Mastering IEP Reading Goals: Strategies for Transforming Student Literacy

Embark on a journey through the intricacies of Individualized Education Programs as we unlock the secrets to crafting IEP reading goals that truly make a difference. Imagine a world where decoding becomes second nature to students, where fluency is not just a goal but a reality, and where comprehension is the key that opens the door to lifelong learning. That's what we're here for – to guide you through setting achievable, measurable objectives that will transform the reading experience for students who need that extra bit of tailored support. From phonemic awareness to vocabulary development, we'll equip you with strategies and insights that are as effective as they are essential.

Heads up, faithful followers! Our podcast is now coming to you even more frequently, with episodes dropping every Tuesday and Saturday to keep the insights flowing and your expertise growing. Questions or quandaries about IEPs? You're not alone, and we're here to help. Reach out, and together we'll navigate the maze of creating programs that truly meet the needs of our diverse learners. Tune in for our next episode, and let's continue to enrich our knowledge, one goal-setting strategy at a time.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:28

Today I'm going to talk a little bit about IEPs. I know we all dread them, including teachers and parents, but it's something that is necessary, it's a way to, it's a legal document actually for your child, and so it's very important that they are accurate and give the information that you're looking for. Ieps is just a roadmap to performance levels, goals, placement services, all those things are in that IEP. But today I'm just going to talk about goals and I'm going to talk about reading goals. So the three that I'm going to or actually I think it's four that I'm going to talk about is decoding, fluency, comprehension and a little bit about vocabulary too.

Speaker 1: 1:20

Now, with decoding, you wouldn't have start that process until they have their phonemics down. They need to know all their sounds, they need to connect those sounds with the letters and they need to know their alphabet, of course, and then, once they have that down, they know their sounds. Then you want them to be able to start decoding. So, with a goal, the standard would be let's do standards first. There would be no one apply at grade level the phonemics and able to decode the words. So let's say they know the sound, each of the sounds, for the word cat, but when they come across that word and they don't know it, then they need to be able to sound it out. So that's decoding. That's what that means. So for a goal would be when, given a list of and you can put whatever words you want, like 40 words containing CVC or CVCV words, which means consonant vowel sounds or consonant vowel, consonant vowel words that students will be able to decode maybe 36 out of the 40, correctly by measure by the teacher's records. Now let me go back a little bit on that kind of tear it apart a little bit. You can put whatever amount that you want to if you're the teacher or if the parent would want a little bit more. Remember, these goals are for the year, so by the next year you want them to be able to have whatever amount of words, 40 words or whatever. It may be just 20 words, and that's okay. You may just do CVC words or you may not put that in at all and do some other type of vocabulary words, sight words or something like that, and we'll be able to decode. And then you have to decide what is your main goal. Can they get 40 out of 40? We're not going to put 40 out of 40. They're going to put either like 36 or something like that, correctly measured by the teacher's records.

Speaker 1: 3:43

Some of this, when it depends on how your IPs are set up with, the format is, but sometimes they'll say out of four or five trials, or they'll say 80% of it, something like that. So these can be a little bit, you know, changeable and depends on how they're listed and or not listed, but how they are formatted, the IPs in your district. The other one is fluency, and the standard is that they are able to read accurately and with fluence. That they're not, you know, just trying to figure out the words, every other word, by signing it, sounding it out that they are able to flow through a paragraph. Pretty good, and because if they don't, then what will happen is that it will affect their comprehension, most likely because they're struggling to find out what the words are or sound out the words and then they lose the meaning.

Speaker 1: 4:39

So what do you use? I'm going to use the name Sam. You can use whatever, but we'll read. No, you can put grade level, but you can. You can put also, let's say, the student is at third grade but he's not able to read, so you could put like first grade or something like that, or you can put grade level that would be the goal. You really want Text, orally, appropriate rate and expressions at 90 words per minute. Now that can change too. You have to decide what is the best words per minute and 90 percent, I would say maybe at 80 percent would be better to measure by the teacher's records on three consecutive occasions. So that means throughout that year of the IP not the year of the school but the year of the IP that that teacher has tested that three different times. Okay, then we have comprehension and that's understanding. Literature, stories, drama, poems, all that kind of stuff that they are able to.

