S-Maps: Rubrics for Curriculum-Based Assessment and Intervention. (2004). By Elisabeth H. Wiig, Vicki Lord Larson, and Joyce A. Olson. Thinking Publications, 424 Gallway St., P.O. Box 163, Eau Claire, WI 54702-0163. Includes 164 page book and MAC/Win CD-ROM; $45. Reviewed by Ronna Siegel Woloshin, Arlington Heights, IL.

S-Maps: Rubrics for Curriculum-Based Assessment and Intervention provides tools for connecting speech-language performance to the general curriculum.  The Structured Multidimensional Assessment Profiles (S-Maps) provided in this resource create profiles of student performance in language and communication.  Each S-Map is a scoring rubric to help efficiently evaluate student performance in a structured multi-dimensional manner.  Each rubric utilizes a four-by-four grid to analyze student performance levels along a continuum: from beginner to advanced beginner, to competent, and expert, and across four skill dimensions.  The S-Maps focus on language and communication abilities associated with academic, personal-social, and vocational contexts. 

This comprehensive resource contains 27 rubrics to score students' performance on a variety of tasks in the following three categories:  Basic and Advanced Language and Communication Skills, Literacy and Discourse Development, and Thinking and Creativity.  Some of the tasks assessed in these categories include listening skills, oral presentation, social skills, vocabulary/semantics, learning to read, reading to learn, expositive discourse, written language, meta-abilities, organization/study skills, and thinking/creativity. 

The first section of this valuable resource provides in-depth directions for administering S-Maps, suggestions for using S-Maps to plan intervention, measure progress, and guidelines for matching intervention to a student's performance level.  The second section of the book contains a comprehensive collection of S-Maps addressing the important components of language and communication that were listed above.  Step-by-step directions for designing your own S-Maps are also given in order to meet the needs of individual students.  This well-organized manual targets grades K through 12.

Each S-Map is preceded by an overview of the skill, including the intended grade level, purpose, uses, skill dimensions, and various adaptations.  The 27 S-Maps can easily be printed from an accompanying CD-ROM which also includes generic and blank S-Maps which can be customized to meet the needs of specific children.

This comprehensive resource will be useful for a wide variety of professionals including classroom teachers, educational specialists, and particularly SLPs.  The SLP working in the school setting must go beyond standardized testing in order to capture the complexity of a language-disordered child and obtain a more detailed and accurate  picture of his/her strengths and weaknesses.  These valuable rubrics provide a much needed bridge between assessment and intervention.  Using these rubrics during assessment will help the school-based SLP more thoroughly pinpoint how the child's language disorder interferes with progress in the general curriculum.  As a result, the SLP and teacher will be better able to write educationally relevant IEPs and plan meaningful intervention that links speech-language skills to the curriculum expectations.  "S-Maps" has a multitude of uses above and beyond initial assessment and eligibility decisions.  These rubrics can be used to help develop appropriate interventions and accommodations (many of which are outlined in this resource).  The information gathered from the use of these rubrics can also be used to systematically measure and document ongoing progress to both children and their parents.  This compilation of rubrics encompasses every possible curriculum-relevant skill and will be an invaluable resource for collaboration between the SLP and classroom teacher.  In order for the school-based SLP to effectively use this excellent resource, it will be necessary to invest some time to become familiar with the content, task requirements, and expectations for performance at the various grade levels.  This might include becoming more familiar with various curriculum texts in order to get a better idea of what is expected of students at various grade levels. This exciting, cutting-edge resource should become an additional assessment tool for any SLP working in an educational setting.