Positive Interventions and
Effective Strategies for
Classroom Management
Laura A. Riffel, Ph.D.
You have to have a plan for this student
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXRZcJI9yx8
Touch-Use Name PositivelyMake eye contact- Smile
Head- Heart- Hands
What do you want
Them to think?
What do you want
Them to feel?
What do you want
Them to do with their hands
And feet?
Rule Number One
1. Behavior is learned
and serves a specific
purpose. If it’s learnedit can be taught.
Video Modeling Your Expectations
• www.pbisvideos.com
Sine Qua Non
TUMS at the Door
•
•
•
•
Touch them
Use their name in a positive way
Make eye contact
Smile
A study found if teachers greeted their students
at the door, it increased on-task behavior from
45-72% (Allday & Pakurar, 2007).
We stopped touching kids• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXRZcJI9yx8
Use their name in a positive way
• Bhaerman and Kopp (1988) found that teachers who are
flexible, positive, creative, and person-centered rather than
rule oriented result in students who are less likely to drop
out of school.
– One adult, other than their parent knowing and using their name
in a positive way helps a student be successful and less likely to
drop out of school.
– Building a relationship with a child is one of the most important
factors in a student’s success.
– Every child is one caring adult away from being a success.
•
•
•
•
Corwin, A. (2012)
NCCA (2009)
Nelsen (2006)
Shipp (2013)
CHEERS!!!!
I wish I got in trouble
more so he knew my
name.
Hey Slugger. How’s it going?
Make Eye Contact
• We’ve decreased face-to-face interactions dramatically
since the 1950’s
– This decreases a student’s ability to decode facial emotions and
other nonverbal cues (UCLA, 2014)
Smile
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9cGdRNMdQQ
TUMS YOUR NEIGHBOR
• Touch them
– Induces compliance
• Use their name in a positive way
– Less likely to drop out of school
• Make eye contact
– Gives it on the front side- so they don’t take it on the back
• Smile
– Smile + Frown= Smile
Changing the Ecosystem
• An environmental component or entity including living and
non-living components that interrelate to produce a stable
system through recurring interchange of resources
Rule Number Two
2. Behavior is related to the context within which it
occurs.
Signals
•
•
•
•
•
•
Secondary- turn down the lights
when transitioning into classroom
from noisy hallway to signal time for
quiet after noisy, high energy
transition.
Elementary- after every high energy
transition.
Always have an EPR (every pupil
response) question on the board for
the students to answer when the
bell rings.
Play 60 bpm music as they
transition into the room to help heart
rates go down to resting heart rate.
Picture from blog “Teaching Teens
in the 21st Century”
http://mrswhite1103.blogspot.com/2
014_08_01_archive.html
60 beats per minute
Heart Rate
• Play music to calm heart rates
– Research indicates your heart rate will
match the music you are listening to
• Show nature pictures
– Research indicates looking at pictures of
nature reduces anxiety
www.behaviordoctor.org/calmingvideos.ht
ml
Tardies to class
Principal sets up a quick survey in the
computer lab for what type of music the
students like.
Principal plays 4 minutes of student
music between classes over the school
intercoms
Principal plays 1 minute of “polka”
music the last minute of class changing
time.
If tardies stay below 98% it stays this
ratio- otherwise it flips 4 minutes of
“polka” music.
Nature
pictures
Water
feature
60 bpm
music
Blue bean
bag
Round
wooden
table with
pictures of
students
above it
White board
Social info
Demonstration table
Pictures of
heroes to
aspire
toward
Team
points
Team
divisions
if using
whole
brain
teaching
White
round
table
White
metal
clock
Extended
learning
games
Silver box
Wind
chime
Globe
door
Nature
pictures
Water
feature
60 bpm
music
Blue bean
bag
Round
wooden
table with
pictures of
students
above it
Pictures of
heroes to
aspire
toward
White board
Social info
Demonstration table
If your room is smaller
door
Team
points
Team
divisions
if using
whole
brain
teaching
White
round
table
White
metal
clock
Extended
learning
games
Silver box
Wind
chime
Globe
Two taps of the chair legdone in private (only student
knows you tapped their chair)
(Pre-cued what this means)
Secret Signal
Ideas that will catch the others
Daily
• Each teacher should have three levels of
contingencies and rewards– Daily
– Weekly
– Monthly
Rule Number Four
4. We can improve behavior
by 80% just by pointing out
what one person is doing
correctly.
Love Notes
Put Mr. Potato Head Together
Put the cootie together.
Don’t think this is just an elementary idea.
