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Nonpublic Virtual PD - Behavior Basics (September 2024)

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Nonpublic Virtual PD - Data Collection (October)

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Nonpublic PD - Responding to Disruptive Behavior (January 2025)

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Nonpublic Virtual PD - Reinforcement (December 2024)

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Iris Center - Collecting and Analyzing Data for Data-Based Interventions

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Iris Center - Collecting and Analyzing Data for Data-Based Interventions

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CAEP standards for the accreditation of educators are designed to improve the quality and effectiveness not only of new instructional practitioners but also the evidence-base used to assess those qualities in the classroom.

Standard 1: Content and Pedagogical Knowledge

CEC standards encompass a wide range of ethics, standards, and practices created to help guide those who have taken on the crucial role of educating students with disabilities.

InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards are designed to help teachers of all grade levels and content areas to prepare their students either for college or for employment following graduation.

Standard 1: Learning Development

Standard 2: Learning Differences

Standard 7: Planning for Instruction

Standard 8: Instructional Strategies

NCATE standards are intended to serve as professional guidelines for educators. They also overview the "organizational structures, policies, and procedures" necessary to support them.

Standard 1: Candidate Knowledge, Skills, and Professional Dispositions

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CAEP standards for the accreditation of educators are designed to improve the quality and effectiveness not only of new instructional practitioners but also the evidence-base used to assess those qualities in the classroom. Standard 1: Content and Pedagogical Knowledge CEC standards encompass a wide range of ethics, standards, and practices created to help guide those who have taken on the crucial role of educating students with disabilities.

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Implementing Effective Practices: PCBS Plan

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Implementing Effective Practices: PCBS Plan

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This has a great chart for tracking praise and a continuum of strategies in responding to inappropriate behaviors!

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PCBS Data and Observation Tool Editable v.1.23 (1)

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Establishing Classroom Expectations, Rules, & Routines

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Establishing Classroom Expectations, Rules, & Routines

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Classroom Snapshot 2a -Establishing Classroom Expectations, Rules, and Routines

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Conversation Starters to Build Relationships

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Conversation Starters to Build Relationships

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The Behavior Helper Smore: A Guide to Disruptive and Attention Seeking Behaviors

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The Behavior Helper Smore: A Guide to Disruptive and Attention Seeking Behaviors

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A Guide to Disruptive and Attention Seeking Behaviors

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Helping Children Understand Routines and Classroom Schedules

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Helping Children Understand Routines and Classroom Schedules

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Edtomorrow- Supporting Today's Educators through Restorative Practices PD

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What Is The First Five? - Edtomorrow- Supporting Today's Educators through Restorative Practices PD

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Users pick 1 of the 9 activities from either the Primary or Secondary First Five.

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Leach 2016Using a Hierarchy of Supportive Consequences Article

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Bouncy Balls – Manage classroom noise with bouncing balls!

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A free classroom noise level meter, monitor and management tool. Perfect if your school kids are too noisy! Bouncing balls react to sounds from the microphone.

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Affirmative Attention_ Cue and Follow Through (Poster)

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Building Strong Foundations with Classroom Routines

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Building Strong Foundations with Classroom Routines

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Building Strong Foundations With Classroom Routines

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Classroom Routines

Routines are a foundation of classroom management. Educators use routines to set expectations, minimize disruptions to learning, teach behavior, and make the most of instructional time. Students respond to routines because routines allow them to be confident in their understanding of what's expected of them in class, they contribute to a sense of community, and for some learners, routines offer a sense of security. Many teachers spend years refining and perfecting their classroom routines to reach the perfect balance of structure and flexibility in a learning environment that matches their teaching style and their students' needs.

Why do routines work?

It's simple: routines are effective because they allow students to focus on what they're learning, not how to go about learning it. From a cognitive science lens, here's what that means:

Our working memory, or the part of our short-term memory that handles rapid perceptual and linguistic processing, has a limited capacity. Our working memory either discards incoming information or sends it to our long-term memory. So, during a lesson, students' working memories are constantly taking in new information (and sifting through distractions and sensory information). Students' brains manage this information by sorting information into existing schemas, developed from what they already know, adapting existing schemas, or creating new schemas. This is where the cognitive load theory comes in: the idea that by understanding how students' working memory functions, we can avoid overloading the working memory with information.

Routines free up students' working memory and reduce cognitive load so that instead of dedicating all of their focus to day-to-day tasks like sitting for attendance or standing in a line to go to the bus at the end of the day, or transitioning between activities, they can focus on learning (Leinhardt, Weidman, & Hammond, 1987).

Instructional Routines

However, routines aren't just relevant in classroom management during downtimes, transitions, and non-academic procedures. They are also powerful tools when incorporated into instruction, guiding students through familiar, established steps for exploring new concepts and applying knowledge. Just as with classroom routines, instructional routines can help reduce cognitive load and help students get to the most meaningful parts of a lesson faster.

Think of routines as a tool for designing learning experiences. They should ease your workflow and set expectations for the class while also creating opportunities for all learners. Students should be aware of and involved in the learning process during routines and should have clear roles and expectations (Bulgren & Scanlon, 1998). Routines can be explicitly taught, modeled, or work through cues understood by students and teachers (Leinhardt, Weidman, & Hammond, 1987).

