It Takes Two: November 10, 2018 Teachers and Students Work Together to Problem Solve for Behavior November 10, 2018

Do Now Draw a picture of the “whole child.” (Leave space, you will add to drawing) (45 sec.) Share your drawing with one partner (1 minute, 30 sec. each) Add to your drawing: “teach the whole child” (Leave space for more) (45 sec.) Share your drawing with a different partner (2 min., 1 min. each) Last drawing addition: “it is my responsibility to teach the whole child.” (45 sec.) Share your drawing with a new partner (3 min., 1.5 min each) Jeff

Framing “Challenging behavior occurs when the demands and expectations placed on a child outstrip the skills he/she has to respond adaptively.” Demand exceeds capacity Remember to frame this by having participants think of ONE student

Learning Target I can explain the what and the why of planned conversations in order to collaboratively problem solve with a student.

Why and When? Why: If a student could do well, they would do well. But some students come to us lacking skills to overcome challenges. We need to identify the lagging skill. When: When demands and expectations being placed on student outstrips their skills. Need to identify the specific circumstances – the problem – that causes behavior to occur. If we focus on the behavior, instead of the problems causing the behavior, we will not be effective.

Our Goal is Not to Fix the Behavior Very often we focus on the behavior and what it looks like – and we spend our time and energy trying to stop the behavior. Behavior is NOT the problem. Behavior is simply a symptom that there is a problem. We need to find the problem and fix it! Some students cry, some put head on their desks, some run out of the room, some curse, some throw things…. We often spend a lot of time trying to get the student to stop doing the behavior.

Why Engage the Student? Students are the best source of information to determine the problem. We can’t fix this problem if we don’t know about the problem. Adult imposed solutions often don’t work. Student buy-in greatly increases the chance of success. Ask teachers after showing headline why they think it’s important to engage the student. Adults very often decide on the best solution and rush to implement it without knowing the student’s perspective on what the problem is, what their needs are, and what ideas they have to solve it.

Becoming Empathetic Problem Solvers Unpacking Bias Excerpt from Chapter 4 of Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain by Zaretta Hammond Understanding “Lagging Skills” and Learning to Collaborate Excerpts from Lost at School by Ross W. Greene

Reading One Guiding Question: How can biases impact one’s ability to be empathetic?

Reading Two Guiding Question: How have students’ lagging skills impacted your classroom?

Reading Three Guiding Question: What teacher moves and language do you notice that are collaborative?

Steps to Collaborative Problem-Solving Be Proactive Empathetic Listening Share the Adult Concerns Invite the Student to Help Develop a Solution Implement the Plan

“Students are unsuccessful when the demand exceeds their capacity” Bank of Lagging Skills “Students are unsuccessful when the demand exceeds their capacity” Executive Function: Can this student plan, organize, or remember information and then act on that knowledge? Is the expectation developmentally appropriate for this student? Language Processing: Does this student have the word finding or ability to use language to understand and communicate needs effectively? Emotional Regulation: Does this student have the capacity to process their own emotions and understand/process the emotions of others? Do they have sensory needs that are getting in the way of staying regulated? Cognitive Skill: Does the student understand the expectation? Is the expectation realistic for this student’s cognitive capacity? Social Skill: Does the student have the social awareness of others to meet this expectation?

Video 1--Upper Elementary Guiding Question: Where do you see each teacher using the 3 steps of problem solving?

Video 2--Lower Elementary Guiding Question: Where do you see each teacher using the 3 steps of problem solving?

Learning Target I can create a plan to collaborate with a student to solve a consistent problem.

Putting it into Practice!

Let’s Practice--Scenario 1 Teacher’s Perspective: A student has been struggling with getting started with her work. When confronted by you, she gets angry and says “Why are you picking on me?” This has occurred more than one time. Student Perspective: You feel like the teacher doesn’t ever listen to you. When they confront you, you don’t want to talk because you don’t think they will hear what you have to say. You don’t understand the directions and when you have told the teacher in the past she/he just read the directions on the sheet to you, but you still don’t understand. Play fighting in the hallway - You give a referral. Why do you always give me referrals but not anyone else? Why do you always notice me? You ask a student to stay after class to talk about misbehavior during class. They stay and you start talking, and in one minute into talking they get really angry and start to walk away. You follow after them and they say “Get out of my face.” Calling out.

Let’s Practice--Scenario 2 Teacher Perspective #2: A student regularly has off topic conversations in class and gets other students distracted. When given a reminder, they stop initially, but a few minutes later are back to having off topic conversations. Student Perspective # 2: You have been in situations like this before. You know what the adult wants you to say. So you just want to give them the answers they are looking for and get on with your day. The sooner you get out of this conversation the better. Your real concern is that you are really social and you like being with your friends, but you also know that you don’t get any work done when other students are around you. You don’t want to say this to the teacher though because you are afraid she/he will isolate you from your friends.

Let’s Apply It! Select a scenario, and use the readings, videos, and planning template to create your plan for a problem solving conference with one student. Remember to identify which lagging skill your student is missing. You will receive feedback on this plan from a partner using the peer critique protocol.

Critique How can we give kind, helpful, and specific feedback to a partner’s plan to help them improve their conference?

Self-Reflection After your critique, how effective is your plan? What are you going to keep? What do you need to change?

Table Whip Share What is one take away that you need to continue practicing or focusing on? What is one thing you can take back to your classroom/ school and immediately implement?

Feedback Please complete the feedback form. Questions? Email us: ateasdel@tworiverspcs.org rowens@tworiverspcs.org Visit our school at http://www.learnwithtworivers.org/