Prioritize Student Independence With Present Levels Wizard:
Functional Life Skills
As we continue to add new sections to the Present Levels Wizard, we remain committed to our goal of creating opportunities for the success of ALL students. We are proud to announce the beta preview of Present Levels Wizard: Functional and Life Skills.
It allows educators to take a holistic approach to gathering data and creating present levels statements that paint an accurate picture of secondary and post-secondary students in the following functional life skill areas:
- Toileting
- Dressing
- Emergency and Safety
- Transportation
- Money Management
- Employment
- Self-advocacy
These areas are crucial to success in life, and our goal with this section of the Present Levels Wizard is to help teachers make informed decisions about the best ways to approach pushing students towards personal independence.
Measuring Present Levels for Functional Life Skills is Focused on Independence
This new section of the Present Levels Wizard helps teachers promote authentic inclusion in the classroom community by giving them the ability to assess student autonomy in each life domain using a scale that ranges from total dependence on external help to complete autonomy:
- Complete Assistance
- Moderate Assistance
- Minimal Assistance
- Partially Independent
- Fully Independent
One of the most valuable tools that educators have in their teaching repertoire to address student needs is the student-specific information gained through intentional data collection. This is especially true for the area of functional life skills because educators must tailor statements that are concerned with an individual student’s level of autonomy rather than a normed academic standard for mastery.
Capturing Accurate Levels of Autonomy Allows Teachers to Maximize Student Potential
Planning around functional life skills is critically important because these plans ultimately dictate a student’s ability to independently function as an adult. They are also plans that are highly specific to the students to whom they belong because the level of variability with functional life skills is so vast.
“The final goal of special education should be for our students to gain as much independence and autonomy as possible, whether their disability is emotional, intellectual, physical, or a combination of two or more (multiple) disabilities.”
-Jerry Webster, Special Educator
Prioritizing independence is about more than simply identifying student levels—it’s about shifting our thinking about our students’ potential. The downloadable resources and assessments included in the present levels statements help special educators do that by allowing them to plan instruction that avoids limitations. The resources and assessments are research-based and strategically scaffolded towards success.
Our hope is to urge special educators to strive to prove the possible for their students through knowing their students deeply and making every effort to push their students towards autonomy.
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