Instructional routines in math

While instructional routines are useful in any subject, they are particularly popular in math. Many educators use routines to encourage number sense, strengthen mathematical language, or practice sense-making. For example, in the Notice and Wonder™ routine, developed at the Math Forum, teachers show students an image or scenario with no question or answer. Teachers then ask students to share what they notice and wonder about the image or scenario in a mathematical context.

Routines are a key pedagogical component of Reveal Math K-5, our core elementary math program. For more on instructional routines in math, watch this webinar with Jon SanGiovanni, a Reveal Math author and expert on sense-making routines:

Instructional routines in English Language Arts

Routines are also powerful tools in ELA and reading instruction. Routines can be used to practice foundational elements of reading like phonics and fluency or to differentiate for specific needs, like small group instruction with English Learners. Routines have long been a bedrock in our core K-5 ELA program, . Developed with Dr. Doug Fisher, the Close Reading routine in Wonders is carefully designed to provide students with opportunities to build schema while reading and rereading a text. Here's more from Dr. Fisher on the relationship between building schema and close reading:

For the © 2023 edition of Wonders, we've incorporated a Build Knowledge routine, which again uses schema building, this time to encourage students to identify, synthesize, and apply knowledge and vocabulary across new texts and grades. Here's more on the © 2023 updates and new routines:

Routines to foster student agency

In math, reading, and other subjects - even in basic classroom management - carefully designed routines can contribute to student agency. By giving students the tools to approach a new problem with a critical, open mindset (think, Notice and Wonder routines in math) and the ability to engage with new information by drawing from existing information (close reading is a life skill!) routines can arm students with a strong set of strategies for tackling learning challenges on their own.

Routines can also explicitly teach agency. In the © 2023 edition of Wonders, we've created routines that help students identify what they are being taught, evaluate how well they understand the learning objective, and reflect on what they learned. The routines enable students to articulate what they've learned to themselves and their teachers.

Instructional Routines in your Classroom

Truly, the foundational research around the benefits of routines isn't new - in fact, some of it is decades old. For many educators, this is familiar territory! However, sometimes even the simplest principles and practices get lost in the daily challenge to cover everything on your daily checklist. Don't let routines escape your teaching toolbox! Leverage them, and the cognitive science behind them, to ease your workflow and make the most of instructional moments.

For more on routines, see:

References

Bulgren, J. and Scanlon, D. (1998). Instructional routines and learning strategies that promote understanding of content area concepts. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 41(4), 292-302.

Leinhardt, G., Weidman, C., & Hammond, K. (1987). Introduction and integration of classroom routines by expert teachers. Curriculum Inquiry, 17(2), 135-176.

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Instructional routines enable students to focus on what to learn, not how to learn it. Here's the cognitive science behind instructional routines.

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Affirmative Attention & Indirect Prompts (Mini Poster) (1)

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Sorry, we just need to make sure you’re not a robot. For best results, please make sure your browser is accepting cookies.

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In-the-Moment Response Strategies (Mini Poster) (1)

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The Behavior Helper Smore: A Guide to Disruptive and Attention Seeking Behaviors

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The Behavior Helper Smore: A Guide to Disruptive and Attention Seeking Behaviors

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A Guide to Disruptive and Attention Seeking Behaviors

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The Behavior Helper Smore: Providing Choices

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The Behavior Helper Smore: Providing Choices

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The Behavior Helper Smore: The Power of Praise

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The Behavior Helper Smore: The Power of Praise

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Share kind words with the world, let them flow so free,

Spread kindness like confetti, for all the world to see.

With a smile and a gentle touch, change the world for the better,

Our words make a difference, they bring hearts together.

Kindness is the key, to unlocking hearts and minds,

We cannot tell what others are going through, so be the difference we find.

Kind words are like honey, they sweeten up our days,

Our words can build others up or tear them down in many ways.

In a world filled with noise, let kindness be our song,

Speak with compassion, and help heal what's gone wrong.

When someone feels alone, lost in the shadows of despair,

A kind word can show them love, reminding them that we care.

Let's be the light, shining bright for all to see,

In our words and actions, an example we will be.

For kindness is contagious, it ripples through the day,

So let's embrace kindness, let it guide our every choice,

With compassion and empathy, let's give others a voice.

Together we can change the world, one kind word at a time,

For kindness is the language that makes our spirits shine.

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The Behavior Helper - Volume 1, Issue 2 by Amanda Hoban | This newsletter was created with Smore, an online tool for creating beautiful newsletters for educators, businesses and more

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The Behavior Helper: Social Emotional Learning

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The Behavior Helper: Social Emotional Learning

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Welcome to Volume 2 of my three part Smore series all about emotional regulation. In this issue, we will talk about what it means for us…

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Welcome to Volume 3 of the Emotional Regulation Smore series. To review, we have covered an overview of regulation and regulation for us…

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The First Five is an amazing teacher tool to keep in your toolbox.

From the website:

The First Five encompasses our “Three Cs” of building a strong and authentic community: Connection, Care, and Character. These intentional moments are done within the “First Five” minutes of being together.

