CBM

Description:
The student I decided to conduct my Curriculum Based Measurement
Tool on is Jack. Jack is a 3 year old male that has been placed in the PPCD
classroom because of his speech and behavior problems. Jack has been in a
school/daycare setting since he was 6 months old. He has been kicked out of
many of these places because of his behavior problems. Jack came to this
PPCD classroom in November. Jack goes to school 5 days a week from 7:45 to
10:45. His daily schedule includes; calendar time, computer time, individual
work time, recess, centers with Head Start, carpet activities, and snack.
Jack is a very social little boy which creates problems within the
classroom. He talks to his friends throughout the entire day, even when my
mentor teacher is teaching. Jack has no problem making new friends and is
liked by many students. With Jack being such a social individual, it has
created a problem during instruction time. He has to constantly be prompted
to stop talking and it has become a big problem in the classroom. He will
carry on conversations with the other student and attempt to start
conversations with the adults in the room when he should be sitting quietly
and listening. My mentor teacher believes that Jack is looking for attention
from the adults and that he why he is constantly disobeying the prompts
from the teachers. This concern plays a major role in this CBM.
Jack is not a very quick learner. Jack needs directions repeated multiple
times before he fully understands what he is supposed to do. Once he

understands the directions, he is usually able to complete the task. Through

reviewing his progress, it looks as if he really does understand the content.
However, the social side of Jack as well as his want for attention has started
to interfere with his learning. We will be working with him on his letters and
he begins saying that each letter is the letter L. This is something that
repeatedly happens and is baffling to my mentor teacher. Jacks mom
claimed that Jack is very smart and knows all of his letters; however, we
have not seen Jack express his knowledge of all the letter names. Jacks
knowledge of letter names is what will be tested through this CBM. This CBM
should help to determine whether his behavior is a call for attention or a call
for academic help.
It is difficult to fully assess what Jack does and does not know because
of his behavior issues getting in the way. His academic strengths include his
ability to problem solve and count. During instruction time, he can
continuously keep up with the class in counting. Jack is extremely good at
problem solving for a child at his age. My mentor teacher was reading the
class a book that presented a problem with the main character and that
characters final goal. My mentor teacher asked What do you think Phil
should do? and Jack gave this elaborate and realistic plan that would aid in
Phil attaining his goal. Jacks biggest academic weakness centers on his
letters. He is unable to identify or write the letters of his name. As I
mentioned before, it is very difficult to evaluate which letters Jack knows
because his behavior problems will usually get in the way. The hope is that

through this CBM we can discover new information that could aid in Jacks
ability to identify his letters without his behaviors interfering.

IEP Objective: Over a 36 week period, Jack will be able to identify all 26
letters of the alphabet.
Objective: Given a list of the first 13 letters of the alphabet, Jack will say the
name of the letter as it is pointed to by the teacher, getting 10/13 correct in
two out of five trials over a two week period.

Measurement Tool:
March
Trial 1
11-31
A
+

Trial 2

Trial 3

Trial 4

Trial 5

Total

+
- (said

+
- (said

5/5

D)

D)

- (said

- (said

G)
- (said

G)

L)
E
F
G
H
I

+
+
~
~
- (said

0/5

3/5

+
4/5

+
+

+
+
- (said

+
+

+
+
- (said

~
~
+

J)
+
- (said

+
~
+

C)
+
+

5/5
5/5
1/5

2/5
3/5

L)
J
K
L

L)
~

+
+
- (said

+
+
- (said

+
+

N)

N)

M
Total
5/13
7/13
( - ) = Incorrect Letter Name
Correct Letter Name
Administration Discussion:

