You did the assessments.  You have the data.  But how do you decide if the lagging skills should be a goal area, an accommodation, or a modification?

Let me tell you!

Here's how I decide if a lagging skill should be a goal area, an accommodation, or a modification!

I start by asking...

What areas of the curriculum are impacted by the student's disability?

Then, I go through each item I listed and ask...

Can we put an accommodation or modification in place to remove this hurdle to the curriculum?

OR

Is this a hurdle that requires Specially Designed Instruction?

Now, review I review my list and...

1-Add accommodations to the IEP
-be specific & choose appropriate accommodations for the student's disability

2-Hurdles that need Specially Designed Instruction are your goal areas!

Hurdles:  Fluency, Comprehension 

Classroom Accommodation(s): Text to Speech for content area materials

This Classroom Accommodation will support the student's ability to access the grade level material in the classroom, but this lagging skill also requires Specially Designed Instruction SO it may also need to be an IEP goal area, in this student's case.

IEP GOAL:
By the end of the IEP period, STUDENT will achieve a benchmark score of 16 (or higher) of the DIBELS' subtest MAZE.

IEP OBJECTIVE:
STUDENT will a score of 96 (or higher) on 3 consecutive administrations of the DIBELS' Oral Reading Fluency - Accuracy.

Hurdles:  Written Expression

Classroom Accommodation(s): Speech to Text, Exemplars of Writing Assignments, Word Banks for Content Area Vocabulary

This student's evaluations demonstrated that the student had the skills in the area of Written Expression; however, the student was not always demonstrating these skills in the classroom.  Based upon assessment and observation data, the Classroom Accommodations of Speech to Text, Exemplars of Writing Assignments, Word Banks for Content Area Vocabulary will support the student in overcoming the hurdle in the area of Written Expression.  This student would not require Specially Designed Instruction in Written Expression so no IEP goal needed for Written Expression!

Click HERE to grab a pdf of this chart for your own teaching!

And once you choose your goal areas, check out my blog post on how to write SMART IEP goals!

Happy & Healthy Teaching!
PEACE,
Miss Rae

So what really is the difference between an ACCOMMODATION and a MODIFICATION?  Aren't they the same thing?  

No.  Accommodations and modifications are different from each other!

An accommodation is a way to help students learn the same material or take the same test in a different way.  ​

For example...

• Shorten the number of problems
• Material is read aloud
• Multiple choice test instead of essay assessment (but assessing same content)

A modification is a change to what the student is expected to learn.

For example...

• Multiple choice test instead of essay assessment (but assessing content that is less complex than the grade level standard/content)
• Easier text to read

​By:  Miss Rae

An IEP at a Glance is an abbreviated document that provides a quick reference to a student's IEP.  

Check out below to see how I complete my IEP at a Glance sheets!

Grab both of these resources PLUS MORE in...
The BEST Special Education Teacher Binder
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