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Edtomorrow- Supporting Today's Educators through Restorative Practices PD

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Today's First Five - Edtomorrow- Supporting Today's Educators through Restorative Practices PD

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Setting up what your expectations are in the classroom (voice level 2, eyes on me, etc) and then acknowledging when students demonstrate your expectations (I notice voice at a 2, I see everyone at the blue table's eyes on me, etc).

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Welcome to Volume 4 of the Emotional Regulation Smore series. To review, we have covered an overview of regulation, regulation for us as…

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The social work team at Midwestern Intermediate IV is excited to announce the monthly newsletters that will be distributed at each LEA…

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This month's newsletter is focused on grief and loss. As educators, you encounter individuals coming into your school or classroom after every kind of experience-sometimes following a significant loss. Grief is a complex process; it's not a single feeling or experience. It's a mixture of many feelings, thoughts, and sensations swirling together in a way that's often confusing for individuals. The way we support our students and others experiencing loss can make an enormous difference.

The MIU IV Social Work team has put together a newsletter to provide you with resources, items, and support as you navigate through grief.

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Navigating Through Grief by Jennifer Guthrie | This newsletter was created with Smore, an online tool for creating beautiful newsletters for educators, businesses and more

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This month’s newsletter highlights valuable resources and information to support you during the winter months. The holiday season is…

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Continuum of Responses for Inappropriate Behavior

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Continuum of Responses for Inappropriate Behavior

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Snapshot 5 - Continuum of Responses to Inappropriate Behavior 7-28-19

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12. The Three R's Dr. Bruce Perry (1) (1)

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This short video provides strategies to help minimize disruptive classroom behaviors.

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Creating Visuals to Support Young Children with Challenging Behavior

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Creating Visuals to Support Young Children with Challenging Behavior

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Improving Classroom Behaviors without Public Shaming

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Improving Classroom Behaviors without Public Shaming

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When it comes to keeping classroom behaviors in check, teachers often struggle to find the right balance between enforcing compliance and getting student buy-in.

According to Cheryl Blankman, a school psychologist and adjunct professor at Ramapo College of New Jersey, some educators-seeking a clear, transparent method-turn to disciplinary tools like clip charts. Although they tend to be colorful and bright and "appear student-friendly," Blankman writes for ASCD, the charts can have perverse effects.

The anxiety some students experience from seeing their missteps on display can become a source of lingering embarrassment and leave kids feeling apathetic and hypervigilant, rather than improving behavior and driving better academic outcomes. "The worry of where [students] are on the clip chart can be a pervasive distraction that splits their attention and undermines their learning." Meanwhile, students on the positive side of the chart can become overly focused on their position, too, as "there is nowhere to go but down."

Research suggests that reactive strategies to address student misbehavior-like using public displays to highlight infractions or verbally reprimanding students for minor misbehavior in the moment-aren't as effective as many think. A 2016 study, for example, finds that although this "negative feedback" can temporarily put a stop to disruptions, students are often left feeling disengaged or resentful and may have issues concentrating on their work. If overused, this type of response, researchers noted, "actually amplifies students' inappropriate behavior" in the long run.

In contrast, research shows that when teachers implement more proactive classroom management strategies and focus more on delivering positive feedback when students are meeting behavior expectations, instances of misbehavior go down and relationships between teachers and students, and students and their peers, strengthen.

While it's true that teachers have to call out class misbehavior from time to time, Blankman says, there are ways to deal with the more commonplace disturbances using proactive strategies that can also have the effect of encouraging positive behavior in the future.

Co-Signing Classroom Contracts

Instead of handing down a list of rules in your classroom and then punishing students for infractions, you can get student buy-in by letting them in on the process early on in the school year.

Cait O'Connor, a middle school English and English language learners teacher in New York, writes that by developing community contracts with students, each classroom establishes-and then collectively enforces-expectations that feel unique and owned. "Community agreements allow students to build a set of expectations for themselves, the students who are there every day, and hold each other accountable for those expectations as they get to know each other better," she says.

To get started, O'Connor asks students to rank a prepared list of values, which might include loyalty, friendship, respect, or knowledge, for example. She then has students answer reflective questions-"Which value is most important, and why?" and "How do you plan to live and act out this value in our classroom?"-before working with them to craft agreements they can all follow.

For essential values, like respect, O'Connor initiates small group discussions to answer questions like this: "What does respect look, feel, and sound like?" These discussions help students come up with "imagery of respect in action," which can include things like "using kind words, giving everyone's opinion space, not interrupting, and not embarrassing people if they make mistakes," O'Connor said.

Blankman suggests discussing what students can expect from you, too: "What will it look like, sound like, and feel like as you teach and promote these expectations?" she says. "What is the plan when students misstep?"

This can involve laying out clearly for students how you plan to respond to various levels of misbehavior in the classroom. For example, Grace Dearborn, a high school teacher and author of Conscious Classroom Management, developed tiered responses to student misbehavior that she frames "as consequences, not punishments."

Low-level misbehavior receives a "gentle" response-using nonverbal hand signals to encourage students to pay attention or saying the child's name quickly, for example-whereas more extreme or chronic misbehavior will result in calls to parents or removal from the classroom.

