Tier Two Supports: Interventions for At-Risk Students

Emaley McCulloch from Autism Training Solutions will be giving a free webinar on February 29 as part of the monthly free PD theme here at School Improvement Network. Emaley is writing a few blog posts to help you understand her webinar topic, Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports. 

And here's a hint for ya--it's not just for children with autism, and it's essential for classroom management. Enjoy!

image courtesy of fabianramirez.com

Do you usually have students in your class that need that extra nudge, reminder or encouragement? You know, those students that you usually put right in from of your desk so you can keep a good eye on them? These students often fall into the category of tier two on the Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) continuum.

As you may recall, the continuum of positive behavior supports has three tiers. PBIS expects 90% of students to respond effectively to tier-three interventions but about 10-15% of students will fall into an at-risk category that may need additional support and intervention. So if you have a class of 20 students, two or three of your students may need tier-two interventions. These interventions are often delivered in small groups (e.g. group speech sessions, small group reading instruction, ESL groups, social skills groups etc.).  The purpose of tier- two interventions is to be proactive and to prevent the student from falling further behind his peers academically, behaviorally and socially. 

Here are some evidenced-based tier-two interventions.

Cuing and Group Social Skills Instruction

Students who have difficulty learning in a group setting (e.g. students who talk out of turn, don’t pay attention, disrupt others) can work on appropriate classroom behaviors in a small group. The small group sessions focus on enhancing listening skills and impulse control. The student’s goals are clearly given and stated in positive terms (e.g. raise your hand to talk). The teacher uses a cueing procedure that requires the group to self evaluate their progress on reaching the goals. Students receive positive reinforcement for performing identified behavior.

Behavior Education Program

The Behavior Education Program (BEP) is a behavioral intervention for at risk students that requires that they monitor their behaviors by doing a daily check-in, checkout systems. Students attend daily meetings with an adult before and after school to review goals and monitor their progress. Students are also required to check-in with teachers immediately after class to receive immediate feedback and a daily performance report from the teacher. The report is sent home for the parent to sign and the student receives positive reinforcement for appropriate social skills.

BEP Overview:
http://www.nhcebis.seresc.net/document/filename/61/NHBEPTraining.Hawken.pdf

BEP Forms:
http://www.nhcebis.seresc.net/behavior_education_program(bep)

Practical Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA)

The primary goal of an FBA is to guide the development of effective positive interventions based on the functions of behavior (e.g. escape, attention, access to items, access to self stimulation) (Horner, 1994) Interventions based on the FBA result in significant change in student behavior (Carr et al.., 1999; Ingram, Lewis-Palmer, & Sugai, 2005) Practical FBAs involve simple and realistic team-driven assessment and intervention strategies. Trained school-based personnel can do it.
The steps of a Practical FBA are:

• Identify that an FBA needs to be done
• Make an observable and measurable definition of the problem behavior
• Gather information on the behavior
• Prioritize what behavior needs attention first
• Collect data on the antecedents and consequences of the problem behavior in several environments
• Make a functional hypothesis of what the function(s) is/are, the triggers and what is supporting the behavior.
• Last BUT NOT LEAST, create a plan that utilizes proactive procedures, teaches replacement behavior and outlines how everyone will respond to the behavior.

Here is a video about an FBA and what steps it takes to do one.

http://www.autismtrainingsolutions.com/fba-toolkit-excercise-1

Here is an FBA Toolkit
http://www.autismtrainingsolutions.com/content/fba-tool-kit

Learn more about positive behavior intervention and supports (PBIS) at Emaley's free webinar on February 29!

Students Want Discipline (they just don't know how to say it)

As a former street cop and narcotics detective, Curtis Nightingale is no ordinary administrator. Nightingale is now an assistant principal in Pratt, Kansas, who is armed with an arsenal of child behavior strategies from his previous line of work. This is a peer who knows firsthand how to help children find themselves.

Children truly want discipline in their lives. 

I know, this statement seems overly optimistic, but I honestly believe this to be true. While to us “discipline” means expectations and consequences, to students “discipline” means structure, attention, and connection. Many of our students lack this type of construct in their home lives. Whether through a single-­‐parent working

situation, poor parenting skills, or the dreaded friend-­‐parent relationship, many children lack, yet need and want boundaries. 

