Teachers must work collaboratively with colleagues, school staff, and parents to develop and implement behavior plans for students engaging in challenging behaviors. All stakeholders need to have a clear understanding of the plan and the steps to take to ensure the student is learning behaviors that are more appropriate. Each member of the team must also know how to implement the consequences when/if a student does not engage in appropriate behavior. In some cases, behavior can be severe; all members of the team need to be aware of how to respond to a student in crisis.
Review the scenario below to inform the assignment:
Michael is a seventh grader who is in his first year of rotating from class to class. Michael has shown that he really enjoys his homeroom teacher, Mrs. Thomas, who also happens to be the special education teacher. Mrs. Thomas takes Michael out of his reading class, for half of the class time, to provide his reading minutes according to his IEP. While Michael is serviced in reading only, Mrs. Thomas will take Michael out during all testing to provide a quiet, more 1:1 environment for testing. All of Michael’s teachers are male aside from Mrs. Thomas.
Mrs. Thomas was called into a team meeting to discuss Michael’s behaviors in his other classes.
All of the other teachers reported during the meeting that Michael is disruptive in class. His social studies teacher has noted that Michael is redirected at least three times each class period for talking with other students or being out of his seat. His social studies teacher also noted that Michael enjoys talking about baseball and video games with his classmates rather than participating in class or completing tasks. When redirected a few times last week, Michael asked to use the restroom and was out of the classroom for at least 15 minutes each time.
Michael’s math teacher also reported that periodically Michael shouts out during class or talks with others during instruction and independent work time. The math teacher has tried to redirect his behavior, but like his social studies teacher mentioned when redirected, Michael will ask to use the restroom or see the nurse and remain out of the classroom for the duration of the period. This causes Michael to miss instruction and not complete work.
Both teachers report that Michael will often doodle with highlighters or pencils on his assignment when redirected to get on task. Mrs. Thomas was shocked since Michael does not display any of these behaviors during the times he is with her.
Use the “Student Goals and Intervention Template” to complete this assignment.
Part 1: Intervention Plan
Referring to the scenario provided, identify an operational definition of the target behavior, outline 3 aligning function of behavior goals, and an intervention plan for these goals.
Using the “Student Goals and Intervention Template,” identify and outline the following within Michael’s intervention plan:
- Replacement behavior and specific steps to be implemented that will change the behavior based on information from teacher data
- Strategies to manage (reduce target behavior) situations and consequences based on information from observations.
- Any rewards and reinforcements.
- Progress monitoring (what data will be collected and in what manner).
- Steps to respond to any escalation of behavior.
Part 2: Crisis Plan
A crisis intervention plan are procedures to follow when reducing the target behavior is ineffective. The goal to maintain safety for all students and staff. Many schools and districts have crisis plans to follow with the goal of maintaining safety for all students and staff.
Create a descriptive crisis plan in a way that others can easily follow once it is determined that reducing the target behavior has been unsuccessful. Consider the following if the target behavior escalates:
- How long should a staff member allow the target behavior to continue before implementing the crisis plan?
- At what point should the student exhibiting the target behavior be removed from the classroom or when should other students be removed for safety? Where does the student or students go?
- When should administration be involved?
- At what point should local authorities or the school-based officer be contacted?
- At what point should parents/guardians be contacted?
- How will you know the crisis is over and full de-escalation has occurred? What happens then?
Part 3: Summary
After completing the intervention plan, include a 50-100 word summary describing the role Mrs. Thomas has in communicating Michael’s needs to and collaborating with his general education teachers .
Support each scenario response with 1-2 scholarly resources specific to current engagement theories and strategies.
