UNIVERSAL STRATEGIES IN THE CLASSROOM

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UNIVERSAL STRATEGIES IN THE CLASSROOM
North Carolina Department of Public
Instruction Exceptional Children Division
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Universal Strategies in the Classroom

• Teach Attention Signal
• Establish Behavioral Expectations/Rules
• Develop Schedule
• Teach Routines
• Give Precorrects
• Encourage Expected Behavior
• Correct Student Behavior Errors

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Teach Attention Signal

• Always use a simple portable cue to prompt
  students to listen.
• Avoid starting instruction until all students are
  attending
• Reinforce students who attend immediately
• Provide specific verbal praise to peers to
  redirect students
• Consistency, consistency, consistency!

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Establish Behavioral Expectations Rules

• Use School-wide Expectations as Basis for
  Classroom Rules
• Clearly and Positively Stated
• State in Observable Terms
• Posted and Referred to Frequently
• Teach Explicitly to FLUENCY
• Reinforce Consistently

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Teaching Effective Rules

• Tell-Show-Practice
• Give Positive Reinforcement for Appropriate
  Student Use
• Consider Consequences for Errors
• re-teach
• redirect
• time to Cool Down
• Reflect! Are the Rules Working? Why or Why Not?

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Teaching Lessons on Expectations
Teach your expectations before the activity
or transition begins.
Monitor student behavior by circulating and
visually scanning.
Provide feedback during the activity and at the
conclusion of the activity.
Begin the cycle again for the next activity.
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Develop Classroom Schedule

• Establish predictable schedules
• illustrate with icons, time, etc.
• Schedule non-instruction time
• administration time
• personal time
• Evaluate the variety and time for each activity.

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Sample Schedule

• 5 Min Teacher Directed Review of Previous
  Concepts
• 10 Min Teacher Directed New Concepts
• 10 Min Teacher Directed Guided Practice
• 25 Min Independent Work
• 10 Min Teacher Directed Guided Practice and
  Review
• 5 Min Homework Review

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Effective Routines - Rationale

• The number one problem in the classroom is not
  discipline it is the lack of procedures and
  routines. A vast majority of the behavior
  problems in the classroom are caused by the
  failure of students to follow procedures and
  routines.
• -Harry Wong

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Teach Routines

• Think through and establish procedures
• for transition times and basic regularly
• scheduled activities
• Establish clear expectations for student behavior
  and clear expectations for adult behavior
• Plan, Post and Teach!
• Tell-Show-Practice-Feedback loop
• Consistently teach all day, every day
• Reflect Are routines working? Why or why not?

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Give Precorrects

• Precorrects function as reminders
• Opportunities to practice
• Prompt for expected behavior
• Especially helpful before teacher anticipates
  behavior learning errors

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Precorrect Examples

• Remember, before you leave class, collect all
  your materials, put your papers in the bin, and
  quietly walk out of the room.
• Sam, show us how to be respectful and line up
  quietly for gym.

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Encourage Expected Behaviors

• Providing praise for correct academic
• responses and appropriate social behavior
• leads to
• Increases in student correct responses
• Increases in on task behavior
• Decreases in disruptive behaviors
• -Sutherland, 2000

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Positive Feedback

• Feedback should be
• Accurate
• Specific and descriptive
• Contingent
• Age-appropriate
• Given in a manner that fits your style

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Ratio of Interactions

• Teachers should strive to keep a 41 ratio of
  positive-to-negative statements
• Each time you have a negative interaction with a
  student, tell yourself you owe that student 4
  positive interactions
• Identify specific times during the day you will
  give positive feedback
• Schedule individual conference time
• Scan the room searching for appropriate behaviors
• Engage in frequent positive interactions with all
  students

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Examples of Non-Verbal Feedback

• Wink
• Nod
• Thumbs-up
• Pat on the back
• High-five
• Hug (when and where appropriate)

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Effective Reinforcement Strategies

• Behavior(s) are determined and taught
• Reinforcement is contingent upon appropriate
  behavior
• Be generous with reinforcers at the beginning
• Reward class when
• Students who have not exhibited behavior in the
  past are exhibiting the behavior now.
• Students who have exhibited behaviors in the past
  continue to exhibit them.

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Components of An Effective Teaching Plan

• Define classroom rules based on school-wide
  expectations
• Outline routines (attention signal, etc)
• Establish schedule for teaching routines and
  procedures
• Decide strategies for encouraging appropriate
  student behavior and discouraging problem
  behavior
• Plan a variety of instructional strategies
• Establish effective classroom environment

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Correct Student Behavior Errors

• Emotion Free response
• More effective if students have been taught
  expected behaviors
• Minimize attention other than signal of error
• Praise for appropriate behavior

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Correct Student Behavior Errors

• Steps to Take
• 1. Signal that an error has occurred
• Refer to rules "We respect others in this room
  and that means not using put downs.
• 2. Ask for an alternative appropriate response
  "How can you show respect and still get your
  point across?"
• 3. Provide an opportunity to practice the skill
  and provide verbal feedback
• "That's much better, thank you for showing
  respect toward others.

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Classroom Management Strategies

• Physical arrangement of classroom
• Positive teacher-student interactions
• More reinforcement strategies
• Techniques to improve compliance
• Active participation

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• Increasing Positive Interactions
• Based on the concept that most students want and
  need adult attention.
• Leads students to feel like valued members of the
  learning community

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Do Problem Students Deserve Positive Attention?

• Students are not equal.
• Some have received a lot of attention from
  infancy.
• Some have received very little attention.
• Many have only received negative attention.

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What Do You Do When You Just Dont Like the
Student?

• Be professional!

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Whos In Charge of the Mood of the Classroom?
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Lottery Tickets

• Determine the behavior(s) you want to reinforce
• Teach the behavior to the students
• Give the student a ticket when you see the
  behavior.
• Have student write his/her name on ticket
• and put ticket in box/bin.
• At a designated time, draw a ticket out of the
  bin and present a reinforcer to the student whose
  name is on the ticket.

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Techniques to Improve Compliance

• Do not use a question format
• Get up close
• Use a quiet voice
• Look em in the eyes
• Give them time
• Dont give multiple requests
• Make more start requests
• Verbally reinforce compliance
• Get up and move

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Increasing Opportunities to Respond Active
Participation

• Encourages everyone to become involved in
  learning
• Increases rate of responses of all learners
• Increases attainment of material presented
• Allows reluctant learners a secure environment to
  practice
• Decreases inappropriate or off task behavior

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Practice Time!

• Students should be reinforced at a rate of _____
  to ______.
• Everyone.
• Universal strategies used in classroom management
  are to teach rules and _________.
• Everyone.
• PBS stands for_________________.
• Everyone.

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Sustaining and Maintaining Effective Classroom
Practices

• Ongoing staff development
• Effective teaching plan
• Peer coaching
• Mentoring
• Supportive environment
• Team based problem solving
• Positive parent contact

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Effective Instruction
Effective instruction increases the likelihood of
correct student responses
Correct responding is correlated with positive
teacher interactions
Leading to increased academic achievement of
students and positive behavioral
exchanges between students and teachers
Gunter, Hummel, Venn, 1998