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December 2014
The Exceptional Times
A publication for Exceptional Children’s personnel in Winston-Salem Forsyth County
Highlight on the Holidays
Inside This Issue
¨ Welcome Back……..………..1
¨ Professional Development…2
¨ PD Team…………….……...3-4
¨ BST / AT ……………………..5
¨ EC Process Team…………….6
¨ Paraeducator………………....7
Photos: Thanksgiving Lunch at Ashley ES
( right ) NCSIP Data Collection Teachers
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Math Founda!ons Day 4
Date and Tim e: Thursday, Dec. 4th 8:30-3:30
Loca!on: The Gathering Place
Math Founda!ons Day 5
Date and Tim e: Friday, Dec. 5th 8:30-3:30
Loca!on: The Gathering Place
U nderstanding DIBELs
Date and Tim e: Friday, Dec. 5th 7:30-3:30
Loca!on: SSC M edia Center
Reading Founda!ons Day 5
Date and Tim e: Friday, Dec. 12th 8:30-3:30
Loca!on: The Gathering Place
Correc!ve Reading
Date and Tim e: Thursday, Dec. 18th 8:30-3:30
Loca!on: The Gathering Place
CO RE and N KT Assessm ent Training
Date and Tim e: Tuesday, Dec. 9th 2:00-4:00
Loca!on: SSC Com puter Lab
N um ber W orlds / TransMath Data Mee!ng
Date and Tim e: Thursday, Dec. 18th 3:00-4:00
Loca!on: SSC Com puter Lab
Professional Development
N um ber W orlds 2015 Version*
Date and Tim e: Thursday, Jan. 29 12:30-3:30
Loca!on: Special Services Training Room
Reading Mastery
Date and Tim es: Friday, Jan. 23rd.. 8:30-3:30
Loca!on: Ed. Building Room 223
Correc!ve Reading
Date and Tim e: Thursday, Jan. 15th. 8:30-3:30
Loca!on: The Gathering Place
N um ber W orlds 2007 Version*
Date and Tim e: Friday, Jan. 30. 12:30-3:30
Loca!on: Special Service Center Training Room
Le" erLand Li# off
Date and Tim e: Thursday, Jan. 22nd. 8:30-10:30
Loca!on: The Gathering Place
Le" erLand K/1
Date and Tim e: Thursday, Jan 22nd., 10:30-3:30
Loca!on: The Gathering Place
TransMath
Date and Tim e: Friday, Jan. 16th. 12:30-3:30
Loca!on: The Gathering Place
* Contact your instruc!onal coach if you are not sure w hich version you have!
January Training December Training
CLICK HERE
To Visit the Professional Development Training Schedule
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Data is the key to ensuring our students’ success! Screening assessments administered at the beginning of the year will screen all students to determine which students are performing at grade level and which are in need of more in depth assessments to verify if more intense instruction is needed. If the child is not at benchmark, a diagnostic test should be administered to pinpoint the student’s strengths and weaknesses to help develop a plan for the student. After implementing the program or strategy to fideli-ty for a student, the trajectory of the progress moni-toring data will guide the instructor in determining if
the instruction is effective for the student.
Each of these assessments is crucial for students. What assessments do you have in place for each of these needs? JoAnne Caldwell and Lauren Leslie re-mind us that the first piece and perhaps the most important information that we should have is the student’s instructional reading level compared to his or her chronological grade level. After calculating the gap between instructional level and grade level, you can determine the severity of the problem. One literacy assessment that can assess “multiple measures” is the CORE Assessing Reading: Multiple Measures. The assessments can be used as screen-ers, diagnostic, and progress monitoring tools. While there are a number of assessments, decoding, fluency, and comprehension instructional levels can be determined with specific assessments. If students score at the strategic or intensive levels on the Core Phonics Inventory, the student will benefit from in-struction in phonics concepts. In addition, the San Diego Quick Assessment is compiled of 13 graded word lists, that measures a student’s reading level. The words in isolation serve as a starting point for the MASI and the MAZE. To determine the instruc-tional level for fluency, the Hasbrouck & Tindal norms can be coupled with the MASI to determine when a student’s rate is within the 50th percentile range. Lastly, a maze comprehension can be admin-istered in three minutes to a group of students to measure a student’s understanding of the text. After
analyzing the diagnostic information, it can be deter-mined if the instructional program or strategy should focus on decoding, fluency, comprehension, or a
combination of these to benefit the child.
