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Description of the Practice

Functional Behavior Assessment is an assessment that helps to problem-solve a student’s behavior. The parts of the FBA include collecting information about the behavior, what is happening before the behavior occurs, and how adults are reacting to the behavior. The FBA, after being analyzed, can help to come up with support for the student to stop the negative behavior or find a replacement behavior.

What evidence there is supporting the practice

While there were no group-eligible studies, 34 eligible single-case studies provided evidence of the effectiveness of FBA-based interventions. These interventions encompassed student self-monitoring, modifications of the proximity of peers and teachers, peer support, teacher attention, and modifications to assignments. The potential positive impact of FBAs on school engagement and problem behavior is a beacon of hope for educators.

How the practice could be implemented in your classroom

This practice is already being implemented within my classroom. I have a behavior binder that I keep on ABC charts to help determine the function of the behavior.

Student Characteristics

Students ages 5-18 with or at risk for an emotional disturbance. My students are not classified with emotional disturbance, but they have autism, which has different behaviors attached.

Any other relevant information with a heavy focus on what you need to know as a teacher

The FBA must be completed with fidelity. It must be accurate with input from staff, parents, and even students if possible.

Citations

https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/InterventionReports/wwc_fba_011017.pdf

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SCERTS

Description of the Practice

SCERTS is a set of specific guidelines for helping a child become a competent and confident social communicator. SCERTS focuses on social communication, emotional regulation, and transactional support, which are the most significant challenges faced by individuals with autism.

What evidence to support the practice?

Through a study conducted by Morgan, Hooker, Sparapani, Reinhardt, Schatschneider, and Wetherby (2018), the What Works Clearinghouse determined that through the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, there are statistically positive effects for expressive communication and student behavior.

How the practice could be implemented in your classroom?

First, the staff will need training for the new curriculum. After training, the family and staff will collaborate to determine the courses to implement. This curriculum improves social communication, emotional regulation, and transaction support through everyday occurrences instead of set-up circumstances.

Student Characteristics

188 students in grades K-2 in 70 elementary schools in California, Florida, and Georgia. Most of the students in this study were white, at 63%. The other represented groups were Asian at 10% and Black at 12%. The students were in general and special education classrooms.

Citations

Morgan, L., Hooker, J. L., Sparapani, N., Reinhardt, V. P., Schatschneider, C., & Wetherby, A. M. (2019). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 86(7), 631–644. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000314.

SCERTS website: https://scerts.com

What Works Clearinghouse: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Study/90682

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At least one finding shows promising evidence of effectiveness

At least one statistically significant positive finding

Meets WWC standards with reservations

For:

Single Study Review (findings for Classroom Social, Communication, Emotional Regulation, and Transactional Support (SCERTS))

Rating:

Meets WWC standards with reservations because it is a cluster randomized controlled trial with high cluster-level attrition, but the analytic intervention and comparison groups satisfy the baseline equivalence requirement.

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.

Setting

The study took place in 70 elementary schools in 10 school districts in California, Florida, and Georgia. Students enrolled in the study participated in general and special education classrooms.

Study sample

A total of 188 students in kindergarten through grade 2 were included in the study. The students were taught by 129 teachers in 60 schools. All students in the study had a diagnosis, either clinical or educational, of autistic disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified, or Asperger syndrome; and no presence of severe motor delay or impairment, dual sensory impairment, or history of traumatic brain injury. Approximately 81% of students were male and 100% had autism spectrum disorder. Sixty-three percent were White, 12% were Black, 10% were Asian, 7% were more than one race, and 8% did not report race. Twenty-one percent were Hispanic or Latino.

Intervention Group

The Classroom Social, Communication, Emotional Regulation, and Transactional Support Intervention (CSI) is teacher-implemented and aims to address the challenges of engaging children with autism spectrum disorder in social interaction and learning activities. The CSI is based on the SCERTS model, which guides teachers to select goals and objectives for students to develop communication and emotional regulation skills. Then, teachers work with students to implement strategies to support these goals that they can use in everyday activities across all settings. Teachers implemented the CSI in students' classrooms over one school year for an expected 25 hours per week. CSI provided teachers with training on the SCERTS model and coaching throughout the year to assist with implementation. Teachers and other members of each student's educational support team participated in an 18-hour training at the beginning of the year. Coaching was provided between two and four times per month.

Comparison Group

Teachers in comparison schools were offered Autism Training Modules (ATM), which are web-based training modules designed to support teachers providing usual school-based education to students with autism spectrum disorder. The modules included an overview of autism spectrum disorder, a guide to educational programming for students with ASD, and a tutorial on visual supports. No other training or coaching was provided.

Support for implementation

Teachers and other members of each student's educational support team participated in an 18-hour training at the beginning of the year. Coaching was provided between two and four times per month.

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As an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was created in 2002 to be a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education.

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Social Skills Training

Ages: Preschool: Children with disabilities

Setting: Special Education Classrooms, General Education Classrooms, Individual, Small Group, and Whole Group

Teachers use modeling, role-playing, and specific instruction on social skills.

Children typically practice the skills and receive positive reinforcement for appropriate social behavior.

Time Frame: one hour a day and can take a few days or weeks.

Two studies have shown significant positive effects on social-emotional development and behavior. The two programs in use are My Friends and Me and Taking Part: Introducing Social Skills to Children.

Underneath the WWC Intervention Report are websites mentioned within the report and ways to purchase the curriculum.

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Teaching Social Skills
To Kids Who Don't Have Them

(yet)

Do any of these comments sound familiar?

"I tell him to stop doing that, but he keeps on doing it. Darn. This kid must have been raised by wolves!"

"That kid knows how she is supposed to behave. She CHOOSES to misbehave."

"If I ask him what he is supposed to be doing, he can tell me. He knows better, so why isn't he doing it?"

Y ep. Some kids know (intellectually) what they should be doing in any particular set of circumstances, but they've never (physically) done it before. They have not practiced the "correct" behavior for that setting or event. In fact, they've had a great amount of practice demonstrating the present "inappropriate" action. It is ingrained in their memory and behavioral repertoire. It is difficult for humans to all-of-the-sudden display a completely different behavior than we've been showing for years. Could you engage in an immediate change in your behavior pattern? Changing a habit is no easy task. To get an idea of what it's like, try this activity:

(YES!...Do now activity right now.) 1. Cross your arms across you lower chest. 2. Uncross your arms, and then cross them again.

Chances are that you crossed them the same way each time. Notice how one arm goes over the other with it's hand tucked under its biceps (upper arm). At the same time, the hand of the lower arm has it's hand resting on top of the biceps of the other limb.

OK, now unfold your arms again, but this time switch their positions so that the one that was on the bottom is now on the top (and vice versa). Now unfold the arms and do it in your old way. Now unfold the arms and cross them in the new way. Repeatedly switch back and forth between the two positions.

All right. It took you awhile, but you were able to do it. Does this new position feel a bit uncomfortable and odd? Yes. It's not your ingrained way of doing things. However, I now want you to show this new way of crossing your arms for the rest of your life. Don't ever make a mistake or revert to the old way.

Do you think that directive might be difficult to follow? Yep . Now imagine what we are asking our socially unskilled kids to do when we say "Just do it.". We're expecting them to immediately change a behavior that is indelibly etched into their brains, feels "comfortable", and has been "assigned" to them by other adults who have labeled them as the type of person who "does that thing". Kids who display the wrong behaviors as they interact with others will have a long and arduous path to travel as they work to change to "a better way of doing things".

Thank goodness they have a patient and supportive teacher like you. You'll support them as they undertake the struggle to show the new action. You'll be sure to focus on progress rather than perfection, recognizing and drawing attention to evidence of the new way as it emerges rather than attending to vestiges of the old reaction pattern.

Why Don't Our Kids Have Social Skills?
Social skills are those communication, problem-solving, decision making, self-management, and peer relations abilities that allow one to initiate, build, and maintain positive social relationships with others. Deficits or excesses in social behavior interfere with friendship, adult-child relationships, learning, teaching, and the classroom's orchestration and climate. One's social competence is linked to peer acceptance, teacher acceptance, success of inclusion efforts with students with disabilities, and post school success.

____________________________

Deficits in social skills can be viewed as mistakes in learning. Arnold Golstein, a renowned expert in the teaching of social skills to students with behavior disorders and challenges believes that there are four primary reasons that explain why students are socially unskilled:

(1) They don't know another way to (re) act other than their present pattern of behavior. Many of our youngsters never learned "appropriate behavior" for social settings (situations in which they must interact/cope with others). Perhaps they did not receive this guidance in the home (either because of lack of training by elders or another system of values & behaviors being taught). Perhaps they did have good role models in the home and neighborhood who promoted "good" behavior, but our youngsters didn't notice the actions and/or emulate them as well as other kids (just like some kids learn to read without formal instruction previous to school, while some learners need the structured process of reading instruction).

(2) They know (cognitively) other ways to behave, but haven't had enough practice to display them competently. Many of my former students could tell me (after the fact) what they SHOULD have done in that situation. Those failures to display the behaviors that were being promoted in my self-contained classroom of students with severe behavior disorders pointed to the need for more and varied practice in their use. That instruction became a part of each day.

(3) They tried another way, but it didn't work for them the first time (s) they tried it, so they assume that it would never work for them. Given their failure experience, they return to the previous action pattern. Remember that humans show behaviors for a reason. Any behavior you show has a benefit. If there wasn't a "payoff" for demonstrating the behavior in a situation, you would stop doing that action. We show behaviors for one of two general reasons: Doing so (1) brings something desireable to us (positive reinforcement), OR (2) keeps something undesireable away (negative reinforcement).

This explanation applied to me in a certain setting when I was a younger man. One night, a female friend of mine joined me in a gathering spot for young singles (The "Philosophers Bar"...It's motto: "I think. Therefore I drink."). She saw me using various "pick up lines" to meet women. She told me that if I really wanted to make a positive impression on a woman, that I should "compliment something she's wearing", "make introductions", and "just be yourself". I tried this approach a few times and failed miserably. I quickly returned to the quirkly comments that were so solidly embedded in my repetoire. I learned an important lesson that night... Never be myself! No, No... What I mean to say is that I needed to be persistent and modify my new actions in order to experience success with them. I needed more than a "just do it" instruction. I needed ongoing training with performance evaluations and revisions in goal setting in order to make the more socially appropriate replacement actions my new modus operandi.

(4) Tension and anxiety interefere with the ability to perform the practiced behavior well in real life. I can also apply this explanation to a personal situation. I'm an avid white water kayaker (one who paddles a small boat down raging river rapids and over small water falls while dodging rocks). I paddle "class 3" rivers (of 5 and 1/2 levels of difficulty). If I flip over, I'm able to execute an "Eskimo roll" to right my craft and keep paddling. A paddling partner decided that it was time for me to paddle a "class 4" river. I paddled furiously and anxiously down the rock strewn, furious malstrom of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, forgetting my usual relaxed paddling style. I went over one 7 foot waterfall into the jaws of hell, was flipped, and found myself repeatedly banging on my helmeted head while I tried, poorly, to right myself to the surface. The hard beating while being twisted and twirled in that hellacious water discombobulated me. I was unable to accomplish my usual effortless Eskimo roll, and out-of-breath exited my boat underwater in panic to then take a long pinball machine swim down more turbulant rapids. Bruised, battered, and coughing up much of the river from my lungs, I dragged my sorry, beaten carcass up onto shore. My never-fail roll had failed due to panic. Soon though, with specialized practice on lesser rivers and in certain spots on that class 4 river, my skills became useful there. I now enjoy class 4 rivers, demonstrating the indicated actions even under pressure.

