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PBISWold.com Tier 1 Positive Behavior Intervention and Support of Ignore

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PBISWold.com Tier 1 Positive Behavior Intervention and Support targeted toward large groups, schools, and settings. Ignoring minor behaviors can be very effective when students are looking for attention and an audience from teachers and peers.

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I was recently asked to write about what social skills are needed in order to get the most benefit from an integrated setting. While this is a huge question, here are some thoughts on this concept.

Many of you who are familiar with my work know that I talk about the social complexities of the classroom environment. While we often only teach social skills for the context of playing or conversing, the reality is that students use social thinking and related social skills every moment they are around people - including more structured environments like classrooms. While I know our political education plan advocates for the inclusion of all kids into "integrated" settings as much as possible, I encourage "thoughtful inclusion" rather than making blanket statements that all kids must be included. I think kids with social learning challenges have extraordinary problems with processing social information when in a large group setting. These challenges are far beyond the challenges of students with more typical learning disabilities. Much of the research on inclusion fails to take a deeper look at the inclusion of kids with social learning challenges. Many in this group - NOT all - are learning more of a functional manner of participating given the amount of cueing and support (paraprofessionals helping to complete work, etc.) needed in this environment. Our collective goal should be to think about the individual student and figure out what and how to teach in order for them to function as more independent, self-regulated student.

I do think "inclusion" is much more realistic for many in elementary school and becomes increasingly unrealistic for many of our more socially challenged learners in middle school and high school. This is not only due to the social complexities of this age group, but also the social abstractions taught through the curriculum.

As we discuss inclusive or integrated settings, it is important to make sure we define the terms in order to be on the same page in IEP meetings. I have seen many kids "integrated" or "included" who have their own curriculum and spend little time with the larger group. Instead, they are in another area of the room receiving instruction from a paraprofessional. While I actually have no problem with this, it is not what a parent thinks "inclusion" means for his or her child. Let's be honest about what we can really do to help children learn. We can't make all kids good group learners just because public law says we should. Deep neurological issues are at the root of many learning problems. We are not and should not be in the business of healing or curing. Even "highly qualified teachers" cannot teach some of our higher-functioning kids to learn effectively in a group of 30. In fact, some of our kids cannot attend to people talking in a group of 3 (and these can be some "high functioning" kids!).

On the other hand, there is real value in having students in a school become mentors to our students with social learning challenges. The mentor's role is to help guide social interactions and teach the hidden social rules. I am careful to distinguish between a mentor and a model. Mentors are trained and are given explicit instruction on how to help guide our more socially challenged peers. I do not agree that for the most part our students learn social skills simply from being around "neurotypical peer models." Most of our students have plenty of exposure to neurotypical peers, but it's too simple and naive to say the skills will transfer just by having everyone in the same area. If this were the case, we wouldn't need specialized teaching - just inclusion.

This list details a few of the many aspects that need to be considered when mainstreaming or integrating a child into the general education classroom. There is an assumption that the child has:

Basic joint attention- Group education requires that students are able to focus on what the teacher or group is attending to at any given time during the school day. Joint attention develops within the first year of life and there is an assumption that kindergartners already have this skill and can follow the intentions and thoughts of one teacher. It is common to see paraprofessionals assigned to assist students who can't naturally do this. The question is how much is that child is actually learning as part of a group.

At the very least, a basic functional communication system is needed for expression of basic wants and needs. Putting non-verbal or minimally verbal students who lack the ability to effectively process and respond to language in a classroom isn't always in the child's best interest. While the school statistics may look good for the number of students integrated into the mainstream, kids in groups need to have a way to communicate with each other.

Recognition that when you communicate in a class you need to track if someone is listening to you. Those who talk without tracking how people are responding to them (reading some basic non-verbal cues are actually not communicating, they are just simply talking or downloading facts and stories). Group education is dependent on having students track not only the teacher but also others students in the class.