- (said

- (said

0/5

G)
+
+

G)
+
+

5/5
5/5
3/5

9/13
10/13
10/13
(~) = I dont know response
(+) =

This assessment was created to help Jack with saying his letter names.
This assessment shows exactly what Jack needs help with. Coming into the
assessment, my question was whether Jack knows the letter names but
answers incorrectly to get attention or he doesnt know the letter names and
his behavior is a result of that. For each trial, the same 13 letters were
tested. This was done because my mentor teacher plans to test the other 13
letters at a later time. The administrator would begin by telling Jack that he
is to say the letter name for the letter that the administrator points to. Jack
was told that if he does not know the name of the letter to say I dont
know. My mentor teacher thought it would be a good idea to implement the
I dont know response so that Jack doesnt just guess the same letter for all
of the letters he doesnt know. This would also identify which letters he is
getting confused. The administrator pointed to each letter and said to Jack
What letter is this? His response would be recorded. If Jack got the answer

wrong, the administrator would say This is the letter [letter name.] Say
[letter name.] Jack would then repeat the correct letter name. Prior to the
assessment, my mentor teacher expressed to Jack that she wanted to see
him get as many correct as he could. The assessment was given in a room
separate from the other students in order to minimize distractions.
The assessment went very well. I was able to conclude that Jack is
struggling with his letters. Some of the strengths of this assessment include
being able to identify which letters Jack need work on as well as which letter
he is getting confused. Because the same letters were tested every day, it
provided the opportunity to see the progress Jack makes with each individual
letter name. This assessment allowed time and space to make note of what
Jack said if he got the letter wrong. This is a major strength for this
assessment because it identified the letters Jack was getting confused. A
weakness of this assessment is that it is not time sensitive. There were a few
times where Jack sat there thinking of the letter name and then eventually
lost track of what he was supposed to be doing. If the assessment gave an
amount of time for each response, Jack would have been more inclined to
think as hard as he can in order to get the correct letter name. Another
weakness of this assessment is that the letters were said in the same order
for each trial. Jack could have gotten in to a routine and learned the order
instead of learning each individual letter.
One improvement I would make to the test is to create a time limit for
each response. This would make the test more efficient and also minimize

the amount of distraction throughout the test. Another improvement I would

make would be to say the letters in a different order each trial. This would
ensure that the student knows each individual letter. However, I think that
these changes in the assessment need to correlate with where the student is
academically.
Mentor Discussion:
The results of the assessment are extremely encouraging. Jack
progressed or stayed the same from trial to trial as well as completing the
objective given. This assessment proved that although Jack still needs work
on his letters, he does know more than we expected. My mentor teacher and
I determined that he does intentionally say the wrong letter name in order to
get attention. Jack went from getting 5/13 correct in the first trial, to 10/13 in
the fourth and fifth trials. Jacks improvement was gradual but helped to
determine where he struggles. Jack has problems with the letters B, G, H,
and J. He was confusing B with D and J with G. These results will help to
decide how to move forward in instruction.
Jack accomplished the goal set in the objective. He got at least 10/13
problems correct in two trials. The objective was to get 10/13 correct in at
least two trials. Looking at these results, it helped my mentor teacher and
me to see that Jack can learn if given positive attention when he answers
correctly. It really helped to give Jack the same letters throughout each trial.
We believe this helped him to feel not as overwhelmed as he does when
faced with all 26 letters. My mentor teacher and I discussed that the next

step for Jack is to be assessed on the other 13 letters of the alphabet. After
that, the results will be looked at and then Jack will review the letters he did
not seem to know.
My mentor teacher and I were both extremely happy with the results.
My teacher was glad to see that Jack knows more than he usually
demonstrates. His behavior can get in the way of his learning, but with
positive praise, he can excel. We went into the assessment without knowing
what to expect. My teacher was pleased learning this new information that
will surely be useful in future instruction.
Future Teaching:
In the next few days and weeks, Jack will be assessing the second half
of the alphabet. Aside from that assessment, Jacks instruction needs to
focus going over the letters that he did not test well on. This will allow Jack to
get as much practice as possible so that the letters will become easy to
recall. The assessment proved that Jack does better if given specific positive
praise. This means that the teacher should implement more positive praise
so that the amount of times Jack acts up is minimized. To teach this
objective, it is important to practice as much as possible. Precorrection will
also aid in the success of Jacks academics and learning. I hope that this
assessment will help Jack as he continues to learn. Jack will be able to
become a student who is a hard worker with the help of these results.