Data collection! It is the backbone of our classrooms, but it can be difficult to get up and running. I sucked at data collection when I started teaching. I didn’t take enough data, I didn’t take good data and I didn’t track my data. Basically, I barely did data and that was not okay.
Once I figured out how to take data and how to have people help with data collection, so many wonderful things happened. I had stronger progress notes, better IEPS and more progress in my students! We will cover 4 basics in this blog: Types of data sheets, types of data collection systems, ways to take data throughout the day and collaborating with others for data collection. Let’s dive in!
Types of Data Sheets
There are so many types of data sheets! We will cover four types of data sheet: discrete trial, abc sheet and independent/prompting data sheets. Your freebie has a sample sheet for each type of data sheet-be sure to download!
Discrete Trial Data Sheet: Discrete trial is done in a one on one setting. Discrete trials are very strucutred and have a clear beginning and end. For example, if you are teaching sight words in discrete trial teaching you would have a set of 10 sight word cards and you would use the same 10 sight word cards in each trial.
Discrete trial teaching (DTT) is an evidence-based practice. It is direct instruction that provides repetitions to help acquire skills. Reinforcement is embedded in DTT. DTT is a great tool to utilize, particularly if your student is struggling to grasp concepts. With discrete trials, you will measure the same 10 words until you reach mastery. Some common basic things worked on in discrete trials include letter ID, number id, colors, shapes, and sight words.
Fluency Data Sheets: Fluency is a step above DTT. with DTT, we are simply looking for mastery. If a student takes 2 minutes to read 10 sight words but still read all 10 sight words correctly, they are meeting the target. With fluency, we need the accuracy and speed to be paired together.
We want our students to know sight words, math facts, and more fluently. We don’t want them to have to count on their fingers to solve single-digit addition problems, we want them to know that 4+4=8 off the top of their head. That will help them use the skills in a functional manner-and functional use of skills is the end goal!
With fluency, we will have a target (read 10 sight words in 30 seconds). We want them to get all 10 sight words AND do it in 30 seconds. A fluency data sheet lets us measure the fluency rate. If you find that your student really struggles with fluency, then you might want to go back to using DTT for the skill. Once it is mastered, move it back to fluency.
ABC Data Sheets-ABC stands for antecedent, behavior consequence. To clarify, consequence is not negative. Consequence is just whatever occurs after the behavior. ABC data sheets help us determine the function of the behavior and the consequences maintaining the behavior. It also helps analyze what is actually happening in your classroom.
ABC data sheets seem complicated, but once you get them set up it is so much easier to track the behavior in your classroom. I have an entire blog dedicated to ABC data as well as a blog that walks through a data sheet with a free data sheet attached. You can also listen to Episode 27 of the podcast to learn more about ABC data!
Independence/Prompting Sheet-When we look at the prompting hierarchy, the ultimate goal is independence. We utilize various levels of prompting throughout the day, but we still want to work on completing tasks independently. You can even use tasks such as completing a cut and paste or completing a file folder to measure independence. When we take this type of data, we are merging the types of prompts needed for each task.
The highest level of support needed is a full physical prompt. We can work on fading that back to a partial physical prompt, then move to modeling. Once we get to modeling, we can fade back to a gestural prompt, then a verbal prompt. The last step is to fade back to a visual prompt, and then independence.
If you see a student is complete a task successfully using a gestural prompt, you can try fading it back to a visual prompt. If he isn’t able to complete the task with a gestural prompt, you might need to move to modeling. An independent work/prompting data sheet allows you to track all of these areas.
Types of Data Collection Systems
Once you figure out the types of data sheets you are using, you will want to figure out a data collection system. This is how your team will approach data collection. It is important to pair easy to understand data sheets with easy to use data collection systems. If the data sheet, or the system used to collect data, is too complicated, no one will do it.
Digital Data: Once I turned to Google Forms to take data, it became so much easier for my team. I didn’t have to remember to print data sheets, we never had to worry about the student being in inclusion math and the data sheet being in my classroom, I could look at the data from home if I needed to AND my adminstrator could log in and see the data.
I had traveled for my honeymoon back in 2016 and my admin needed to see my data but could not get ahold of me to figure out where it was, which was stressful when I came back. When I had to travel to Spain for my brother’s wedding in 2018, I gave my administrator the log in to my google forms. She didn’t need it, but it was a huge relief to know she could just log in and look if she did. If you want to read more about digital data, I do have a blog post you can read here, or listen to episode #7 of the podcast!
