Okay, my son may not have been old enough here to be taught rules and I am not sure I deserved this, but recently I have been working on correcting Eli's behavior and teaching him appropriate ways to act. We are in the tantrum phase so more often then not he ends up on the floor screaming. But I believe that you can not teach positive behavior through positive reinforcement too early. I think too often these days we, as parents, are forgetting that correct behaviors have to be taught and expected. As a teacher, I have often seen parents that have taught but not established positive behaviors in their young children. It takes time and your child needs to know what to expect when they do something wrong. As adults we know that if we break a law there is a consequence. If we run a red light we may get a ticket or worse, in an accident. Children need to know that life has consequences for both good and bad behavior.
I believe that it is not only our child's teachers job at school to teach our child correct behavior but more importantly it's ours. We need to be hands on and willing to help our child establish positive habits.
It is my hope that this can help you establish a strong foundation for your children so that those positive habits will come out even when you are not present.
I am so excited to share with you an awesome training I had on expected behaviors from children and how we can teach them the procedures and rules to create good lifetime habits.
I felt that this training was not only beneficial for a classroom but also in a home setting.
We had two presenters, the first one was Shawn Johnson, the behavior specialist for Murray School District and the second one was Tim Frost a presenter for educators and principals on the "Big 8!" strategies to help manage students for maximum engagement by Brinkman, Forlini, and Williams. It was both amazing and engaging.
Shawn Johnson's presentation was a great reminder of how to establish expectations and rules in the classroom and at at home. Students should know the rules and expectations. It is important that there are 3-5 rules that are explicitly taught, posted where everyone can see and then re-taught constantly through out the year.
There are 5 steps to teaching the expected rules:
1) Define the expectation/rule.
2)Provide rationale for the expectation/rule.
3)Teach critical discrimination of exception/rule. What it looks like and sounds like.
(model examples and non-examples)
4)Practice the behavior as many times as needed
5)Discuss what will happen when expectations/rules are followed and what will happen if behavioral errors occur.
After rules are established it is important to "Plan, Plan, Over-Plan" lessons, outcomes of lessons, and expected behaviors. It is very important to have "pre-planned" consequences for both positive and negative behaviors. The consequences for negative behaviors have to be non-negotiable. Consequences should never be threatened. "Behavior does or does not deserve a consequence."
Even though you have planned for negative behaviors the positive behaviors are the most important to reinforce. It is important to remember the "4:1 rule". The rules says "teachers should have at least four positive interactions with students or give students at least four positive comments for every negative or corrective interaction or comment." (Smith & Sprague, 2006) This can be true not only at school but at home. It is so important for us as parents to find the positive in what our children do. Even when our child is spilling the beans all over the floor it is important to praise them for trying to pour them into the other bowl. 4 compliments to 1 negative comment!
One of my favorite pieces that Shawn shared was how to get students to follow through on a task through "Precision Requests/ Commands." A precision command starts with a statement using the word "please" such as "Eli, will you please pick up your toys?" or in a classroom "Eli, will you please write your name on your paper?" then a brief wait period of 5-10 seconds. It is important during the wait time to leave the child alone and count in your head and not aloud. If the child does not follow through then it is followed by a second command using the word "need" such as "Eli, you need to pick up your toys." followed by another a wait time of 5-10 seconds. If the child does not comply you say, "That is not following directions". You then help them follow through and then give them a consequence for not following through. I am excited to try this with Eli!
After a mother or teacher has given a consequence it is important to follow through. Recently, I have been watching the TV show Parenthood. On the show one of the families has a son named Max with Aspergers. In a recent episode, Max is playing a video game and Christina, his mother, asks him multiple times to stop and turn off the game. He continues to play. Christina, finally at her wits end, turns off the TV losing Max's game. Max freaks out and calls his mother a bad name. Christina is irate and tells Max that his consequence for calling her that name is that he will not be allowed to go on the family vacation. She follows through and keeps him home. He continues to be angry and states, "You never follow through with consequences, why are you following through now!" It is so important that we follow through with our children or they will not believe us and their negative behavior will continue.
Our second speaker Tim Frost presented on "The Big 8! Maximizing Student Engagement" published in Class Acts" Every Teacher's Guide to Activate Learning by Brinkman, Forlini, and Williams. The big 8 are as follows
- Expectations-
- It is important to make sure students understand our rules and procedures so that they become habits. Procedures are functional things that have to be done for the class to run smoothly. Rules are those items that are non-negotiable that help keep safety and control. Habits are those internal behaviors that a student or child will do even when you are not there.
- Time Limits-
- Define not only the ending time limit but the start times as well such as "you have 20 min. to complete this activity. You need to start in 5 seconds. 5, 4 ,3, 2, 1."
- Cueing-
- Find those moments that your child or a student in your classroom is following expectations. Reinforce those expectations with positive statements.
- Attention Prompt-
- "Use verbal prompt and physical stance to get students' attention for upcoming instruction or direction."
- Proximity-
- Move, move, move! Walk around the room and make eye-contact with students.
- Signals-
- "Give students ways to signal that they are ready, finished, or need help." One of my favorite symbols for a finished student is having the students put their pencil in the air.
- Voice-
- Using many different ranges of voice levels can gain a students attention. Try it! If you can't get your child's or class's attention try talking in a whisper voice. I promise they will immediately turn to look at you.
- Tasking-
- "Shape questions and devise activities to engage students directly in responding."
I have probably been through dozens of behavior based training's. I feel like you can never reinforce positive behavior enough. I hope that this has provided you with a few ideas to help you at home as well as in the classroom.
Below is a list of great resources if you would like more information or help!
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| Class Acts |
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