5 Tips for Writing Stronger, Data-Driven IEP Present Levels

If you're anything like me, writing present levels is one of those parts of the IEP process that can either go really smoothly or leave you staring at a blank screen wondering where to begin.

Most of the time, it isn't because we don't know our students. We spend every day with them! The hard part is putting everything we know into words that are clear, specific, and meaningful.

Over the years, I've found a few strategies that have made writing present levels much easier. I thought I'd share them in case they help make your next IEP a little less stressful.

1. Start with the skills, not the paragraph.

Before I write a single sentence, I make a list of what the student can and cannot do.

I think about questions like:

• What skills has the student mastered?
• What skills are emerging?
• What support does the student still need?
• What patterns do I notice during instruction?

Once I have those answers, writing the actual paragraph becomes much easier because I'm no longer trying to think about everything at once.

Instead of writing a paragraph and hoping I remember everything, I organize the skills first and let the paragraph come together naturally.

2. Be as specific as possible.

A statement like: "The student struggles with reading." doesn't tell the IEP team very much.

Instead, describe exactly what the student is able to do, the supports they need, and the conditions in which they are most successful.

For example:

"When presented with a CVC word written on a whiteboard, the student can produce each letter sound and blend them together to read the word correctly in 8 out of 10 opportunities. The student is currently most successful with short a, o, and u CVC words and benefits from additional wait time when blending unfamiliar words. Performance is strongest during small group instruction with immediate corrective feedback and opportunities for repeated practice. The student continues to need support when reading CVC words containing short e and short i vowel sounds."

Can you picture the student a little better after reading that?

Specific details like the instructional setting, materials, prompting level, level of independence, and performance patterns give everyone on the IEP team a much clearer understanding of the student's current performance. They also make it much easier to write meaningful, measurable goals.

3. Think about what comes next.

One thing that has really helped me is asking myself one simple question while I'm writing:

"What is the next skill this student needs to learn?"

Your present level should naturally lead into your annual goal.

If your present level clearly describes where the student is performing today, writing the goal becomes much easier because you've already identified the next instructional step.

4. Include the supports that make the student successful.

Present levels should describe more than just what a student can or cannot do.

Think about the supports that help them succeed.

• Do they benefit from visual supports?
• Frequent prompting?
• Repeated practice?
• Graphic organizers?
• Sentence starters?
• Small group instruction?
• Extended wait time?

Those details paint a much clearer picture of the student's current performance and help everyone on the IEP team understand what is working. They also help ensure that successful supports continue to be provided across settings.

5. Remember that you don't have to reinvent the wheel.

One of the biggest time wasters is trying to come up with new wording every single time you write a present level.

There is nothing wrong with using consistent, professional language as a starting point. The important part is making sure it accurately reflects your student's current performance and includes the individualized details that make each IEP unique.

Over time, I've realized that having a strong starting point makes the entire process faster and much less overwhelming.

A Tool That Has Completely Changed My IEP Writing Process

As I was writing more and more IEPs each year, I realized I was spending far too much time trying to organize my thoughts and find the right wording. I finally decided to create a tool that would streamline the process.

I'm so excited to finally share my IEP Present Level Generator & Template Library!

Instead of starting with a blank page, you simply select the skills that match your student's current performance. The generator automatically creates a professional present level statement that you can copy, paste, and customize for your student.

The resource includes:

• Over 1,700 professionally written skills
• Pre-K through Transition
• Elementary and Secondary versions
• Reading
• Writing
• Math
• Behavior
• Adaptive Skills
• Pre-Academic Skills
• Editable Google Sheets
• Auto-generating present level statements
• Blank templates for creating your own custom present levels
• Multiple language banks to help you with wording
• A fully customizable format so you can personalize every statement to meet your student's unique needs

My goal wasn't to write present levels for teachers. It was to eliminate the blank page and give special education teachers a strong starting point that they can confidently customize for every student on their caseload.

If you'd like to see exactly how it works, I've included a short video below that walks through the process from selecting skills to creating a complete present level statement in just a few clicks. Click HERE if you would like to check it out yourself. 

