Best Practices for IEP

Writing

IEP’s Go home: Oct. 18

 I EP

a plan for student success

For our Special Education students in Peel we...

● set individualized goals for students on an IEP to improve skills
● communicate our processes and procedures to parents and
stakeholders
● develop self advocacy in our special education students
● include our students with special education needs
Delivery of Special Education and Support
Within the Peel board, more and more sp. Ed. students remain in the regular
classroom.

We will work with children to tailor the learning that is suited to each child
through regular class, with specifically designed accommodations and
modifications, small group instructions within the regular classroom, small
group instruction in an alternate setting, such as withdrawal or special
education contained class, and individual instruction in a regular class or
alternate setting.
http://www.peelschools.org/parents/specialed/Pages/default.aspx
Who Has An IEP???
Students identified as Exceptional
through IPRC with an
exceptionality:
▶ Learning Disability
▶ Language Impairment
▶ Mild Intellectual Disability
▶ Developmental Disability
▶ Physical Disability
▶ Behaviour
▶ Autism
▶ Gifted
Students not identified through an
IPRC but require accommodations
/modifications to programming as
determined by SRM – Non-
identified IEP
▶ students with SEA equipment
▶ students who require academic
support but have not had an
assessment
▶ students who need classroom
accommodations
▶ISELP
 What ISSP Teachers Do:
● Update all the pages of the IEP except the
subject pages
● P. 2 assign courses in consultation with
classroom teacher (e.g., Math, Elementary,
Grade 4) (these become P. 4) (if teachers only have access to P. 4)
There must be consultation with admin, SERT
and/or itinerant if additional pages are being
added.
● Consult and support classroom teachers to
develop subject pages (P. 4)
 What Classroom Teachers Do:
● P. 4 Baselines (marks from last year) Annual Goals,
Expectations/Teaching Strategies/Assessment
Strategies
● P. 2 assign courses in consultation with the ISSP
teacher (e.g., Math, Elementary, Grade 4) (these
become P. 4) (if teachers are also IEP owners)
There must be consultation with admin, SERT
and/or itinerant if additional pages are being
added.
 Individual Education Plan
Focus on creating a plan that is individual to the student’s needs and will
accelerate their learning.
You can get this information from:
⮞recommendation page(s) at the back of a Psych Report, Speech and
Language Assessment, OT or PT reports (OSR)
⮞school based or standardized assessments
⮞archived IEP’s (not to copy, but to use as a starting point)
 Accommodations are presented in three categories:

An IEP may have accommodations only, or may have accommodations and

modifications.
Learning Expectations:
Chose carefully based on what a student needs to make progress.
Simplify an expectation by removing examples, teaching prompts or very
specific wording that may be too complicated.
E.g.
Original Expectation:
B1.4 identify and use oral and non-verbal communication strategies,
including expression, gestures, and body language, and explain how
these strategies help them understand or communicate ideas and
meaning
Simplified Expectation:
Student will:
-use non-verbal communication (gestures and body language) to
communicate ideas and meaning
Teaching Strategies
▶Correlate directly to the specific expectation​
▶Differs from strategies used with other
students ​
▶Reinforcement strategies (e.g., incentives,
first/then)​
▶Use of SEA equipment (e.g., Voice to Text,
Boardmaker, Lumio)​
▶Incorporate student strengths and needs,
learning style and interest​
Assessment Methods
▶Specific to learning expectation and
corresponding teaching strategies​
▶Incorporate student strengths and
needs​
▶Data collection (e.g., frequency
checklist )​
▶Use of SEA equipment (e.g., Voice to
Text, Boardmaker, Lumio)​
How to create a Modified Subject Page
-log in using your P number and password

-click find a student and enter the student’s last name and search

-the OPEN IEP will come up, click and then choose P2 Subjects and Courses
from the left hand menu

-under Term/Semester F, click modified and then the blank window beside it

-a new window pops up - choose Elementary, the grade the IEP will be modified
to, (e.g. 4), then the subject menu will pop up

