Back to School Resources - Day 6 SEL and Social Skills

It's the last day of my back to school blog series! If you missed any of the days, you can always go back and check them out! 

Day 6 - SEL and Social Skills

Social Skills for a Year! Finding social skills curriculum as you know, is very difficult which is why I created this social skills curriculum for my students! Lessons for every week of the school year at a level that's easy for students to relate to.

Our Goals is a great way for your students to set goals for themselves and display them in your classroom!

Positive Mindset Exit Tickets!

Teach children about good character and how to make good choices with these Character Trait Discussion Cards!

Display a positive affirmation in your classroom each week with these light box inserts!

These coping strategy cards are excellent for any calming area. 

Students in the calming area also enjoy coloring these mandalas with our Positive Affirmations Coloring Book!

Help students make good choices with these social emotional learning activities!

Set the tone for a positive mindset with these "Positive or Negative" task cards!

Catch students making good choices with these positive take home notes!

This is an effective tool for your most challenging students! Cool Points Chart!

Cool or not cool? Another effective tool for your challenging students.

That wraps up the 6-day "Back to School" blog series. Go back and check out any of the previous posts that you missed! The only thing I think I missed is life skills. So stay tuned in the near future for a "Life Skills" resource post. :)

~Traci

Creating a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP)

Behaviors can be one of the most frustrating and challenging aspects of our teaching career. Let's face it, we all want students that listen, follow directions, and do everything we request of them, right!? Of course, that's easy! But that's not reality! We always have 1 or 2 difficult kids that haven't acquired the appropriate behaviors needed to learn in the classroom. 

Behavior must take priority over academics for these students. Because if a student doesn't know how to learn, no learning will occur. You will only end up with frustrated teachers and students. You must set academics aside and focus only on behaviors for these students. For example, for a student that is generally non-compliant when reading his word cards, rather than focus on getting the word correct, focus on and reinforce the student for compliance. So let's say the word is "kite" and the child says "kit." You might say, "I love how you followed directions when I asked you to read the word. Awesome job!" We're not worried about the student getting the word right at this point, because we are teaching compliance with this student. 

The first step to shaping behaviors in our classroom, is to create a PLAN!! Just like with academics, we use data to drive instruction and guide our lessons. The same is true for teaching behaviors! We use our data to plan our behavioral instruction for our special behavioral students. It's just like teaching reading, but we're teaching behaviors. 

Let's create a behavior intervention plan!!!

So the first thing you'll need to do is conduct a functional behavior assessment (FBA). This will assist you in analyzing when and why the behavior is occurring...the FUNCTION of the behavior, which is the most important for shaping a behavior. An ABC Data Collection Form can be a very effective and simple FBA tool. You can click here to access my ABC data form. To be honest, most of the time I don't even need to complete an FBA, because it is pretty obvious what the function of their behavior is. But the ABC sheet is helpful if their function still remains a mystery. 

Once you have discovered the function of the behavior, you will need to conduct a reinforcement assessment. What are powerful reinforcers for the student that will provide them with incentives to want to learn? What do they love? What do they always want to play with and do?

Now you need a lesson plan, just like you'd use for teaching...also known as a BIP (Behavior Intervention Plan). How will you teach the behavior? When will you teach it? What strategies will you use? What will the replacement behavior look like? Will you use a token system? Point system? Money system? 

While writing a BIP seems to be a strenuous task for many teachers, just think of it as a lesson plan for teaching a behavior. 

Here is a sample of  a good BIP. 

I have included a blank version in a downloadable file below so that you can print and use this template to write your own BIP. 

For students with minor behaviors like blurting out or staying in their seat, you might find that a less formal BIP is needed. Here is an informal BIP template.

Here is a sample of how I might complete this informal BIP for my student that blurts out.

I always say though, that the BIP is only as good as the paper it's written on!!! Meaning that anyone can write a BIP, but if it's not implemented with fidelity, it won't make a difference! Work with your implementing teachers to ensure they have the tools needed to implement the BIP with fidelity and to take data on the effectiveness of the plan!

You can click here for a downloadable copy of all of the resources above. I hope these resources will assist you with creating an effective behavior plan for your student(s). If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask in the comments.

Need even further assistance with managing behaviors in your classroom? Check out my Ultimate Behavior Toolbox!!  

Save this post to refer to later by pinning it here.

The Ins & Outs of Data Collection

Data collection is not every teacher's cup of tea and some even cringe at the word! But let's face it. Data is the driving tool of our instruction and interventions, whether we're talking about academics or behaviors. 

Today's focus is on BEHAVIOR data collection. Here are some simple "ins & outs" to make data collection your cup of tea and a breeze!

1. If you're taking data on every single thing and every single day, STOP! You don't have to take data on every.single.thing! Or even every.single.day! Stop killing yourself!

2. Pick ONE behavior to target and collect data on at a time. Once you shape that behavior, you can move on and target another behavior. Start out slow with the least difficult behaviors first.

3. Decide if you'll be collecting data on the frequency, duration, intensity, or all three? This will depend on the behavior you are targeting.

4. Pick a day/time that you will take data...and NOT every day!

5. Delegate some of your data collection to your paras. 

6. Toss out all of those data sheets. You don't need 50 million data sheets. Don't make it rocket science! Find 3-4 sheets that are versatile and that work for you! I'll share mine below.

7. Whenever possible, let your students take your data for you! YES!

8. Keep a separate "Behavior Binder" for each student that you are working on behaviors with.

These are the only 4 data collection tools I use in my classroom for behavior. They work like a charm for every behavior I need to collect data on. Let's take a look!