It is helpful to try and teach all our students that everyone in a classroom is to "share the same thought." Some of our students (even with very high IQ) do not realize the teacher is teaching everyone the same lesson.

Ask for help. A paraprofessional or teacher should not anticipate a child's every move. If adults do this, they actually enable the student to become less independent rather than teach strategies to learn to cope on their own.

Have basic ability to attend in a group. Assess the student's functional attention span for learning tasks he is motivated by and those not motivating. Make decisions about mainstreaming students based on how long they can attend to a topic being addressed in a classroom. Some of our kids can attend to basic math for 30 minutes, but struggle to attend in language for one minute. Realize that there are differences in the amount of social thinking required in these different subjects. One subject may be much harder, so move away from assuming inclusion for everything makes sense - especially if they are showing signs of stress or lack of ability to attend!

Persistence. If a child is having consistent meltdowns in a classroom and attempts have been made to help the student acquire a routine as well as strategies for learning lessons in a more abstract way, the team may have to realize that the function of the behavior is to try and escape a complex environment. Some of our "brighter" kids are very fragile as they don't have coping strategies for moving at the pace of a larger group...and having a paraprofessional nearby makes them feel really "stupid," so they escape the environment through behavior.

For more advanced kids we also want to assess and then possibly teach skills related to: Blurting

What is it and how to avoid it by tracking and thinking about whom the teacher is directing their attention?

What does it mean to raise your hand in class? Should you expect the teacher to call on your every time you raise your hand? Why not?

Does a teacher notice that you are participating when you raise your hand even if she doesn't call on you (yes!)?

How do you work with peers in a group (center based activities or peer work groups)?

Can you take over the group? Should you tell people their ideas are "stupid?"

Should you allow everyone else to do the talking and you just sit there quietly?

This is a difficult topic that could go on and on. There are NO EASY answers. Every kid is not easily summarized by his or her eligibility category. There are also phases of development, levels of cognition that allow some learning to be very easy or incredibly difficult, and mental health problems (e.g., extreme anxiety) that add to the complexity.

Please understand I am not making a blanket statement about inclusion being "good" or "bad"! My point is that it is not as easy as it sounds and many (not all) of our kids are not benefiting as much as we might think they are from learning in an environment that their brains cannot easily process. For instance, expecting him to work as part of a larger group when he struggles to understand perspective taking and requiring him to demonstrate learning a curriculum not user-friendly to his brains while on the clock! The academic curriculum is on a clock! Teachers know all the lessons they have to teach to prepare for the states high-stakes testing and they cannot slow down the learning clock because students have IEP goals!

Bottom line - does the inclusion of this child in the curriculum help her learn social information (e.g., work well with others, problem solving, group participation, etc.,) AND academic information to develop functional skills for transitioning into the adult world? Because at the end of the day or the end of a student's time in public education, what really counts is whether she has developed skills to help her be more successful as an adult.

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I was recently asked to write about what social skills are needed in order to get the most benefit from an integrated setting. While this is a huge question, here are some thoughts on this concept. Many of you who are familiar with my work know that I talk about the social complexities of the classroom environment.

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Westglen School, K-6: Universal Design for Learning

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Inclusion strategies for students with autism spectrum disorders

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Inclusion strategies for students with autism spectrum disorders

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A Starter Kit for Differentiated Instruction 

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A Starter Kit for Differentiated Instruction 

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This post contains Amazon Affiliate links; if you purchase from Amazon after going through these links, Cult of Pedagogy receives a small commission at no extra cost to you.

You have probably come to this article for one of two reasons: Either you want to start differentiating instruction in your classroom and don't know where to start, or you already differentiate, but want to see if you're missing anything. I have combed through tons of online resources on how to differentiate instruction, and have put together this collection of the clearest, most high-quality resources for learning how to differentiate in your classroom. Off we go, then!