If you would like to learn more about assessments that are available, our district K-5 English Language Arts literacy coach, Lori Hartman, has offered to host a session on Friday morning, December 5th, from 7:30-8:30 at the Special Service Center Media Center. In addition, the CORE assessment training is taking place monthly. You can check the PDT’s webpage for upcoming trainings or register at the WSFCS’s Staff Development and Registration website. Also, please contact your Instructional Coach if you need assistance. Submitted by Melanie Sharpe
Professional Development Team
Show Me the Data!
Progress Monitoring Corner
Check out the following sites for FREE progress
monitoring tools to use in your classrooms!
www.interventioncentral.org
www.easycbm.com
www.chartdog.com
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Mythbuster! Dyslexia vs. Learning Disability in Reading
What is the difference between a reading disability and dyslexia? There may be no differ-ence at all. Some children may miss an important window for the development of their reading skills. If they haven't fallen too far behind, with proper instruction, they can "catch up." Whereas, dyslexia manifests itself due to differences in the brain, specifically in pro-cessing phonological information; and, it is lifelong. In NC dyslexia is listed as one type of learning disability. “Learning Disabilities” is an “umbrella” term used to identify which children are eligible for a free appropriate public ed-ucation under special education law (IDEA). When a child is struggling with learning to read they may be identified as having a learning disability and then can receive the help they need to learn to read . When someone seeks help for a “reading problem”, depending on who does the diagnosis and in what context, you could walk away with a diagnosis of either dyslexia or reading dis-ability for the very same behaviors or symptoms. In the public schools, a reading disability is diagnosed as a specific learning disability in written word decoding, reading comprehension, and/or written expression. In the context of a clinical practice, professionals diagnose a reading problem as dyslexia if the behaviors meet the definition. Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability and is defined as “… a specific learning disa-bility that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by the difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typ-ically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unex-pected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom in-struction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.” (Lyon, Shaywitz, & Shaywitz, 2003, Annals of Dyslexia, p. 2)
Here are some links to a few excellent videos about dyslexia: http://ncld.org/types-learning-disabilities/dyslexia/the-dyslexic-brain-must-see-video
http://www.ncld.org/learning-disability-resources/videos/video-what-is-dyslexia
Submitted by Doria Sullivan and Mary Todd Allen
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WSFCS’s BST & Autism Team Present at CEC
On Monday, November 13, 2014 at the 64th Annual Conference on Exceptional Children in Greensboro, North Carolina, Shannon Dobson and Jenny Gray presented Managing For Success: Practical Classroom Strategies for a Successful School Year. Shannon Dobson is a Lead Behavior Liaison on the Behavior Sup-port Team. Jenny Gray was an EC Case Manager and is now an Autism Liaison on the Autism Team. The workshop focused on creating a positive classroom environment while still managing the classroom suc-cessfully by implementing key components: schedules, routines, and reinforcements. This is the second year Dobson and Gray have presented at the conference attracting a large audience. Below are three key tips shared from their workshop: 1. Schedules teach routines and flexibility in the classroom while also promoting organization. 2. Procedures + Routines = Structure. 3. Reinforcements are essential as they establish positive supports in the classroom while also increasing the
likelihood positive behavior will occur.