Develop Your Emergency Script

Even classrooms with the strongest community agreements will test teachers from time to time, which is why educator Emily Terwilliger says that it's important to prepare for heated scenarios before they arise. Imagining possible conflicts and developing emergency scripts you can use when your buttons are pushed will allow you to move past impulsive responses, according to Terwilliger.

"Think through scenarios that might happen in your classroom and how you want to respond before the start of the year. It will make those first redirects and interventions less intimidating."

While threats of violence or repeated disruptive behavior, for example, often call for escalation, there are alternative options to prepare for run-of-the-mill classroom management issues.

Instead of jumping into "decision-making" mode when a student talks out of turn or causes a distraction, for example, educator Pernille Ripp recommends that teachers remind themselves to pause, assess what is happening beneath the surface of the disruption, and look for solutions. "We must come into each situation recognizing its uniqueness and its opportunity for exploration."

Amanda Morin, an educator and director of thought leadership at Understood.org, says one way to engage in this exploration is to ask questions to try to understand a student's behavior, instead of quickly reacting to it. Even a simple "Are you OK?" expresses your concern for a student personally, aside from the choice they just made a moment ago.

Morin recommends adopting a "nonjudgmental investigative" mode when asking questions, which can help you gather information needed to get to the deeper root of an issue. For example, perhaps a student is acting up because they aren't following the task at hand, or perhaps they're bored and not feeling challenged enough. Understanding the source of the issue can help lead to a productive adjustment in approach that strengthens your relationship to a student, rather than exacerbating the tension.

Model Expectations, Praise Success

Explicit modeling of the behaviors you'd like to see in your classroom is the "fine print" of the contract that students sign, Blankman says. After all, students can agree to all kinds of things, but "defining and describing" the agreements and praising students when they live up to the contract's principles can positively enforce agreed-upon behavior.

In a 2023 interview, best-selling author and former educator Doug Lemov told Edutopia that the "single greatest motivator" for a student is the approval of their peers, and yet in many classrooms, students feel like their attempts at contributing in discussions aren't valued by others.

To create respectful classroom cultures, Lemov addresses positive habits of discussion and attention, things like sitting up when others are speaking, making eye contact, and building on the comments of others instead of dismissing them-which conveys that students are actually "listening and care." Lemov says this approach validates students and makes them feel like they're part of a classroom that talks " to each other," not " past each other."

Blankman said that once these habits are discussed and modeled for students, praise is needed to solidify them. Students should receive "timely, authentic, and action-oriented" praise when they demonstrate one of the rules they've committed to, she says. "When students are doing what you want them to do, tell them specifically, in the moment, what it is that they are doing well and why it matters."

Manage Transitions

Misbehavior thrives in the transitions. One way to ensure that transitions between classrooms, and even between activities, are smooth and frictionless is to take a moment to review expectations before the transition occurs.

For younger students, Blankman says this might look like reviewing how they should line up in the hallways as they head to the lunch room, for example. This type of preemptive reminder is just as useful when students are transitioning into group activities or discussions.

For example, if students in an 11th-grade English class are about to transition into a Socratic discussion, Blankman advises taking a few minutes beforehand to review what the "language of good discussion" looks like, including "how to agree, disagree, add on, or question appropriately." The setup reinforces behaviors at a crucial juncture and helps students "connect the appropriate behaviors with the context and conditions in which they should occur, making it more likely they will (1) perform them in the moment and (2) remember and apply them later."

If, after making some adjustments, you continue to struggle with transitions, consider asking yourself some questions to troubleshoot issues, suggests Todd Finley, a former teacher and professor of English education. For example, "Did I provide too many or too few directions?" or "Did the transition catch kids off guard when they were absorbed in an activity?" or "Are there specific students who created chaos?"

Pick Your Battles

There will always be moments where a student's behavior needs to be addressed directly and publicly. It's important to pick these battles wisely, because they can become costly: Research suggests that students who are frequently called out for minor infractions-things like not paying attention or chatting with other students-are more likely to become disengaged and apathetic, which can lead to more behavioral issues in the future.

But in the moments when you do have to call students out-if, for example, you can't call them aside and address the issue-Blankman advises to try your best to "keep the student's dignity" in mind. Try to "be brief, be objective, be specific, and then be quick to acknowledge and praise any resulting effort to get back on track." The idea, she says, is to stay "focused on the desired behavior" and quickly pivot back to learning.

For example, you might say, "Jemma, you did not put away your social studies materials and get ready for math despite multiple requests to do so, and you were talking with classmates, which distracted them from getting ready for math as well. When we transition to science later, I want to see you focused and ready."

Correctives like this, Blankman says, reinforce what the expectations are for students, as well as how their actions impact the positive classroom community. "Students, like all of us, appreciate clear expectations, boundaries, and consistency," Blankman says. "Trust is strengthened by students knowing what to expect, even when this means a constructive correction."

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How to Improve Classroom Behavior Without Public Shaming

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Instead of clip charts and data walls, try these classroom management techniques to discourage misbehavior and build a stronger classroom community.

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Nonpublic PD - Student Engagement February

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Snapshot 6 - Engagement and Opportunities to Respond 3-18-19 (2)

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Nine Variables That Affect Compliance.docx

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Engaging techniques for effective teaching

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Wordwall - Create better lessons quicker

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Need a fresh teaching resource that fits your class and teaching style? Create a customized pack of interactive and printable activities in just one minute.