(perhaps through So...Ask: Is it a skill deficit (the student cannot tell you the correct response for a social situation and the actions are not in the student's behavioral repetoire) or a performance deficit (the correct action can be identified by the student when questioned, and has been practiced, but is displayed only during the role playing practice situations). A skill deficit usually responds to direct instruction of the necessary skills (inappropriate) behavioral response. We need to arrange for the "payoff" to be greater than the rewards acquired by the present inappropriate action. A willingness to change one's behavior is also a necessary factor. To assess and promote this "readiness to change" in a youngster, look for Dr. Mac's package in the advertisement boxes on this site. task analysis and shaping). A performance deficit usually requires a quarantee that demonstration of the new behavior will bring at least the same amount of benefits as the present

_____ __________________________________________

Displaying poor social skills is likely to get one rejected by others (other kids don't like them and won't associate with them). Others of our kids work hard to show the new and better behaviors they've been told to show but are still rejected by others (perhaps due to a long-time character reputation or maybe because others don't like the awkward and unsure demonstration of the newly learned behaviors which don't appear "natural"). At other times, our pupils may still fail because they have difficulty monitoring and controlling their behavior when unexpected reactions occur. They misread social cues given off by others (examples: 1. Not noticing the rejection actions by others that non-verbally/verbally say "Get lost. Leave us." 2. Viewing the positive social forays of others as being threatening). If rejected because of their behavior (past or present), they'll rarely (if ever) get the chance to display the "correct" behaviors under naturalistic circumstances and therefore will probably fail to incorporate them into their behavioral repertoire.

Others of our kids will not respond positively to social skills instruction because they don't see the skills as being necessary/useful (Example: 1. Assisting the teacher, 2. Avoiding conflict with adults, 3. Disagreeing in an non-confrontational manner). The behaviors they display now seem just fine to them. They obtain the attention, objects or power they seek.

Are you are a teacher of students with behavior disorders? If so, are you teaching social skills to your students? Are you doing so in structured daily lessons? If not, why not? The defining characteristic of kids with EBD is their inability to build and sustain positive relationships. Kids with EBD are A Note to Teachers of Students with Emotional & Behavioral Disorders (EBD)
3 times more likely than general ed kids to be rejected because of their behavior. It's time to use more than point systems to " manage" the behavior of these pupils. We need more than " The curriculum of control". We must teach the skills we wish to see displayed by our behaviorally challenged students.

Dr. Mac's book FOR kids with behavioral challenges!

Use it as the activity-filledsocial skills program for your learners. Includes 100 free lesson plans that are aligned with the content of the book

Click here to order & for more information

W hat Exactly Is Social Skills Training?
If our kids don't have 'em, we've got to teach 'em. "Social skills training" is a general term for instruction conducted in (behavioral) areas that promotes more productive/positive interaction with others. We teach social skills to students who are (at present) socially unskilled in order to promote acceptance by teachers (and other adults) and peers. A social skills training program might include (among other things):

1. "Manners" & positive interaction with others
-how to approach others in social acceptable ways
-how to ask for permission rather than acting impulsively
-how to make & keep friends
-how to sharing toys/materials

2. Appropriate classroom behavior
- work habits/academic survival skills
-listening
-attending to task
-following directions
-seeking attention properly
-accepting the consequences of one's behavior

3. Better ways to handle frustration/anger
-counting to 10 before reacting
-distracting oneself to a pleasurable task
-learning an internal dialog to cool oneself down and reflect upon the best course of action
4. Acceptable ways to resolve conflict with others
-using words instead of physical contact
-seeking the assistance of the teacher or conflict resolution team

Examples of Social Skills for Pre-Schoolers

1. Skills that will help in later instruction (example: listening skills)

2. Skills that enhance success in school/daycare settings (example: asking a question)

3. How to make and keep friends (examples: asking for something, asking others to play)

4. Feelings:
-awareness of own and other's feelings (Called "Theory of mind"...being able to predict how
others might feel in a situation, understanding that others might not feel as you do)
-coping with negative feelings

5. Positive, non-aggressive choices when faced with conflict

6. Dealing with stress:
-what to do when you make mistakes
-handling teasing and taunting

Social Skills Terms/Definitions:
Socially Skilled: The ability to respond to a given environment in a manner that produces, maintains, and enhances positive interpersonal (between people) effects.

Social competence: One's overall social functioning ... a composite or multitude of generalized social skills. Social competence can be improved by teaching social behaviors/social skills.

STEPS TO FOLLOW IN TEACHING SOCIAL SKILLS

Essentially, we teach new or replacement social skills like we teach academics; directly and actively. The steps are the same: Assess the level of performance/skill, prepare the materials, introduce the material, model it, have them practice it, and provide feedback. If you purchase a social skills curriculum (see the listing at the bottom of this page), it will probably include an assessment device, lessons, and activities. Teaching is a matter of following the directions in the kit. If you're on your own in developing a curriculum and devising lessons, here's how to develop a curriculum that is designed for your students:

Pre-teaching
* Select the students who need training in certain skills via an assessment device. Many assessment instruments can be found free-of-charge on the internet.

* Identify powerful reinforcers that will motivate the students to attend to lessons and attempt new behaviors. (Examples: group and/or individual points, raffle tickets, progressively moving a paper dog along the wall toward a food bowl which earns a reward upon reaching the dish)

* Identify and specifically define the target behaviors to be taught. Decide which behaviors are needed. Define them precisely so that everyone agrees on what is to be accomplished (...what the student will be able to do/show after instruction).

* Task analyze the target behavior(s) (If this listing of sequenced actions is not done for you by a packaged program. If you are unfamiliar with the procedure, go to task analysis on this site.)

Teaching social skills
-Create groups of 3-5 youngsters with similar skill deficits. Small groups give students a chance to observe others, practice with peers, and receive feedback.

-Remove obstacles to learning (Examples: close class door, remove corrections officers)

-Meet early in the day so that kids are attentive and have the whole day to practice what they learn in your lesson.

-Introduce the program, its content, and why and how it will benefit them (Examples: It will help them to return to general education classes; help them obtain and keep a job; result in less trouble with teachers/parents; impress their boyfriend's/girlfriend's parents when they meet them; be able to convince the police to release them if stopped).

-Set up the rules and regulations (Identify the behaviors you'll prompt, recognize, and reward during lessons: One person speaks at a time, pay attention, be positive in comments ...all of which may need to be taught in the initial lessons.)

-Teach the easy-to-learn skills first to ensure student (and teacher) success and reinforcement. Use the traditional teaching model of:
- Tell them

- Show them

- Provide "Guided practice", meaning:
With the steps provided on a handout, have them
-discuss when the behavior could be used
-role play it (at least two different scenarios with right & wrong behaviors being demonstrated).

- Provide feedback (with lots of encouragement and specific praise)
-from oneself
-from peers
-from the teacher

- Practice, practice , PRACTICE via homework assignments, review sessions, assignment in real-life settings, and surprise "tests" (Example: Your student has been learning to handle interactions with authority figures...Send the student on an errand and have an unknown teacher confront him/her, accusing the pupil of "forging" a hall pass. If the student performs poorly...runs, is rude, etc...the teacher says "This is a test. How did you do?")

* Given that the behavior of group leaders is emulated by their followers, teach to the high status kids in your group first. Have them demonstrate the new behaviors and be seen being rewarded. Have your lower status kids demonstrate the behaviors after the leaders do so. Make sure the lessons are interesting and fun so that kids look forward to the lessons. For example, start the teaching of "following directions" by having them cook/make candy, play "Simon says (Kids who make mistakes go to the back of the group and try to work their way forward. Don't have them sit out: They're the ones who need the practice!), or do magic tricks. Then move to more school-based examples.

-Promote generalization to different settings/circumstances by:
-practicing in different settings and under various conditions
-prompting and coaching the student in naturally occurring situations throughout the day
-having the student submit self-report forms for each class period
-meeting with the students to discuss their performance in and out of school.

-Monitor the behavior outside of the lessons. Keep track of the display of the behavior for IEP documentation, motivation of the student, etc. Have the student self-monitor/self-assess in order to build internal motivation/control.

-Adjust and enhance the skills as necessary.

-Recognize and reward its display in everyday school situations. When you see a good situation for a student to display a "new" behavior, prompt it's use with cues and hints (as subtle as possible, but as strong as necessary).

Example:
Pedro is going to be congratulated by the principal for being "Most improved student" with regard to behavior. As the principal approaches, the teacher whispers into Pedro's ear "Remember to wipe the booger off your finger before shaking hands with Mr. Yoon."
Wording for more socially advance student
"What do we do with boogers before we shake hands?"
(The student must decide on correct course of action)

Social skills training, helps individuals make better choices in situations.

SUMMARY

We want to strive for the lofty goal of all of our students interacting positively with others ... especially us! In order to promote more socially skilled and appropriate actions among our pupils, we must move beyond simply telling them to stop what they are doing wrong.While we might tell them which behaviors to avoid, we then need to teach them what they should be doing in those situations.

Sometimes, the process involves pre-teaching, in which we work to prepare a pupil for the change process through a discussion of the drawbacks of displaying the present inappropriate behavior (e.g., rejection by peers, penalties from school administration), and the benefits of adopting a particular replacement for it.

Do remember: Humans show specific behaviors because there is a benefit to doing so.In order to fully convince the student to change his or her ways, the benefits of the new actions must outweigh those of continuing the old patterns of behavior.The new ways must also be viewed by schoolmates as being acceptable.Often, packaged social skills programs promote social actions that, while esteemed by adults, would never be shown by any self-respecting, socially accepted kids in the mainstream.In that case, becoming skilled in the new behavior does little to promote acceptance and positive interactions.

Sometimes, we don't want new behavior skills to "generalize" (be applied in settings outside of school). If my former students had used their "school skills" after school on the streetcorner or ball field, they would have been ostrasized or victimized. Outside of the school building they had to "act street".

As with the teaching of academics, begin with the prerequisite skills and then move on to the more advanced ones. Your curriculum will be comprised of the skills that are most important to classroom decorum and your students' social needs.