Even high school students will have good
behavior if thereinforcement is right – They will
just want to make the cootie bug more bizarre
looking 
Weekly
Barrel of Monkeys
Week Long Contingency
I’d velcro the
board and
pieces up on
the white
board so the
students can
see where
they are in
the game.
Besides a daily contingency- you could have a
weekly contingency going for things like bringing
back homework, everyone having a pencil,
everyone in their seat when the bell rings, things
like that – each one worth a few jumps on the
game board. (any game board- even high school
students would be nostalgic for Candy Land)When they reach the end of the game board they
earn a home work free night. Incidentally, this is
the number one thing secondary students tell me
would mean the world to them. One night
without home work means more to them than
any monetary or tangible object you could give
them.
Compliment Board
1111
1111
1111
1111
1111
1111
Brownie Points
Monthly
2 jars- one w/lights & one w/out
Rule Number Five
5. We know we can improve behavior by 80%, yet we use it
less than 10% of the time.
4 Positives for Every Negative
•
Lanyard
– 20 beads
•
Start in the morning with all 20 beads on your left side
– Every time you compliment a student on their appropriate behavior move a bead to
the right side.
– Every time you reprimand a student move 4 beads back to the left side.
Beads on a string
Move down
when you use a
behavior specific
praise.
Paper clips
• Put 30 paper clips in your left pocket or a cup on the bus.
• Every time you compliment a student, move a paper clip
into the other pocket or cup.
• Every time you “get after” a student, move 4 paper clips
back to where they started.
3x5 index card
Tears for
positives
11 to 5
Tears for
negatives
Vibrating Watch- reminds you to
catch students being good
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos
s_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&fieldkeywords=vibralite+3
http://www.eseasongear.com/viviwa.html
Energy Flows Where Attention Goes
72 %
Targeted Groups
To Be a Real Intervention it has
to do the following:
Stop the behavior
Be proactive- not reactive
Match the function of the behavior
Include a replacement behavior
Include antecedent manipulations
Include consequence modifications
Rule Number Three
3. For every year that a behavior has been in place, you
should plan to spend at least one month of consistent and
appropriate intervention for you to see a change in the
behavior.- This is a rule of thumb.
The Bandaid
The Actor
or
Impulsivity, Hyperactivity, and Sensory
Issues
CDC reports 11% (2011) ADHD
(13.2 males) and (5.6% females)
Sensory Processing Disorder (83.6% ASD) (3.2% NT)
(Tomchek & Dunn, 2007)
Why Boys More than Girls
Center of Gravity is different
• Females- the center of gravity on females is around the
hips
• Males- the center of gravity is in the chest-
Challenge your friends
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW0ZTvRCS1o
Cushion the chair-
Standing work Station
Under each desk
• Place a piece of Velcro or bathtub applique under each
desk
This worked at all 4 levels
Tool Box- ADHD ideas 6-7
• Fiddles- Research shows that keeping the hands busy
improves retention by 39%
Vibrating Watches• Vibration can be set for
whatever interval you
choose.
• Automatically resets
– Reminds students to
come back to Earth and
pay attention
Many different brandsWatchminder and Vibralite
are just two of them
Sensory Processing
• Is the ability of the nervous system to interpret
information from the sensory systems and make
meaningful responses from the information (adaptive
response).
• An appropriate adaptive response meets the challenges of
the environment.
• Sensory regulation occurs when an individual is able to
maintain a calm and focused state.
•
©Sensory Scholar 2014
Sensory Integration Dysfunction
• Occurs when an individual has difficulty interpreting the
sensations from the body.
Ayres 1988
Perceptions
• Individuals with sensory processing disorder often do not
believe that other people perceive things differently than
they do.
•
©Sensory Scholar 2014
www.youtube.com- Carly’s Cafe
Overhead Sensory Issue
• Fluorescent light bulbs are 100 Hertz.
• This means the gas in the light bulb flickers 100 times per
second.
• The flicker is imperceptible to most people; however, some
of our students with sensory issues have behaviors because
they are reacting to the flicker in the lights.
• 25% of the population suffers from negative physical
effects (Irlen, 2014)
– Let’s just shoot for 6% of the students who are really impacted in
learning and behavior (for math purposes)
www.huelight.net
Learning Difficulties
Take out a sheet of paper and a
writing utensil
• Use your opposite (non-dominant hand)
– Write the sentences that I dictate.
• Fluorescent light bulbs are 100 Hertz.
• This means the gas in the light bulb flickers 100 times per
second.
