Creating a Data-Based Essential Skills Classroom

The definition of an Essential Skills classroom is a classroom based on a student focused curriculum in the areas pf functional life skills. The Essential Skills classroom is one that identifies the needs for students with severe disabilities that impact their daily life and education. Data collection is the single most important form of information gathered during instruction. 

When I started in the Essential Skills classroom, my experience was from the ground up. I was a single teacher in a classroom of 13 students with significant disabilities, and I had 9 capable Para-Educators in my classroom. I was lucky to have the capable and experience Para-Educators on my side, but building a data based classroom where data was not previously used, is a large project. Deciding how to create your data protocol takes time, and it is also beneficial to have baseline completed when beginning the structure.  

Take a look at some of the tips below:

Setting Up Data Binders - Essential Skills 

                Data Collection is a teacher’s best tool when monitoring student progress, concept mastery, and retention.  To create a fluid system in the classroom, teachers need to think about their population, environment, and structure.  Teachers in an Essential Skills (Low Incidence, Cross-Catagorical) classroom have an enormous about of data to keep track of and continually monitor. The following system of creating a Data Binder will encourage an organizational system for all areas addressed in the Essential Skills classroom. 

Take a look at the teacher’s pre-work to create skills concepts:

1.       Identify all student goals. Breakdown the goals into individual concepts and order them according to their foundational skills. (i.e. single digit addition before double digit addition)

2.       Create data sheets that will address the concepts you have identified. 

a.       Note: As you are completing diagnostics and learning the student’s skills, you may discover additional concepts. Create a data sheet for those concepts as well. 

3.       Identify how you will address and teach those concepts. 

a.       Utilizing Task Boxes, computer programs, and direction instruction. 

4.       Create your binder!

This process builds as you work with your students. The binder is a working document through the time of instruction.  It is important for the teacher to organize a system of implementation for the concepts as well. Due to the fact that the Essential Skills classroom engages students of multiple disabilities and learning levels, it is important to have a systematic, organized instruction structure in place. This structure should include practice of the routines with prompting and needed and quickly faded.  The sample structure below gives teachers an organized plan for instruction of multiple levels of learning at one time, while also giving students as much independence as possible when working on the concept isolated for them. 

The first piece includes determining when and how you will instruction on the concepts. For the ParaEducators, it is important to give them an idea of the concepts for the student as well; especially since there implementation of the instruction is usually consistent with the students in which they are assigned.  

Example of student’s instruction breakdowns for the week would go in the front of the student binder for easy access for staff members working with that student. The concepts listed in the boxes above are those identified by the teacher through IEP goals and diagnostic tools. In the Essential Skills classrooms the concepts are foundational building blocks that build upon one another, therefore the skills will not often change. 

 Bell Ringers – A Bell Ringer is an activity that the students will participate in at they enter the classroom. (as the bell is ringing and time to change activities is approaching) This is an activity that can give the students some independence in their learning. However, completing a Bell Ringer and the routine of doing so must be taught. For more information on Bell Ringers in the Essential Skills Classroom, click the link. 

Behind the Bell Ringers are where the data sheets are stored. It is important to share your organization structure of the data binders with all staff who will be working with them for fluidity. 

Mathematics (red)

Addition Single Digit 

Double Digit

(Multi-Digit – re-grouping/decimal)

Subtraction (Multi-Digit – re-grouping/decimal

  SAME

Money (add./sub., like/unlike, $/coins)

                Rounding to the next dollar 

Time – Time to the hour

                Time to the half hour

                Time to the 15 minute intervals

                Time to the minute

Elapsed -to the hour

                  To the half hour

                  To the 15 minute intervals

Measurement - inch and half inch

            Measuring Cups

         Thermometer

Calculator (+/-/x/÷)

Multiplication – single digit 

Word Problems (one-step, two-step)

Communication Arts (green)

Reading Fluency

Reading Comprehension

Capitalization 

Ending Punctuation

Independent Writing Skills

Edmark Packet – if used 

*Dolch Words should be paper clipped and put into the Old Data Form 

Benchmarks (purple)

Reading A-Z Benchmark Sheets – used to move student to the next reading level

Social/Life Skills (blue)

Nutritional Facts 

Environmental Sight Words 

Fire Drill Completion

Following Directions

Maintenance pages (orange)

These pages list concepts that have been mastered by the student. The concepts are checked weekly for retention. 

Old Data Pages (yellow)

  The Data Binder – Essential Skills Table of Contents

The sample Data Binder Table of Contents includes some of the concepts that may identified for students in the Essential Skills classroom. Not all students would have the same concepts on data sheets in their binders.  Additionally the concepts themselves would be specific to the needs of that particular student. For example, while one student may have writing a simple sentence as his independent writing data sheet concept, another in the same class may have writing his name as his independent writing data sheet concept. This is an example of how the process truly is individualized. 

As you thinking about your students, their needs, and beginning to set up your binders, take a look at the pictures below as examples for creating a classroom environment conducive for the individualized, data-driven classroom.

The Boxes included the student’s Data Binder and manipulatives they may need to complete the data-driven concepts. The students take these binders with them to each location in which they would work. 

The Station Cards tell the students exactly what their tasks are for that class period. This serves as a reminder for routine, while giving the students monitored independence in their schedule. The cards include Bell Ringer (which all students complete with in the first 5-7 minutes of the class period), teacher and Paras names, computer program names, etc. 

The front end work of setting up this systematic approach for both the Data Binders and the classroom routine and organization will not only save the teacher time, but will also provide appropriate and on target reports for students skills and levels of mastery. 

Please comment below with additional questions and ideas! Let us know what works best for you in the Essential Skills setting.

Emily 

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