Data Binders: Data binders are a great way to organize paper-based data sheets for every child. For this system, I recommend a binder per student. Johnny would have a binder and all of Johnny’s data sheets would be in the binder. This made it easy to just pull that one binder when heading to a meeting. This system works really well if you are running a lot of Discrete Trials or working with students on a one-to-one basis.
Clipboards- Clipboards strategically placed around the room can be helpful, espcially for behavior and communication data that can be snagged at anytime. I also liked to have clipboards for my paraprofessionals to take into inclusion. Fpor example, if my para was supporting a student during inclusion reaing, she might have a clipboard with his reading, communication and behavior goals on it. She didn’t need to worry about IEP goals that related to math, fine motor skills ETC so a clipboard narrowed down to that subject helped her taka data.
Weekly Data Sheets: With a weekly data sheet, you have all of the goals on one sheet. The goal is to fill up the weekly data sheet by Friday. As I mentioned, I really stuggled to collect eough data in the beginning. I had some goals that I had 50 data points for, and other goals that I had 5 data points for. Without getting into too much information, I had a little bit of a sticky situation occur and I needed to up my data game.
Weekly data sheets helped me do this. Every data sheet had room for 3 data points on it. My district expected data to be collected 2-3 time a week on all goals, so this system helped me work towards that. I might not get to 3 data points for EVERY goal, but as long as I had AT LEAST one data point per goal and two data points across majority of the goals, I could be confident that I was taking enough data across the day.
Data Sheets by Subject- The types of data I needed to take in my classroom greatly varied from year to year. Some years, I had mainly behavior, communication and fine motor skills. This system didn’t work well those years. The years that I had a lot of reading and math goals, however, this worked wonderfully.
As you heard in my schedules podcast, I preferred to split my class into two groups-group A and group B. To make this work, I would have a group A reading data sheet and a group B reading data sheet. Group A’s sheet would have all of the kid’s IEP goals pertainng to reading (decoding, comprehension, retelling etc) on the sheet.
Before I started this I would have each student’s binder on the table. Let me tell you, trying to have 5 different data binders open on the table along with each kid’s set of reading materials was chaotic. By streamlining this system, I could have one sheet I recorded on. At the end of the week, I would transfer data to the individual binders and shred the one pagers. This might have been an unnecessary step, but again if I got called into a meeting unexpectedly, I didn’t want to have to scramble to find all my one pages and cover up confidential information from other child on the sheet. By transferring data, I could still grab individual binders for meetings.
I used a mix of data sheets by subject, weekly data sheets, and google forms. I wanted to clarify something. I color-code my students. Each student is assigned a color, which makes it easier to keep the sheets confidential. If Jonny Martin is color-coded blue, my data sheet would say “blue data sheet.” The only people who know my color code are my therapists, my aides, and my assistant principal. That means if any other person finds the datasheet (where paper-based or digital), they have no idea which student is which. That protects confidentiality.
The colors I would use were blue, red, light pink, purple, dark green, yellow, orange, teal, black, white, brown, tan, gray, burgundy, lime green, and hot pink. I just wanted to list colors to show that this can be done with classes up to 16, and those are just the colors off the top of my head! You could also use numbers or letters. The idea is just if someone finds your data sheet for the subject, and sees data for students A, B, C, and D, they wouldn’t specifically know which student the data was for. Again-confidentiality!
When to Take Data
We have our data sheets designed and we have a data system planned, but how do we implement it. Sometimes, so much is going on in the classroom that remembering to grab that clipboard or open that google form to record data is difficult. Here are some easy ideas you can use to collect data throughout the day.
IEP Bins: An IEP bin is a bin filled with materials necessary to run IEP goals. I typically don’t include materials for speech or behavior. Those goals typically don’t need a tangible item. Again, communication and behavior data is just captured throughout the day. When I looked at each goal I considered if I needed to present the child with something to work on the goal (i.e. giving them a patterning board to work on a pattern goal) and wrote it on a list.