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Let's do a thought experiment. You'll come along for this journey with me won't you? Imagine that your classroom receives a new student. She's 7 and has been home-schooled until now, no formal education at all. Her parents report that she developed normally until around 20 months. At which time she became very ill and developed multiple disabilities. The audiologist re-ports that she has no hearing (based on an evoked auditory potential test done under sedation) and the neurologist has provided a report saying she will not recover vision and that she is untestable using standard measures. Additionally, she has significant behavioral challenges and she appears to have a cognitive or intellectual disability. When a home visit is completed the child is noted to move throughout the house destroying prop-erty and at times having behavioral meltdowns where she is aggressive. She is unable to participate in class at all when she comes to school and does not appear to attend to adapted materials when you present them. It's fallen to you to develop an IEP. You bring in the team to complete assess-ments and make recommendations……... Follow this link to finish the article :
http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.nl/2014/11/a-thought-experiment.html
A Thought Experiment ….. Link to Article submitted by Cindy Hall
Submitted by Amanda White
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Child Count
· It is child count time again; please remember to finalize your meetings within 2-3 days after holding the meetings.
· Make sure the information in the computer matches what is on your hard copy before finalizing.
· Disability, LRE, Dates, etc are being pulled from the finalized IEP in EasyIEP so if the electronic version doesn't match your hard copy, we will be sending incorrect data to the state.
· Withdrawals must be done manually in EasyIEP; please remember to send the names of students who have withdrawn on or before December 1 to Lynise Birch or Ginger Haynes. Submitted by Ginger Haynes
EasyFax
· Once you fax a DEC 5 with the barcode and the actual signature page, check later in the day or the next day to see if it went through before trying again. Sometimes there is a delay because of the time of day you are faxing. If your fax does not go through after the second try, send a copy of the signature page to Ginger Haynes through school mail. Changes
· As other modules become available, some of you may see changes on the screen including additional information.
· Continue to complete information for the IEP portion as you always have.
· In the IEP Process, you will see additional Present Level Areas that have been added or changed. * All preschool areas have been changed to Early Childhood. * General areas have been added for Behavior, M ath, Reading, Speech-Language and W ri!ng.
· W hen crea!ng an Invita!on, no!ce the change to the Instruc!ons box at the top; a rem inder has been
added there concerning the Handbook on Parents’ Rights.
Entering Providers
· Please remember to go into each student's record and enter your name as the provider for the students you serve. Go to the IEP Process > Special Education and Related Services > Choose your name from the dropdown. FYI - names are not in ABC order. Entering Service Time
· When entering service time for students who are Primary Speech, you must choose Special Education-SI from the dropdown, not just Special Education.
· When entering service time for students who are Primary or Secondary HI or VI, you must choose Spe-cial Education-HI or Special Education-VI from the dropdown, not just Special Education.
You can access this from the IEP Process > Special Education and Related Services > Add Special Education
Service. Submitted by Ginger Haynes
EasyIEP
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Paraeducator Page
Information in this month’s PARAgraph comes from: Considerations: Paraeducators’ Tools for Supporting
the Instructional Process T/TAC W &M prepared by Loury Floyd.
Flexibility and Positive Attitude
Two of the most important characteristics of a successful paraeducator are flexibility and a positive attitude.
Paraeducators must be prepared to handle a variety of tasks and changes with a positive attitude. And while
most supervisors do not expect paraeducators to know things that have not been taught, they will look for an
attitude that indicates readiness to do whatever is needed to improve instruction for students with special
needs.
The following worksheet can be used by paraeducators to document challenging classroom situations that
occur during the day or week when there is not an immediate opportunity to problem solve with the teacher.
Later this form can be reviewed by the teacher and paraeducator to discuss how the situation was handled and
plan appropriate action should similar situations arise in the future (Doyle, 1997). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------— — — — — — — — — — — — — — -------
Describe the situation from a before, during, and after perspective.
Before: W hat do you remember happening to the student or in the environment just prior to when
the incident occurred?
During: W hat did the student say or do?
After: W hat happened immediately following the incident? How did you respond?
W hat was the outcome of the situation? (Describe in specific terms).
Did this incident bring to mind any specific area of professional development that you would like
to receive?
Did this situation make you think that your team needs to agree on a proactive plan to avoid a re-
currence?
Adapted from Doyle, (1997)
Submitted by Trish M oody