Armed with this philosophy, how do we as educators approach setting and enforcing realistic boundaries with some of the most difficult students we have in class? I believe the answer lies in our ability to be firm, fair and consistent while making sure they know we care through the “connection” or relationships we build with them.

Pratt High School

Now, before you think I am one of those bleeding heart, mamsy-­‐pamsy guys I will tell you that education is a second career field for me; my first was in law enforcement. Whether as a street cop, a narcotics detective, or later as an administrator I found out fairly quickly that you would not get far in that profession without an ability to build relationships quickly. The ability to separate the person from the conduct, and to not judge was as much a survival tool as it was an investigative one. When I traded in the handcuffs for the detention list, I found that many of these same instincts were applicable. The ability to identify with what is going on with a student before you lay into them for missing a detention or being rude to a staff member is important.

Let me emphasize, I am not condoning the behavior at all. In fact, if you lay the groundwork correctly they will actually explain to you how wrong their conduct was and more often than not choose a far more aggressive consequence than the one you had in mind—you will actually have to negotiate them down from their stiff penalty to your own. Done correctly, they may even thank you for the detention/suspension they end up with. But before we get there, how can we minimize those conversations? It is as simple as moment management.

A friend and colleague of mine developed a fantastic discipline/facility management system that he literally travels the country sharing and training educators in. And although I have never taken his course, he and I were discussing classroom management one time and he said something to me that really rang true to my own philosophy. To paraphrase him, he mentioned instead of trying to think of managing an entire class, or an entire day, if teachers could just learn to manage those critical moments it could drastically reduce not only their stress levels, but also their classroom behavior issues as well. Critical moments…you know the ones. You give an instruction; Johnny challenges you…this is a moment.

In our next installment we will discuss ways we can approach these difficult moments and maintain composure while still addressing  he behavior and showing the student that rather than it being him/her versus you, it is actually you and the student versus the behavior.

Don't miss the free webinar on February 29th at 1:00 p.m. EST with Autism Training Solutions! Child behavior expert Emaley McCulloch will  present "Training Educators to Do Behavior Assessments." By the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• Define and understand a range of student behaviors, and recognize why students are acting out
• Determine the psychological and situational motivations behind student behavior
• Use new understanding to better manage the classroom environment

3-Minute Classroom Management

Robert O'Brien is an exceptional principal in Spencer, MA. He shares an experience here that helped one of his teachers regain control of a particularly unruly classroom. His experience is as illuminating as it is simple. 

During my first year as an administrator, I was assigned to observe a new teacher to our high school. Her resume, recommendations, and job history made her appear to be the perfect candidate. However, when classes started, students from her class began to trickle to the office, either being “thrown out” or leaving of their own accord. I was instructed to investigate.

She had been a teacher for approximately five years—why was she having so much trouble?

I entered the class early and watched students come in, many after the bell. She stayed seated at her desk, and waited for the students to take their seats. This was a grade eleven American Literature class, a graduation requirement. The students jostled, slowly becoming aware that the assistant principal was in their classroom, and finally settled down.

After an agonizingly long attendance called, the teacher began the lesson, still sitting behind her desk, told the students to go to a table at the front of the classroom. There where five stacks of papers; the students were instructed to take one page from each pile, staple them together, and return to their desks. What ensued was chaos. All the students approached the table at the same times, the papers soon became a pile of disarray, and pushing and shoving broke out over the staplers.

I sat quietly, now knowing why she had so much difficulty.

Even before the class started, effective teachers have things in order. If a class is working on a five page packet, they are ready to go before class starts. An activator is placed on the board, with the expectation that the students begin working as soon as they walk into class. The teacher should meet the students at the door, offering words of encouragement and appropriate salutation while watching both the hallway and her classroom. When the bell rings, she stands among the students, using her personal space to prevent any disruptions. Attendance can be taken with an old fashioned seating chart. And never, ever have the students collate their own papers. The class is orderly and student are learning. The teacher is stress free and the students are on task.

What a difference three minutes can make.

Don't miss the free webinar on February 29th at 1:00 p.m. EST with Autism Training Solutions! Child behavior expert Emaley McCulloch will  present "Training Educators to Do Behavior Assessments." By the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• Define and understand a range of student behaviors, and recognize why students are acting out
• Determine the psychological and situational motivations behind student behavior
• Use new understanding to better manage the classroom environment

Potential and Pitfalls of Students with Tech

We can't help it--our students all have access to technology that we never even dreamed of. As schools as classes move toward embracing students with iPads and other gadgets, a reflective individual known as Jessica S. emailed me with her thoughts. 

