Fluency is a crucial skill for our students with special needs. Fluency helps them use their skills quickly. A skill becomes so much more pertinent when you can use it fast. Sasha does such an awesome job explain fluency over on her blog! A fluency center is a great way to get this running in your classroom. It is also a way to ALWAYS make sure you are taking data. I just set one up in my room and I can’t wait to share!
Look how beautiful that set up is! I used 4 of these iris containers. I sorted the boxes so each student had 8 boxes of one color. I matched up the colors to their own color coding system. There were only two variations-the red color-coded students is using pink boxes and the black color-coded student is using turquoise. Look below for links to what was included for each student.
This student is in 5th grade. He is verbal and high functioning. He is reading at a 3rd-grade level and is working on higher level math skills. He is using the synonym and antonym cards and the future tense cards from The Autism Helper. His making purchases cards are from Teach, Love, Autism and the Inferencing cards are from Rachel Lynette. I bought multiplication and division flashcards at the dollar store, but you can also find them on Amazon here and here. The decoding cards and adding grocery lists cards are from my TPT store.
This student is in 5th grade. She is verbal and high functioning. She is reading at a 2nd-grade level and is working on higher level math skills. She is using the synonym and antonym cards and the future tense cards from The Autism Helper. Her making purchases cards are from Teach, Love, Autism and the Inferencing cards are from Rachel Lynette. I bought multiplication and division flashcards at the dollar store, but you can also find them on Amazon here and here. The decoding cards are from my TPT store.
This student is in 5th grade. He is verbal and moderate special needs student. He is reading at a first-grade level and is working on basic math skills. He is using the helping verb task cards from The Autism Helper. His coin combination cards are from Teach, Love, Autism and the more/less cards are from Breezy Speical Ed. The telling time cards are from Exceptional Learners. The decoding cards and the directional concepts cards are from my TPT store.
This student is in 3rd grade. He is verbal and is a moderate special needs student. He is reading at a first-grade level and is working on higher level math skills. He is using the helping verb task cards from The Autism Helper. His coin combination cards are from Teach, Love, Autism and the telling time cards are from Exceptional Learners.I bought multiplication and division flashcards at the dollar store, but you can also find them on Amazon here and here. The decoding cards and the directional concepts cards are from my TPT store.
This student is in 3rd grade. She communicates via assistive technology and moderate special needs student. She is doing reading tasks at a first-grade level and is working on basic math skills. She is using the time of day task cards from Breezy Special Ed. I bought addition flash cards at the dollar store, but you can also find them on Amazon here. The decoding card , the yes/no cards, and the feature, function, class cards are from my TPT store. I am using animal flash cards for auditory processing as well.
This student is in 3rd grade. He communicates via assistive technology and moderate special needs student. He is doing reading tasks at a first-grade level and is working on basic skills. He is using a lot from the Discrete Trial Packs from Exceptional Learners. The counting quantities, household objects, foods, money, community helpers and body parts all come from her two packs. The sight word cards are from Tara West and the Big/Small cards come from my store.
This student is in 5th grade. He is nonverbal with limited communication and low functioning. He is working on basic skill tasks. He is using a lot from the Discrete Trial Packs from Exceptional Learners. The weather, safety sign, and body part cards come from her pack. The alphabet and number cards are a freebie in my store. I cut apart a core word board from Little Miss Kim’s Class and used my Function cards. I am using animal flash cards for auditory processing as well.
This student is in 4th grade. He is nonverbal with limited communication and low functioning. He is working on basic skill tasks. He is using the tracing cards from Teaching Autism. The alphabet, number, color and shape cards are a freebie in my store. I cut apart a core word board from Little Miss Kim’s Class and used my Class cards. I am using animal flash cards for auditory processing as well.
Look how beautiful it looks in my classroom! The board has a strip of duct tape to indicate each student and cards that list their fluency concepts. The top shelf holds other supplies not related to fluency. The middle shelf holds the fluency data binder, other data binders, and the supply bins. The bottom shelf holds the fluency center.
Here is a close-up view of the board. It is not the prettiest, but it works!
I got this idea from Jenn at Teach Love Autism. My assistants will move the piece to mark which box they last completed and which box they need to pick up at for the next session.
I also added 3 small squares to the front of each box on each side with Velcro. I also placed Velcro on top of the boxes. When a student comes back into the center, the assistant will move one of the pieces to the top. All 8 students need to have all 3 pieces moved to the top before anyone can start the center again. This will ensure that all students are getting equal time in the fluency center.
This IKEA bin will hold supplies. Anything that might be used in the fluency center can go in here. I included a calculator, dry erase markers, pencils, and post-it notes. I printed this number line and put it in a dry erase sleeve for my nonverbal student to use for her addition fluency. I will also be adding timers.
I kept the data binder simple. I used a 1 1/2 inch binder and tabs. Each student has a tab and has copies of the data sheet in their tab. There is room to record data for all 8 prompts on one sheet. My aides have more clues within each box providing prompts for them.
If you are overwhelmed try starting with 2-3 sets of cards for 1-2 students. No need to run out of the gates with the whole thing. Start small and build from there. As always, reach out as you need help!
Such a great post! You explained it really well and I loved seeing new materials that I can add to mine!