Horn 1

SPED 311 Curriculum Based Assessment II

Name: Kristin Horn

Date: 11/05/15
School/Setting: Texas A&M Consolidated High School Life Skills

How did you account for reliability and validity with this measurement tool?
In order to make sure the assessment was reliable and valid, I made sure that Michael was
given several trials all on different days. By giving Michael more than one trial it shows that he
is making improvements and it shows that he is able to remember the word over a long period of
time. I also made sure that the trials were given on different days. If Michael were to be given all
five trials in a row, he would just remember what the words are for that short period of time. It
would not show if Michael is able to retain the words for a long period of time. Another way I
was able to see if the assessment was reliable and valid was by having one of the
paraprofessionals give the student the assessment using my directions and legend. On the fourth
trial, the paraprofessional was able to give the student the assessment. The paraprofessional
received similar results that I got in the previous trials. This shows that the assessment is valid
and that multiple administrators can give the assessment and receive similar results.

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

aid on this academic work.

Signature____________________________________________

Horn 2
Description of Student:
Michael is a 15 year old male student. Michael is a 9th grader in a life skills classroom.
Under IDEA, Michael is served under part B. Under part B, Michael receives many different
accommodations. Some of these accommodations include a thicker pencil to help him write and
pictures under words when he is reading. Currently, Michael is working on sight words. Michael
has over one hundred sight words and has mastered the majority of them. Michael is now
working on twenty more sight words that he has had a little some trouble with remembering.
Michael is very active and social student. He comes in the classroom every day with a
smile on his face and ready to start the day. Michael has some trouble saying certain sounds,
such as the r sound. However, Michael does not usually let this slow him down when speaking.
Michael is able to carry on a conversation with individuals; however, his vocabulary is at a level
of a 10 year old rather than a 15 year old. At times, Michael will repeat a phrase over and over
again until someone reminds him to keep going. Michael also has the habit of putting words into
other peoples mouths. Sometimes Michael will say what he wants the other person to say before
that person has the chance to answer. For this reason, Michael is currently working on
conversational skills. Michael spends the first two periods of his day in the life skills classroom
and the remainder of the day in resource classrooms. While Michael is in the life skills classroom
he works on Math and English. Michael is becoming more confident when he reads. He often
volunteers to read out loud in front of class and can get most basic three letter words. Michael
knows all of the letter sounds and tries his best to sound out the words. He is improving on
blending the sounds and able to sound more words out on his own. Michael has confidence while
reading, but he can become embarrassed when he comes across new words with the letter r in
it. Michael knows how to sound the word out, but he can become embarrassed because he knows

Horn 3
he has trouble saying the r sound. However, if Michael is encouraged with positive support, he
will eventually sound out the word on his own.
Michael is able to take care of his DLS on his own. He knows exactly what to do and
does not need any extra assistance.
Objective:
By the next annual ARD meeting, given 20 different sight words on flash cards Michael
will be able to say each word correctly in 3 seconds or less with 90% accuracy in 4 out of 5
trials.
Points:

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Directions: Tell the student they are going to be working on sight words. Tell the student
that when the card is held up to say the word on the card as fast as they can. When the
student answers lay the card down and continue through all 20 words.
Legend: + answers correctly in 3 seconds or less
~ self-corrected or correct in 4 seconds

Elements

Trial 1

Trial 2

about
+
+
both
+
+
cut
+
+
far
+
+
grow
hurt
~
+
kind
+
+
must
+
+
only
+
+
own
+
+
read
+
saw
+
+
these
+
+
this
+
+
those
+
+
upon
+
+
warm
~
~
well
+
+
were
~
+
which
+
+
Total
15
18
correct in 5 or more seconds or incorrect

Trial 3

Trial 4

Trial 5

+
+
+
+
~
+
+
+
+
+
~
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
18

+
+
+
+
~
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
19

+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
20

Total
5
5
5
5
1
4
5
5
5
5
3
5
5
5
5
5
3
5
4
5

90

Administration Discussion:
This assessment will be administered to Michael at the beginning of his second period
class. Michael will do one trial every Monday and Wednesday until all five trials are completed.

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Although Michael can focus for longer periods of time, by only allowing Michael to complete
one trial a day it will show if Michael is able to recognize the word on separate occasions.
Michael will be sitting at the table during the assessment. The person giving the
assessment will tell Michael I am going to hold up some cards with a word on it, as quickly as
you can tell me the word that is on the card. AS Michael is saying the words, the teacher will be
timing Michael to see how long it takes him to say the word and if he gets the word correct. The
teacher will use the legend to determine if Michael is successful, almost has it, or was incorrect.
Michael will go through all 20 words in a single sitting.
The measure and legend are very clear and easy to follow. The legend states exactly how
much time the student has to saw the word in order to get credit for the answer. The legend also
explains what to do if the student answers wrong and then changes his answer. It makes it very
clear for the person administering the assessment on how to score Michaels answer. One thing I
would change when administering the assessment is how long to hold the card up before moving
to the next question. When Michael had trouble with some words he would just stay quiet for
around 10 seconds before taking a guess. In the future, I would add to the directions that after 6
seconds the administrator needs to switch to the next card. By doing this, the administrator will
not be holding the same card up for a long period of time and he or she can continue with the
administration of the assessment.
Mentor Teacher Discussion:
After I administered this assessment I talked to my mentor teacher about the results.
Michael had been working on these words for a little while, so my mentor teacher was expecting
him to make some improvements. In the weeks prior, Michael had been scoring about 80% to

Horn 6
85% on these words. When I gave the assessment on the first trial Michael got 75%. Most of the
words Michael was struggling with were the words that had the r sound. Michael knew what
the word was, but he would hesitate and take longer to say the word. My mentor teacher said that
she expected those results. She told me that Michael is still working on the r sound when he
attends speech therapy once a week. Michael realizes this is the sound he has trouble with and is
sometimes apprehensive about saying words he is unsure of with the r sound in it. Although
Michael struggled in the first trial in the other four trials he did score 90% or above. However,
Michael still needs to work on the word grow because he only got this word correct in the last
trial. Michael knew the word each time and he was just hesitant to say the word. My mentor
teacher said the next thing that Michael needs to work on is feeling more confident when he is
saying the word and to start reading the words in sentences. As Michael gets more confidence, he
will feel better about reading the words in the sentence and he will read with more fluency. Over
the next few weeks Michael will be given short reading passages that contain some of these sight
words.
Future Teaching Direction:
Michael was able to say the sight words with 90% or more accuracy in four out of five
trials. Now that Michael has mastered most of the words he will read short passages that contain
some of these sight words. This will help Michael improve his reading fluency as he becomes
more familiar with the words. In the next few weeks Michael will be given passages that have
pictures under the important words. The words without pictures will be Michaels sight words.
The pictures will help Michael become familiar with other words. As Michael is working on the
passages, he will also work on sounding out the words he does not know. As Michael progresses,
the pictures will only appear under the word the first time it is said in the story, instead of every

Horn 7
time it is said. This will help Michael begin to recognize the words. Eventually, Michael will no
longer be given pictures under the words and will be expected to sound the words out on his
own.