I hope you enjoy this guest post!  

Everywhere you turn technology appears to have firmly entrenched itself in most of our everyday conveniences. While some of these technological advantages are seemingly benign and geared to help us streamline tedious or time-consuming tasks, technology also manages to create situations that can be potentially detrimental or hazardous. To what extent is largely determined by the user who is typically able to gauge these risks and make educated decisions regarding his or her use of them. However, for young kids making these decisions it is not as easy for them to determine how much is too much of a good thing.

Parents Guidance: A Double-Edged Sword

Determining what technologies are appropriate for young children is obviously a task designated for parents and guardians but there is a problematic reality present in these guiding decisions. Children and young adults are typically better versed in new technology than the parents and adults in their life.

Unlike older adults or even adults from just the next generation, children are often born into technology, exposed from a very early age to some of the most technologically advanced gadgets available on the market. Unfortunately kids are not going on the internet to compare car insurance rates or researching additional disability insurance protection, they are going on to the internet to connect to the outside world. The internet now provides an important facet of socialization and context for the world around them.

How then can parents begin to conceive of what technologies are appropriate when they themselves may have a very basic or inadequate understanding of them? Parents and guardians can begin by asking themselves these basic questions:

1. How comfortable or knowledgeable am I in monitoring what my kids look at or have access to online?
2. Do I have the ability or know-how to restrict my children’s phone calls or text messages?
3. Do I know enough about laptops, computers, smart phones, or other gadgets to determine my children’s appropriate use of them?

If the answer to these questions is “no” parents and guardians have a difficult decision to make.

The Real Risk to Children

So what kind of risks are children really facing in today’s technologically savvy world? Most of the time we think the risks are from sexually inappropriate materials but the truth is the real risk to children is far greater and may come from a source much closer to home.

Children at Risk in Multiple Ways

• Cyberbullying via chat rooms, texting, and social networking sites
• Viruses and malware designed to extract sensitive information from your computer
• Exploitation or manipulation by “friends,” adults, or strangers
• Financial exploitation or theft if they have access to finances
• Exposure to pornography, violence, and inappropriate materials
• Exploitation by radical “social groups,” cults, or trendy fads
• Access to incorrect and potentially harmful information especially in regards to anorexia, bulimia, and self-mutilation  

Allowing Access to today’s Technology

Fortunately, parents and guardians do not have to despair. Many resources, programs, and educational material exist for those looking to make sure their kids can access today’s technology safely and in an appropriate way.

Resources include

• Kid’s Health.org offers a guide to “internet safety”
• Common Sense Media.com hosts an excellent database of informational videos and articles on being cyber smart
• Safe Kids.com offers “A Parent’s Guide to Facebook”

These resources are just a few of the online guides and services available to parents and guardians. But the really effective response may stem from sources closer to home.

For questions or more information feel free to contact

• Your children’s school – ask about what kind of safeguards are in place for children using computers and internet
• The local police department can often provide tips and tools for parents looking to safeguard their children
• Your internet provider, cell phone company, and cable company usually provide special parental controls to help parents monitor and restrict activity

Another less obvious resource but no less important are other parents and guardians. Getting together with the parents of your children’s friends is a great way to share strategies in addition to establishing expectations. Often children will go to other houses to gain access to inappropriate material.

Make sure all parents are on the same page and there is a game plan in place should a parent discover either child is gaining access to unwanted media or engaging in inappropriate behaviors.

The real question of whether young kids should have access to today’s technology is a complex one. With technology making its way into schools, gaming arenas, and in the home, shielding kids from all technology is becoming more and more difficult. The true answer is every parent and guardian must make the personal decision of how much is too much of a good thing.

New Teachers Know It All

Here's a guest post from Deia Sanders, a teacher from Mendenhall Jr. High in Mendenhall, MS!

 As the school year quickly approached, we were in our staff development meetings staring at familiar faces we had missed all summer and excited about the new faces that had joined our team.  It was my turn to speak.   I had gone from a classroom teacher to the new title of Master Teacher.  Part of my new duties now included professional development and new teacher induction.  Today’s talk was to be about Classroom Procedures.  