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I truly hope these tips are helpful the next time you're sitting down to write present levels. I know firsthand how overwhelming IEP season can feel, and if I can create resources that save you even a little bit of time, then all of the work that went into making them is worth it.

Thank you so much for being here, for following along, and for supporting my little corner of the special education community. It truly means more than you know. ❤️

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Scope and Sequence for Special Education

Surprise! I am reviving my blog in order to give you all of the details about how I fill in my scope and sequence, including links to free resources! First off, you can download a free copy of the google doc HERE. The settings are "view only" so you will need to go to FILE - MAKE A COPY in order to edit.  You do not need to request access. The document contains the template that I am currently using, plus all of the instructions that I am including below. You can also find my original blog post with additional information and another template HERE.  

Enjoy!

How to fill out the planning document

Weekly Themes

• I follow the weekly themes from the Scholastic Weekly Readers (Let’s Find Out or Scholastic News). I use the interactive classrooms from The First Grade Creative and modify them as needed to align with the themes. The form to get access to the editable templates can be found HERE. 

• Once you have access to the google folder, open the VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS folder, then MONTHLY THEMES. **You can follow the same steps for science, social studies, etc.

• Make a copy of each month and save it to your own google drive. I like to create a “monthly themes” folder to keep everything organized. 

• Open up the first month that you would like to work with. Make any edits that you would like or use it “as is.” 

• Copy the URL for each individual slide and insert the link into your planning document. When you are ready to use the slide, just open the link in your document and hit the SLIDESHOW button in the upper right corner of the slide. By inserting the individual slide links you are able to go straight to the theme that you want. 

• Not all of the themes that I use are available in The First Grade Creative google folder, but it is a great start. There are tons of tutorials on YouTube for creating/modifying interactive classrooms. I typically copy a slide that has the color scheme that I need, delete all of the images, screen shot the thumbnails of the youtube videos/books that I want to add, paste them onto the slide,  and then add the links to the videos. Trust me, once you get the hang of it, it is easier and faster than it sounds. 

Core Words

• I like to link the core word pages from the Renfrew Educational Services site. Some of the words on my planner or not listed on their site. You may choose to skip those words and only focus on their scope and sequence if it works best for your program. Feel free to modify the words to follow the sequence that works best for your classroom. 

Letter of the Week

• I use the letter of the day in my classroom, but include a letter of the week column for those who may need it. I link the digital components of the All About The Letters - Alphabet Intervention in the planning document that I use in my classroom. However, the Reading and Writing 4 All site has free slides that are similar. You can follow the same steps I listed in the Weekly Themes section to download the google slides and link them in the document. 

Speech Group/OT Group

• These two sections are available for our therapists to plan and insert links (youtube videos, Boom Cards, etc.) that they may want to pull up while they are leading a group in the classroom. This document is always up on my classroom computer so it is an easy way to share information. 

Other

• This section is a bonus section for anything else you may need for your classroom. This could include: general education connection, science topic, social studies topic, social/emotional topic, etc. Columns can be added or removed in order to create a planning document that works best for you.

I hope this is helpful! 

Short Vowel Boot Camp

Are your students hitting a wall when they are beginning to blend CVC words? This is typically for one of two reasons:

1. Their phonemic awareness skills are weak
2. They are inconsistent with short vowel sounds

Both of these areas need to be strong in order to begin blending CVC words. I have put together a Short Vowel Bootcamp to help students master the short vowel sounds so that they can transition to the next phase of reading!

This 2-week intensive program focuses on short vowel sounds. In this pack you will find two full weeks of easy to follow lesson plans as well as a third week of extended plans for students who may need additional instruction.


The highlights of this program include:
-Mouth shape visual supports
-Short focused lessons
-Explicit direct instruction
-Differentiated hands-on activities
-Targeted independent practice
-Easy to administer pre-, mid-, and post assessments

-COMMON QUESTIONS-

Why the mouth pictures?

•The mouth pictures provide students with a visual cue for each vowel sound. Using the mouth pictures along with a mirror draws the students’ attention to the formation of their mouth during each sound. 

Is this intervention appropriate for students with significant speech delays? 

