SPED 311 Curriculum Based Assessment I

Name: Haley Lacativo

Date: March 3, 2015
School/Setting: Fannin Elementary/ ABU Self Contained
How does this project contribute to your skills as an educator?
Before this project, I had never made or conducted a CBM before. I was nervous about
creating a CBM because I was afraid I was going to make it wrong. After making CBMs in
class I began to feel more comfortable and confident about making my own CBM. I enjoyed
completing my CBM with my student because it was really interesting to see where the students
skill level actually was. I really liked using the CBM in my classroom because we have students
that are at all different levels and this was a quick and easy way to see what level a specific
student was at without taking away from the other students learning. Conducting the CBM
showed me that the students objective did not need refining, but in some cases a CBMs results
could show that an objective does need refining. I really liked making and working with a CBM
and I will definitely create CBMs in my future classroom to track my students progress.

On my honor, as an Aggie, I have neither given nor received unauthorized

aid on this academic work.
Signature____________________________________________

Description of Student:
John is a 7-year-old male who is in the 2nd grade and in a self-contained ABU classroom.
Socially John is typically friendly but he can be shy when he first meets people. He gets along
with most peers, and enjoys playing with his classmates. Emotionally he can get angry and begin
yelling, occasional swearing, hitting, kicking and crying. This typically occurs if he is frustrated
with an assignment or if he is upset with one of his peers. He is very flexible if his schedule
changes, but if something replaces an activity he really likes, or if he does not get his way he
tends to get upset. John is very high functioning when it comes to his adaptive behavior. He can
dress himself and care for himself. In terms of academic skills, John can read at maybe a
beginning 1st grade level. He is working on counting with money and identifying the value of
coins.
IEP Goal: Given a pile of coins, John will be able to immediately identify how much each coin
is worth by the end of 6 weeks.
Objective:
When given a picture of an object with a money amount attached to it, the student will
create the correct money amount with the coins provided within 5 seconds, with 100% accuracy
in 4 out of 5 trials over 5 days
Measurement Tool:
Johns ability to create money amounts is assessed by being shown a picture of an object
that has a money amount attached to it. He will have to use the pile of coins provided to him and
create the money amount on the picture within 5 seconds of receiving the picture. He will be
asked to identify 5 different money amounts in each of the 5 trials over 5 days.

Coin
amounts

Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

Trial 4

Trial 5

Total

29

3/5

83

0/5

67

2/5

11

5/5

Total

1/4

1/4

2/4

3/4

4/4

+ yes, independent in time limit

~ partial, independent outside of time limit
- no, incorrect
R- Refusal to answer the question
Administration Discussion:
I administered the CBM during the afternoon station time. Afternoon stations are very
relaxed because the students are each at a different station. My mentor teacher uses this time to
work with each individual student on his or her specific IEP goals. I took John to the classroom
next door because it is an empty classroom and it was separate from the other students so John
did not get distracted. I gave John the option of sitting in a desk or on the floor and he wanted to
sit on the floor, so we sat on the floor across from each other. I explained to John what we were
going to be doing and then I gave him the first picture card with the money amount on it. I then
proceeded to administer the next four trials. Johns first trial did not go as well as the other four
trials because he was not in a very good mood and he did not want to work with money. After he
got the first money amount of 29 incorrect, John refused to even try to make the second money
amount, which was 83, and third money amount, which was 67 because he said they were too
hard. He then stood up and started whining and saying it was too hard and that he needed help.
Once he calmed down he came back for the fourth money amount and when he saw it was 11,
he created it quickly. With the other four trials, John was in a more compliant mood and was

willing to work. He did not get frustrated because he was given a break where he engaged in free
play before we started working with the money so he had a fresh start when we began the trial.
Overall, the CBM went better than I expected it to go. The first trial was difficult because
John got frustrated when he was asked to make 83 and 67. When they were presented to him
he immediately said these are too hard and I need help I was able to get him to make the last
money amount when he realized it was only 11, but he was still frustrated when he made it. The
other four trials ran smoothly and fairly quickly because John was compliant and he did not get
frustrated. He did not get upset when he missed a question nor did he get upset when he saw the
two bigger money amounts.
John did a lot better than I was expecting him to do. I worked with him on this skill many
times before I started using my CBM and he really struggled. I was surprised to see John
correctly identify 63 in the fourth and fifth trials because prior to using the CBM, John would
refuse to try money amounts higher then 30. I was also happy to see him make 29 3 out of 5
times because when I worked with him prior to using my CBM he would either take a long time
or he would get it incorrect. I was not surprised to see that he could not correctly make 83 in
any of the trials because when I worked with him prior to using the CBM, john would get
frustrated and give up when I would ask him to make a money amount around that amount. After
he would give up, I would use the coins and show him how to make the money amount and then
have him count it out with me so he could see what the amount looked like.
This tool has many strengths that make it easy to use. The boxes are large enough to mark
the score in and the font is easy to read. All of the money amounts are clearly listed and I have
listed how to score the students response. I also have space for all of the trials, so it is easy to
see the results from each day. Having boxes for the totals made scoring the overall performance
much easier because I had a spot for the total for each money amount and each trial.

Not having a designated space to make the dates the trials were conducted is one
weakness of this tool. It is important to have the date on each trial, so I can keep track of how
long John took to master the objective. This weakness is easy to fix because I can just increase
the size of the table and add a column above each trial for the date. Adding a comment section to
this table would be helpful because I could write what money amounts John made instead when
he got one wrong. This would be beneficial because it would allow me to see if he was really
close to making the correct amount or if he really struggled to make a similar amount.
Discussion with Mentor:
After I completed the first trial of my CBM, I showed the results to my mentor teacher. I
told him that John got very frustrated and refused to do two of the problems. My mentor teacher
was not surprised because he said John typically struggles with frustration when he is working
with money. He was pleased to see John was able to still create the fourth money amount of 11
even though he was frustrated from the previous two money amounts. I was relieved to know
that I was not the only one who struggled to get John to at least try to do the bigger money
amounts on the picture cards and that his teacher was happy to see he worked through the
frustration and identified the final money amount correctly.
I performed the other four trials before showing them to my mentor teacher because after
each trial, he was busy managing behavior or working with other students and I did not want to
interrupt him. After the fifth trial, I was able to show the results to my mentor teacher. He was
very happy with the results and he was excited to see Johns progress. My mentor teacher told
me he did not expect John to do as well as he did since working with money usually leads to
frustration and anger for John. I was very happy to hear that Johns results were better than my
mentor teacher expected because I knew that using the CBM was effective and it showed Johns
progress.

I would definitely use this measure again because it showed Johns progress throughout
the week. It also showed me what money amounts John was struggling with and where he
needed the most work. I plan to have multiple copies of this tool on hand, so my mentor teacher
can have some copies if he asks for it. He can continue to use this as he works with John on this
goal.
Future Teaching:
After completing my CBM, I realized John needs more practice creating money amounts
greater than 30. He identified 11 5 out of 5 times and 29 3 out of 5 times, but struggled with
83 and 67. Over the next few days, I would work with John on creating money amounts that
are over 30. I would spend more time working with John by showing him how to create money
amounts over 30. I would then move to creating half of the money amount and having John
create the rest of the money amount before I moved on to using the CBM and asking John to
create the money amounts by him-self. John had concrete instruction before I was given his goal
and objective. He was taught how to count money by using touch counting. I would also make
sure I worked with John in a quiet area that was free of distractions. He worked better in the
classroom next door than he did in the classroom with all of the other students. Being in a quiet
room free of distractions may increase Johns focus, which may increase the number of money
amounts he makes correctly