Region 10 Fall Leadership Conference

Engaging All Learners

November 4-5, 2014

PLAAFP: Writing the Story

Cathy Sartain, Cathy Sartain Industries

What’s with that title?

So why would we refer to it as a story?

To better describe ______

Why is the PLAAFP so important anyway?

The PLAAFP describes the student’s competencies in such a way that the IEP Team can:

Identify areas of critical need to be targeted in the ______of the goal

Identify facilitators to be targeted in the ______of the goal

Determine appropriate measure of growth to be targeted in the ______of the goal

In other words, the PLAAFP provides the information needed in order to develop goals and ______

P.S. Don’t forget to make note of the colors!

What is needed to write the story?

D______!

What are the 3 actions of data? 1.

What is useful data?

Useful data will describe:

s______and c______

f______and i______

Measurable b______

Specific and factual is:

Comprehensive is:

Operationally defined is:

What does useful data look like?

Useful data provides IEP team members with the information needed to make informed, data-driven decisions about the student’s individualized educational program. The data must be specific and factual (is it observable, measurable and provable?). The data must be comprehensive (does it describe the “how and where” the disability manifests itself?). The data must be operationally defined (does the data give us a clear description so that it can be interpreted in only one way?).

Change these into useful statements

What We Get / What We Need to Get
Mike just doesn’t try.
Tommy’s math grades are low.
Sandra is just so unorganized.
Lisa never pays attention.

Where do you find useful data?

Useful data comes from both f______and i______

data sources

We must remember to gather data from both a______and f______data sources

Data tip: Observation requires ______in order for it to be a true data source

To assess student performance, IEP team members, and ultimately the IEP committee, must collect, analyze and make decisions on data from a variety of sources. The data collected should assess academic and functional performance, and should come from both formal and informal sources.

In the table below, list examples of academic and functional data sources, check if a formal or informal data source, and indicate where you would find the data.

ACADEMIC / FORMAL INFORMAL / LOCATION
FUNCTIONAL

What comes after data collection?

D______A______

Remember, there are 3 actions of data!

1. Collect 2. Analyze 3. U______

So guess what we are going to get to do next?

That’s right, we are going to use the data in writing our PLAAFP!

What must be included in a PLAAFP?

IDEA requires a statement of the child’s ______of

______and ______

AND

How the child’s d______affects their involvement and progress in the general education curriculum; or for preschool, as appropriate, how the disability affects participation in appropriate activities

So what does all that mean?

Present levels = ______

Academics = ______and ______

Functional = ______and ______

Now do you see why I call it a story? Unless there are all three components-present levels, academic strengths and challenges, as well as, functional facilitators and inhibitors (or you could say red, black and green!), the information is not useful for the design of specialized instruction.

Some of you may prefer the visual model

How does that look when you a telling a story?

Academic / Functional / Present Levels
__yes __ no / __yes __ no / __yes __ no
What’s Missing? / What’s Missing? / What’s Missing?

Let’s try that one again!

Example 2

Check to see if all parts are parts are there by doing the following:

Now it’s your turn! Read about Jacob then use your nifty PLAAFP builder to create a reading PLAAFP.

Jacob is a 10-year-old 5th grader who qualifies as a student with a learning disability in the areas of Basic Reading, Comprehension, and Reading Fluency.

Jacob’s reading fluency rate has increased slowly, but has not progressed to the rate of accuracy expectations beyond the second grade (89 wpm). Jacob is at 85% proficiency with grade level oral vocabulary. His reading comprehension is significantly below grade level, reading and comprehending grade level passages at 40% accuracy. When grade level passages are read to him, he is able to answer comprehension questions at 80% accuracy.

Jacob’s teachers report that he has difficulty with organizational skills, losing classwork and supplies daily. When given a reading assignment where he has to independently read and answer questions, Jacob starts to shut down and says “I can’t do this”.

Build Your PLAAFP
Content Area / Measurable Strengths / Measurable Challenges / DR Need / Critical
Need
Academic:
Reading
Functional
Social/
Emotional

Now that you have your data organized, write your PLAAFP in the space below. To check your work, don’t forget to use your color- coding.

You are all set to write a goal that will be aligned to your story. Here is how it’s done.

Academic challenge- black boxBehavior

Functional facilitators and inhibitors-greenCondition

Present levels-redCriterion

Once the comprehensive PLAAFP is written, the goal almost writes itself!