•Yes! This intervention is not only appropriate for students with speech delays, but is an effective instructional option for working on both reading and articulation at the same time. Please consult with your student’s speech therapist to demine the sound approximation that you should be encouraging during the lessons. If the student is unable to make an approximation of the vowel sound, you can modify the activities by having the student point to the letters instead of producing the sound. 

Where can I find the mirror for the Vowel Slider?

•The vowel slider is sized to fit a 5x7 locker mirror. These mirrors typically run $1-$4 and can be found at the dollar store or Amazon. They can also be found during the back to school season at stores like Target and Walmart. Can’t find a 5x7 mirror? Experiment with smaller sizes, such as a makeup compact mirror. Don’t have enough mirrors for all of your students? One mirror can be shared between a pair of students or even a small group.

Do I need to complete the lessons in order?

•Yes and no. The lesson plans are just a recommendation to guide your instruction and are an especially helpful tool to provide teaching assistants. A majority of the worksheets and activities can be completed in any order and the hands-on activities are a great option for students to practice and review the vowel sounds throughout the year. However, the teacher presentation pages are designed to fade the visual supports. It is recommended that you progress through these pages at a rate that meets the needs of your students. 

Are the extended lesson plans are required part of the program?

•No. The first two weeks of the program are recommended to teach and reinforce the short vowel sounds. The extended lesson plans and extra practice worksheets are available to provide additional practice if needed. 

Are there any prerequisites needed to begin the program?

•This program is intended to be an intervention for students who have already had exposure to the names and sounds of each letter in the alphabet. 

Help! I am not sure what one of the pictures is!

•There is a picture index included on page 10.

Have you used the Short Vowel Bootcamp in your classroom?  If so, let me know! I love to hear about how teachers are using my resources.  You can send me an email at autumn@supportsforspecialstudents.com or tag me on Instagram.

Back to School Sensory Bins

Have you been interested in trying out sensory bins but don't know where to start? This pack of easy prep back to school sensory bin activities makes it simple to incorporate hands on fun into your classroom during the months of August and September.  

The September Sensory Bins target a wide range of skills with a fun sensory twist! This pack has themes of school and apples, making it the perfect back to school set! The skills are within four categories: errorless skills, sorting skills, math skills, and ELA skills.

Errorless Skills

There are two errorless bins in this pack. The first bin is adding students to a bus. This is a great bin you can tie into any type of transportation theme as well as using it on its own. It’s also great to generalize how some students get to and from school. The other bin is adding worms to an apple. This is a fun bin to use when learning about Johnny Appleseed or just as a September theme!

Sorting Skills 

This pack covers two important foundation skills: colors and shapes. It is important to give students repetitive practice with these skills and a sensory bin is a fun way to expand exposure. For colors, students will sort crayons. The colors targeted are red, blue, purple, and green. For shapes, students will sort crayon boxes. The shapes targeted are circle, square, triangle, rectangle, diamond, pentagon, trapezoid, and oval. 

Math Skills

This pack covers two math skills: counting 1-20 and ordering numbers 1-10. Counting is targeted in two ways. One version is counting out a quantity 1-5. Students will find pencils and add the appropriate amount to a cup with that number. For example, they would add three pencils to the cup with “3” on it. Two bins cover this skill. 

The other style-counting bin has students count the number of items and match it. Two bins cover this skill. The first bin targets numbers 1-10 and students will count kids on a bus and match it to a bus with that number. The second bin targets 11-20 and students will count dots on a book and match it to the bookshelf with the same number. The last math bin has students put backpacks in order on hooks, with numbers 1-10 ordered. 

ELA Skills

This pack also covers four ELA skills: Upper to Lowercase Match, Letter to Sound Match, Rhymes, and CVC words. For Upper to Lowercase Match, students will pull apples out with a lowercase letter printed and match it to the apple on the tree with the matching uppercase letter printed. For Letter to Sound Match, students will pull out cards with pictures on them. They will determine the beginning sound and match it to the corresponding letter on the bulletin board mat. 