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PZ's Thinking Routines Toolbox | Project Zero

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The Toolbox organizes the Thinking Routines into categories that describe the types of thinking the routines help to facilitate. Some routines appear in more than one category, and some routines have different versions that offer modifications for specific age groups or more specific conceptual challenges.

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Topics for Educators
Student Engagement
How do we optimize instruction to maximize both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation?

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Page 7: Choice Making

Choice making, sometimes referred to as instructional choice, is the process through which a teacher provides structured options to facilitate a student's ability to follow an instructional or behavioral request. Choice making can be used to proactively reduce challenging behavior, especially among students likely to engage in challenging behavior to avoid or escape from non-preferred tasks. Offering students choices for non-preferred tasks or tasks that they find challenging gives them more control over their own learning and fosters independence.

Research Shows

Incorporating instructional choice leads to improvements in student engagement.
(Ennis, Lane, & Flemming, 2021)

Choice making can be beneficial for students with or at risk for disabilities because it gives them the opportunity to take control of their own learning.
(Ramsey, Jolivette, Patterson, & Kennedy, 2010)

Using the Strategy

To help educators prevent or address challenging behavior, the table below describes the steps to implement choice making and provides an example.

Decide when to use choice making.

In situations in which a student does not consistently follow instructional or behavioral requests, consider allowing the student to make a choice.

A paraeducator notices that a few students frequently talk with each other during independent reading time in class. As such, she decides to use choice making during this time to facilitate students completing their reading activity.

Decide how to use choice making.

There are two common ways to provide students with choices:

1. Within activity. Offer students a choice of how to complete a task. This includes choosing materials (e.g., write in a journal or type on a computer), environments (e.g., sit on the carpet or at a desk), or the order of the tasks.

2. Between activities. Allow students to choose between two or three options (e.g., work on math or writing).

The paraeducator decides to use a within-activity choice. The students will choose from three classroom locations to complete their reading activity.

Provide opportunities for choice making.

To avoid overloading the student, limit the number of available choices (e.g., two or three).

Options for choice making can be provided in multiple means, such as:

Picture cues: Use pictures or illustrations to display the choices visually and have the student select one.

Written: List the choices on the dry-erase board, on top of an assignment, or in a student's notebook.

Verbal: State the choices orally.

The paraeducator says to the students, "During independent reading time, you may choose to complete your work at your desk, on a carpet square, or at the reading table."

Provide praise after the student makes a choice and again after the original instructional or behavioral request is completed.

The paraeducator says, "Thank you for choosing your work area quickly and quietly, Axel."

In addition to the four steps listed above, the three actions below can be helpful when implementing this practice.

For Your Information

It's easy to confuse choice making with offering a menu of activities. A menu of activities allows students to choose a task they would like to complete based on their preferences or interests, while choice making helps students get started or re-engage in a task they are resistant to.

Listen as Kathleen Lane explains choice making in more detail (time: 3:15).

Kathleen Lynne Lane, PhD, BCBA-D, CF-L1
Professor, Department of Special Education
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research
University of Kansas
View Transcript
Transcript: Kathleen Lane, PhD

Oftentimes, I think, to some students in school, maybe even a lot of students in school, they feel like everything is just like lockstep. It's very a didactic experience. I come in and somebody with a really big desk is telling me what to do all day long. And a lot of students want to push back. Maybe I would have done that normally, but I don't want to do it because you just told me I had to kind of a thing. So offering choices is a way of gaining momentum to help students participate instructionally by allowing them to have an opportunity to choose. And this is actually really important to building their self-determined behavior and helping to motivate them. And when I talk about choice, choice is not like, "Hey, do you feel like working today?" Instead, it's something like, "There's three assignments that we've got to do today." And after you've checked for understanding to make sure they know what to do, then they get to choose which one to do first. Or it might be kids walk into a classroom, there's two journal prompts, they can pick one to write on. Or it might be there's a closing activity and you have five math problems on the board, and you tell students, "Pick any three that you'd like to do." And then you let that student choose and then whatever they choose, that is what they do. And sometimes I've seen students try to do a choice in the form of a group where the teacher says the class vote on the one you want to do. But that's not the same as instructional choice for all, cause the downside of trying it as a group is that some students are going to get access to what they want to do in the first place, and other students are going to have to go with whatever the majority rule was, so they didn't get their choice. So instead, you want to make sure that each student has the opportunity to pick whatever their first choice is. So we need to think carefully about how we present those choices. For example, some students may have huge test anxiety and they don't know what to do. And so you might offer them a choice when it comes time to take a test. "Would you like to do half this test on paper? Would you like to do the other half on the computer?" So we can even build in choices to assessment situations as well. Again, it's just a way to give students this feeling of autonomy and independence and let them know that the choices they're making influences their day. It can be as simple as, "Would you like to use crayons or would you like to use sparkly markers?"

In addition, you can oftentimes allow students to do more of what you need them to do if you give them an option on how to show what they know. You might offer choices by doing things like, "We're going to have a picture and we're going to have two sentences to describe that picture. Which would you like to do first? Draw the picture or write the words?"

