Combining Like Terms Fluency, Timed Progress Monitoring Probes

About this resource

Everything inside: 23 pages · 387 type-in fields · four timed student practice pages (12 combining-like-terms problems each, in two labeled columns) · a shared scoring-keys page for all four forms, with a worked example of why the variable changes the answer · a data log and graph scored as expressions correct per minute · a quick-response observation checklist · a caseload summary · a quick reference card for a second adult · a family update · a 19-starter phrase bank · a binder cover and 4 cut-out divider tabs · a worked, invented example.

This store already has one UNTIMED combining-like-terms probe (ten problems, right or wrong, no clock). Nothing in the store times this skill. This is the same second measure this store already built for order of operations and exponents: can the student apply the rule, and separately, how fast and accurately can the student apply it under a clock. Four equivalent timed forms, twelve problems each — six one-variable terms (two terms that share the same variable, "3x + 5x") and six two-variable terms (a second, different variable's term riding along unchanged, "4x + 3y + 2x") — answered in writing under a time limit your team sets, scored whole-item: an expression either matches the key exactly (coefficient and variable, in either term order) or it does not, because the skill being measured — combining only the terms that are actually alike — is binary per item, not a multi-digit written algorithm with its own partial-credit structure. The score is expressions correct per minute (PCPM) and accuracy together, with a second page that watches HOW the answer was reached (the matching-variable terms combined and correct, every coefficient summed together regardless of variable and wrong, or guessed/blank) and gives the team a place to write its own call on where practice should go next, never a cutoff this file imposes.

WHAT IS INCLUDED — 23 pages, 387 type-in fields

Set Up

• Binder Cover and Divider Tabs — a spine/cover card, 4 cut-out tabs, and a 9-row "where to find things" index
• How This Pack Works — six numbered steps from baseline to weekly routine to reteach decision
• Combining Like Terms Fluency — Goal and Directions — a sample goal with a six-part fill-in frame, a 3-probe baseline table, a 3-row benchmark table, and scoring directions including the term-order rule and the PCPM formula

Four Timed Student Pages, Plus A Shared Key

• Forms A-D — 12 combining-like-terms problems each in two labeled columns, "One-Variable Terms" (6 items: two terms sharing the same variable, "3x + 5x" or "7a - 2a") and "Two-Variable Terms" (6 items: a second, different variable's term riding along unchanged, "4x + 3y + 2x" or "7x + 2y - 3x"), drawn from a single store-wide sample so no item repeats within a form OR across the four forms, every two-variable item built so adding every coefficient together without regard to variable gives a different, genuinely wrong answer, each page clean for the student: a "My name" line, one short instruction with a drawn icon, and a numbered item box with the expression above a roomy answer box
• Scoring Keys — the correct simplified expression for every item on all four forms, laid out in the same reading order as the student page, explicit that term order never decides correctness, a quick score strip, the PCPM scoring formula, and a worked example (pulled live from the shipped Form D data, not invented) showing exactly why adding every coefficient together gives a real, different wrong answer — kept off the student page entirely

Track, Report And Share

• Combining Like Terms Fluency — Data Log and Graph — a 12-row log (date, form, time, problems reached, problems correct, errors, PCPM, notes) and a graph scaled 0-6 PCPM
• Quick-Response Observation Checklist — an 8-row tally log (matched terms, right / summed all, wrong / guess-blank) plus a write-in note on the team's own call, never a fixed cutoff
• Caseload Summary — 12 students by 8 probes, one decision column
• Quick Reference for a Second Adult — six numbered steps, a "what not to do" list, and a mini scoring strip to hand back, for whoever gives the probe when it is not the case manager
• Family Update — a ready-to-send communication page: what was practiced, one win, a home-practice idea, this week's rate in plain words, and a 7-day practiced table
• Progress Note Phrase Bank — 19 observable-language starters across 5 groups (speed/accuracy, pattern across probes, next steps, quarterly report sentence, caseload-wide)
• A Filled-In Data Log — a worked, invented example (Priya, seventh grade) with 12 weekly timed probes, every problems-correct and PCPM number checked against its own row

Plus a Start Here quick-start, a 3-section contents page with real page thumbnails, 3 section dividers, and a "what's next" back page.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF. Open it in a PDF reader, click a field, type, Save As once per student. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT a Google Sheets file, a Google Doc, or a PowerPoint deck, and it is not a norm-referenced test — it carries no fixed fluency benchmark score anywhere in the file. The four student practice pages and the scoring-keys page print; the goal page, log, checklist, caseload page, second-adult reference and organizer are type-in.

It is not the store's existing Combining Like Terms Progress Monitoring Probes | IEP Goal Data, Algebra, which is untimed — ten problems, no clock, right or wrong. Use that file to check whether a student can combine like terms at all; use this one once the skill is solid, to see whether it has become fast and automatic. A correct answer on this probe may be written in either term order — 6x+3y and 3y+6x are the same answer — because that is a genuine feature of this skill, not a scoring shortcut: it is checked in the scoring formula so a teacher scoring the probe does not mark a correctly combined, differently ordered answer wrong.

It is not a curriculum, and it is not a rule about how many expressions per minute counts as "fluent." What fluent enough means for a given student is the team's own judgment, written in from the baseline and the IEP; this file never sets that number on its own — the quick-response checklist page is a blank the team fills in, by design. No age, eligibility or IDEA-timeline claim anywhere; no health data is pre-filled, and the example student (Priya) is invented and named as such on page 22. Every coefficient stays a small positive whole number, 1-9, and every subtraction item keeps the combined coefficient positive — this first build does not cover exponents, distributed parentheses or three-term combinations on one side.

Who This Is For

Math interventionists, special education teachers and case managers who need a timed, repeatable way to track combining-like-terms fluency — not just whether the rule is applied, but how fast and accurately it runs — plus a second, condensed page for whoever else gives the probe.

If You Want More

Combining Like Terms Progress Monitoring Probes | IEP Goal Data, Algebra is the untimed, accuracy-only companion for the same skill. Order of Operations Fluency, Timed Progress Monitoring Probes and Exponents and Powers of Ten Fluency, Timed Progress Monitoring Probes are this file's own goal-log-graph engine, applied to two other pre-algebra computation skills. Progress Monitoring Tracking Sheet | IEP Goal Tracking Data Collection Editable is the weekly summary and progress-report writer these graphs feed.