Students will work on rhyming by pulling apples out of a bin and figuring out the rhyme. They will add it to the basket with the same rhyming sound. When the bin is complete, students will discover three words that rhyme with each sound. For the last bin, students will pull pictures out of the bin and match it to the corresponding CVC word on the school.

This pack will help you reach a wide range of learners in your classroom. If this is a great fit, you might be interested in grabbing the bundle! 

Have you used this resource in your classroom?  If so, let me know! I love to hear about how teachers are using my resources.  You can send me an email at autumn@supportsforspecialstudents.com or tag me on Instagram. 

June Sensory Bins

Have you been interested in trying out sensory bins but don't know where to start? This pack of easy prep summer sensory bin activities makes it simple to incorporate hands on fun into your classroom during the months of June & July.  The bright and cheery activities are a great addition to your classroom centers at the end of year or during your ESY program! 

This pack focuses on foundational academic skills and is perfect for any prek, kindergarten or special education classroom. There are 12 activities included, each activity focusing on a different basic skill.

Activities Included:

• Errorless Swimmers
• Errorless Ladybugs
• Color Sorting Sharks (3 cards)
• Shape Sorting Suns (2 cards)
• Counting 1-5 Crabs (2 cards)
• Counting 1-10 Palm Leaves
• Ordering 1-10 Flip Flops
• Counting 11-20 Popsicles (2 cards)
• Uppercase to Lowercase Lemonade Letter Match (2 cards)
• Letter to Sound Summer Flowers (2 cards)
• Rhyming Bubbles
• CVC Houses on a Map

Are you looking for sensory bins to get you through the entire year?  This resource is part of the Monthly Sensory Bin Bundle and can be found at a discount HERE. 

Have you used this resource in your classroom?  If so, let me know! I love to hear about how teachers are using my resources.  You can send me an email at autumn@supportsforspecialstudents.com or tag me on Instagram. 

May Sensory Bins

Have you been interested in trying out sensory bins but don't know where to start? This pack of easy prep spring sensory bin activities makes it simple to incorporate hands on fun into your classroom during the month of May and are a great addition to your classroom centers! 

This pack focuses on foundational academic skills and is perfect for any prek, kindergarten or special education classroom. There are 12 activities included, each activity focusing on a different basic skill.

Activities Included:

• Errorless Frogs
• Errorless Ducks
• Color Sorting Flowers (3 cards)
• Shape Sorting Flowers (2 cards)
• Counting 1-5 Birds (2 cards)
• Counting 1-10 Kite Bows
• Ordering 1-10 Socks on a Clothes Line
• Counting 11-20 Umbrellas (2 cards)
• Uppercase to Lowercase Butterfly Letter Match (2 cards)
• Letter to Sound Cherry Blossoms (2 cards)
• Rhyming Flowers
• CVC Kites

Are you looking for sensory bins to get you through the entire year?  This resource is part of the Monthly Sensory Bin Bundle and can be found at a discount HERE. 

Have you used this resource in your classroom?  If so, let me know! I love to hear about how teachers are using my resources.  You can send me an email at autumn@supportsforspecialstudents.com or tag me on Instagram. 

Color Block Addition and Subtraction Bundle

Are your students struggling to understand the concept of addition and subtraction? Do you find that they can count to solve equations using touch dots, but have difficulty generalizing the skill? 

This bundle is filled with color-coded supports for basic addition and subtraction. These packs build students' understanding of the concepts of addition and subtraction instead of rote counting skills.  This color coded hands-on approach is perfect for early learners and students with disabilities. 

The bundle includes the Color Block Addition Pack and Color Block Subtraction Pack. Each pack contains 2 full sets of materials; one set for numbers within 5 and another set for numbers within 10. All of the materials can be used with any set of classroom manipulatives. 

Included in each set:

-Color-Coded Mat w/Numberline

-Large Flashcards

-Worksheets (color & black and white)

-Task Box

-File Folder Activity

-Clip Cards

-Interactive Flip Book

Have you used the Color Block Addition or Subtraction packs in your classroom?  If so, let me know! I love to hear about how teachers are using my resources.  You can send me an email at autumn@supportsforspecialstudents.com or tag me on Instagram.