So in brief, choice making is something that can be embedded all throughout the day. It can be done in starter activities during independent time. It can be a way for kids to show what they know. But the idea is that choices are presented. You have clarity on what those objectives are, what you're hoping to learn from each of those activities that might get selected. And then when the student makes their choice, they're given that opportunity to engage in what they themselves chose.

Tier 2 Support

Although choice making can be used as a Tier 1 strategy, it can also be used as a Tier 2 support for students with moderate levels of externalizing or internalizing behaviors. The steps are the same as when used as a Tier 1 support, but for Tier 2 the educator uses choice making with greater intensity (e.g., more frequently). To determine if the strategy is effective, the educator collects and analyzes the data using the following steps:

1. Identify the student behavior to be addressed (e.g., student engages in off-task behavior to avoid writing an essay) during an instructional period in which the behavior typically occurs (e.g., science, math).

2. Collect baseline data on the student behavior for a designated timeframe (e.g., first 20 minutes of class) during the identified instructional period. Collect this data across several days (e.g., 3 to 5 days) to see how often this behavior occurs or how long each episode lasts.

3. Implement or intensify choice making and continue to collect data (e.g., same instructional period, same length of time) for 3 to 5 days to determine whether the student's behavior changes.

4. Evaluate the effect of choice making. Compare the implementation data to the baseline data to evaluate whether the strategy has had the desired effect on the student's behavior.

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Choice making, sometimes referred to as instructional choice, is the process through which a teacher provides structured options to facilitate a student's ability to follow an instructional or behavioral request. Choice making can be used to proactively reduce challenging behavior, especially among students likely to engage in challenging behavior to avoid or escape from non-preferred tasks.

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The Benefits of Student Choice - TeachHUB

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One idea that is being embraced more and more in education each day is student choice in the classroom. Learn more about the benefits of student choice.

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The Importance of Student Choice Across All Grade Levels

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The Importance of Student Choice Across All Grade Levels

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In any environment that requires attendance, there's a significant risk of disengagement. Remove choice and you breed passivity or, worse, defiance.

Compulsory, free public education is one of America's greatest innovations-perhaps its most egalitarian principle-and it isn't going anywhere. But in schools and classrooms across the country, there's a powerful argument to provide more student choice across every grade level: to shake up inflexible social and academic schedules, reduce one-way learning, and place more responsibility firmly in the hands of students.

To some extent, the system itself-with its bell schedules, prescribed curriculum, and testing regimens-creates the habits that are hard to break. But purpose and motivation go hand-in-hand with volition, and when there's too much emphasis on control and compliance, notes a report by the Education Trust, it puts students in a position where they must "relinquish all power and decision making" and compels teachers to rely on power "to control bodies and minds instead of using their autonomy to invite learning." Within the realm of literacy alone, the research on choice provides a powerful illustration: According to a 2012 study, young kids who completed mandatory reading logs turned into desultory readers compared with students who logged their progress voluntarily. And another study, this time of eighth graders, revealed that when students shifted from assigned reading to choice reading, there was "increased reading volume, a reduction in students failing the state test, and changes in peer relationships, self-regulation, and conceptions of self."

Offering students choices-making it a regular dynamic in the school day-isn't a recipe for chaos. It goes almost without saying: Rules and boundaries are a necessary element in schools and classrooms, essential in many ways for keeping kids and adults safe and productive throughout the school day. But by centering choice, educators signal openness to negotiating the middle ground and offer students scaffolded opportunities to practice decision-making, explore their academic identity, and connect their learning to interests and passions. It can be a relatively small but consequential mindset shift-rather than assigning students partners, for example, you might let them choose whether to work alone or with a partner-that, ultimately, acknowledges and respects their humanity and recognizes the fundamental importance of agency.

"Want to know how to engage students, enthuse them, and bring out their best effort?" asks middle school teacher Heather Wolpert-Gawron in MindShift. "Give them a voice in their decisions. In a society that barely listens to each other, listen to your students. In a system that can be a flood of top down, let your classroom be one that allows voices to trickle up."

Here are eight ways to provide children with choices across the grade levels.

Choice in the Early Grades

Give a say via voting: Even at the preschool level, choice can be a powerful motivator. "At my school, we work to give students choices that hold some responsibility within the classroom," writes preschool teacher Oi Ling Hu, who introduces classroom voting early in the school year.

The process starts small-which book to pick for read-aloud, for example-before Hu moves on to bigger topics like which activities to do at the park or which route to take to walk there. The process imbues kids with "a sense of autonomy and responsibility," she says, which serves them well as they advance into upper grade levels. "We have seen that when children feel that they have a voice in how they learn... they do their best to practice self-control and self-regulation as they want to retain their ability to choose."

Prioritize choice time: In spite of competing curricular demands, kindergarten teacher Jessica Arrow follows the research by prioritizing a 30-minute choice time within her literacy block each morning and a 45-minute choice time to wrap up the day. During choice time, students visit thoughtfully designed centers-a math center, a book nook, a sensory table, for example-to play and learn in unstructured ways that are aligned with the curriculum. It's a favorite time of day for her kindergarten students, who get to exercise some degree of choice and independence in a day that's otherwise dominated by "teacher-directed activities and transitions," Arrow writes.

