An Effective Time-Out Process

          When creating your classroom procedures, a first priority should be creating a Behavioral Matrix. The educative time-out process should be an intervention component within that behavioral matrix. The Behavioral matrix is designed to guide the students to making good choices and do appropriate behaviors. Along with these guidelines, there needs to be a proper reinforcement that is either a praise or punishment. The educative time out process sets an organized and procedure approach to a student’s misbehaviors and just as Dr. Knoff has continued to reinforce, they do not simply consequate but they also educate. (n.d.) “Time-out is a powerful, strategic, scientifically-based educative intervention” that is best used at a primary education level. (Knoff, n.d.) It is a positive intervention that is organized according to the four levels of inappropriate behavior. It helps keep students accountable by correcting inappropriate behaviors and forcing student to practice the appropriate behavior once the time-out is over.

References:

Knoff, H. (Lecturer). (n.d.). The Educative Time-Out Process. (Video recorded guest lecture number 1, part 1: Implementing the Educative Time-Out Process, p.pt. slide, Course CI 5523: Developing Student Self-Management Skills).  Chicago, IL: American College of Education.

An Intervention for all Students

          Although behaviorally challenging students can make you feel like there is no solution to the problem at hand. We must remember that we teachers can make a difference with all students. Choosing an intervention for each student needs to be strategically selected and developed according to the needs of each individual. Choosing a reinforcer is especially important in that it must be something that “meaningful and powerful to the student” (Koff, n.d.).  We want to capture the student so that they value the importance of proper behavior and procedures. “The goal of the intervention is to increase the duration and intensity of the desired behavior over time and have the student start to self-reinforce and then move to a level of automaticity such that the student is able to demonstrate the appropriate behavior as a self-managed type of process” (Knoff, n.d).  In response to an improvement in social, emotional and behavioral skills, the students will then be able to master the academic skills at hand.

References

Knoff, H. (Lecturer). (n.d.). Interventions to Increase Appropriate Student Behavior. (Video recorded guest lecture number 1, part 1: Skill Instruction and Emotional Control, p.pt. slide, Course CI 5523: Developing Student Self-Management Skills).  Chicago, IL: American College of Education.

 

Seven Primary Reasons for Challenging Student Behavior

Dr. Knoff has identified seven high hit reasons when trying to identify the reason behind a challenging student’s behavior. The first is a skill deficit where the student never truly learned nor mastered the behavior skill. The second is where the student is indeed learning the actual behavioral skill, but not as quickly as the other students are. In the third situation, the student knows the behavior skill and what the correct action to take is but has not learned to transfer them to real life scenarios. The fourth reason is when the student knows the skills and can apply them but is unable to apply them under conditions of emotionality, such as fear, anger or anxiety. In the fifth situation the student knows the correct behavior to display and how to display it but chooses not to because of a lack of motivation. The sixth reason could be an inconsistency somewhere in the students setting. The last reason is the influence of a Special Situation accruing in a common area of the school, with their peers, or an individual experiences. (Koff, n.d.)

References:

Knoff, H. (Lecturer). (n.d.). Identifying and Explaining Challenging Behavior. (Video recorded guest lecture number 1, part 1: Seven Primary Reasons for Challenging Student Behavior, p.pt. slide, Course CI 5523: Developing Student Self-Management Skills).  Chicago, IL: American College of Education.

 

Why and How to Respond to Challenging Behaviors

For far too many years our focus as educators has been solely on academics. We need do understand when we prioritize teaching social, emotional and behavioral skills, students can become self-managed. Our ultimate goal is that by high school “we would have given our students the skills necessary so that they can independently learn and apply their academic information to real world problems” (Knoff, n.d.). In order to achieve such goals we much be proactive. Dr. Knoff presents Project Achieve and the integration of the SPRINT/RtI2 (School Prevention, Review, and Intervention Team/ Response-to-Instruction and Response-to-Intervention). In this document he gives functional steps called the 3 tiers. In tier 1 Knoff describes a preventative approach taken by classroom teachers by implementing effective classroom management and academic instruction. Tier 2 adds a more strategic approach where support is given by a mentor of some type. Lastly Tier 3 adds a level of intensity where the mentor many have a higher level of expertise and/or the mentoring may be more intense and frequent. (Knoff, n.d.)

Reference:

Knoff, H. M. (2011) Integrating the school prevention, review, and intervention team (SPRINT) and response-to-instruction/intervention (RtI2) process: A model implementation guidebook for schools and districts. Little Rock, AR: Project ACHIEVE Incorporated.

Knoff, H. (Lecturer). (n.d.). Identifying and Explaining Challenging Behavior. (Video recorded guest lecture number 1, part 2: Functional Steps in Problem Solving, p.pt. slide, Course CI 5523: Developing Student Self-Management Skills).  Chicago, IL: American College of Education.