The goal of my classroom system for positive behavioral support is to extend and support a school-wide system. This provides students a consistent message on expectations for their behavior. It helps them make successful transitions from one class or area in the school to another. The structure of an art class community is very different from a math or English class. It is important to have expectations for student behavior in the art class community consistent with school wide expectations. All students and especially students with disabilities need consistent expectations for behavior in order to support academic engagement and achievement. "The ultimate goal (for classroom PBIS plans) are to increase predictability for students, staff, and visitors." 1
My strategies come directly from the PBIS.org classroom support page and are common to PBS plans. I would like to support positive behavior by directly teaching classroom expectations and routines, monitoring student behavior and the effectiveness of my practices and using methods that reach all students including modifying the context in which the behavior occurs when necessary. I will also "teach the desired behavior, increase positive reinforcement for desired behavior, write behavioral contracts, modify the academic curriculum, meet with the student's parents, or discussing the problem with other staff members." 1
Maintain classroom expectations and routines
Teach classroom rules and expectations directly to students.
Establish and teach students the differences between classroom-managed and administrator managed problem behavior.
Have students demonstrate mastery of classroom expectations and routines.1 In previous teaching experiences I used the school wide system of behavioral expectations but not to its fullest capacity. I read through the student handbook with students on the first day of classes and expected them to understand them and comply in my class. It is clear that students need more direct instruction, clarification of teacher managed behaviors vs. administration-managed behaviors and opportunities to practice these behaviors until they are mastered. Along with the direct approach to teaching the expectations I will teach and consistently execute the consequences of not following the expected behavior. Students with attention or avoidance issues are the barriers to this working in class as well as the reason for this plan. I plan to monitor their behavior and modify my techniques in expectation of this occurring. I describe this in detail in the next two sections of this paper.
As problem behavior occurs I would like to have resources available in the classroom to support my continued understanding of the process and a smooth implementation of my PBIS strategy. Resource materials like the articles from chapter 5 as well as online resources could help to support my knowledge of individual, classroom and system PBS. Forms to document direct observations make an FBA plan and behavior contracts will also be available in the classroom.
One of the key tools I would like to use is narrative of direct observations of student behavior. They could be kept for specific students and organized by class to provide an overview of student and teacher progress throughout the semester. I found an ABC Form for narrative observations I would like to use online at http://www.air.org/cecp/fba/problembehavior2/appendixb.htm 2
One of the problems with keeping such detailed records is the lack of time available to keep consistent records. I know that it is impossible to document every incident and make the necessary modifications. I plan to start with the major problems and work from there.
I would like to try using Class-Wide Peer Tutoring to maximize student learning and accommodate individual student differences in the classroom. Although I will need to modify the structure of the activity to reflect the types of learning in art activities it seems to be one of the best community building strategies I have read so far. Class-Wide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) is described in the "Safeguarding our children: an action guide" online at http://www.air.org/cecp/guide/actionguide.htm. 4 It is a method of reciprocal peer tutoring used to adapt classroom instruction to meet the individual needs of diverse students with diverse skills. CWPT incorporates a game structure where students earn points for themselves and for their team. They learn that winning is how well they and their partner respond to the class activity. By placing two students in a tutor and tutee situation tutors learn to help, prompt, and really care about how their partner performs. The teams and partners change each week. They learn that they are expected to work with every student in the classroom, so they learn to accept a variety of individual learning styles and different personalities.
In addition to using peer tutoring I will use the following teacher directed methods for my classroom PBS techniques: direct teacher reprimand, private conversations with the student, interviews of the student's teachers and family, direct observations of the behavior, definition of the problem and a hypothesis for the cause along with an FBA plan if necessary.
The obstacle to implement peer tutoring and the other teacher directed methods is teacher ability. As a new teacher I am not confident that I can implement the entire program successfully to begin. I think I would be happy with a beginning and certainly relieved by knowing what my goals are and that they can be reached eventually.