• The flicker is imperceptible to most people; however, some
of our students with sensory issues have behaviors because
they are reacting to the flicker in the lights.
Got a pencil?????
• PenAgain
• www.penagain.com
– Also available at Wal-mart, Walgreens & Office Depot.
Visiting a classroom……..
Assignment Procedures
Three Stars and a Wish
By John Morris in
Haversham England
I wish you’d add some
more detail describing the
characters.
1.main
The way
you
2. toThe
spacing
of to
Way
I can’t
wait
used
3.go,
The
action
your
read
itcursive
again.
personification
words
you
handwriting
inchose
this story
made the
really
made
it
really
helped
climax
of the
for me
to
meeasy
visualize
the
story
very
read.
setting.
pivotal.
3-2-8 ParagraphFor my dog TJ’s 14th birthday she went to
Fleabuck’s, Boneanza, and Barkin’ Robbins Ice Cream.
At Fleabuck’s she had a nice bowl of iced water. She
asked for a sprig of mint in her water and splashed the
mint so she had minty fresh breath. We then trotted
over to Boneanza for a nice juicy T-bone steak. TJ loves
to gnaw the bone so she quickly ate the steak and took
the bone home in a “doggie” bag. We then went to
Barkin’ Robbins for some ice cream as a birthday treat.
TJ chose Backyard Bones Bubble Yum triple dip ice
cream in a cup for her birthday dessert. TJ’s
fourteenth birthday was a real treat at Fleabucks,
Boneanza, and Barkin’ Robbins.
Spelling• Meichenbaum’s 5-step Cognitive
Learning Theory
– Step One: The teacher voices and
demonstrates the concept
– Step Two: The teacher voices the concept while
the students demonstrate on individual boards
– Step Three: The students voice and
demonstrate the concept on individual boards
– Step Four: The students whisper and
demonstrate the concept on individual boards
– Step Five: The students think and demonstrate
the concept on paper or boards.
Non-compliant Behavior
Rule Number Six
6. When we want compliance from our children, we should
whisper in their right ear and offer them equal choices.
When you want compliance
• Offer two equal choices
From the right ear
Heart Rate
• Heart Rates increase on average to
147 bpm before aggressive act- 45-90
seconds prior to the act.
• We have time to intervene
Options
• Instead of saying “Sit Down” say:
– Which would be best for you? Sitting in the blue chair or the red
chair?
• Open ended questions force the student to stay in frontal
cortex instead of going on a quick trip to brain stem.
– What if they still refuse?
– Keep repeating the option- never engage in power struggle- you
will lose.
Handle all problems with compassion
first
• Compassion:- Man I can understand how you felt like
throwing a book across the room, but we can’t allow that
because someone else could get hurt.
• What could you do to help yourself not lose control like
that?
• Here’s what I do…….
• Youtube.com – just breathe
My version of Check-in/Check-out
• Student/Teacher Rating Sheet-
Student-Teacher Rating Form
Date:
Student
Hour One
Hour Two
Hour Three
Hour Four
Hour Five
Hour Six
Keep hands
and feet to
self
Respect
other
people’s
space
Start work
within two
minutes
Total
Points
3= Great Hour- No or very few behavioral learning opportunities occurred
2= Pretty Good Hour- few behavioral learning opportunities occurred
1= This Hour could have been better- more than a few behavioral learning opportunities
occurred
Student Signature: _________________________________________________
Teacher Signature: _________________________________________________
Parents' Signature: _________________________________________________
For younger students use smiling faces:
Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800
Meta-Analyses Relating to AchievementAvailable at www.amazon.com
Found that students recording their own
success had the highest impact.
John Hattie
When paired with a relationship building activity it becomes an even
stronger intervention.
Dr. Ann Corwin says these 3 things are essential to
building a relationship:
– Eye contact
– Touching
– Talking
Bhaerman, R.D. & Kopp, K.A. (1988) says:
–
A student is less likely to drop out of school if one adult
other than their teacher knows and uses their name.
By tying in Dr. Leanne Hawken’s Behavior
Education Program (Check-in/Check-out a school
can use both components of monitoring their own
progress and tying in Dr. Ann Corvin’s research and
Drs. Bhaerman and Kopp’s research with her unique
way of checking in on a student on an hourly and
daily basis.
To read more about the Behavior Education
Program check out this article:
http://www.calstat.org/textAlt/SpEDge_eng/fall05edg
e.html
Check in-Check out
Home
check-in
Earned
reward
Morning
check-in
with
preferred
adult
End of day
check-out
with
preferred
adult
Hourly
teacher
evaluation
Graph points
Review points
Look at
previous
graphed
points
Hourly
teacher
evaluation
Mid-day
check in
with
preferred
adult
Adapted from
Hawken 2008
I tie my student/teacher rating sheet into
the home
The parents reinforce the students at home for good behavior at school.