-finally click Copy to IEP

Watch and Listen!
https://youtu.be/8R8MTEQkja0
Baseline Level of Achievement
⇒is the starting point for the development of the
student's individual program

⇒provides benchmark data that allows for the

measurement of student growth

⇒is taken from the most recent Provincial Report

Card (typically from June of the previous year,
unless the IEP is created mid year)
There are 2 sections to the Baseline Level of Achievement:
The left hand side, the Baseline Level of Achievement for Curriculum Subjects
section, is used to enter the baseline data for CONTENT subjects such as Social
Studies, History, Science and Technology, etc.

Enter the following data:

Letter Grade / Mark
⇒enter the letter grade or mark from the most recent Provincial Report Card
Curriculum Level Grade/Mark Based On refers to the grade level of instruction for
that subject (e.g. the grade in which the student was evaluated)

Modified Curriculum check box is checked to indicate the expectations were

based on the regular grade level curriculum, with changes to the number and/or
complexity of the expectations
 Annual Program Goal
- States what you expect a student should be able to
achieve by the end of the year
- Each strand must be addressed individually unless the
student is functioning at the same grade level for all
strands (Reading, Writing, etc.)
- Be sure that the goal is measurable (e.g., do not use % of
curriculum)
- Hover cursor over titles in IEP and examples will appear
in a popup window
SAMPLE ANNUAL PROGRAM GOALS:
Students at the same grade for all strands:

“By the end of the school year, (student) will improve his/her reading, writing and
oral communication skills to a mid grade 3 level.”

Students at different levels, address each strand separately:

“By the end of the school year, (student) will read a variety of books and texts with
fluency and comprehension at a (Beg/mid/end) grade __level. (Student) will write
for a variety of purposes, applying editing skills at a (beg/mid/end) grade __ level.
In Oral Communication, (student) will stay on topic when speaking with peers and
adults in a variety of contexts. (grade _ level)
If you hover over Annual Program Goals on the IEP, you’ll see a question mark. Click and a new window will open with
suggestions of how to write Annual Program Goals.
BEST PRACTICES FOR SUBJECT PAGES
● In general, choose 2-3 expectations per strand
● Choose 3-4 teaching strategies that you are using for your student (specific to
the needs of that child)
● Please consider how to incorporate technology especially if the student has
SEA technology
● Choose 2-3 assessment strategies that you are able to deliver
● Choose assessment strategies that match the student’s needs and
Identification
● Remember that you will need to report twice from the expectations you are
using for Term 1 - choose wisely!
Resources:
● Psych Report, Speech and Language Assessment (recommendations at the back)
● IEP Teaching Strategies document
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zcbqvM5h2rMxaXJc7IJK_QJ8WIpDqFi
o6Y1AqvTEysk/edit?usp=sharing (all of the teaching strategies embedded in the IEP writer,
written out so you can see them)
● Waterfall Document pages (focused strategies that are good for learners with specific needs)

https://www.ldatschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/LD@school-2017.pdf

https://www.ldatschool.ca/wp-
content/uploads/2014/06/UnderstandingLearningDisabilities_Waterfall_Mar20
14_Web-1.pdf
 Math

● Look at the differences between grade levels for the expectations. Students
who are working at a lower grade level may need modification of the numbers
you are using to assess the skill at the actual level you teach
● E.g. teaching place value - each grade level has an expectation of how high
students should be able to count or understand place value, using appropriate
level numbers should help students to access the concept of writing in
standard or expanded form, or decimal numbers
 New Language Curriculum

Key Changes to the Curriculum

The new curriculum is not yet loaded in the IEP engine. You will need to select
expectations from the curriculum document and manually enter in into the
Learning Expectations box. Note the new strand names.

Example:

In Foundations of Language Student will:

-identify the purpose and audience for speaking in formal and informal contexts,
and use appropriate speaking strategies, including paraphrasing and restating, to
communicate clearly and coherently (grade 4)