Have you ever felt like the universe conspired to help you out and you didn’t even know it was happening - Like serendipity? I know that seems like a strange way to start a discussion about an online behavior management project, especially one like ours that has had such high rates of success. But that is how this whole thing started, an idea brought up at the end of a long day, almost as an afterthought. But with just enough magic in it to give it wings. But I’ve gotten ahead of myself here. Let me start from the beginning.
It was late December 2019, we didn’t know about Covid-19 or the eventual world pandemic that would change all our lives. We had no way of knowing that in a few short months we would be teaching all our students remotely and this project would be the key to keeping our students motivated, managed, and engaged. We just knew that our current classes were struggling with behavior management. Across all grades we observed a lot of off-task and disruptive behaviors:
Students playing instead of listening to their teachers
Sitting or laying on the floor
Getting out of their seats, walking around, or even sleeping
Our students had become used to being off-task. They did not seem to know or care about classroom expectations. Teachers were frustrated and learning was being impacted.
I remember sitting in my office with our behavior management team, our school counselor, and Glenn Dyke, the behavior expert we had contacted to deal with some extremely difficult/violent students. It was late in the day of an especially long day and we started talking about behavior management in general. That’s when the project started to form. A positive rewards project (PRP) based on some key principles:
Re-establishing clear expectations for on-task behaviors for all students, reviewing these, then practicing them during a specific interval of time (30 minutes) during the day.
Setting a timer for three minutes at the start (eventually moving to five minutes). Every time the timer goes off, the teacher stops instruction and checks the whole class for on-task behaviors, using a tracking system such as X/O to mark when students are on/off task during a specified time period.
Rewarding students when they achieve a certain percentage (85%) of “on-task” for a specific number of days.
Maybe this is the standard operating procedure for all of your behavior types reading this; but honestly to me and the rest of the crew in the room that day, it seemed a little intense. We had no intention of doing this type of project, and then the universe started conspiring. We all went home that night thinking about this crazy idea, we couldn’t help ourselves. We started texting each other things like.. “ so Glenn’s idea was kind of crazy but…” “hey what if we….” “It might work if..” And pretty soon we were working out logistics. By the following morning, the PRP had been born.
Now I could wade through January and February but the most important thing that you need to know about that period of time is that we started teacher training on key behavioral interventions:
Pre-correction: Training on how to effectively review expectations before the start of the instructional activity.
Data Collection: Training on creating the data by marking the X/O chart daily during the specific 30 minute time period and adding this into a spreadsheet daily so that we could accurately track the intervention.
Reinforcement of On-Task Behavior. Training on behavior-specific praise that names a student or group of students, describing the student(s) on-task behavior, and pairing the description with a praise statement.
Examples include but were not limited to the following: “Jose is in his seat with materials ready. Thank You!” “Katina! Thank you for raising your hand and waiting!”
We started our baseline data at the beginning of March. We had just begun our second week of the project when our school (along with the rest of the world) went on soft closure as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. All of a sudden our focus shifted. We had to learn to zoom, build online classrooms, and provide technology to student families in need. Our teachers shined. They quickly adapted to the new terrain, building their online classrooms and skill sets. However, what they couldn’t manage was the learning environment of their students.
This is what teachers saw:
Sandals, Oreos, and sometimes pets flying across the room while students were on screen
Parents arguing and disciplining everyone from the student to their older brothers and sisters in the middle of an online class.
One student brought a bag full of teeth to the screen as a ‘Show and Tell” only it wasn’t show and tell time.
I think you get the picture. Here’s where PRP came in to save the day. The teachers immediately asked if we could try and adapt the project for use online. So we called in the expert - again. He helped us do some troubleshooting, created online expectations, and we started our baselines over again.
We met weekly to review and pivot as needed. We helped each other find ways to set up X/O boards so they would always be visible onscreen for their classes. We were innovative in rewarding students. Here are some examples:
It worked!! And, it worked well. But don’t take my word for it. Remember how I mentioned we trained the teachers to gather the data? Here is an example of 4th-grade data. The blue data path represents the baseline data in the classroom. The red data path represents the intervention data in the classroom the week before the soft closure. The yellow data path represents intervention during the soft closure after procedures were modified and tailored for online learning. For the full report, look here (link to the report).
Of course some of you skeptics out there are saying to yourselves, “teachers, gathering data… during quarantine and online learning...I am sure they hated it”. Teachers were interviewed about the program and were given an anonymous survey. Teachers responded by rating their response using a 5 point likert scale as well as open ended questions. For more complete information see full report. Long story short, they all said the program increased student engagement and they would implement it again.
But I think the real test is what the students said.
When students were asked,” The best part of the PRP program was…”
“How it’s reminded to keep being on task but also if you do good you could get an award.”
“It helped with our class learning.”
“Fun to have for school to stay on task.”
“It helped me to stay on task and do my work!”
“That it made everyone make sure that they were on task.”
“It was a constant reminder to always stay on task and it would reward you for being good.”
“The whole class was quiet and peaceful to learn.”
“Was when we would hear the timer and we would stop talking and being on task.”
“That there was not as much goofing off.”
“Fun”
“Helping me stay on task”
“When I would finish all my work on time.”
“That it helped keep the class in control.”
“Getting prizes for being on task.”
“It was fun and it didn’t make the class boring.”
Now, maybe we would have figured this out on our own. But I doubt it. It was hard enough to redirect all of our educational services, get technology into the hands of students who needed it, touch base with our teachers & staff, and stay sane during that time. We just didn’t have the brainpower to do much more. (Did I mention World Pandemic?)
But we needed it. Which is where I go back to that serendipitous moment back in December. - Universal divine intervention - something similar to that moment when Kevin Costner was guided to “build it.. And they will come “ in Field Of Dreams. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Now here we sit - on the brink of another outbreak, even larger than before it seems. We are using this intervention in person right now. However, if we need to do it online again - we are prepared. Thanks to the Universe and having a great behavioral interventionist helping us out with some great ideas. If you haven’t read the full report yet, you can do it here. (link to report)
If you want more information about Glenn Dyke, the behavioral specialist and his work, you can find him here. www.blindmule.org/team