This does several things:
– Connects home and school in a positive way instead of
an adversarial way.
– Sends message to student that home and school are
working together.
– Student gets rewarded and recognized for good behavior
which encourages good behavior
– Parents are happy to comply with something so simple
– reinforcements are attention and recognition- not prizes.
72 %
20%
Rule Number Seven
7. All behavior falls into two categories: Kids are either
trying to gain something or escape something by their
inappropriate behaviors.
Rule Number Eight
8. Things kids are
trying to get:
1)Attention- (adults or
siblings)
2)Access (preferred
items)
3)Sensory input
(proprioceptive input)
Rule Number Nine
9. Kids are trying to escape these
things:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Work or Tasks
Attention from Adults or Peers
Pain (emotional or physical)
Sensory overload (too much
coming in)
Intensive (Tier Three)
• 12-20 y.o. make up 13% of the US population but are
responsible for 28% of the single-offender and 41% of the
multiple offender violent crimes (Princeton, 2015)
• What do we see at school?
Competing Pathway Chart:
What is a trigger for
the student?
What is the goal
behavior?
What adult or peer behaviors will
“feed” this goal behavior?
What are they trying to get or get out
of by having this behavior- where is it
coming from?
Verbal or Physical
Aggression
Environmental Change to Set the Student up for success
1. Place where they can calm down- not a
punishment.
2. Bean bag chair (prefer blue and
pleather)- absorbs coolness and is a
calming color.
3. Nature pictures on the wall near this
area.
4. Powercard or Poster on how to calm
self down with breathing
5. Headphones for listening to 60 bpm
music
Replacement Behavior
1. Teach student different methods for
calming self down and help them
choose the one that is best for them:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Walking and talk
Sitting in bean bag
Breathing technique
1. 4-6-7 technique
2. 4 in- 4 out technique
Writing about what is
upsetting
Drawing pictures about
what is upsetting
Change the adult=change
the student
1. Feed the replacement
behavior- with
maintaining
consequence
2. Extinguish the target
behavior with
reminders or ignoring
depending on
maintaining
consequence
Adapted from the following book: O'Neill, R. E., Horner, R. H., Albin, R. W., Sprague, J. R.,
Storey, K., & Newton, J. S. (1997). Functional assessment and program development for
problem behavior: A practical handbook (2nd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
FBA DATA TOOL (FREE)
We look at the behavior in conjunction with the
time of day that it occurs- were there patterns to
time of day? If there ere- what is that telling us?
We look at day of the week
data – if we collected enough
days of data.
BASELINE DATA
We look at the percent of time
each behavior occurred.
BASELINE DATA
Did staff behavior stop student
behavior?
What context showed up the
most with each behavior?
What antecedents paired up
with each behavior? This helps
you be proactive in your
planning.
What consequences paired up
with each behavior- this helps
you determine what the
functioning reinforcer was behind
the behavior.
Secondly, how effective was the
consequence that occurred at
stopping the behavior right
away?
Start with the first behavior
on your sheet. For this
student it is disruptive
outburst
Using the Antecedent,
Contexts, time of day, and day
of the week determine what you
think the main trigger is for this
behavior- For this student it was
waiting or down time in class.
Next, we determine the
maintaining consequence. What
is feeding this behavior. For this
student it is peer attention.
Competing Pathway Chart:
What event or setting
takes place prior to
the target behavior?
(Antecedent)
What is the goal
behavior?
What behavior are you
targeting to change?
(Behavior)
What settings/contexts/antecedents can you
modify to make proactive changes in the
environment to make the target behavior
unnecessary?
What adult or peer behaviors will
“feed” this goal behavior?
What adult or peer behaviors are
reinforcing this behavior?
(Consequences)
What new behaviors might you teach to
the student to replace the current target
behaviors?
How might you change the
adult behavior regarding
the original target behavior
and the new replacement
behaviors?
Adapted from the following book: O'Neill, R. E., Horner, R. H., Albin, R. W., Sprague, J. R.,
Storey, K., & Newton, J. S. (1997). Functional assessment and program development for
problem behavior: A practical handbook (2nd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
72 %
20%
8%
Rule Number Ten
10. Your reaction determines whether a
behavior will happen again or not. To
change child behavior- we have to
change our behavior.
100%