Check, Please? Guidelines for Documentation of Student Work

By Liz Eagan

Look Familiar?

Why Document?

• Chart student progress
• Record contact with parents/teachers/service providers
• Accurate IEP objective updating/progress reports
• Tweak lessons to focus on weakness while expanding on student strengths 

Where to Start?

• Determine what you want to document
• Find a form
• Form not perfect? Adapt it!
• No form? Make one!

What I Document

• Contacts from parents/service providers (school district and agency)
• Student progress (IEP)
• Student behaviors, as appropriate
• Observations of student in classrooms
• Technology use
• Accommodations used/not used
• Teacher consults/feedback

IEP Behaviors

• Whether you’re using percents or fractions, objectives need to be tracked!
• Some teachers use a grade book (paper or electronic), others use data collection sheets
• Find a method that will work for you…

“I’ve got this objective, but I don’t know how to document it…”

• Try a tally sheet type form
• Easy to utilize and keep up with
• Adapt an existing form to meet your needs OR create your own!
• Try using a voice recorder to record your data to put to paper later

IEP Objective Data Collection Example

Completed Data Collection Example

Behavior

• Behavior happens.
• We need to document the behavior during the VI sessions to provide continuity in data collection/implementation of a behavior plan.

Objectives

• to verify the FVE/LMA recommendations are effective
• the teacher is utilizing said recommendations
• the student is on task & prepared
• student is using the technology appropriately
• the student is an active part of the class

Assessment

• FVE/LMA (Functional Vision Evaluation/Learning Media Assessment0
• Technology
• ECC (Expanded Core Curriculum)

Using forms to help document your assessment helps you to not overlook anything and helps to organize your thoughts/write less

Collaboration

• Observations complete
• Evaluations complete
• Time to discuss the student’s needs
• Assist the teacher in lesson planning (i.e. unit on Texas…ensure teacher has the tactile graphics/enlargements needed)meet with other service providers

Recommendations

• We evaluate. We report to the ARD committee. We then provide services, right?
• The recommendations are often overlooked and not provided.
• Simplify them.

Record Keeping

• Information pertaining to the caseload/student
• District information
• Scheduling/lesson plans
• Student attendance

Making Your Own Forms

• You’ve looked and nothing meets your needs…not even to adapt.
• Determine what it is you want in the form (behaviors, objectives, etc.)
• Do you want the form to be a checklist or comments?
• Sketch it out on paper (easier to make corrections).
• Open up a Word or Excel document and create it!
• Keep it simple.

There’s An App for That

• Super Duper Data Tracker

Closing Thoughts…

• Document…just do it!
• Documentation helps verify what you do on a daily basis.
• Documentation helps when you have ARDs that might be contentious.
• Documentation helps when others pick up where you’ve left off when changing teachers/districts.
• It’s the smart thing to do.
• Keep your documentation.

Resources

• Leon-Guerro, R et al. Show me the Data! Data-Based Instructional Decisions Made Simple and Easy. AAPC Publishing, Shawnee Mission, KS (2011).
• Olmstead, Jean E. Itinerant Teaching: Tricks of the Trade for Teachers of Blind and Visually Impaired Students. American Foundation for the Blind, NY (2008).
• Teacher’s Book of Forms. Remedia Publications (2000).
• Evals – Evaluating Visually Impaired Students. Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Austin (2007).