Build ownership with class jobs: When Justine Bruyère reflected on why her second-grade students felt little ownership over their assigned class jobs, she decided to try handing over some responsibility to them. "To foster autonomy, I could relinquish some control of the job chart-my students could identify needs in the classroom and take on roles of responsibility to address those needs," writes Bruyère. With Bruyère's guidance, the class brainstormed a new list of jobs and prioritized them, and then students applied to their favorites and Bruyère made the final matches. The process was hugely popular, garnered buy-in from kids, and gave them a better understanding of what it takes to run the classroom.

Choice in Middle and High School

Consider flexible seating: Middle school English teacher Laura Bradley was already experimenting with flexible seating when her district decided to invest in additional resources like chairs on wheels and wobble stools. Bradley soon discovered that choice was more crucial than new furniture: Some students worked perfectly well standing at bookshelves; others preferred carpet squares, kneeling or sitting at low tables, or folding into nooks created with bookshelves or tables pulled up to a wall.

What's important, she says-again, sounding a note about the balance between autonomy and authority-is to be clear about expectations with respect to how students set up, work, and clean up when they're done. "I can say that the benefits far outweigh any management issues that arise," Bradley writes. "Students respond positively to the freedom and responsibility they are given, and they work hard to keep those privileges."

Cocreate classroom norms: In Bobby Shaddox's seventh-grade social studies class, shared classroom norms-a set of about 10 attributes, like communicative, focused, and serene-is developed by the group at the beginning of the year to guide their behavior and learning.

"By having children themselves create the norms, you are creating a pathway toward belonging for every single child in that class, and they have a role in this learning community that they had a share in building," says Pamela Cantor, MD, founder and senior science adviser of Turnaround for Children, emphasizing the importance of academic identity. It's both a compelling civics lesson and a practice that can have a big impact on classroom management, says Shaddox: "The classes that go really well are the classes when I start off reflecting on the norms and using those norms to articulate how our class will run well."

Make academic choices meaningful: Education researcher and author Robert J. Marzano suggests narrowing academic choice down to focus on three key areas: choice in the tasks that students perform, choice in assessment, and choice in learning goals. "Choice in the classroom has been linked to increases in student effort, task performance, and subsequent learning," Marzano writes in his blog. "However, to reap these benefits, a teacher should create choices that are robust enough for students to feel that their decision has an impact on their learning."

For example, while an oral or written report is often the assigned format, students might instead have the option to use their mobile device to record video or audio reports. Or consider opening up assessment options to include different types of graded products-building models, drawing diagrams, or creating flowcharts-so that all kids, including those who are spatially gifted, have an opportunity to shine.

Upend assigned reading: After years of teaching a set list of novels with study guides, close readings, and a big test at the end, AP literature teacher Brian Sztabnik polled his students to examine what was working and where to improve. The results were eye-opening. "Many had not read a novel cover to cover in their three years of high school.... Many gave up on reading long ago," Sztabnik writes. "Often, when students have no agency over what they read, they stop enjoying it. And this ultimately kills their motivation." After examining the research, Sztabnik upended his approach and gave his students much more reading choice and responsibility. "My students' scores on standardized tests soared," he writes.

For all students, and students of color in particular, regular access to a rich, diverse selection of reading materials is particularly important, says Kimberly Parker, a former high school English teacher and cofounder of #DisruptTexts. "Often, black youth, especially those regarded as in need of remediation, have the least amount of choice in text selection," Parker writes for ASCD. "They are given regimented reading instruction, an abundance of standardized test preparation, and little, if any, time to read works that resonate with them. We know, however, that choice drives reading engagement, and black youth need to be able to choose what they want to read."

Offer recess, even in high school: Unstructured time for play is crucial at all ages. At Montpelier High School in Vermont, there's a daily 15-minute recess period during which everyone is expected to unplug from the school day and engage in a completely different and renewing activity of their choice. Students and faculty come up with the activities-options might include open gym, chess, free art, music jam, or rock climbing, for example-and everyone gets to pick what they'd like to do. "We really make a point to say, 'You have permission and you need to stop what you're doing and do something totally different, something that's mindful, challenging, something that creates community, something that creates generosity,'" says special educator Bill Laidlaw. "It's very powerful."

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The Importance of Student Choice Across All Grade Levels

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When students get to make decisions about their learning, it can be powerfully motivating.

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Universal Design for Learning Choice Boards

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Universal Design for Learning Choice Boards

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Page 6: Opportunities to Respond

Opportunities to respond (OTR) involves giving students frequent chances to answer questions or prompts in a set amount of time (e.g., 3-5 per minute). Rather than one student responding at a time, all students respond simultaneously using verbal responses (e.g., choral response) or non-verbal responses (e.g., thumbs up/thumbs down). When students have frequent opportunities to respond to questions and prompts, they are less likely to become off-task or engage in challenging or disruptive behaviors.

OTR is often used when teaching the entire class and is most effective when used to review material already taught, making sure students have at least a basic understanding of the academic content. Because increased academic engagement decreases rates of challenging behaviors, OTR's benefits are twofold: helping students increase fluency and subject area content knowledge while also effectively promoting and reinforcing student participation and engagement.