While the teaching of social skills consumes time during the school day, over the weeks and months we gain back lost academic instructional time as our students display more acceptable behavior. Our school life becomes more productive and personally/professionally rewarding. The same applies to the school-based and outside lives of our students.
Activities
1. Look at this list of commonly needed social skills. Think of students you know who would most benefit from instruction in each one. (You could use this list as your assessment device and assign students to groups by skills)
-Saying "please" and "thank you"
-Dealing better with anger and frustration
-Asking questions in an appropriate manner of body language, wording, and voice tone.
-Accepting the consequences administered by the teacher
-Accepting responsibility for one's own (mis)behavior
-Dealing with losing/frustration/making mistakes/insults and so forth in an appropriate manner (devoid of yelling or physical aggression)
-Initiating a conversation with others

-Accepting "No" for an answer
-Joining a group activity already in progress
-Following directions
-Making friends
-Complimenting others
-Understanding the feelings of others (and accepting them as valid/OK)
-Compromising on issues
-Cooperating with peers
-Coping with taunts and verbal/physical threats/aggression from others
-Seeking attention in an appropriate manner
-Waiting one's turn

2. Behaviorally/specifically define the following behaviors that you might decide to teach (see the home page link on "behavioral recording" if you are unclear on this procedure)
-Asking permission
-Avoiding fighting with others
-Interrupting others appropriately
-Showing sports(wo)manship

Click here to read possible definitions (but try to define the behaviors first... No cheating!)

3. Task analyze the following behaviors (Delineate, in order...if there is an order...the sub-behaviors that must be displayed in order to accurately display the desired behavior that you have identified and defined.) (See the home page link on (
"task analysis" if you are unclear on how to conduct this procedure)
-Listening
-Following Directions
-Respecting the opinions of others
-Accepting praise from others
-Apologizing for wrong doing
-Greeting others
-familiar/family/friends
-unfamiliar
-adult
-peers
-same gender
-different gender
-younger

Click here to read possible task analyses of each behavior C'mon...try it first)

4. A student displays social skills that appropriate in his/her cultural group, but are not desirable in the mainstream North American culture (e.g., lowering one's eyes when spoken to by an adult, physically fighting when mother's honor is insulted by another). Is it appropriate to teach the "right ways" (as viewed by school personnel)? When, how and why would you do so?

5. Obtain a social skills curriculum. Evaluate it using the following form:

__________________________

McIntyre Evaluation Form for Social Skills Curricula
2001

Name of Curriculum:

Date & Publisher:

Designed for which ages/grades?

Designed for special education or general education kids?

If designed for general education students, could it be adapted for special education students?

If so, what would need to be done to adapt the materials?

Does it have an assessment component to determine which skills need to be taught?

Does it have prepared lessons for each skill?
-For how many skills (total)?
-Are the skills task analyzed?
-Is the instructional format same for all skills?

Are all necessary materials included?

Are sufficient practice activities provided?

Does the curriculum contain suggestions for ways to motivate the students?

Are there suggestions for adapting to individual student needs and strengths?

Are provisions made for the maintenance and generalization of behaviors?

Does it includes forms for:
-Identification of students who would benefit from program
-Lessons
-Review of lessons
-Reinforcement/Reward/Feedback
-Assessment of mastery of skills
-Monitoring/Documentation

Is the material appropriate for ages of the students who were identified?

Is the material appropriate for the stated objectives?

List the positive and negative points of this curriculum:

Give your overall evaluation of it's usefulness:

Samples Of Social Skill Instructional Units

Videos & DVDs for Teaching Social Skills at Home & School

This site offers videos/DVDs of students displaying the appropriate behavior for various events. Videos are available for different age groups, and while designed for students with PDD/Aspergers Syndrome/Autism, they would also serve well for others in the elementary grades. The scenarios would work well as part of a structured social skills training program, or perhaps for periodic "free time" viewing followed by discussion and role play. The following words were written by me after a review of the videos:
"I finally found the time to watch the Model Me Kids DVDs and I'm glad that I did so. Model Me Kids videos provide a valuable resource for teaching children appropriate behaviors that will serve them well in school and other group situations. I can imagine teachers making use of these video vignettes as part of their planned social skills instruction, or in a spontaneous manner during a "teachable moment". Thanks for sharing them with me. I look forward to seeing the new one presently in development."
- Tom McIntyre ("Dr. Mac"), Professor and Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Behavior Disorders, Department of Special Education, Hunter College, NY & www.BehaviorAdvisor.com

Social Skills Curricula/Kits

Dr. Mac's book for kids with behavior challenges. It's the
ONLY book written FOR kids. Parents can read it along with their children. Many teachers use it as their social skills curriculum (see the reviews by parents, teachers, kids, teachers, and professional organizations on the home page of this site). Appropriate for kids 8 to 18. Written on a fourth grade reading level (Just like this web site! HA!)
Click here for more information
Just read the reviews!

"Sensitive and thorough."- School Library Journal

"Encouraging.... Parents of children with behavior challenges would benefit from reading this book."- Children's Literature

"Excellent material."- Voice of Youth Advocates

"Chock-full of information."- School Library Journal's Curriculum Connections

"A great book-very practical and helpful. Positive, encouraging, and supportive."-Eleanor Guetzloe, Professor Emerita, Department of Special Education, University of South Florida

"Kids who use this book will not only make their own lives better, but also ease the lives of family adults, classmates, and teachers."-Steven R. Forness, Ed.D., Professor, School Principal, and ChiefEducational Psychologist, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Los Angeles, CA

Skillstreaming: Perhaps the most popular program for teaching social skills.

(for adolescents)

___________________________________________________

Sign up for Dr. Mac's "B-list"! (Behavior List).

B-Listers have total access to thousands of intervention strategies on this site, and receive

periodic "How-to-do-it" newsletters on Classroom Behaviour Management.
JOIN US!

Author: Tom McIntyre at www.BehaviorAdvisor.com

DoctorMac@BehaviorAdvisor.com

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Teaching Social Skills To Kids Who Don't Have Them (yet) Do any of these comments sound familiar? "I tell him to stop doing that, but he keeps on doing it. Darn. This kid must have been raised by wolves!" "That kid knows how she is supposed to behave. She CHOOSES to misbehave."

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The first podcast by social workers for social workers. Big names talking about bigger ideas. 24/7/365.

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Description of the Practice

Visual supports are moved with the student throughout the day to help the student to communicate with others. The visual supports can be pictures, words, communication boards, or augmentative communication devices such as Proloquo2.

What evidence to support the practice?

According to the National Professional Development Center on ASD,

How the practice could be implemented in your classroom?

Used throughout the day to help the child communicate when the student cannot communicate verbally. This can be used as a communication board, individual pictures or words, and communication boards, such as a core board.

Student Characteristics

Effective for students in preschool all the way to the age of 22.

Citations

Hume, K. (2008). Overview of visual supports. Chapel Hill, NC: National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, The University of North Carolina.

National Professional Development on Autism Spectrum Disorders https://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/sites/autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/files/imce/documents/VisualSupports_Complete.pdf

Visual Support EBP Brief Packet https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED595398.pdf

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Description of Practice

Students were given a Content Acquisition Podcast (CAP) with multi-media-based technology focused on vocabulary instruction. The students individually watched the podcasts with instructions on word meanings, examples of synonyms, guided practice, word consciousness instruction, information on how to use keyword mnemonic strategies to recall vocabulary terms and concepts, and images of keywords interacting with the vocabulary term or concept.

Evidence to Support the Practice

There are significant findings for comprehension outcomes. There is promising results with content acquisition podcasts with explicit instruction and a keyword mnemonic strategy versus business as usual.

How can this be implemented in my classroom?

We use individual iPads within the classroom and the Smart Board program called Lumio. I can develop lessons for the students with key vocabulary to watch as a class or individually to help them learn the vocabulary. I already have a basis for them using the Lumio program with the Core Vocabulary words taught daily.

Student Characteristics

The students in this study are tenth-grade students with learning disabilities.

Any other relevant information

It will take time to develop the lessons for the students; teachers can team up to complete the lessons. Once the lessons are made, the teachers can reuse them each year or as often as needed.

Citations

Kennedy, Michael J.; Deshler, Donald D.; Lloyd, John Wills (2015). Journal of Learning Disabilities, v48 n1 p22-38. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1047703

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Taking Part: Introducing Social Skills to Children

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This curriculum provides step-by-step strategies and activities for teaching 33 social skills that are essential to social development for children pre K-Grade 3.
Animal characters/puppets are used to introduce the skills and to help in various practice and maintenance activities.

Skill lessons are divided into six units:

Making Conversation

Communicating Feelings

Expressing Oneself

Cooperating with Peers

Playing with Peers

Responding to Aggression and Conflict

Each skill is divided into clearly defined behavioral steps that incorporate thinking, feeling, and doing. At each stage of instruction, students are given examples of appropriate skill use, asked questions to enhance their understanding of the skill, and provided with specific feedback as they practice the skill. Children are encouraged to apply their newly learned skills at school, at home, and on the playground.

Children will enjoy learning skills as they interact with the animal characters used in the program-Felicia Fox, Benny Frog, Hank Hawk, Carla Bluejay, Shelli Squirrel, and Will Rabbit. Puppet-mask outlines representing each animal character are provided.

The characters are used to present a motivational story for each skill and to help in various practice and maintenance activities. The authors note that some children prefer role-playing as animal characters rather than as themselves or as human characters.

This second edition of Taking Part has been field-tested at sites selected to represent a full range of ages, geographic locations, economic levels, and cultures.

Appendixes provide reproducible materials, including student handouts, program posters and blackline masters.

Book Reviews

" Taking Part is an excellent set of lessons that can be incorporated into a comprehensive school counseling program. . . . Units begin with the idea of making conversation and getting children to talk to one another as well as learning listening skills. Units that follow include communicating feelings, expressing oneself positively, cooperating with peers, team building and conflict resolution. Subcomponents of the units engage students in controlling temper, speaking kindly, sharing materials, and helping others among a variety of themes. Each lesson incorporates a story of animals relating to one another. Students practice by role playing how their animal character could react differently to the given situation presented."

-Deborah Hardy, New York School Counselors Association Newsletter

"I like this program because it is easy to use and well grounded in theory. . . . The authors offer a hands-on approach that incorporates role play, step-by-step instruction, practice suggestions, skill reinforcement, related children's literature, and suggestions for helping students maintain newly acquired social skills. . . . The program is flexible enough to use in its entirety or to adapt to the needs of the students and setting."

-Lynn Merlone, New Hampshire School Counselor Newsletter

"I continue to be amazed at the simplicity, clarity, and manageability of the skill steps. . . . In addition, the engaging dialogues and activities will help to maintain the attention of students. . . . Taking Part is a valuable resource for school psychologists."

-Ellina Xiong, MSPA Newsletter, Minnesota School Psychologists Association

"Skills are broken down into steps that are easy to integrate into daily activities. . . . Needed supplies are minimal. . . .Directions for instructors are easy to understand and implement. Overall, for the versatility and breadth of skills covered, Taking Part is a useful addition to the Pre-K through third grade classroom."

-Rachel Hedrick, ISPA Newsletter, Illinois School Psychologists Association

Introduction

Development

Theoretical Model

Defining the Behavior to Be Taught

Assessing Current Proficiency

Teaching Needed Skills

Evaluating the Results of Teaching

Providing for Practice, Generalization, and Maintenance

References

Teaching the Skills

Whether you use commercial hand puppets made of soft fur or hand-colored pictures glued to a stick handle, make the puppet entertaining by giving it the illusion of life. Puppets have great value in the teaching of social skills. Young children accept puppet characters as friendly and accessible and will frequently respond to them better than to peers or adults. Practice using puppets so you can feel fluent and comfortable with them. The simple guidelines in the following two paragraphs may help alleviate any apprehensions you may have about "performing" with puppets.