Once I knew all the materials I needed to run each goal, I could start assembling materials. IEP bins usually had a lot of flashcards (sight word cards, math facts, etc), file folders that target specific skills, manipulatives like coins for counting money, and hands-on task cards. Depending on the student and goal, I might even store worksheets in here. The idea is when you pull your student to the table, you have everything you need at your fingertips.
We run IEP bins every morning. My students rotate between doing independent morning work and working on the IEP bin with me or an assistant. I try and rotate out tasks at least once a month to make sure students are generalizing the skill. You can read more about IEP bins in this blog post, or listen to Episode #10 of the podcast.
Fluency Data- As we talked about, 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. 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.
Fluency is different from IEP bins because, with IEP bins, you might have a wide array of materials. With fluency, it is typically just flashcards. This is a great way to take data on sight words, math facts, telling time, any type of ID (think letter, number, shape, color, fraction, object), and more. Read this blog to see what the fluency center looked like in my classroom. PS, my fluency center was run by my paraprofessional. It was so easy for her to do and took a lot of pressure off of me to get data collected.
During instruction: Sometimes I would get so caught up on Discrete Trials or Fluency that I would forget that sight word data can be taken during reading instruction. That sounds silly right now but once you are in the classroom and everything is running, you might forget this little tip. Make a plan for data collection. Behavior and communication data should be taken through the day, although plans for these can be helpful as well. That being said, I am more referring to reading, math and other goals.
If you can fit it into instruction, perfect! If it goes into a fluency center, ideal. If you can’t fit it in instruction or fluency, but you use IEP bins, the problem solved. If you don’t have a time designated to take a certain piece of data-guess what. You won’t take that data and then progress notes will be due and you will have no data points. Uh-oh! Guys, I have been in that scenario. It’s stressful, especially if it turns into a bigger problem. Just make the plan in August and stick to it-trust me.
One more tip-I had a classroom meeting book, This book is not scheduled in my day. This is what I like to call an “emergency filler”. This is perfect when Adaptive PE gets cancelled, or my math lesson ends 10 minutes early, or we just need something calming to do. My students love the songs I have paired with each page. I have a YouTube playlist that I run, and before each song we work on a page. We might do this whole book or just do two pages from it, depending on the day. This book was FILLED with different targets students were working on and I could get so much data collected when we used this. I have a free book you can download and use here!
Collaborating on Data Collection
Your paras can and should be taking data. They spend as much time as you do with the students, and in some instances they might be the only one with the student for a certain time of day (think inclusion). If your student has a goal to raise their hand and wait to be called on, and your para is taking them to inclusion for 60 minutes a day, you need data for how that goal is working in that classroom.
You will want to train your paras on taking data. I cover more about training paras in the paraprofessional blog post (check back Sunday, July 26) but make sure they understand how to take the data. This is where designing those easy to understand data sheets comes into play. Consider having your paras run a fluency center or an IEP bin. I even trained my paras to take the data when we used our classroom meeting book, which again helped me a ton.
It is also important to get feedback from your paras on the data collection system. Again, if it is not an easy to understand data sheet AND an easy to use data collection system, they won’t take the data. I had a scenario when my assistant had clipboards for inclusion. Clipboard seemed simple, but she was supporting three different students. She found it difficult to navigate all three clipboards while providing hands-on support during the fast-paced math lesson. When we talked about it, I switched to one data sheet with all of the math goals on it and she simply transferred her data to the data binders at the end of the week. This made it easy for her to collect quality data, which helped me in the end.
We also want to be taking data on goals that are tagged by the SLP and OT. Work with both of these therapists to get input on your data sheet. The SLP might have an easy idea for you to capture articulation data and the OT might be able to help you design a system that gives her ALL of the information she needs regarding fine motor goals.
I know this is a LOT of information but I jope it helps you get started. Regarding distance teaching amid the pandemic, this is the only area I can give advice in because I am joijing tele-tharpay sessions. We use Boom Cards to work on programs (to clarify a program in an ABA session is bascially an IEP goal in shcool). The Boom Cards collects and graphs the data for us-making it ideal. We are in the sessions recording data ourselves, so if you have simply having the boom cards completed by the familes, the data could be skewed (as we wouldn’t know how much support the parents or caregivers were giving) but it still heps to get some idea of data on record!
Be sure to download today’s freebies. In addition to the hand out and worksheet summarizing data collection systems, you have a couple of free data sheets you can use!