For Your Information

Academics and behavior are interlinked: When teachers provide high-quality instruction, students tend to be more engaged in the lesson, and exhibit fewer disruptive behaviors; when teachers effectively manage student behavior, they have more time to provide high-quality instruction.

Research Shows

Opportunities to respond has been found to increase on-task behaviors and student engagement:

For students with and without disabilities

Across all grade levels

During small- and whole-group instruction

(Clarke, Haydon, Bauer & Epperly 2016; Common, Lane, Cantwell, Brunsting, Oakes, Germer, & Bross, 2020; Fitzgerald Leahy, Miller, & Schardt, 2019; MacSuga-Gage & Simonsen, 2015)

Teachers can intensify instructional and behavioral supports for their students by increasing the number of OTRs.
(Van Camp, Wehby, Martin, Wright, & Sutherland, 2020)

Using the Strategy

To help educators prevent or address challenging behavior, the table below describes the steps to implement opportunities to respond and provides an example.

In addition to the five steps listed above, the five actions below can be helpful when implementing this practice.

In this interview, Janel Brown explains one way that teachers can implement opportunities to respond (time: 1:30).

Janel Brown
Behavior Interventionist
View Transcript
Transcript: Janel Brown

Every student needs the opportunity to respond. You have some students who will raise their hands to answer every question. You have those students that will just sit and in their head they're probably saying, "Oh, gosh, please don't let her call me." Teachers can use the whiteboards. They can pose a problem on the board. "We're going to multiply. I'll give you 30 seconds." So, the kids are writing. When they're done, hold it up. So, they're holding it up. She scans the room for the answers. "So, Johnny, how did you get your answer?" He's going to explain, "I did this, this, and then I did this." And if it's incorrect. She was like, "Ah, but look here and here." And then Johnny's going to catch his mistake of what he done. Sally may have done the same thing, so she's going to take a second look to make sure she did hers correct. Every child needs the opportunity to respond because you have students cognitively that may be here, and then you have some that may be here. Well, the ones down here, they're not going to say anything. They're going to just sit there because they don't want to answer questions. They don't want to be wrong. They don't want to be embarrassed. But guess what? You can't let one child or one group of kids dominate in answering questions. Every child needs an opportunity to respond.

Tier 2 Support

Although OTR can be used as a Tier 1 strategy, it can also be used as a Tier 2 support for students with moderate levels of externalizing or internalizing behaviors. The steps are the same as when used as a Tier 1 support, but for Tier 2 the educator implements OTR with greater intensity (e.g., more frequently). To determine if the strategy is effective, the educator collects and analyzes the data using the following steps:

1. Identify the student behavior to be addressed (e.g., student refuses to verbally participate in class discussion) during an instructional period in which the behavior typically occurs (e.g., science, math).

2. Collect baseline data on the student behavior for a designated timeframe (e.g., first 20 minutes of class) during the identified instructional period. Collect this data across several days (e.g., 3 to 5 days) to see how often this behavior occurs or how long each episode lasts.

3. Implement or intensify OTR and continue to collect data (e.g., same instructional period, same length of time) for 3 to 5 days to determine whether the student's behavior changes.

4. Evaluate the effect of OTR. Compare the implementation data to the baseline data to evaluate whether the strategy has had the desired effect on the student's behavior.

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Opportunities to respond (OTR) involves giving students frequent chances to answer questions or prompts in a set amount of time (e.g., 3-5 per minute). Rather than one student responding at a time, all students respond simultaneously using verbal responses (e.g., choral response) or non-verbal responses (e.g., thumbs up/thumbs down).

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Call Backs for Classroom Management by Herding Kats in Kindergarten

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Tools to Encourage Student Engagement – Inclusive Schools Network

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As educators, we know that active student engagement is key to fostering a positive and productive learning environment. When students are fully engaged, they become more curious, motivated, and eager to participate in their education journey. This post explores diverse tools and strategies that can help you create dynamic and…

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Movement Strategies to Boost Cognitive Engagement 

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Movement Strategies to Boost Cognitive Engagement 

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30+ Movement Strategies to Boost Cognitive Engagement

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One of the leading K-12 education companies, Solution Tree offers professional development, online courses, and education books for teachers. Solution Tree works to raise student achievement and performance by providing customizable tools and strategies that empower educators and further teacher education. Solution Tree conferences, workshops, events, and other training for teachers focus on topics such as professional learning communities (PLCs), response to intervention (RTI), and assessment.

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Opportunities to respond (OTR) involves giving students frequent chances to answer questions or prompts in a set amount of time (e.g., 3-5 per minute). Rather than one student responding at a time, all students respond simultaneously using verbal responses (e.g., choral response) or non-verbal responses (e.g., thumbs up/thumbs down). When students have frequent opportunities to respond to questions and prompts, they are less likely to become off-task or engage in challenging or disruptive behaviors.

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Increasing Opportunities to Respond | Classroom Check-Up WP Engine Prod

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Opportunities to respond (OTRs) are essential for increasing overall learning, eliciting important academic feedback from students, and increasing on-task behavior.

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Gimkit is a game show for the classroom that requires knowledge, collaboration, and strategy to win. Get started for free!

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"Anyone, anyone" teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off