Collaborating Methods of Intervention: Homework, SelfMonitoring, and HomeNotes

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Collaborating Methods of Intervention Homework,
Self-Monitoring, and Home-Notes

• Mandy Nickolite
• Erin Siemers
• Katie LeRoy
• February 8, 2001

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Homework

• Homework is defined as work assigned for
  completion outside the normal class period it
  may be completed at home or at school, but is
  assumed that most is completed at home. The
  primary purpose of homework is to supplement and
  improve academic learning.
• (Keith, DeGraff, University, 1996)

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Homework General Information and Overview

• Homework can serve as a means of improving a
  childs learning and achievement in schools
  (Cooper, 1989 Keith, 1986).
• Homework can also set the stage for major
  parent-child arguments.
• Homework directly effects grades and achievement
  test scores.
• Homework was second only to intelligence in
  predicting school grades.

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Effects of Homework

• Time spent on homework influences the achievement
  of students from elementary through high school.
• Time spent doing homework affects achievement in
  a variety of subject areas.
• Homework can have a strong impact on the
  achievement of low income students.
• Homework is one of the few variables affecting
  student achievement that we can manipulate.
• The positive effects of homework exist for both
  high and low ability students.
• In grades 5 and 6, it has been shown that
  students who do homework outperform those who do
  not.
• 
  (Keith, 1986)

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Positive Effects of Homework

• Strengthens home-school relationship
• Develops good work habits, responsibility,
  independence
• Provides opportunities for practice and review of
  content
• Assesses the childs understanding of a lesson

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Types of Homework

• 1. Practice
• To review materials and skills covered in class.
  The most frequent type of homework the student
  will be asked to complete.
• 2. Preparation
• To prepare students for an upcoming topic.
• 3. Extension
• To extend or generalize ideas or skills learned
  in the classroom to new situations.
• 4. Creative
• To integrate and create new ideas.

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The Five Main Areas of Homework Problems

• 1. Organization Problems
• 2. Place Problems
• 3. Schedule/Time Problems
• 4. Motivational Problems
• 5. Dependency Problems

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Setting up a Good Homework Environment

• Keep noise to a minimum during homework time.
• Homework should be done in only one place.
• Equip the study area with a Homework Tool Kit.
• Control and limit others access to the study
  area during homework time.
• Schedule time for the child to complete homework
  everyday.

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Establishing a Scheduled Homework Time

• Consider all of the childs scheduled activities
  during the week.
• Emphasize homework as a priority.
• Assess the time required for homework on a daily
  basis.
• Determine the best time each day to be devoted to
  homework.
• Once a scheduled homework time is determined the
  key is consistency.

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Guidelines for Homework Time and Number of
Assignments by Grade Level
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Home-School Collaboration

• Parent and teacher should schedule a meeting to
  discuss specific problems.
• Implement a home-note to continue communication
  and to help organize the student.

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What a Home Note System Will Do

• Provides a daily link with the parent and
  teacher.
• Lets the parent know what assignments the child
  needs to complete.
• Makes the child responsible for homework.
• Eliminates last minute homework surprises.

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Motivational Strategies

• The Mystery Motivator
• Homework Contracts and Rewards
• Count Down
• Itll Cost Ya, or My Mom/Dad, the Consultant
• Inching, or An Inch is Easier to Measure Than a
  Mile
• Spinners

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Developing Independent Work Habits

• Self-management of Homework
• Self-instruction Training
• Evaluating Homework Quality

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Self-Instruction Training

• Have the parent provide the child with a modeled
  performance of appropriate homework verbalization
  by talking aloud to themselves.
• Have the child perform the task as the parent
  verbalizes the homework self-instruction. (2-3
  days)
• Then have the child perform the task while
  instructing himself/herself aloud. (Repeat 2-3
  days)
• Have the child complete homework tasks by
  whispering the instruction to themselves.
• Finally, have the child silently repeat the
  instructions to himself/herself as he/she
  performs the tasks.

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Troubleshooting Common Problems

• Messy Work
• Incomplete or Missing Work
• Homework Refusal

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Messy Work

• Communicate expectations firmly.
• Require that the student work a minimum number of
  minutes/hour(s) each night during a daily
  homework time.
• Use a Homework Contract to provide a reward
  system. Implement the Mystery Motivator or
  spinner to allow the student to earn a reward or
  privilege for each night the homework is
  completed accurately.
• If necessary, the parent and teacher can discuss
  short-term school based consequences, such as
  recess to redo sloppy work.