As I stood and presented about the procedures for entering the class, going to the restroom, leaving class, getting in groups, going to the bus, riding the bus, etc…  I could see on the new teacher’s faces that in their mind this was overkill.  And when I said this needed to be rehearsed for the first couple of weeks of school, I could feel the deep breaths of doubt exhale from their bodies. 

Actually, I guess everyone could feel it, because that’s when a second-year teacher I had mentored stood up and said “I know this sounds like too many procedures, and I doubted it when she tried to tell me this last year, but I didn’t do these things and I paid for it all year.”  Yes!! That was the testimony I needed to get buy-in from these teachers… or so I thought. 

As the first day came the nervous first year teachers were following the Power Points on procedures and practicing in the classrooms and halls.  I was so proud to see the progress.  But by day 3 and 4 their routines were waning and their thoughts had turned in to trusting these nice, quiet junior high kids in their classrooms.  It was a stark contrast from the experienced teachers who were turning their class around for more practice when procedures were broken, correcting mistakes, and addressing issues before they happened. 

As the year progressed, the new teachers who doubted the importance of drilling procedures and expectations for two weeks, showed their inexperience with their loud classrooms, low homework return, and chaotic lines as they trekked back and forth to the cafeteria and assemblies.   It reminded me of warnings from my parents about my own behavior as a child, which I didn’t heed, and eventually felt the consequences of.  As much as we tried to help the teachers regain control, the expectations are set with the first impression, and it’s difficult to recover when they don’t take you serious.

Just the other day I was talking to a new teacher who was reflecting on his experience so far this year. He was sharing that next year he would start out like we suggested, and had learned his lesson. It seemed like the appropriate time to warn him about “spring fever” and how wild the kids would get as the weather warmed. Once again I was given that same look of doubt that they had with my procedure warnings in the beginning, and again I related to how my parents probably felt when I was a teenager and thought I knew it all.  I immediately knew that once again they would have to walk through the fire to feel the flame.

So… it’s almost March and here we go again!

The Continuum of Positive Behavior Intervention and Support: Tier One Supports

Emaley McCulloch from Autism Training Solutions will be giving a free webinar on February 29 as part of the monthly free PD theme here at School Improvement Network. Emaley is writing a few blog posts to help you understand her webinar topic, Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports. 

And here's a hint for ya--it's not just for children with autism, and it's essential for classroom management. Enjoy!

The Continuum of Positive Behavior Intervention and Support: Tier One Supports

PBIS is organized into a continuum in which students receive levels of support based on their social and behavioral responsiveness to intervention. Not all students will respond the way we may want or expect them to when using school wide or classroom management strategies. Additional interventions and supports may need to be in place for some individuals.  For example, the ability to earn a star on a chart may not be sufficient reinforcement for Emily to finish or remember her homework. She may need a more individualized incentive program.

A three-tiered prevention logic lends the flexibility to provide broad interventions for most students, provide additional supports for some and, intensive and highly individualized supports for few. PBIS is related to Response to Intervention (RtI) in this way.  Literacy and numeracy implementation frameworks are examples of the application of RtI for academic behavior, and PBIS is an example of the application of RtI for social behavior (PBIS Center, 2009).

PBIS is about improving classroom and school climate by making it positive, strengths focused and maximizing academic achievement by nurturing behaviors that support learning. 

What are some PBIS Practices that work for most students?

1. Make behavioral expectations for school and classroom positive and clear. (e.g., Say, “Clean up after yourself” instead of “Don’t leave your trash around”)
2. Defining and teaching classroom routines (e.g., establish a signal, such as an auditory cue, for obtaining class attention)
3. Establish self-management routines (e.g., time to fill out a checklist of work tasks to complete)
4. Establish a positive environment (e.g., catch them being good! Five positive comments for every correction)
5. Create a functional, physical layout in the classroom (e.g., classroom activities have locations, teacher has clear view of whole class, traffic patterns/transitions are established)
6. Maximize engagement (e.g., opportunities for student responses 0.5/min)
7. Promote success (e.g., adaptations available to match students ability)
8. Utilize hierarchy of responses to problem behavior (e.g., have specific behavior assessments and plans for individuals whose behavior impedes their learning or the learning of others)
9. Use various modes of instruction
10. Ensure systems are available for educators to request behavioral assistance

A.W. Todd , Rob Horner, George Sugai, University of Oregon May 2004