Running Head: ASSESSMENT INTSRUMENTS AND PROCESSES

Assessment Instruments and Processes:

Report Assignment on Tom Cruise

Emily Lemons

Lewis & Clark College

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Assessment Instruments and Processes:

Report Assignment on Tom Cruise

In the face of adversity, change is a frequent reality for some families and students. For a

student who has a high mobility, as well as an IEP profile, the search for solutions to these

changes and transitions can become even more challenging without the consistency of school

supports. As school counselors, it is their role to seek out solutions for all students, advocate for

their voices to be heard and for their needs to be supported. For the report on Tom Cruise, I

would like to highlight the number of different school he attended previous to the Beaverton

School District at Top Gun Elementary and how this might affect his behavior at school. If I

were able to add data points to this report, I would inquire about the number of schools attended,

previous individual or groups sessions with a school counselor he may have participated in, and

any previous strategies that worked in the past, in the classroom, and at home. From the report, it

sounds like there are consistent routines at home. Perhaps some of these routines could be

created in a similar way for school; this might regulate behaviors and overall improve his

academic and personal/social successes. In this paper, I will go over specific interventions for

academics in the classroom for Tom, personal and social goals for counseling sessions, and goals

that will support Tom’s parents with these plans.

Academic and Classroom Interventions

Consistency will be the most helpful in aiding Tom’s successes at school. Due to his high

mobility, it will be important to create a sense of regularity and consistency at Top Gun

Elementary through the use of routine. Based on the interventions from The School Counseling

and School Social Work Treatment Planner (2014), authors Sarah Edison Knapp and Arthur E.

Jongsma Jr. suggest supports for ADHD like utilizing a daily self-monitoring chart that outlines
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a daily schedule, as well as a behavior scale to “record improvement in the ability to stay calm

and relaxed, stay in a designated location, or maintain focus of attention”—specifically when

transitioning from one activity to another (Knapp & Jongsma, 2014). I would want to place a

great focus on developing this type of chart, integrating it into the classroom into a user-friendly

format that could easily be used in another school environment. Focusing on the home to school

communication would be important as well. I would approach his classroom teacher in a separate

meeting to go over these newly formed goals and discuss “effective classroom management

techniques”, how they could be integrated in the established routines of the classroom to support

Tom, his classmates, and the teacher (Knapp & Jongsma, 2014). To monitor this intervention, I

would have Tom hold onto the weekly charts and turn them into the counseling office by the end

of the week. I would record the behavior scale as data points and later review them with Tom, his

teacher, and his family to see what is working and think of other solutions for areas that the

intervention shows need for improvement.

Personal/Social Counseling Goals

To build a relationship that lets Tom know where he can go when he needs assistance, I

recommend weekly check-ins with the counselor to monitor his personal/social growth. In these

check-ins, I would like to create a space where Tom can self-advocate and share what he needs.

By creating an environment in the counseling office where he can best express his needs, the

growth of his personal development in self-advocacy can be supported. Thinking ahead to 6th

grade and the transition to middle school, this will be extremely important to develop his skill of

understanding routines, knowing who to go to in a school if he needs assistance and who to talk

to when expressing what he needs, both academically and personal/socially. To begin

developing this skill, I would brainstorm “strategies for initiating friendships at school or in the
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community—choos[ing] one strategy to implement in the following week and discuss the result

next counseling sessions” (Knapp & Jongsma, 2014). If done in a group setting, this will build

confidence in social interactions for Tom and other students. Using books with narratives that

explore “cause and effect thinking when applying to certain behaviors” would also help develop

these skills in an individual or group session (Knapp & Jongsma, 2014). Practicing stress and

tension relief through the use of physical movement strategies, the MindUP curriculum or Yoga

Calm could be great tools for Tom’s personal/social skill practice as well. From these strategies,

a plan could be developed for Tom that could be adapted in a new school environment.

Parent Goals/Supports

I would support Tom’s parents by explaining it is my role to ensure that Tom feels safe

and cared for while at school. Being prepared for our meeting might look like arranging for an

interpreter and becoming familiar with any cultural belief systems his family might have. I

would suggest that his family “develop and utilize organized system to help student keep track of

school assignments, chores, and household responsibilities, such as a chore chart” that mirrors

school routines and assignments (Knapp & Jongsma, 2014). I would explain that the system we

create now could be a plan that can be taken with Tom to a new school environment if he and his

family are to move. Developing this plan will be able to provide a new school with interventions

that can be adapted to best support Tom in his new academic environment. Communicating with

parents the ways they can contact me if they have any further questions would also be important

support as a school counselor.

Personal Professional Development

For my own professional development, I would like to learn more about how to develop

these types of chart systems and school to home plans for students who need academic and
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personal/social supports. Implementing these plans will look different for each student, therefore

I would like to know of multiple formats in which they can be created. I would also like to

develop a list of books that aid in development of personal/social skills, self-regulation, and

cause and effect of behaviors. One learning goal in Macro would be to sit in on a IEP meeting,

look over the paperwork a counselor needs to review before the meeting, and understand what

sort of questions a counselor should prepare beforehand.

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References

Beaverton School District. (2014). Psycho-educational evaluation: tom cruise. Retrieved from

https://moodle.lclark.edu/pluginfile.php/501545/mod_resource/content/2/513_BSD_Psyc

hoeducationalAssessemt_Report.pdf

Knapp, S.E., and Jongsma Jr., A.E. (2014). The school counseling and school social work

treatment planner (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.