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Incomplete or Missing Work

• State explicitly to the student that you expect
  him/her to bring home all assigned work each
  night.
• Have the child begin using the Home Note system.
• Institute compulsory homework time, which assures
  that the childs incentive for losing or
  forgetting his/her homework is eliminated.
• Provide additional incentives with a Homework
  Contract.
• If these procedures do not result in improvements
  within 3 weeks bring the parent and teacher
  together to discuss additional measures.

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Homework Refusal

• Have the parent explain to the child that they
  expect homework to be completed and will not
  accept lies or other types of irresponsible
  behavior.
• Have the parent assert their authority by
  indicating that homework is the childs
  responsibility and one of two choices can be
  made
• Choice 1 You may do your homework during daily
  homework time.
• Choice 2 You may choose grounding. If grounding
  is chose the child will remain in his/her study
  area from the beginning of daily homework time
  until they have finished their work.

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Homework Refusal Continued

• If needed have the teacher call the home nightly
  for a verbal report of homework completion.
• If the previous steps do not work have the
  teacher detain the child at school to complete
  homework not finished at home.
• When the student has begun doing homework on a
  regular basis, begin to provide incentives. Ex.
  Mystery Motivator
• Continue to praise and reinforce the childs
  decision making when he/she chooses to complete
  homework during daily homework time.

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General Information Self Monitoring

• Why do we need self-management
• Caregivers and teachers want kids to develop
  internalized behavior.this may not come
  naturally.
• Adults blaming children for lack of internalized
  behaviors may lead to coercive processes that
  prevent children from learning rule governed
  behavior and delayed gratification.

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What do Self-management Skills do?

• Teach children to delay immediate wants.
• Teach guides which become self-governed rules.
• Steps to learning SM
• learning to comply to requests
• learning self-control
• learning problem solving-skills

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Big Picture Goal

• We want the student to manage their own behavior
  with the intention that SM skills will become
  portable for the student to generalize to other
  behaviors.

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What does SM look like?

• 1.) Systematic observation of behavior
• 2.) Recording the behavior with a device
• frequency the number (pencil paper)
• duration time length (stop watch, counter)
• latency amount of time between direction and
  start of behavior

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Why is SM effective?

• Reactivity from self recording interrupts the
  common behavior and forces one to rethink their
  habitual pattern. The period of reactivity
  provides an opportunity to change behavior with
  contingencies.

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Types of Problems SM Addresses

• Behavioral Deficits
• Self-Management impulsive, not following rules
• Social Skills noncooperative, seeks attention
• Academic Skills off-task, tardiness, out of
  seat, math, reading

• Behavioral Excesses
• Noncompliance argues, delays, breaks rules
• Aggression fights, teases, verbal attacks

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How to Implement SM

• 1.)Talk with the child about the plan.
• 2.)Define the behavior with the child.
• Use behavior check list with home-notes
• 3.)Discuss the recording instrument with the
  child.
• Model behavior and recording procedure
• go through a trial run with prompts

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How to Implement cont.

• 4.)Define the time limit over which the behavior
  will be recorded.
• Do not use short intervals, record events
• 5.)Decide if inappropriate behavior is supported
  by peers
• 6.)Validity of childs self-recording
• Match teacher sheet with students

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How tos cont.

• 7.)Collect data and graph
• Include the student with weekly summaries
• 8.)To maintain change add rewards or
  contingencies
• Use mystery motivators, chart moves, spinners
  etc.

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Ways to Ensure Success

• Specific instruction on usage of the program with
  the student
• Gradually give the student control of their
  behavior
• Teacher monitors the students use of the program

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Making SM more Effective

• Set goals and post them
• Self-Match with the teacher the student can
  earn bonus points for perfect matches if there is
  a 90 match or loose points for less than 90
  match

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CAUTIONS

• Do not make the child stand out
• If the child can not perform the target behavior
  for SM it could lead to acting out problems
• Make sure the child can use the SM materials
  (writing with pencil, understanding directions)

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Practical Considerations to Implementing SM with
in CBC

• Essential to Implementing SM
• Consistency
• Immediate Consequences

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How to Maximize the Effects of SM