A simple rule to follow is that whenever the character is talking, move the puppet around; whenever the character is not talking, keep the puppet perfectly still. Look at the puppet when that character is talking. The students will look where you look. You do not have to be a professional ventriloquist to make it seem as if the characters are talking. If you are uncomfortable with students' seeing your mouth move, hold the puppet in front of your face while it is talking.

Once you are familiar with the script of a puppet vignette, use your full range of voice tone and inflection, facial expressions, and gestures to make the story as dramatic and interesting as possible. It will help if you read through the scenarios, think about the six characters before you begin, and decide on a voice tone for each character. You might decide, for instance, to make Benny Frog have a deep voice and Carla Bluejay have a squeaky voice. Keeping your voice tone consistent throughout the Taking Part program will help students identify with and learn from the character scenarios.

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This curriculum provides step-by-step strategies and activities for teaching 33 social skills that are essential to social development for children pre K-Grade 3. Animal characters/puppets are used to introduce the skills and to help in various practice and maintenance activities. Skill lessons are divided into six units: Making Conversation Communicating Feelings Expressing Oneself Cooperating with [...]

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There are six recommendations provided by the National Center for Education Evaluation at IES.

Systematic Instruction (Examples of Lesson Plans are below)

a.        Review and integrate previous instruction

b.        When introducing new concepts, use accessible numbers

c.        Sequence instruction so the mathematic students are learning to build incrementally

d.        Provide visual and verbal supports

Prompting and asking questions

Manipulatives

Visuals

e.        Provide immediate feedback to correct any misunderstandings

Mathematical Language

a.        Teach mathematical vocabulary to build students’ understanding of the mathematics they are learning.

b.        Use clear, concise mathematical language

c.        Support students using precise mathematical language

Representations

a.        Provide students with concrete and semi-concrete representations

b.        When teaching concepts and procedures, connect concrete and semi-concrete representations to abstract representations

c.        Provide meaningful opportunities for students to use representations to help solidify the use of representations as “thinking tools.”

d.        Revisit concrete and semi-concrete periodically to reinforce and deepen understanding.

Number lines

a.        They can represent whole numbers, fractions, and decimals

b.        Comparing numbers and determining their relative magnitude

c.        Use number lines to build students’ understanding of the concepts underlying operations.

5.        Word Problems

a.        Teach students word problem types that include the same type of action or event.

b.        Teach students a solution method for solving each problem type.

c.        Expand students’ ability to identify relevant information differently.

d.        Teach vocabulary or language often used in word problems

e.        Include a mix of previously and newly learned problem types throughout the intervention

Times activities

a.        Identify already-learned topics for activities to support fluency and create a timeline.

b.        Choose the activity and accompanying materials for the timed activity and set clear expectations.

c.        Ensure that students have an efficient strategy to use as they complete the timed activity

d.        Encourage and motivate students to work hard by having them chart their progress.

e.        Provide immediate feedback by asking students to correct errors using an efficient strategy.

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Lesson Plan Tempate 1

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Systematic Instruction Lesson Plan 2

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Cognitive Strategy Instruction (CSI) can be used in various curriculum areas, such as reading-decoding, reading-comprehension, vocabulary, writing, spelling, mathematics, and study skills.

Cognitive strategy instruction is useful for various learners, especially students with learning disabilities. Students must understand how a strategy works and why each step in the strategy is performed, and this template allows students with learning disabilities to learn CSI.

There are six stages of the Self-Regulated Strategy Development Model.

Stage 1: Develop and activate background knowledge

-Struggling learners may lack essential background knowledge or pre-skills to successfully complete a task or use a strategy.

-Define the basic skills needed to perform the strategy and ensure the students understand the terms used.

-The best way to identify the basic terms and skills necessary for the strategy is to do a task analysis.

-A task analysis is listed under the lesson plan template for CSI.

Stage 2: Discuss the Strategy

-Discussion of the strategy is a more involved process than merely going through the steps of a strategy.

-Students need to be actively involved and allowed ownership in the process.

-Having the students believe in what they are learning will enable them to be more actively involved, which is the first step in self-regulation

-Provide students with examples of how the strategy works.

-It is appropriate for the teacher to explain the benefits of using the strategy by discussing and even providing examples of current performance.

-Strategy steps should be explained one by one.

-Throughout the process, teachers should be monitoring their students’ understanding.

Stage 3: Model the Strategy

-By modeling, a teacher can show not only what to do but also what to think.

-By the teacher expressing their thought process while using the strategy, the student can see how a successful learner uses it and thinks through it.

-I have added a model of a think-aloud

Stage 4: Memorize the Strategy

-It is critical that the students commit the strategy steps to memory

-Teachers need to reinforce the memorization of the strategy steps constantly.

-The key is repetition and variation.

Stage 5: Support the Strategy

-Supporting the strategy is arguably the most important step in the SRSD implementation process.

-Supporting the strategy is done by using scaffolding

-Collaboration allows the teacher to check for student understanding and fill in any necessary information.

-Supporting the strategy may include:

--working collaboratively on tasks while gradually fading help

--putting students into small groups

--remodeling the strategy

--prompting the particular use of a step

--providing corrective feedback.

Stage 6: Independence Performance

-The goal of strategy instruction is not for the student to use the strategy explicitly as taught but for improved academic performance.

-Independent performance does not mean that a teacher’s job is done. Teachers must still monitor students’ strategy use to ensure they are using it properly.

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Strategy instruction is one of the most effective ways of improving academic performance for children with learning difficulties. This site will show you how to do it, will provide examples or strategies, and provide a forum to discuss your experiences and questions.

This web site was made possible by a Comprehensive System of Personnel Development grant from the Nebraska Department of Education.
(Project No. 94-2810-248-4B14-03)

Implementing Cognitive Strategy Instruction & Developing Self-Regulated Learners

Cognitive Strategy Instruction is a very broad subject but here you will find an overview of the process and practical tips. For more in depth study references are provided.

CSI is a tool intended to help students develop the necessary skills to be self-regulated learners.

Our purpose is to introduce and explain the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model of implementation, as well as provide the foundational basis for its effectiveness. Information presented will include:

1. The steps (how you do it).

2. The purpose behind each step (why you do it).

We should stress that the instructional process is what determines the effectiveness of strategy instruction.

Definition of a Strategy

When discussing strategies it is helpful to dissect the definition. Strategies are:

Goals directed and consciously controllable process that facilitate performance.
The key parts are:
Goals directed - intended to perform a definite function.

Consciously controllable processes - directly manipulable and statable:

"This how I am doing_______ and this is why_______." This is essential, if the strategy is to be self-regulated. It would not be possible to regulate something that was not conscious.

Facilitate performance - strategies are processes that when matched to task requirements, improve performance. You can do things better, easier, and quicker when you use a strategy.

In essence, a strategy is simply a tool used to accomplish a task. A strategy concentrates and enhances effort. Just as using a lever allows us to move heavy objects more easily, so strategies allow for enhanced performance of academic tasks.

Most of us use strategies continually, without even realizing it. Strategies are so integrated into everyday life that we are usually not even aware that we are using them. Common strategies include:

Adults write themselves notes

Children are taught a familiar spelling strategy "i" before "e" except after "c"

Strategic approaches to tasks separate poor learners from more effective learners. While the use of strategies is common among successful learners the opposite is true for struggling learners and in particular students with learning disabilities. These students may not develop effective strategies, or may use ineffective or inappropriate strategies.

Strategies run the gamut from simple to highly complex. Educators need to look critically at any instructional strategy before they choose to implement it, weighing both pros and cons of the strategy. All this may make strategies sound complicated, but that's not necessarily the case.

CSI Research Based

Unlike many other educational techniques, Cognitive Strategy Instruction is founded on a broad base of research that has validated its effectiveness. The research clearly proves the effectiveness of Strategies Instruction. This research has been conducted in "real" classrooms with "real" students over 20 years.

CSI has been used across a wide variety of curriculum areas such as: Reading - Decoding, Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary, Writing, Spelling, Math, Study Skills, and other Content areas.

CSI is in the forefront of current educational practices, largely because of its extensive research base. Choosing instructional strategies can sometimes be like a shot in the dark. There are many different reasons why certain strategies and curriculums are chosen:

It's what the district has chosen

It's what another teacher/administrator/college professor recommended

It seemed to work for Mrs. Smith's class

It has pretty pictures

However, we would stress that the focus should not be on the strategies themselves, but rather on the implementation process. Even an effective strategy will fail to produce results if it is improperly implemented. Implementing a strategy should be viewed as a "process." This process should be evolutionary and dynamic.

The "process" of implementation, the SRSD model, is also based on validated methods. Each step involved in the "process" of implementation is based on research findings and current best practices.

Model of Implementation

The implementation model that we use follows is based on Harris and Graham's (1996) Self-Regulated Strategy Development model. The goal of SRSD is to make the use of strategies habitual, flexible, and automatic. This can take a lot of time, practice, and effort.The SRSD model is very comprehensive. This ensures that crucial steps are not overlooked. Following a model such as SRSD has two major advantages:

First, it gives you an instructional template to follow. You know how to teach the strategy in a step-by-step fashion.

Second, strategy instruction involves a major time and effort commitment. Therefore approaches that have been validated provide more of a cost/benefit balance.

The instructional model is a serious consideration when implementing strategy instruction. Not only could a model prove to be ineffective, it could also prove to be detrimental to students.

Students With Learning Disabilities

Cognitive Strategy Instruction is effective for a variety of learners, but particularly students with learning disabilities. Students with learning disabilities often do not develop the types of strategies necessary to successfully attack tasks.

One critical aspect of strategy instruction is to appreciate that children with learning disabilities have problems that go beyond academics, and that these problems can adversely affect academic performance.

The Self-Regulated Strategy Development model stresses the need to provide students with essential metacognitive knowledge of the strategies. Students must understand how a strategy works and why each step in the strategy is performed. The Self-Regulated Strategy Development model enables students to understand the process of the strategy.

Research shows that students who are actively involved in the education process have better retention, motivation and overall attitudes towards learning. Many struggling learners may never develop strategies, will use ineffective or immature strategies, or fail to employ strategies all together. Strategy instruction can dramatically increase student performance.

CSI is flexible and can be used in combination with different self-regulation techniques. These techniques would need to be taught explicitly and combined in the modeling, memorizing, supporting, and independent performance stages. They would need to be incorporated into most of the process. Self-regulation can prove to be an effective way for students to monitor their own progress and see their improvements. It will take a significant investment of time and effort in order to increase student performance to a level, where they are metacognitive and self-regulating.

The Self-Regulated Strategy Development Model

We chose to present the SRSD model of implementation because of its thoroughness and flexibility. The model is well developed and sequential, yet it allows teachers to use their own professional judgment when employing it.

