awareness
increase short-term memory of sounds (e.g. sound repetition tasks)
master sound processing skills
help speech development
improve sentence syntax skills
help find the connections between the phonological aspect and meanings of language
master verbal expressive skills
improve reading comprehension skills
3. Travis will benefit from direct instruction techniques on spelling, vocabulary, reading comprehension, grammar, and oral speaking.
4. It will be helpful to teach Travis self-monitoring, self-management and self-discipline techniques, and encourage him immediately and frequently for any improvement he has made.
5. It may be helpful to place Travis in the front seat.
6. Travis may benefit from small group cooperative learning. In doing so, he will have chances to interact with peers and practice the targeted language skills and more engaged in the student-centered learning activities, with less chances of being distracted, as it happens often in a teacher-centered instruction session. He may also easily seek help from group members.
7. Teacher may conduct a functional assessment, and then change the antecedents that are likely to cause the distractions. Teacher may also directly help Travis sustain his attention with verbal and visual prompts for attention and change of activities, shorter period of instructions, less material, frequent breaks, and reinforcement of previously learned content knowledge.
Goals
Annual Goal for Verbal Skills and Behavior (oral, reading, writing and attention span sustaining)
Travis will expand his higher level vocabulary by 300 to 400, master the spelling of these words; he will be able to read and answer comprehension questions for an in depth article from New York Times with an accuracy of 85 percent at the assessment at the mid-term of the school year.
In all courses he is taking, he will also be able to sustain his attention for most of the class duration, largely remain undistracted in classes, concentrate on the lecture and retain information, and finish his task. By the end of the mid-term, he should be performing above average on all courses and earn grades C or above. In the second half semester, he will return to his Spanish lesson, finish the course, and pass it at the end of the year.
Short-term Objective
At the end of the 6-week period, Travis will be able to decode 90 percent of 50 higher-level words chosen from New York Times correctly, and read a research article chosen from New York Times with 60 percent of fluency at the end of the 6-week period with the chunking and decoding skills he has recently learned. He will make obvious progress in participating in class discussions, expressing himself in public.
He will be able to move along with most of his courses, without severe frustrations about get passing scores on most of the assessments and quizzes, he will ask help from the teacher when distracted or have difficulty; will have much less complaints about the distraction in class and time management problem.
Drew is a seventh-grade girl who is very bright and has ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) and social difficulty. She has an impulsivity to interfere with the teacher and other students, and blurt out her comments during class, and is unwelcomed by peers due to her inability to read social cues.
The setting event for Drew’s disruptive behavior is the commons area before school and in the hallway between classes. Drew’s classmates ignore her. The Antecedent for the misbehavior is during class, when she is asked to attend to the teacher. The Problem behavior is that she blurts out and interrupts the teacher and other students. The function or consequence of her behavior is to seek attention from the teacher and her classmates, even though the attention given is negative (the teacher reproaches her and classmates look at and laugh at her).
Based on the information about Drew and the intervention team’s list, I have developed a Behavior Intervention Plan. I will state my BIP in the following paragraphs.
The setting event interventions for the BIP are: call Drew to come to class first; place her in front of the line for entering class; pair her with another student who can be her friend, and allow them to sit together in class; give her picture cues with animal or sport images as a behavior reminder (for example, “Be quiet!” “Listen!” “Raise your hand!”); always write class procedures in clear language on board.
The antecedent interventions are as follows: Give her something to do at the beginning of the class, for example, distribute the worksheets or reading books to her classmates, or collect homework from the students, or help the teacher to arrange the class schedule for the day. Ask her to pay attention to what is being taught or said by others, make notes, and restate them afterwards. At times when she is about to blurt out, show attractive behavior cues with animal images. Use bell as a sound sue to remind the class and her not to blurt out.
New skills that the BIP team will teach are as follows: Teach her to get attention/to answer questions by raising her hand; teach her to listen to the teacher and other students quietly; teach her to watch or observe the class, make notes, and then present her results to the class; teach her to ask the classmates “Can I join?”
The consequence interventions are these: Praise if she behaves appropriately; allow her to hold animal toys if she does not interfere or disrupt in class; give her animal or sport stickers or pictures as a reward if she raises her hand to answer questions; allow her to use the computer to do class work or play games.
Comparing my BIP and the one from HO 10-3, both have some common interventions in each stage of the plan. They both include peer help as a setting event intervention; they both include behavior cue reminders as an antecedent intervention; they both include teaching her to raise her hand to ask questions and to listen to others without interruption; they also both include a reward system.
However, I overlooked a few factors in my BIP plan. In the antecedent interventions, I did not think to plan a meditative activity at the beginning of the class, for example, journal writing or reviewing previous lessons in HO – 3. These are wonderful warm-up activities to calm students down and draw their attention to the current class. I have witnessed this technique successfully implemented in all classes at one special ed school. I also forgot about the existence of the intervention team. The plan prepared the IEP team suggests that Drew should have a meeting and a social skills counseling, which is great. In addition, since Drew is being recorded on video in class, this resource should be fully used as a monitoring tool, and even better, as her self-monitoring tool. Finally, in consequence intervention, I forgot about the importance of ignoring the negative attention-seeking behavior as the first step of the intervention. Also, I missed the “monitoring and modifying” intervention plan stage, which is crucial to the entire BIP plan.