Lots of teachers think they are differentiating, when they really kind of aren't. So before you get started, give yourself a solid overview of what differentiation is (and isn't) and how it works. To do that, you need to read Carol Tomlinson, whose work is the gold standard in differentiation. Her book, How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms , is the best one I've seen on the subject. And it's short: At just over 100 pages, it's a fast, easy read, and is full of useful information that will set you on the path toward high-quality differentiation.

In addition to explaining basic principles, the book shows you how to manage a differentiated classroom, teaches you specific strategies, and lets you peek inside a few sample differentiated classrooms so you can see how all the parts work together. I really can't recommend this book highly enough...get it!

Reading about how to differentiate on paper is helpful, but seeing other teachers actually doing it will give you a far better understanding of how to implement the strategies in your own classroom.

This Edutopia video shows how one school has set up a system they call Reteach and Enrich, where time is built into the schedule every day to reteach students who haven't met learning targets or provide enrichment activities for those who have. Watching this process in action makes it really clear HOW to make it work:

In this Teaching Channel video (click below), high school math teacher Maria Barchi demonstrates how she tiers instruction by giving different exit slips to students based on their mastery of a lesson, then adjusts instruction the following day based on their responses:

Below, second grade teacher Robert Pronovost shows how he uses two separate online programs, Planet Turtle and Dreambox, to meet students' individual needs in 2nd grade math (Teaching Channel):

The next video shows 5th grade teacher Stacy Brewer demonstrating how she differentiates process for readiness in writing responses to a text: Because this group of ELL students needs additional help, she works with them while the rest of the class responds to their questions independently (Teaching Channel).

Finally, this Teaching Channel video shows how Mary Vagenas uses Learning Menus to differentiate in her 7th grade Social Studies class:

Once you understand the basic principles of differentiation, it's a good idea to have a few basic tools on hand.

Task Cards
What are task cards? They are all the rage in some classrooms: The basic idea is that you take tasks and questions that might normally appear on worksheets and put them onto laminated cards (one item per card), which allows you to better individualize instruction, set up centers, and group students according to need (plus, you can re-use them year after year!). You can make your own or browse through thousands on Teachers Pay Teachers. This free e-book by Rachel Lynette explains how to use them in detail:

Tiered Lesson Template
This blog post from Marsha McGuire at A Differentiated Kindergarten shows you how to plan a tiered lesson and includes an editable template. Even though the featured classroom is a kindergarten, Marsha's system would work effectively with all age groups.

Using Color to Help You Tier Differentiated Activities

Learning Menus
This packet from the University of Virginia Curry School of Education teaches you how to create learning menus or choice menus, which offer students a variety of learning activities to choose from, depending on their interests and learning profiles.

Choice Menus (PDF)

There's No Time to Differentiate: Myth-Busting DI, Part 2
by John McCarthy
This Edutopia article discusses some of the myths about and objections to differentiation.

Dr. Kathie Nunley's Layered Curriculum
This website is based entirely on the Layered Curriculum philosophy. Somewhere between a learning menu and a tiered unit, a layered curriculum looks like an interesting take on differentiation and is worth a look once you've got the basics down.

Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom
by Carol Tomlinson and Marcia Imbeau
Although I have not read this one, I got a recommendation from Dr. Jennifer Beasley, an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Arkansas. "This is a practical guide for how to begin to establish routines and practices that facilitate differentiation. We all know that we could have the most beautiful lesson on paper and see that same lesson fall apart in the classroom as a result of forgetting to give directions for handing out materials. This resource offers many practical examples for putting some routines in place to allow for working in groups, answering questions, or even talking with your students about differentiation."

If you thought this was helpful, stick around.
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A Starter Kit for Differentiated Instruction

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This post contains Amazon Affiliate links; if you purchase from Amazon after going through these links, Cult of Pedagogy receives a small commission at no extra cost to you. You have probably come to this article for one of two reasons: Either you want to start differentiating instruction in your classroom and don't know where to start, or you already differentiate, but want to see if you're missing anything.