"Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
-Albert Einstein

Saturday, September 27, 2014

EDU352, Journal - Gathering Assessment Data


As a teacher’s assistant in a classroom of students on the autism spectrum, one of my responsibilities is collecting data to pass along to my lead teacher. Recently, I’ve begun to gather data on a student to asses her grasp of prepositional phrases and spatial concepts.The decision in question is whether to include these concepts within her speech goals when her IEP is updated this fall. The data that I have gathered thus far is her accuracy in identifying spatial concepts in relation to a picture, when choosing from a field of four (under, above, in, beside). The data was gathered using an existing independent work task in a file folder, on which she matches words to pictures.

Examples of Prepositions
from http://pearlsofprofundity.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/
the-difference-between-a-preposition-and-a-participle/
Moving forward, we will need additional data to determine whether to include this goal, and in what manner. For example, during teacher table activities, we should practice asking her to identify spatial concepts both receptively (“show me x”) and expressively (“what’s this?”), in multiple modalities including matching words to pictures, using manipulatives, and moving her body to follow single-step directions.


Technology can support gathering this data by providing tasks for her to complete. For expressive identification of these spatial concepts, the iPad application “Preposition Builder” is available. It is easy to use and understand, contains nine modules with three concepts each, and the drag-and-drop feature encourages the development of fine motor skills—which this specific student can benefit from. Further, the application offers
iPad Screenshots from the Preposition Builder app
“statistics to track individual student progress,” according to the developer Mobile Education Store. For receptive identification, a SMART Board presentation can be developed that requires the student to move an object in a new direction for each slide (ex. “put the bird IN the birdhouse”, “put the bird UNDER the birdhouse”). The presentation can be printed with her responses to use as data, and then reset for future use. The same presentation, or a variant of, can also be used for other students that need to practice the same spatial concepts.

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