• Obtrusiveness Make the recording stand out
• Behavior or Behavior-Product record occurrence
  of the behavior (I.e. number of problems
  completed vs. grade)
• Occurrence vs. Nonoccurrence Note the actual
  behavior or frequency

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How to Maximize the Effects of SM

• Immediate Recording vs. Delayed Recording
• Positive and Negative Peer Social Contingencies
  Peer reinforcement may increase inappropriate
  behaviors or decrease appropriate behavior. A
  reinforcement contingency for the class may be
  needed.
• Contingencies Make the effects SM longer lasting

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Trouble Shooting

• Self-recording was working, but then lost
  effectiveness
• Child has become accustomed to the
  intervention change recording to a more
  obtrusive SM instrument

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Trouble Shooting

• The inappropriate behavior is increasing rather
  than decreasing.
• -Possible peer reinforcement is being given for
  misbehavior, continue SM but implement a group
  contingency
• -The environment is reinforcing the
  inappropriate behavior (I.e.teachers negative
  attention). Continue the SM with a small
  reinforcer given for small improvement and
  increase praise.

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Trouble Shooting

• The target behavior has stayed the same, but
  other inappropriate behaviors have increase
• The child may be incapable of performing the
  target behavior.

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Trouble Shooting

• The child wants to SM but does not have the
  ability to keep track of the target behavior..
• Use Countoons, cartoons of the behavior you
  want to record.

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Trouble Shooting

• The child refuses to SM the behavior.
• Offer an incentive, if problem persists the
  child could lose privileges

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Trouble Shooting

• The student misses occurrences of the target
  behavior
• Prompt the student to record. Recheck the
  behavior definition and model the behavior to the
  student

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Trouble Shooting

• The student cheats in recording the behavior.
• Tell the student of matching record sheets
  with the teacher and the consequences of point
  discrepancies or chance to earn bonus points.

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What are Home-notes?

• An informational note that goes from the
  classroom to home, and back to school. It
  provides information between the parents and
  teacher about a students classroom behavior
  and/or academic performance (Jenson, Rhode,
  Reavis, 1992).
• Also called School-Home Notes, or daily report
  cards (Kelley, 1990).
• One of the most mis-managed and underutilized
  techniques...

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When Should I Use a Home-Note?

• To improve a students motivation and classroom
  behavior
• To increase parental involvement
• To improve academic performance
• To improve parent-teacher communication
• DO NOT USE ifthe child has severe behavior
  problems or academic deficits, or is from a
  highly dysfunctional families
• DO NOT USE ifthe consultees are not willing or
  able

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Advantages of Home-Notes

• School-to-home and back-to-school cycle
• Documented effectiveness
• Works with a variety of students (age, presenting
  problems, etc.)
• Can be a short-term or long-term solution
• Easy for parents, teachers, and consultants to
  implement
• Emphasizes collaboration with a combined effort
• Emphasizes positive behavior

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Steps for Implementation

• Hold a parent-teacher meeting for training and
  providing rationale
• Design a simple note
• Choose behaviors that you want to target
• Decide on positive and negative consequences
• Pick a date to start
• Have the teacher complete the note in class
• The child will take the note home for the
  parent(s) to review

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Steps for Implementation (Continued)

• Parent(s) will apply consequences
• Parents will sign the note
• The child will return the note to school
• Continue to monitor progress
• Modify as necessary. After a period of
  consistent, satisfactory behavior, the program
  should be slowly faded and eliminated.

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Troubleshooting!!

• WHAT TO DO IF
• the student continues to lose the note
• the student changes the ratings or forges the
  teachers initials
• the student refuses to take the note home
• the parents are willing to look at the note, but
  they have difficulty applying consequences at
  home for the program
• you suspect that the parents may be abusive to
  the student if he/she receives a poor note
• a parent refuses to participate in the program
  and will not even sign the note

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Troubleshooting (Cont)

• The teacher says the homenote takes too much time
  to fill out
• the student argues with the teacher about a
  rating
• the student insists that he/she is responsible,
  does not need a homenote and wants to be off the
  program

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Additional Tools

• Unique Reinforcers
• Random Notes (Class-Wide System)
• Group Contingencies (Class-Wide System)
• Home-notes as a Behavioral Contract (Individual
  or Group System)