Teaching · Speech & Language

Count what happens in class, not what it felt like.

Set the lesson and the minutes, then tap a counter each time the student starts talk, answers, asks for help, joins peers, drifts off topic or leaves a breakdown unrepaired. Rate the student’s talk next to classmates and write what was said. The form gives rates per 10 minutes, so short and long observations line up.

Start an observation What you get

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Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Speech & Language toolkit, $79 for 72 items.

The observation form

Each observation is its own record, keyed by the student’s initials or code and the date, so several observations of one student sit side by side. The example is made up.

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What you get

Teaching · Speech & Language$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with: A record of each classroom observation: the lesson, format and minutes; counts of six communication events with rates per 10 minutes; the share of direct questions the student answered; how the student’s talk compared with classmates on six points; timed running notes; and the supports that helped. Several observations per student, so a pattern across lessons can be seen.
Who it is for: Speech-language pathologists, special education teachers and school psychologists observing a student’s communication in class as part of a screening, an evaluation or progress monitoring.
Format: Browser form built for a phone or tablet in the back of the room: large counter buttons that work by touch or keyboard. Several saved observations; printed one at a time or as a blank paper form; CSV with one row per observation; export and import a file.
Access: $12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Speech & Language toolkit ($79) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives: The Speech & Language space in Caveat Teaching.
Support: Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

Drawn for this page. Counting what happens, and writing down what was said, keeps an observation about behavior rather than impressions.

How to use it

Start a record with the student’s initials or a code and the date; copy an earlier observation to a new date to keep the same setup.
Set the lesson, the format and the minutes you will watch.
Tap + each time an event happens; − fixes a slip. Count the direct questions put to the student.
Afterward, rate six points against classmates and finish the running notes with times and quotes.
Read the rates per 10 minutes and the response rate, then print or download the CSV to compare observations.

Start an observation

What the numbers mean

Rates make observations comparable

Six comments in 25 minutes and six in 50 minutes are not the same. Dividing each count by the minutes and multiplying by ten gives a rate per 10 minutes that can be compared across lessons and observers. The response rate is answers divided by the direct questions counted.

One lesson is one sample

A single observation shows one lesson on one day. Observe in more than one setting, such as whole class and partner work, and mark days that were not typical. Comparisons with classmates are the observer’s judgment, not a score; the form keeps them next to the notes that support them.

Where observation fits

Under IDEA, evaluations draw on a variety of tools, including observation of the student in the classroom, and no single measure decides eligibility. Records here use a code, never a name, and stay in this browser.

Sources

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act regulations, 34 CFR 300.304(b) (a variety of assessment tools and strategies; no single measure) and 300.305(a)(1)(ii) (current classroom-based observations).
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Practice Portal: Spoken Language Disorders; Social Communication Disorder (asha.org/practice-portal), on observation in natural settings.
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., and Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied Behavior Analysis (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson, chapter 4, on event recording and rate.
Damico, J. S. (1985). Clinical discourse analysis: A functional approach to language assessment. In C. S. Simon (Ed.), Communication Skills and Classroom Success (pp. 165–204). San Diego: College-Hill Press.
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 34 CFR Part 99.

The example student and lesson are made up. The form records an observation; it does not screen or diagnose, and it holds no state rules. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.