The stages of implementation are set up to ensure that all necessary areas are fully addressed. However, the stages are flexible and may be reordered or combined as deemed appropriate or necessary by the teacher.

The stages are intended to be recursive and should be revisited to ensure mastery. This is part of the flexibility of this model. Stages can and should be revisited as part of the instructional process. Revisiting stages will not only help with mastery, it will also allow students to rethink and develop metacognitive skills.
Model Implementation
Stage 1: Develop and Activate Background Knowledge

Developing background knowledge sometimes seems so obvious that it is often overlooked. Struggling learners may lack essential background knowledge or preskills necessary to successfully complete a task or use a strategy. In many instances, what knowledge a student does have is often fragmented. Students must have mastered prerequisite skills to effectively use a strategy.

While developing background knowledge it is necessary to initially define the basic skills needed to perform the strategy, and to make certain that the students understand the terms used in the strategy. In order for students to understand the strategy they need to understand its most basic components.

The best way to identify the basic terms and skills necessary for the strategy is to do a task analysis. The task analysis will help teachers to determine whether or not students possess the prerequisite skills necessary perform the strategy.

After the task analysis is complete there are many ways that teachers can check students' skills. These include observing student performance, using curriculum-based measures, or simply asking students. Often, instructors will already possess knowledge of student pre-skills. Skill deficits should be addressed prior to introducing the new strategy.
Task Analyses
Stage 2: Discuss the Strategy

Discussion of the strategy is a more involved process than merely going through the steps of a strategy. A major goal of strategy instruction is to bring students to the point where they are self-regulated. In order for this goal to be achieved, students need to be actively involved and allowed ownership in the process.

Teachers will need to "sell" the strategy and get students to "buy in." Having the students believe in what they are learning will enable them to be more actively involved, which is the first step in self-regulation. If a student does not want to use a strategy it is fair to assume that they will not. Teachers need to be excited, committed and energized so that students will be too.

The use of the strategy should be an easy "sell", it will result in improved academic performance. Provide students with examples of how this strategy or other strategies have improved student performance in the past, and even how strategies have helped you in the past. This may not be enough; you will most likely need to find what motivates your particular students. For example: getting work done so that they can go outside for recess, no homework, making parents proud, impressing friends, or making the honor roll.

During this stage it is appropriate for the teachers to explain the benefits of using the strategy; discussing and even providing examples of current performance. Teachers should ask students questions, and ask them how confident they feel in the particular subject or skill being discussed. Then explain how learning the strategy can improve their performance.

The final part of this stage is introducing students to the steps of the strategy. Strategy steps should be explained one-by-one. Typically this is where teachers begin, but the SRSD model has allowed much of the ground work to already be laid at this point.

Throughout this process teachers should be monitoring their students' understanding. Part of this process is to work in cooperation with the students and in doing so you must make sure that they are keeping up and understanding what is being explained.

Stage 3: Model the Strategy

Purpose of modeling is to expose students to the thought processes of a skilled learner. Good modeling goes well beyond merely presenting the steps in a strategy. It provides students with the "why" and "how" of various strategy steps. It also demonstrates that student effort is essential, and shows that strategy use results in better performance.

By modeling, a teacher can show not only what to do, but what to think as well. This process is called a 'think aloud'. A think aloud goes beyond just listing the steps in a strategy. While this is useful, it is insufficient. Students need to see the the metacognitive process involved in understanding and using the strategy. By the teacher expressing their thought process while using the strategy the student is able to see how a successful learner uses the strategy and thinks through it.

The process involved in a think aloud is much more complex than it may initially seem. For expert learners making the covert overt is extremely difficult and requires a significant amount of practice and preparation.

Stage 4: Memorize the Strategy

It is critical that the students commit the strategy steps to memory. Memorizing the steps is crucial, because we want students to be able to focus on the task not on remembering the steps of the strategy. Students have a limited amount of cognitive processing capacity, and if that capacity is consumed with remembering the steps of the strategy it will be difficult or impossible to focus on the task itself.

Memorizing the strategy steps is something that we should not just work on once or twice; we need to be constantly reinforcing the memorization of the strategy steps, and in various contexts so that it becomes second nature to students.

There are many ways to help students memorize the steps of the strategy; the key is repetition and variation. The more practice they get in a variety of settings and situations the more successful they will be at memorizing the strategy.

A teacher could use different activities or games to teach memorization of the strategy: for example, they could use round-robin activities or a ball-toss game.

Memorizing a strategy goes well beyond parroting back the steps of the strategy. Students need to know and understand what is involved with each step in the process.

Stage 5: Support the Strategy

Supporting the strategy is arguably the most important step in the SRSD implementation process. Supporting the strategy is done by using a process called scaffolding. Scaffolding involves teachers initially performing all or most of a task, while increasingly shifting responsibility of performance to the student. This, like the scaffolding used when constructing a building, provides support. Teachers need to provide that support to students when using the strategy. With scaffolding, it is possible for a gradual transfer of strategy performance from teacher to student. Students need to be given adequate time and support to master the strategy.

The process of scaffolding is analogous to teaching a child to ride a bike: When teaching a child to ride a bike, first you put on training wheels, and let them practice with a lot of support from the training wheels. Then, you move the training wheels up, for less support and more practice balancing and riding a little bit more independently. Next, you would take the training wheels off and run behind the child holding the seat. Eventually, you would completely let go and let the child independently with out any support, just your supervision.

In the supporting stage of the SRSD implementation model teachers need to provide whatever support students need to move from current performance to independent use of the strategy. Teachers and students work together to master the performance of a strategy. Teachers need to be aware of the child's capabilities and their needs in order to achieve an improved level of performance.

Supporting the strategy may include:

Working collaboratively on tasks while gradually fading help

Putting students into small groups

Remodeling the strategy

Prompting the particular use of a step

Providing corrective feedback

Collaboration between teachers and students is extremely important in the SRSD process. Collaboration gives the teacher an opportunity to check for student understanding and fill in any necessary information the student may be lacking. It also gives the teacher another opportunity to make sure that the students possess the skills necessary to complete the task successfully. If necessary, teachers may need to go back and teach some pre-skills. This is part of the flexibility of the SRSD model.

Stage 6: Independent Performance

It is important to remember, the goal of strategy instruction is not for the student to use the strategy explicitly as taught, but for improved academic performance. Often, students may adapt the strategy to meet their needs. This is an acceptable part of the model as long as the teacher is confident the strategy is still successful in completing the task.

Independent performance does not mean that a teacher's job is done. Teachers must still monitor students' use of the strategy to ensure they are using the strategy properly.

Evaluating instruction should always be part of any curriculum. With current educational initiatives such as state standards and competency tests, accountability is in the forefront of education.

Evaluation and assessment is necessary to know whether or not learning has occurred. CSI facilitates meaningful assessment; the interactive, collaborative nature of the process allows teachers to easily assess changes in students' cognition, affect, and performance.

Considerations When Evaluating Cognitive Strategy Instruction

At a minimum, teachers should know:

If students are actually using the strategy

Whether or not its use has had a positive effect on performance

If students see the strategy as being valuable and manageable

The teacher's instruction also needs to be evaluated. Evaluating and adjusting their own performance is one of the few factors that teachers can have complete control over. Teachers need to make sure that they are effective at all stages of implementation. It may be necessary to go back and do some re-teaching of stages and strategy steps.

Teachers must also consider and assess how students actually use the strategy as students will often modify the strategy. Modifications can mean that the student is aware of their own strengths and weaknesses and has modified the strategy to better suit their needs. These modifications may still achieve the desired outcome of increased academic performance while others may need to be reconsidered. Teachers should observe students while they use the strategy to determine if they are still effective.

Teachers need to make sure that students are aware of opportunities to use the strategies in different situations, and encourage them to do so.

Teacher can promote the strategy by doing things such as having students periodically explain how and why they use or would use the strategy, having them keep a record of the times they use a strategy, or how they modify it for other tasks, and reward them for doing so.

Student Generalizations

It is also important to assess students' use of the strategy over time and in new situations. Do not assume that students will continue to use a particular strategy or successfully adapt it to new situations. Teachers should actively promote the use of the strategy with their students, as well as, with their colleagues. Students will not automatically generalize strategies in different situations; they must be programmed to do so.

When evaluating the strategy instruction process, teachers should collaborate with their colleagues, get feedback, and find out if the students are utilizing the strategy in other content areas in a successful manner. A strategy will not be completely successful if students do not generalize it and use it in various, appropriate, situations. To promote the strategy use, other content area teachers need to be made aware of the strategy steps and how the strategy works. This will enable them to use the same kind of language and prompt the students to use the strategy when appropriate.

Ways of Evaluating

Evaluating student performance can be done in traditional fashions such as tests worksheets, written products, or other such curriculum-based measures. The use of curriculum-based measures provides certain advantages. They can be used to determine a baseline prior to strategy intervention, and can then be used to show the effectiveness of the strategy after implementation. This is an excellent way for students to see the value of using strategies. There are however alternatives to the traditional forms of assessment that can be equally effective. For example:
Involve students as Co-Evaluators
Increases students sense of ownership
Reinforces progress
Provides a practical way to reduce a teacher's load
Teachers can gain valuable insight into their progress and readiness for advancement
Involving students as co-evaluators can give you a better idea of how the student feels about the strategy, and their performance using the strategy. This is also an excellent way for students to see for themselves the difference that the strategy has made on their academic performance.
Utilize Portfolio Assessment Procedures
Portfolios are an excellent way for both teachers and students to monitor progress
Portfolios offer reflective self evaluation
Students learn that development is as important as achievement
Portfolios are part of the shift in education. In today's society students need to provide products of the learning. Using these "products" can be an excellent way to show students their own progress and how the use of the strategy has enhanced their academic performance.

Practical Considerations and Tips

When implementing strategy instruction there are a few practical considerations that should be thought out:CSI - requires time and effort CSI may require substantial time investment

Sometimes it is necessary to "loop back"

Once the strategy is taught is should not be forgot

This is not just something that can be done in "two weeks and move on." Even if the strategy is simple and can be implemented quickly it will be likely that you will need to do some re-teaching, review and modeling periodically. This will require a commitment from both teacher and student.In CSI "Small is Golden"Teachers should use only a few strategies and support their use over a prolonged period of time. Better to teach a small number of strategies well over a long period of time than try to teach a large number less extensively. We suggest considering the following tips:

Take it slow

Take advantage of strategies students have already developed

Collaborate with other teachers and your students

Taking it slow will help ensure that all stages have been well addressed. Teachers should be open to change and understand that sometimes even if things don't go as planned they can still be extremely successful. ConclusionTeachers who use CSI construct powerful new knowledge about what works for studentsAlthough this can be a demanding process, it is an exciting one that we hope you will try. Good Luck! Be excited, now you have something that you can use!

RAP Lessons - Read Ask Paraphrase reading comprehension strategy. These lessons were developed by Dr. Jessica Hagaman.

