*I initially began typing this post to cover how
I collect progress monitoring for writing, reading, and math, while in the
co-taught classroom.  It turned out to be INCREDIBLY long. I have decided
to turn this into a three part post, so I could focus on each area. With that
being said… Welcome to Part 1, where I’m talking all about writing goals!

This year, at
one of my district’s in-service days, we had a county wide in-service where
teachers all over the county came to meet with their respected grade level
department. Here we could share ideas, offer advice, etc.  I of course met
with the high school special education teachers.  Ideas were shared,
discussions took off, but we all shared one common question – “How do
we successfully progress monitor in the inclusion classroom?”  I
shared how I have collected data while co-teaching throughout the years and
others shared how they collect data in their co-taught classes.  Although
having almost ten years of co-teaching under my belt, I don’t find myself even
close to being a pro at data collecting in the inclusion classroom – but was
thrilled when they liked hearing what I do.  After the in-service I
decided to do a Google search on how other co-teachers handle progress
monitoring in their classroom. I honestly couldn’t find much, which is what
prompted me to type this blog post.

Before I dive in, I want to make sure I state that these are ways I have collected progress monitoring, and that these are not the only ways to go about doing it.  This is what worked best for me, being a co-teacher in grades 6 – 12 classrooms.  I am aware all schools are different, all classrooms are different, all grade levels are different, and all work environments are different.  However, I’m typing this in hopes I am able to help or provide some advice/guidance on collecting progress monitoring as a co-teacher in the regular education classroom you are co-teaching in. 


My school has always had a homeroom period, which then led into Period 1 – which is a test prep/study hall class. Students are scheduled to different classrooms to prep for state assessments.  It wasn’t until two years ago that the special education teachers asked if we could have our IEP roster students during this time.  Not only did this alleviate stress for our students being placed in class such a literature prep that they were not comfortable being in, but it has also helped us (1) drastically with collecting progress monitoring, (2) making sure our students are staying on top of all assignments, and (3) those few students who were in a co-taught classes could still be pulled when necessary to the designated testing prep room.  This way has been an unbelievable help in collecting progress monitoring for students in co-taught classes, as well as students in pull-out classes.  If this is something you can suggest to your administrators, I highly recommend it.

With that being said, it wasn’t always as nice as it is now.  Many years were spent with me hauling a binder to all of my co-taught classes.  (I did a blog post on this awhile ago.  You can find it by clicking – here.)  I was never in my room, but needed all of my daily materials and progress monitoring materials – sometimes for four periods in a row. What I learned in all those years is that special education paper work is literally heavy (haha) and to not let progress monitoring get the best of me. Ok, yes… my first year felt like a total data collecting nightmare, but it got A LOT better.  After trial and error, I found ways to collect data that didn’t completely make me crazy.

Let’s start with progress monitoring writing goals. “How in the world am I supposed to gather writing samples in their ELA class when they are reading or writing throughout the entire class period?!” …that’s what I used to always ask myself.  How do I collect the data that I need, while instruction is always going on?  I can’t draw attention to a student by pulling him or her to the side.  I didn’t know how to find time to fit in what I needed to do, around the plans the general teacher already had made.  Luckily, I’ve worked with some pretty amazing teachers who let me incorporate weekly writing prompts. While teaching in the co-taught ELA class, not all of my students had writing goals, and the students who didn’t have an IEP obviously didn’t have writing goals. Regardless of who had a writing goal and who didn’t, the general education teacher and I liked to maintain consistency, making sure every student in the class had a writing prompt every week.  These writing prompts were essentially “bell ringers” every Friday. I took this on as my responsibility to have ready each week. I would gear the writing prompts to what we learned during the week – for instance if we were reading a novel I would make the prompts about the chapter(s) we had read that week, but I could also just as easily find free writing prompts online to use.  Seriously, if you are struggling on what to have your students write about just do a Google search of writing prompt topics. 


How this method of 
progress monitoring worked:

Every Friday I greeted the students as they would come in the classroom. I would hand each student a writing prompt. I handed out the prompts rather than the general education teacher. I did this because at times I had students who had a writing goal of writing only three sentences or writing only five sentences, so I wanted to make sure that each student got their specific writing prompt. All writing prompts appeared the same at a glance. No one could tell who was instructed to write five sentences, or who was instructed to write two paragraphs.  Modifications were kept discrete, but the response amount was located in the bottom corner of the paper.  Yes, there have been just a few times where students asked why so-and-so only wrote a few sentences and they wrote two paragraphs – I just handled this as I would any other assignments, asking them to only worry about their work. Once completed, these were not taken as a grade. However, all students received “bell ringer points” for that day if completed correctly.  I would copy each writing prompt response, for the students with goals I was monitoring progress on.  I would score them on a rubric I created specific for each of their goals.  These rubrics were, and still are, discussed during the IEP meeting, so both the parents/guardians and students are aware of how I am keeping track of progress.  If a student was absent, they made it up their next day back, or if they were absent consecutive days in a row I would simply document the absence. This worked so well for me. It remained a consistent weekly activity.

BUT… yes, sadly, there is a but. We work in special education and are incredibly aware that not everything works how we want it to, and then we must adapt.  There had been a year when administering a weekly writing prompt during class wouldn’t work.  Thankfully, writing can occur in all subjects taught.  When I couldn’t administer a weekly writing prompt, I would go around on my prep collecting my students’ writing samples they did that week in other classes.  I was fortunate to be able to view my students’ grades/assignments online, so I knew who to collect samples from. When I say “writing samples,” I’m referring to any classwork students had completed that week that required writing a response. I never took graded assignments or homework. Very rarely was there a time I did not have at least one writing sample to collect from either science, history, ELA (even if I was unable to administer a prompt, I could still pull a writing sample), or math. YES, math – some math teachers had students write how they solved a problem.

When the absolute worst case scenario would occur, and I couldn’t find a single sample for a week to copy (which wasn’t too often), I would ask the student(s) to meet with me during their homeroom.  I would have them complete a writing prompt, based off of a simple topic.

In my co-teaching binder that I would carry, I always had a list of the special education students I was responsible for and their IEP goals and accommodations.  I never just had the students on my caseload – I also had students who were on other special education teachers’ caseloads.  This means I didn’t just collect progress for the students on my caseload, I was responsible for them all. 


Along with a list of the special education students I was responsible for and each of their goals, I also had sections in my binder for each type of goal I was monitoring – I kept it super simple to just writing, reading, and math. At the beginning of each section I kept a master list of the students I was collecting progress on, the date progress was monitored, and the score each student received.  Behind this master list is where I kept the copies I made of each writing prompt/sample. 

Although I haven’t hauled a huge binder around these past two years, I still keep a progress monitoring binder in my classroom.  I still organize it the exact same way. It took me awhile to find a routine that worked best for me.  I’m not going to change it until I absolutely have to! – haha. 

I know this post is geared towards upper grades, but having also been an elementary special education teacher for 5 out of my 12 years I feel this could also work for those co-teachers in the lower grades.  Your students might not be to the point of writing paragraphs, but you can tweak the writing prompts to be a one sentence response or simply a one word answer.  It all depends on the goal you are monitoring for writing. 

As I said in the beginning this is what has worked for me.  I invite you to please leave how you collect progress as a co-teacher, down  below in the comments! I want this post to be as helpful as possible – to all of us wondering how we can successfully progress monitor in the co-taught classroom.

P.S. If the template I use for creating the writing prompts is something you are interested in, send me an e-mail! I’d be happy to send it to you.