WRITING FUNCTIONAL IEP GOALS IN A LIFE SKILLS CLASSROOM

January 23, 2023

WHAT WILL THE STUDENT NEED TO KNOW?

Before you start writing any goal, take time to brainstorm some important skills the student will need to know in order to lead a more meaningful and independent life outside of your classroom. Although teachers play a crucial role in helping students develop these types of skills, it is incredibly important to make sure you include the student’s family during this planning process. After all, they spend the most time with the student and know him/her the best. They can offer unique insight into deficits that you as the teacher might not necessarily be able to see in a classroom setting (ex: knowing when to take the correct medicine, ordering different meals from their favorite restaurant, etc.).

IEP GOAL BANK

Now that you have done some investigative work on your end, you can begin the process of narrowing down a specific goal for your student that would be appropriate for his/her unique needs. Many special education teachers have run across IEP goal banks online. Unfortunately, you probably have also noticed that they are not nearly as functional or age-appropriate for the skills that students in a life skills classroom should be working on. I think when I started off teaching, one of the hardest parts of my job was just coming up with the verbiage I needed to describe what goal my student would be working on. This is when I realized that a LIFE SKILLS IEP GOAL BANK was such an important resource special education teachers needed in their classroom

This IEP goal bank comes with over 325 goals that can serve as great inspiration for functional lessons you can be working on in your classroom.

SMART GOALS

One of the most important parts of writing IEP goals is making sure you write them in SMART format. This is an acronym to help you remember that all goals should be:

S - Specific

M - Measurable

A - Attainable

R - Relevant

T - Time bound

With my IEP goal bank, each one of the over 300 goals is written in SMART format! I include both a paper copy (great to reference during the planning stage with families for goal development) and a digital copy (to help you easily copy and paste the verbiage over into your document). This document has saved me hours and hours of my time where I would usually just stare at the screen struggling to put into words the skill I was hoping to have my student work on. I also have included a data collection sheet (in both a print and digital format) for an easy way to track growth throughout the year!