Introduction

This web quest is designed for you to anwer some fundamental

questions about the role that annual goals play in the function

of an IEP. By the time that you are finished, you will have a better understanding of the importance of the annual goals and the role they play in a child's education.

You have been given the responsibility of heading up the IEP team to develop an IEP for a child who has just moved to your caseload. In addition to developing the IEP, you have been asked to mentor a UMD SpEd student who is learning about IEP's. In particular, you need to teach the student about the key parts of the IEP, beginning with an understanding of what IEP goals are and the role they play in childrens' education. The following process will get you started.

Following are the questions/issues that I would like for you to investigate as you do this web quest.  Be thorough in your investigation and look for depth.

1. What does the law say that the IEP must contain in relation to the annual goals?
   • http://www.nde.state.ne.us/SPED/iepproj/develop/mea.html
2. What are the key questions that need to be answered as annual goals are developed?
   • http://www.fetaweb.com/03/iep.chklist.goals.html
3. What is the process to follow for developing annual goals? Develop a checklist to use as you write your annual goals.
• http://www.spedforms.com/goals/criteria.htm

4. What are SMART objectives and Routines?

• Writing Smart Objectives and Stratgies that fit the Routine (Adobe PDF)

5. Read the following article to aid you in the process of writing better goals and short-term objectives

• Writing Better Goals and Short-Term Objectives (Adobe PDF)

6. Your student teacher is very confused by all of this. Create a visual or graphic organizer to help her understand the chain of events and how all of these important items are linked together. Please bring your organizer to class and be prepared to share with the class. This will probably help you clarify this process of writing an IEP, too. (You can use your draw option on your computer to create a graphic organizer or the Inspirations software. I would like this to look nice. If you can do that free-hand, feel free).

7. Now, go to your PLOP, in spedforms, and write an annual goal based on the new information that you have just learned.  Good luck :)

As you finish looking at annual goals, consider how you would scaffold this goal in order to create short term objectives.