This tool below (front & back) is really the only tool you need as you can record duration, frequency, intensity, and documentation ALL on this one form alone! You can also note the setting and see the times of day the behaviors are occurring. I love having everything in one place.

 I use this tool for my students that have more severe behaviors and exhibit multiple behaviors throughout the day. Severe behaviors are always documented. These forms are stored on a clipboard like so, and then filed in their "Behavior Binder" at the end of each day by one of my paras. 

For these students, I then graph the percentage of the day they were off task or engaging in inappropriate behaviors on my "Percentage Graph." 

I do this by adding up the number of minutes the behavior occurred and then divide it by the number of minutes the child was charted or observed. That gives me the percentage of time they were off task each day. I circle it on the graph and connect the dots for a simple graph. I can analyze it quickly to see if there has been a decrease in behaviors which tells me if my interventions have been effective. It is also a nice visual to show to parents and other individuals involved with the student.

I can delegate this task to my paras or I can collect this percentage data on the day/time that I chose to cancel whole group/teacher directed center to collect data.

While I CAN use the first tool for collecting data on any behavior, for mild behaviors or when I'm targeting a single behavior like whining, hand flapping, being out of seat, etc. I like to use this simple, self-graphing frequency tool. 

 It doesn't get any simpler than this. Each time the behavior occurs, the chart is marked and at the end of each day circle the last number marked and connect the dots for an instant graph. The BEST PART! My students collect my data for me! If your students are capable, have them mark their own charts each time they engage in the targeted behavior. This holds students accountable for their own behaviors and self-monitoring is so powerful! Read more about the power of student self-monitoring here and grab more self-monitoring tools. 

I don't use this one as frequently, but if you're collecting data on a behavior that occurs too frequently to count, or a behavior that doesn't have a clear beginning and end; such as "stimming" for example, Momentary Time Sampling is the perfect tool to use.

Print these four data collection tools off here and simplify your data collection today!

Also includes this Cheat Sheet to assist you with calculating how to measure each behavior.

If you're looking for more specific tips  
on simplifying academic data collection, you can read more about that here. 

For even more on Behavior Data Collection, check out "The Ultimate Behavior Toolbox" here.

Whole Group Management Strategies

I have a very challenging group of wild energetic students this year! I'm talking blurting out, out of seat, whining, pencil drumming, raring back in chairs, yelling, profanity, breaking pencils, and these are only the mild behaviors I'm listing! Sound familiar?

I have numerous behavioral reinforcements going on all over the place in my room at all times. I have students on "Cool Points" charts, some on individual token boards, some marking frequency charts, and some that thrive on verbal praise and a simple high five. 

While these are amazing for small group, 1:1 instruction, independent work systems, and self-monitoring; I've also found that having whole group behavioral management systems in place is important as well, especially if you have a large group. (I have 12).

Here are some whole group management strategies that I use in my classroom to provide additional positive reinforcement.

This is a whole group token board. I use it when I'm teaching whole group (morning meeting) to reinforce positive behaviors. Students earn tokens for raising their hand, staying in their seats, looking at the speaker, keeping chair legs on floor; whatever the behavior is the student is working on. I catch them following the directions; not NOT following the directions. You can read a detailed blog post on how to use the whole group token board to teach rules and procedures here.

I use these as group incentives. My students sit at tables in 3 groups of four. At the end of each day, we determine the best group "together," (we all take a quick vote) and that group gets a hole punch. The first group to get all 10 punches gets a prize. This not only holds them accountable for their behavior at the end of the day, but encourages teamwork and group interaction.

You can get these punch cards from Creative Teaching Press here and you can choose from four varieties. These also work great for individual student token systems as well.

Changing things up to keep it exciting is also important, so before I began the punch cards in January, I was giving each group a ticket and then the group with the most tickets at the end of 10 days received a prize. These also work great for individual student goals too. Creative Teaching Press also has these here. 

One of the best things I ever did for whole group classroom management was creating a GOAL WALL four years ago! I get asked alot, "Are these their IEP goals and is this a breach in confidentiality?" No, these are not their IEP goals. These are basic classroom behavioral goals that we all need to work on that are posted much like classroom rules. Students that are capable help to determine their own goals and often they add goals as needed. In addition to having an active role in their goal planning, students also recite their goals daily following our classroom rules that we also recite daily. 

It's no different than with academics. Our behavioral challenged students also need that daily repetition and reteaching of behavioral instruction.

This goal wall has been very powerful! My students know their goals by heart, they are conscientious about what they need to work on, and even my non-verbal student uses PECS to recite his goals each day. And because we all know what our classmates are working on, we encourage one another to achieve our goals! You can create your own goal wall here.

While my classroom is strongly centered around positive reinforcement, and students should never lose something they've earned, there also has to be some consequences!

So I started this minute chart in late September and it has really decreased a lot of spontaneous behaviors. Students get a tally for breaking a pencil, blurting out, being out of their seat, yelling, whining, using profanity; whatever the inappropriate behavior is that should have a consequence, and then those tallies are turned into minutes they owe at the end of the day when everyone else is on free choice. The last 30 minutes of our day is free choice if students have no missing work (assignments they refused to do during the day) or no tallies. Students that have tallies sit for that many minutes before they can join in on free choice.

Those tallies can be so painful for some of my students...because well who wants to sit while everyone else plays!? Right? But it has worked in decreasing many of these impulsive behaviors in my classroom! Hope some of these tips can work for you too!

Learn even more about "How to Rock Your Behavior Management" here.