The .pdf files which can be downloaded below sometimes can't be downloaded from school computers due to protective firewalls that school systems need to install for virus protection. If you have difficulty downloading a file, try using a computer which is not in a school. To access these files, your computer must have the free Adobe Reader. A free download is available from adobe.com.
Reading Word Identification
(Lenz, B.K., & Hughes, C.A. )

This reading strategy is a word identification strategy designed to help students with mild disabilities. It is a systematic process through which multisyllabic words can be recognized in reading assignments in content areas.

(Salembier, G.C., & Cheng, L.C.) SCUBA-D is a word identification strategy designed to help students identify difficult words in their textbook reading.
Reading Comprehension
Active Reading (Archer, A., & Gleason, M.)

This reading comprehension strategy is designed to aid students in being more active readers. This strategy is part of a larger strategy intended to help students complete assignments accurately and on time.

(Leinhardt, G., & Zigmond, N.)

This reading comprehension strategy is a self-questioning strategy that can be used to help students find answers to questions about what is important in a story.

(Clark, F.L., Warner, M.M., Alley, G.R., Deshler, D.D., Schumaker, J.B., Vetter, A.F., & Nolan, S.M.)

This reading comprehension strategy is a self-questioning strategy designed to help students be more independent and efficient readers.

Question-Generation Instructional Procedure (Davey, B., & McBride, S.)

This reading comprehension strategy was designed to prompt students to generate "think-type" questions while reading, and in doing so encourage students to be more active readers and increase their awareness of whether they are comprehending or not. The rationale that Davey and McBride provided their students with after reading a passage was that "think-type" questions, "Help you remember key information; they help you to know if you need to reread; they also help you to anticipate test questions."

(Schumaker, J.B., Denton, P., & Deshler, DD)

This reading comprehension strategy utilizes a paraphrasing technique to enhance reading comprehension.

Reading Visual Aids Strategy (Barry, M.)

This reading comprehension strategy employs the use of visual aids to increase understanding.

(Clark, FL, Warner, M.M., Alley, G.R., Deshler, DD, Schumaker, J.B., Vetter, AF, & Nolan S.M.)

This reading comprehension strategy uses visual imagery. Students use visual imagery when learning new material by transforming what is to be learned into meaningful visual, auditory, or kinesthetic images of the information.

Story Grammar (Short, E.J., & Ryan, E.B)

This reading comprehension strategy was designed to provide students with a strategic plan for selecting important aspects of story information for further study, by asking themselves the five "wh" questions.

A comprehension strategy for both skilled and unskilled readers.
Textbook Reading
(Schumaker, J.B., Deshlerl, D.D., Denton, P., Alley, G.R., Clark, F.L., & Warner, M.M.)

This reading comprehension strategy is a textbook reading strategy. This strategy has many sub-strategies, and because it requires advanced entry-level skills, teachers need to consider the skills that a student must have in order to be successful at mastering the strategy. Students must be able to paraphrase, interpret visual aids, use self-questioning reading strategies, and scan prose before learning this strategy.

(Cheek, E.H., Jr., & Cheek, M.C.)

This reading comprehension strategy is a simplified textbook-reading strategy that is good for younger students or students without much experience using textbooks.

(Englert, C., & Mariage, T.)

This reading comprehension strategy includes many reading practices that have been shown to aid reading comprehension, such as graphic organizers, text structures, stimulation of student background knowledge, and self-monitoring.

This is a reading comprehension strategy for students in middle and upper grades to help them read and understand a variety of source books. It teaches students to use text headings to aid their comprehension and help them find and remember important information.

Self-Questioning Summarization Strategy (Wong, B.Y.L., Wong, R., Perry, N., & Sawatsky, D.) This reading comprehension strategy is a self-questioning summarization strategy that was developed to aid student learning and retention of social studies text materials. It is essentially an executive routine to direct their use of summarization skillls to social studies materials, although it may be used in other content areas.

(Archer, A., & Gleason, M.)

This reading comprehension strategy is designed to help students in content area classes. This strategy is part of a larger strategy intended to help students complete assignments accurately and on time.
Spelling
A SPELLING STUDY STRATEGY (Graham, S., & Freeman, S. ) Helping Students Learn Unknown Spelling Words

This spelling strategy is intended to help students study unknown spelling words. The students need to be trained in the study method.

SPELLING SELF-CORRECTION METHODS (Goddard, Y.L., & Heron, T.E.) These spelling strategies are centered around self-correction techniques requiring students to check and correct their own work; focusing directly on the task at hand. They are learner centered, and have been validated and replicated empirically.
Written Composition
This writing strategy is designed to aid in written compositions conveying a position. It is intended to help students write a paper defending a position. This strategy involves imbedded strategies.

HELPERS IN WRITING (Wong, B.Y.L., Butler, D.L., Ficzere, S.A., & Kuperis, S.)

This is a writing strategy designed to help students write compare-and-contrast essays. This strategy employs a planning sheet called HELPERS in Writing.

(Simmonds, E.P.M., Luchow, J.P., Kaminsky, S., & Cottone, V.)

This writing strategy was designed to help students organize essay answers on tests, but can be used in various writing activities.

(Welch, M., & Jensen, J.B.)

This writing strategy was developed for written expression, to assist students in planning and writing compositions using a highly structured, step-by-step procedure. This is intended to enable students to generate and organize ideas in simple paragraph form. The strategy WritePlease, is a video-assisted strategy intended to aide teachers in teaching this strategy.

(Englert, C.S., Raphael, E.E., Anderson, L.M., Anthony, H.M., Fear, K.L., & Gregg, S.L.)

This writing strategy organizes all the steps in the writing process. It teaches students four different organizational structures for writing papers: stories, comparison-contrast, explanations, and problem/solution.

This strategy is an example of how to promote effective group work.

(Korinek, L., & Bulls, J.A.)

SCORE A is a writing strategy that covers the development of a topical research paper. It provides a concrete, sequential structure for students to develop and write papers on selected topics.

(Korinek, L., & Bulls, JA)

The SPACE strategy is the second step of a basic three-step writing strategy. It is designed to help students make a writing plan and think about the details that should be included in stories.

W-W-W, What=2; How=2 (Graham, S., Harris, K.R., & Sawyer, R.)

This is a writing strategy designed to help students ask themselves a series of "story-grammar" questions to generate narrative text.
Proofreading
This writing strategy is designed to help students complete neat, well-organized papers that include a heading. This strategy is part of a larger strategy intended to help students complete assignments accurately and on time.

(Schumaker, J.B., Nolan, S.M., & Deshler, D.D.)

This is a self-monitoring strategy for writing. Almost every academic task requires a level or form of monitoring. This strategy illustrates how a step can cue students to use questioning strategies to monitor product quality.
Numeral Writing
STAR: A Number Writing Strategy (Boom, S.E., & Fine, E. )

Helps students in writing, reciting, and recalling numerals.
Math Computation
DRAW & FAST DRAW (Harris, C.A., Miller, S.P., & Mercer, C. D.)

This Math strategy, draw, is used for teaching students with special needs to solve multiplication facts that are not yet committed to memory.

Multiplication Attack Strategy (Cullinan, D., Lloyd, J., & Epstein, M.H.)

This Math strategy is designed to help to teach multiplication facts.

Self-Monitoring Strategies in Arithmetic (Frank, A.R., & Brown, D.)

This math strategy is designed to help students who have been able to learn basic single-digit arithmetic facts but have difficulty in remembering how to solve problems that involve several steps.

SLOBS & LAMPS (Reetz, L., & Rasmussen, T.)

These math strategies are designed to help students remember the regrouping process of borrowing and carrying. Slobs is used in subtraction and lamps is used in addition.

Subtraction Strategies (Bley, N.S., & Thornton, C.A.)

These math strategies focus on subtraction. They were developed to assist students who are experiencing difficulty remembering subtraction facts, particularly those facts with teen minuends.
Mathematical Rules
Rules to Lower the Amount of Memorization in Math (Miller, S.P., Strawser, S., & Mercer, C.D.)

This mathematics strategy is designed to help students with some general mathematical rules.
Preparation
Alert Words for Classroom Discussions (Ellis, E.S.)

This reading strategy is designed to increase students' ability to participate in classroom discussions.

This strategy is a self-monitoring process, designed as a flexible rubric-like system to help students complete assignments either in class or as homework.

(Ellis, E.S.)
This strategy is designed to help students prepare themselves for an upcoming lesson before the lesson actually begins. It cues them to prepare themselves physically and mentally.

(Ellis, E.S., & Lenz, B.K.)

This is a motivational strategy that prompts students to be prepared and have a positive attitude to the class session.

This is a self-advocacy strategy designed to help students be proactive in the classroom.

Slant is a strategy designed to help students with mild disabilities increase nonverbal "teacher-pleasing" behaviors in the content class.
Completing Assignments
Answering Chapter Questions ( Archer, A., & Gleason, M.)

This strategy is designed to help students answer chapter questions in content area classes. This strategy is part of a larger strategy intended to help students complete assignments accurately and on time.

Completing Assignments (Archer, Al, & Gleason, M. )

This strategy is part of a larger strategy designed to help students complete assignments accurately and on time. It is intended for upper elementary and middle school students.

Self-Instruction for Organizing and Analyzing the Tasks for an Assignment (Rafoth, M.A., Leal, L., & DeFabo, L.)

This study skills strategy utilizes a procedure called "task analysis" which is the process of taking a large task or assignment and breaking it into subcomponent, or smaller tasks, and estimating task completing time for each subcomponent.

This study strategy was designed to teach adolescents how to plan assignments and monitor their academic work for a) completeness of assignment, b) how accurately they follow all of the directions or performance standards for the assignment, and c) neatness.
Note Taking

Call Up & Notes (Czarnecki, E., Poskoa, D., & Fine, F.)
These two note-taking strategies are designed to help middle and upper-grade students record key information in lectures so they may study them later.

Developing Efficient Note-taking Skills (Box, C.S., & Vaughn, S.)
This note-taking strategy provides a list with several hints for helping students develop effective note-taking skills.

Flexible Skeletons (Lazarus, B.D.)
This note-taking strategy is designed to help students with guided notes during lectures.
Study Strategies
(Nagel, D.R., Schumaker, job., & Deshler, D.D.) This math strategy is intended to assist students in recalling, reciting, and writing numerals.

This study strategy is designed to help students improve their memory and comprehension of content area materials.
Test Taking
(Hughes, C.A., Schumaker, J.B., Deshler, D.D., & Mercer, C.)

This test taking strategy is designed to assist students with preparation, taking, evaluating and keeping a positive mindset when taking tests.

(Simmonds, E.P.M., Luchow, J.P., Kaminsky, S., & Cottone, V.)

This test taking strategy is intended for use as a systematic method for taking multiple-choice tests.

Test Taking Strategies (Archer, A., & Gleason, M.)

These test-taking strategies are intended to guide students when taking true-false tests or multiple-choice tests.
What is Self Regulation?
The ability to self-regulate has been viewed as a desirable quality throughout history because of its positive affects on behavior and the acquisition of skills (Reid, 1993). The appeal of self-regulation and its positive effects on behavior and educational outcomes has prompted much research in this area. "Self-Regulation refers to the self-directive process through which learners transform their mental abilities into task related skills" (Zimmerman, 2001). This is the method or procedure that learners use to manage and organize their thoughts and convert them into skills used for learning. Self-regulation is the process of continuously monitoring progress toward a goal, checking outcomes, and redirecting unsuccessful efforts (Berk, 2003). In order for students to be self-regulated they need to be aware of their own thought process, and be motivated to actively participate in their own learning process (Zimmerman, 2001).
Why use Self-Regulation?