Speaker 1: 5:49

Now sometimes you're going to have students that are good readers. They can just whiz right through and don't have any problems with the comprehension I mean not comprehension but with the sounding of the words or decoding or their fluency but have trouble comprehending. So that's a different skill. And sometimes kids don't comprehend what they're reading, they're not thinking about what they're reading, they're thinking about something else, but they and then they're not able to answer comprehension questions, and then that's going to affect other things that we can get into later when I do another one that we can on reading. But you could write, like Sam will demonstrate, and you put grade level independent reading abilities on literature passages as measured by the teacher or whoever is doing this. So you want to be able to have them be able to read independently. That is the main goal that they can can read independently. And comprehension is kind of to me, the last thing, because you've got to get, you got to build that decoding, you got to build that fluency and then the comprehension will come.

Speaker 1: 7:03

Then there's the meaning of unknown words or the vocabulary, to be able to improve their vocabulary. So, even if they're a pretty good reader, I would have them come across a word, highlight it, maybe look it up in the dictionary or something like that. And that is one of the goals that you can put in there, that that Sam will be able to use contact clues or other strategies such as using a dictionary to find the meaning of the word. And a lot of times teachers will say, okay, if you don't know meaning of the word, what are some things you can do? You know, you can ask a friend, you can look it up in the dictionary, you can use contact clues, and they're kind of taught that along the way. Now that's kind of for higher, but if they're lower readers you could put Sam will be able to read 40 grade level sight words four out of five trials and then there's different stages. Maybe give them like 25 at a time of sight words to do so. This is where are really low readers and, like I kind of was hitting back, it's not really grade level I don't really like using that term it's more their whatever level they're at is what we need to be able to work up for them to be so like if they're a third grader but they're only reading that maybe kindergarten or first grade reading level, it's going to be kind of hard in a year to get them at two grade levels. I mean it's not possible. I've seen some pretty good results in my time but it can be a struggle for them. So I wouldn't always put grade level. I would put maybe improvement or just use 80 percent will increase or something like that that you could use. Increase their vocabulary.

Speaker 1: 8:54

When writing a goal, you want to think of a couple different things you want to think of. The time frame is one of them and some IEPs that's in a separate little box. It doesn't necessarily go into the goal itself. It's usually stated that it's within the IEP year, so, and then students will. Students will what that's what you want to, or you can put the child's name. They will demonstrate whatever you are doing. And then you want to do this setting. Where are they going to learn this? Are they going to do it in the classroom? Is it therapy? Is it speech? Where is this goal going to be taking place? And then you want to measure by the teacher who is doing it, by the person who's going to measure this goal. And then accuracy, like is it 80 percent, four out of five trials? Those kind of things need to be also stated in there. And what support are they going to have? Are they going to use prompt cues, what you need to put? What support? Are they going to have somebody there to help support them? Those kind of things, anyway, so those are just some highlights of IEP goals, and I can even write some more of them and be more Pacific if you're interested in me doing doing that.

Speaker 1: 10:19

I've always felt that the school district should have. This is what you're going to write, because what happens is that one teacher writes it one way, another teacher writes it a different way. Somebody doesn't like the way that they wrote it, so they rewrite it. I think it should be like in a some kind of a database. Okay, if they're working on comprehension, here are three or four, even five different types of way you can write for comprehension. If they're working on decoding, here's three or four ways to write decoding, and so on and so on. That way everybody is consistent in the school district and not a teacher just writing however she feels he or she feels.

Speaker 1: 11:04

I think they're coming to that point more and more, but it's still kind of vague, I think, still how people write their IEPs and how much difference there is between the two. Not only that, but the teacher spent so much time on these IEPs. It really, you know, it's not just one kid, you got the whole class that you have to do, and so if they had a database where they could just put in, plug in the stuff, it would go a lot faster. And they're getting there, I think, in some districts, but they're not quite there yet. So anyway, those are some things I wanted to discuss with you on IEPs, because I know it's kind of a sore spot, and I'm going to do some more about this subject because I know it's a hot topic and it's kind of, you know, difficult. You go in there and you've got all these people at the tables and you're trying to figure everything out and get what's best for your child. So I will touch more on that. I just did reading today, but we can do the same for math and other things. But also the services and what combinations your child needs would be another topic that we could do.

Speaker 1: 12:21

I want to end by telling everybody that I'm going to be on a schedule, so I'm going to do like release on Tuesdays and Saturdays. So if you're a listener to my podcast, those are the two days I'll be doing new releases. So that's it for today. I hope I've been a little bit of help with this. If you have any questions, please feel to email me at gdebradbra055 at gmailcom, and I'll be happy to either research or answer any of your questions. Regarding IEPs, I've done a lot of them and I've done them in different formats too. So have a blessed day and I will talk to you real soon. Bye, bye.