Self-regulation is desirable because of the effects that it has on educational and behavioral outcomes. The use of Self-Regulation techniques are a way to actively engage otherwise passive students in their academic instruction. Students need to view learning as an activity that they do for themselves in a proactive manner, rather than viewing learning as a covert event that happens to them as a result of instruction (Zimmerman, 2001). Allowing students to take a more active role in their education puts students in the driver's seat and in charge.
Who is Self-Regulation good for?
Self-regulation techniques are widely used. Successful people and learners use self-regulation to effectively and efficiently accomplish a task. They will regulate different strategies and monitor the effectiveness of that strategy while evaluating and determining the next course of action. Generally, successful learners already utilize various forms of self-regulation. Instruction in the use of self-regulation is typically directed towards students who are not currently using such techniques, and consequently are not successful in educational settings. Through the use of strategies and self-regulation, performance can be greatly improved. The use of self-regulation techniques assists students in performing tasks more effectively and independently. For example, successful learners will constantly check their comprehension. When successful learners read a passage, and realize that they do not understand what they have read, they will go back and reread, and question or summarize what is that they need to understand. On the other hand, when a student with learning disabilities reads a passage, and realizes that they do not understand what they have read, they tend to shut down, or just continue to read because they do not recognize the goal of reading the passage. Students with learning disabilities tend to be passive learners, often failing to evaluate and monitor their own learning, in order to compensate they allow others to regulate their learning or rely on the assistance of others to successfully complete a task. They lack these essential executive control functions, which are necessary to complete complex academic tasks independently. Components of Executive Control Process:

1. Coordinating metacognitive knowledge - Regulating cognitive and metacognitive knowledge, understanding one's own knowledge, and thought process.

2. Planning - Using a deliberate and organized approach to attack a task.

3. Monitoring - Assessing comprehension while progressing through a task, and checking for effectiveness, testing, evaluating and revising strategies.

4. Failure detection - While progressing through a task, detecting when there is a misunderstanding or an error is made.

5. Failure correction - When an error is detected, going back and correcting any mistakes. Through instruction in various self-regulation techniques students with learning disabilities can be successful at "the self-directive process through which learners transform their mental abilities into task related skills" (Zimmerman, 2001).
Self-Monitoring
Different theories of self-regulation exist, but for our purposes the guidelines that these theories provide to direct interventions are more important. These guidelines are consistent with the various self-regulation interventions. The two major guidelines derived from theoretical perspectives are: 1. The behavior to be targeted has to have value to the individual intended to self-regulate that behavior. If the target behavior was not seen as valuable there would be no reason to self-regulate that behavior, it would serve no purpose. It is also important to keep in mind that the particular behavior itself may not be valuable or rewarding, but the effect that the behavior produces or the individuals' perception of the behavior may be valuable. 2. The target behavior needs to be both definable and observable. Defining the behavior specifically and objectively is essential. If the behavior is not defined in detail, it will be difficult or impossible to self-regulate. The behavior needs to be well articulated so that anyone would be able to understand the behavior being targeted, and the occurrence of that behavior can easily be observed. It does not need to be overt and observable to outside individuals, but it does need to be observable to the individual intended to self-regulate. Harris, Reid, and Graham (in press), describe four cornerstones of self-regulation: self-monitoring, self-instruction, goal setting, and self-reinforcement. We will define and describe each independently, however they are all interrelated and can be used independently or in combination. -Self-Monitoring of Attention

-Self-monitoring of Performance

-Self-Monitoring of Strategy Performance

-Implementing Self-Monitoring

-Common Questions
Self-Instruction
We often talk to ourselves. This spontaneous speech of this is referred to as private speech and serves no communicative function. It is part of normal early childhood development and tends to peak around age eight and to disappear by around age ten. Researchers realized that this private speech often served to help individuals perform tasks. These researchers utilized this phenomenon as an intervention called self-instruction in which individuals are literally taught to "talk themselves" through a task. Self-instruction uses induced self-statements. Self-instruction serves many purposes. It may aid in orienting, organizing, and/or structuring behavior. Children will use private speech to consciously understand or focus on a problem or situation and to overcome difficulties. The goal of self-instruction is to go from modeled, induced, strategic, task-relevant, private speech to covert, strategic, task-relevant, private speech.

-Functions of Self-Instruction

-Variables Which Affect Self-Instruction

-Types of Self-Instruction

-Self-Instruction Training
Goal Setting

Goal setting is a common practice among successful learners. Goals allow us to see progress that is made, enhance motivation, provide structure and focus attention, and serve an informational function. Goal setting also provides a logical "rule of thumb" for attacking a problem. In research and practice goal setting has been shown to be an influential and valuable means for improving performance. The expected and anticipated fulfillment gained by reaching or making progress toward a goal provides motivation to continue until the goal is reached or exceeded (Harris, Reid, Graham, in press).
Properties of Goals
To use goal setting, it is important to consider the properties of effective goals. There are three critical properties of goals: 1. Specificity - Goals should be well defined and set clear standards. This provides the student with a thorough understanding of what is expected. This will also make it easier for them to gauge their progress. 2. Difficulty - This refers to how challenging the goal is for the individual. It is important to set goals at a moderate level of difficulty for the student. Goals should be set at a level of difficulty so that the student has to put forth effort and utilize resources, but are still attainable. Setting goals that can be achieved with little or no effort will not increase a student's motivation; setting goals that are too difficult will be overwhelming for students. 3. Proximity - Proximal goals are goals that can be completed in the near future. Distal goals are goals set to be completed only in the future (i.e. long-term goals). Proximal goals produce greater performance because they are more immediately attainable. Distal goals should be broken down into to several proximal goals set to reach that long-term goal.
Self-Reinforcement

Self-reinforcement occurs when a student chooses a reinforcer and self-administers it when criterion for performance is reached. For self-reinforcement to be successful, students should anticipate providing themselves with the reinforcer when they have reached an acceptable level of performance (after I get all my math homework done, I can go outside and play.) The reinforcer must also be readily accessible for the student to access, at least eventually. There are four steps involved in teaching children in self-reinforcement.
1. Determining standards and setting evaluative criteria - Students need to be able to understand when they have met the requirements necessary to be able to self-reinforce. For example, a student may set a goal of writing two pages of a report and when those two pages are complete they can play a video game for 15 minutes. They will need to determine their standards for writing two pages (organization, writing, revision, editing, or whatever it may be).
2. Selecting a reinforcer to be earned, and controlling access to that reward, making it only attainable after performance of the target behavior has occurred - The reinforcer needs to be something that the student can only receive after they perform the target behavior and are not able to obtain it otherwise. It cannot be readily accessible.
3. Performance evaluation to determine whether the set criterion was met - They need to be able to evaluate their performance against the set standards. For instance, using the writing example, they need to be able to evaluate their writing performance and decide if they have successfully met the standards of writing two pages.
4. Self-administration of the reward - The students need to be able to dispense, or provide themselves with, the reinforcer. This is crucial if the process is to be a successful "self"-reinforcement.
Bibliography
Zimmerman, B.J. (2001). Theories of Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: An Overview and Analysis. In Zimmerman, B.J. & Schunk, D.H. (Ed.), Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: Theoretical Perspectives (pp. 1-65). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Reid, R. (1993). Implementing self-monitoring interventions in the classroom: Lessons from research. Monograph in Behavior Disorders: Severe Behavior Disorders in Youth, 16, 43-54. Reid, R. (1996). Research in self-monitoring with students with learning disabilities: The present, the prospects, the pitfalls. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29, 317-331. Schunk, D.H. (1990). Goal setting and self-efficacy during self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist, 25, 71-86. Braswell, L. (1998). Self-regulation training for children with ADHD: A reply to Harris and Schmidt. ADHD Report, 6(1), 1-3. Harris, K. R., Reid, R., & Graham, S. (in press). Self-regulation among children with LD and ADHD. In B. Wong (Ed.), Learning about learning disabilities. San Diego, CA: Elsevier. Harris, K.R. & Schmidt, T. (1997). Learning self-regulation in the classroom. ADHD Report, 5(2), 1-6. Harris, K.R. & Schmidt, T. (1998). Developing self-regulation does not equal self-instructional training: Reply to Braswell. ADHD Report, 6(2), 7-11. Harris, K.R. (1990). Developing self-regulated learners: The role of private speech and self-instructions. Educational Psychologist, 25, 35-49. Berk, L.E. (2003). Child development. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

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Strategy instruction is one of the most effective ways of improving academic performance for children with learning difficulties. This site will show you how to do it, will provide examples or strategies, and provide a forum to discuss your experiences and questions.

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The article talks about Self-regulated strategy development and cognitive strategy instruction.

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This is a lesson plan guide for using CSI in the classroom.

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Mathematics Instruction LD Guide for Teachers

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This is from What Works Clearinghouse

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At least one finding shows promising evidence of effectiveness

At least one statistically significant positive finding

Meets WWC standards without reservations

For:

Distance Learning Rapid Review (findings for Content acquisition podcasts with explicit instruction and a keyword mnemonic strategy)

Rating:

Meets WWC standards without reservations because it is a randomized controlled trial with low attrition.

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.

Setting

The study took place during 12 sections of world history at one urban high school in a Midwestern state. Students in grades 9 to 12 were included in the analysis.

Study sample

Students were randomly assigned to four intervention groups. This review focuses on the contrast between the Content Acquisition Podcasts (CAPs) group that received a combination of explicit and keyword mnemonic strategy as compared to explicit instruction without adherence to Mayer's instructional design principles. The analytic sample for this study contrast included 141 grade 9 to grade 12 students. Of those, 15 students had a learning disability (LD) related to reading and 126 students did not. All students in the LD subgroup were in grade 10 while approximately 90 percent of students in the non-LD subgroup were in grade 10. The study did not provide sample characteristics for the subset of 141 students assigned to the contrast of interest for this review. The authors did provide demographic characteristics for the 278 students in the analytic sample across all 4 groups included in the manuscript. Among these 278 students, 52 percent were female, 68 percent were African American, 22 percent were Caucasian, and 8 percent were Hispanic. The average age was 16.7 years old and approximately 78 percent of students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

Intervention Group

Students watched Content Acquisition Podcasts (CAPs), multimedia-based instruction technology focused on vocabulary instruction. The CAPs were developed by the study authors, with input from the two participating teachers, using Microsoft PowerPoint with narrated audio recordings. The CAPs were uploaded to the school's intranet where students independently accessed them via laptops with headphones. Each laptop contained the student's randomly assigned multimedia vocabulary condition. Students watched a total of 10 CAPs each day over a 3 day period. After viewing 5 CAPs, students completed 5 items on an open-ended instrument followed by 5 items on a multiple choice instrument. The students then repeated this process with new CAPs and new test instruments. The CAPs for the students assigned to the combination of explicit instruction and keyword mnemonic strategy group, the intervention group in this study, were designed using Mayer's instructional design principles. The CAPs provided rationales for why learning the given vocabulary term or concept is important, direct instruction of word meanings, examples of synonyms, guided practice, word consciousness instruction, information on how to use keyword mnemonic strategies to recall vocabulary terms and concepts, and images of keywords interacting with the vocabulary term or concept.

Comparison Group

Students assigned to the comparison condition accessed podcasts in the same format as students assigned to the intervention condition; that is, students independently accessed the podcasts via laptops and headphones. The podcasts developed for students assigned to the comparison group differed from those developed for the intervention condition in that they were not based on Mayer's instructional design principles. The podcasts provided rationales for why learning the given vocabulary term or concept is important, direct instruction of word meanings, examples of synonyms, guided practice, and word consciousness. However, the podcasts did not include images and the additional text presented to the intervention group nor did they include the keyword mnemonic strategies presented to students in the intervention group.

Support for implementation

The study states that the support is provided by the teachers and school district. The study does not describe any additional support for implementation.

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As an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was created in 2002 to be a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education.

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This is the complete Educator's Practice Guide for Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9. Below, I am providing the Practice Guide Summary with a brief description of all of the interventions mentioned.

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Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4–9

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Recommendation #1

Build students’ decoding skills so they can read complex multisyllabic words.

1. Identify the level of students’ word-reading skills and teach vowel and consonant letter sounds and combinations as necessary

common vowel sounds

---long vowel

---short vowel

---vowel combinations oa, ea, ee, ai

---vowel diphthongs oi, oy, ou, ew

---r-controlled vowels

---consonant le

2. Teach students a routine they can use to decode multisyllabic words

3. Embed spelling instruction in the lesson

4. Engage students in various activities that allow them to practice reading multisyllabic words accurately and with increasing automaticity.

Recommendation #2

Provide purposeful fluency-building activities to help students read effortlessly.

1. Provide a purpose for each repeated reading

2. Focus some instructional time on reading with prosody

3. Regularly allow students to read a wide range of texts.

Recommendation #3

Routinely use comprehension-building practices to help students make sense of text.

Part A: Build students’ world and word knowledge so they can make sense of the text.

Part B: Consistently allow students to ask and answer questions to understand the text they read better.

Part C: Teach students a routine for determining the gist of a short section of text.

Part D: Teach students to monitor their comprehension as they read.

Recommendation #4

Provide students with opportunities to practice making sense of stretch text (i.e., challenging text) that will expose them to complex ideas and information.

1. Prepare for the lesson by carefully selecting appropriate stretch texts, choosing points to stop for discussion and clarification, and identifying words to teach.

2. Provide significant support as the group works through a stretch text together.

3. After students demonstrate comfort with reading stretch texts with the group, provide students with electronic supports to use when independently reading stretch text to assist with the pronunciation of difficult words and word meanings.

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Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4–9 What Works Clearinghouse™ Practice Guide Summary

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This is the article about tactile prompting to encourage behavior-specific praise. Below is the WWC findings and information about the study. 

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This is the article about tactile prompting to encourage behavior-specific praise. Below is the WWC findings and information about the study. 

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Effects of Tactile Prompting and Self-Monitoring on Teachers’ Use of Behavior-Specific Praise

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Description of Practice

The use of two types of behavior interventions. The first is behavior-specific praise by providing positive feedback to students that name specific, desirable social or academic activities. The second is tactile prompting, which is providing regular cues for a desirable behavior. For this student, the researchers used a smartwatch to prompt teachers to provide behavior-specific praise regularly.

Evidence to Support the Practice

The rating is considered Tier 3 but is based solely on this article. When combined with other research, it can move upward.

How can this be implemented in my classroom?

This can easily be implemented within my classroom. Even though my students are slightly older, behavior-specific praise is important and should be given regularly. I would also like to train my paraprofessionals on the same concept.

Student Characteristics

Two students in an emotional support classroom and one in a self-contained classroom for students with autism. In the emotional support classroom, the two students were in grades 2 and 4. In the autism classroom, the student was in grade three.

Any other relevant information

Teachers need to have training and complete the tasks with fidelity. I also believe the paraprofessionals in the classroom must complete the training.

Citations

Markelz, Andrew M.; Taylor, Jonte C.; Kitchen, Tom; Riccomini, Paul J.; Catherine Scheeler, Mary; McNaughton, David B. (2019). Exceptional Children, v85 n4 p471-489. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1219129

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At least one finding shows promising evidence of effectiveness

Meets WWC standards without reservations

For:

Practice Guide (findings for Behavior-specific praise with electronic tactile awareness prompting - Markelz et al. (2019))

Rating:

Meets WWC standards without reservations

To view more detailed information about the study findings from this review, please download findings data here.

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.

Setting

The study took place in three self-contained classrooms in an urban elementary school in the Northeastern United States.

Study sample

Two students (Aiden and Brett) were in self-contained emotional support classrooms and one student (Carter) was in a self-contained classroom for children with autism. Aiden was an 8-year-old male in grade 2 with an emotional disturbance; Brett was a 10-year-old-male in grade 4 and had an intellectual disability; and Carter was an 8-year-old male in grade 3 and had autism.

Intervention Group

Behavior-specific praise is the practice of providing positive feedback to students that names specific, desirable social or academic activities. Tactile prompting is the practice of providing regular cues for a desirable behavior, such as a device that vibrates at a regular interval worn or carried by a teacher. In this study, the researchers used reminders on a smart watch to prompt teachers to provide behavior-specific praise on a regular basis. The length of the intervention condition varied by teacher/student dyad. The intervention phase lasted 9 sessions for the Ms. Alexa/Aiden dyad, 14 sessions for the Ms. Blain/Brett dyad, and 9 sessions for the Ms. Cooper/Carter dyad. Sessions lasted 20 minutes, and teacher prompts were gradually reduced from 12 to 6 to 0 prompts after three sessions of meeting their goals for providing behavior-specific praise. Because she did not meet her goals, Ms. Blain was given a booster training and the intervention phase was restarted. The maintenance phase lasted 5 sessions for all three dyads.

Comparison Group

There is no comparison group for single-case designs. During the baseline phase, teachers wore their smart watches without the tactile prompting active and continued their business-as-usual practices. Each teacher remained in the baseline phase until a stable baseline was established with at least five data points. The baseline phase lasted 5 sessions for the Ms. Alexa/Aiden dyad, 8 sessions for the Ms. Blain/Brett dyad, and 11 sessions for the Ms. Cooper/Carter dyad.

Support for implementation

All teachers received training prior to the start of the intervention, and teachers who did not reach their goals of providing behavior-specific praise were retrained.

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As an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was created in 2002 to be a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education.

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Description of Practice

Students received one on one coaching from counselors starting at the end of high school through the first two years of college. The coaching involved helping students navigate the college process while developing their sense of agency, autonomy, and independence.

Evidence to Support the Practice

A statistically significant positive effect was found for cumulative grade point average.

Statistically significant positive effect found for the domain of college persistence, the student is enrolled in a second year of higher education.

Student Characteristics

42% African-American Students

38% Hispanic Students

12% Asian Students

8% White Students

61% Female Students

15% English Language Learners

10% had an IEP

85% received free or reduced price lunch

Any other relevant information

Citations

Linkow, T., Gamse, B., Unlu, F., Bumgarner, E., Didriksen, H., Furey, J., Meneses, M., Sami, M., & Nichols, A. (2017). Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates. Retriev

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At least one finding shows moderate evidence of effectiveness

At least one statistically significant positive finding

Meets WWC standards with reservations

Rating:

Meets WWC standards with reservations because it uses a quasi-experimental design in which the analytic intervention and comparison groups satisfy the baseline equivalence requirement.

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.

Setting

Success Boston Coaching was implemented in the Boston, Massachusetts metro area. Partners included The Boston Foundation, the City of Boston, Boston Public Schools, the University of Massachusetts Boston, Bunker Hill Community College, other regional colleges and universities, uAspire, the Boston Private Industry Council, and other local nonprofit organizations. During the 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years, students received coaching from seven nonprofit organizations: American Student Assistance, Boston Private Industry Council, Bottom Line, Freedom House, Hyde Square Task Force, Sociedad Latina, and West End House. A national nonprofit organization, uAspire, delivered financial aid advising to students and professional development for coaches. Students attended nine partner colleges: Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, Bridgewater State University, Bunker Hill Community College, Massachusetts Bay Community College, Northeastern University, Roxbury Community College, Salem State University, Suffolk University, and University of Massachusetts Boston.

Study sample

The study sample was comprised of 42 percent African-American students, 38 percent Hispanic students, 12 percent Asian students, and eight percent White students. Sixty-one percent of the study sample was female, 15 percent were English learners, 10 percent had an Individualized Education Plan, and 85 percent received free or reduced price lunch.

Intervention Group

Students in Success Boston Coaching began receiving one-on-one coaching from experienced counselors starting as early as the end of high school and continuing through the first two years of college. Coaching was available on demand to help students navigate the college process while developing their sense of agency, autonomy, and independence. The coaching was designed to develop students' life, study, help-seeking, and academic skills and helped students hone their relationship, goal setting, and networking skills. Job and career mentoring were also provided. Coaching activities began after high school graduation for 92 percent of students.

Comparison Group

Students in the comparison group did not participate in Success Boston Coaching but were eligible to receive traditional counseling services while in high school and college.

Support for implementation

The Boston Foundation oversaw the Success Boston Coaching network that facilitates communication across the initiative. The network also provided coaches access to specialized training about financial aid from uAspire, a national nonprofit organization, as well as access to training on other topics.

In the case of multiple manuscripts that report on one study, the WWC selects one manuscript as the primary citation and lists other manuscripts that describe the study as additional sources.

Linkow, Tamara; Gamse, Beth; Unlu, Fatih; Bumgarner, Erin; Didriksen, Hayley; Furey, Jane; Meneses, Michael; Sami, Mona; Nichols, Austin. (2017). The Power of Coaching: Highlights from the Interim Report on the Impact of Success Boston's Transition Coaching on College Success. Abt Associates.

Linkow, T., Dadisman, K. Gamse, B., Didriksen, H., Schwartz, G., Hillard, M., & Karuu, M. (2015). Degrees of coaching: Success Boston's transition coaching model - Implementation of Success Boston Coaching 2014-15. Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates.

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As an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was created in 2002 to be a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education.

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Best Practices in Collecting Mathematical Data

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Best Practices in Collecting Mathematical Data

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5 Best Practices for Collecting Math Data: Math Practices Unraveled - Giraffic Jam

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Collecting math data in an elementary school setting is an integral part of effective teaching. Not only does it offer insights into the individual learning needs of students, but it also serves as a roadmap for educators, helping them tailor their teaching strategies. To maximize the benefits of math data collection, there are certain best […]

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Examples of Data Collection Tools | National Student Support Accelerator

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Click Here to go to the Accelerator-Designed Tutoring Survey Instruments