1. UNIVERSAL STRATEGIES IN THE CLASSROOM
In this session, we will provide an overview of some universal strategies teachers in your school can use to effectively manage student behavior.
PBS teams will need to think about a couple of things as we go through this information:
First, if you are a classroom teacher you will want to think about using these management strategies in your class.
Secondly, as a team member, you need to think about how you can help all the teachers in your school implement these strategies.
Finally, we want you to think about any teachers who are struggling with classroom management. The PBS team will want to be sure teachers are using these behavioral, instructional, and environmental management methods prior to additional interventional strategies for those “tough kids.”
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Exceptional Children Division

2. Universal Strategies in the Classroom
Teach Attention Signal
Establish Behavioral Expectations/Rules
Develop Schedule
Teach Routines
Give Precorrects
Encourage Expected Behavior
Correct Student Behavior Errors
Universal Strategies: Classroom
Discussion
This slide is an overview of what will be covered in this section of the module.
This section discusses the basic universal strategies classroom teachers in a PBS school would use.
These are strategies for ALL teachers to become proficient/fluent in using.
We will talk about each of these in greater depth in this section.

3. Teach Attention Signal
Always use a simple portable cue to prompt students to listen.
Avoid starting instruction until all students are attending
Reinforce students who attend immediately
Provide specific verbal praise to peers to redirect students
Consistency, consistency, consistency!
Teach Attention Signal
Another strategy effective teachers use is a method to gain and maintain student attention.
The signal needs to be portable so it can be used in the classroom and in all settings. Yelling or blowing a horn are not appropriate; they model what we do not want students to do. Some good examples are rhythmic clapping or saying “Quiet on the set.” The critical point is to teach and practice.
Avoid starting instruction—you want the attention of all students. Quietly wait until you have everyone’s attention.
Reinforce students who attend immediately—to ensure students attend immediately after the attention signal, give positive feedback to those who do so.
Provide specific verbal praise to peers to redirect students—give specific positive feedback about what you as the teacher observe about how kids respond to the signal. Then start asking the kids to “notice” what they observe.
Consistency—consistent use of the same signal and reinforcement for students who respond appropriately is a key to effectiveness.
Discussion
Ask participants to share attention signals they have used and discuss their effectiveness.
Distribute a ticket to the team that participates and say “Thank you for being responsible and participating in our discussion.”

4. Establish Behavioral Expectations & Rules
Use School-wide Expectations as Basis for Classroom Rules
Clearly and Positively Stated
State in Observable Terms
Posted and Referred to Frequently
Teach Explicitly to FLUENCY
Reinforce Consistently
Establish Behavioral Expectations & Rules
Use school-wide expectations—remember to have 5 or less rules so students and staff can remember them.
State in observable terms—you cannot observe a student being respectful; rather you can observe a student picking up and throwing away their trash to be respectful of others. You can’t measure attitudes but you can measure getting to work in a timely fashion.
Posted and referred to frequently—post the rules at student eye level in a way that is big, bold and beautiful. Refer to the rules often so they become the underlying structure of the classroom.
Teach explicitly to fluency—you want to tie all behavior (appropriate and inappropriate) to the school-wide expectations and your classroom rules. We are working toward student and staff fluency!
Consistently reinforced—give students regular feedback when they are following the classroom rules.

5. Teaching Effective Rules
Tell-Show-Practice
Give Positive Reinforcement for Appropriate Student Use
Consider Consequences for Errors
re-teach
redirect
time to “Cool Down”
Reflect! Are the Rules Working? Why or Why Not?
Teaching Effective Rules
Tell, show, practice—just as you would an academic task you want students to learn.
Give positive reinforcement—this will teach students the rules and increase the likelihood they will use the appropriate behavior in the future.
Consider consequences for errors—remember that we want to consider students not displaying the appropriate behaviors as learning errors.
Re-teach—go over the rules again, show an example and practice the appropriate way for the students to follow the rules.
Redirect—guide the student to an activity to help them follow the rules successfully.
Time to cool down—sometimes students need a few minutes to collect themselves before they can come back and follow the rules.
Reflect—teachers need to step back and take a look at their practices and ask themselves if their strategies are working. Celebrate your success! If your students are still struggling with following the classroom rules, think about your strategies and make adjustments. Do you need to teach the rules more intensely? Do you need to devote more time to teaching them? Are you giving enough positive verbal and nonverbal reinforcers?
Activity
Before showing the next slide, ask the group what they do when a student makes a math or reading error.
Listen to their responses.
Distribute a ticket to the team that participates and say, “Thank you for being responsible and participating in our discussion.”
Show the next slide.

6. Teaching Lessons on Expectations
Teach your
expectations
before the
activity or
transition begins.
Monitor student
behavior
by circulating
and visually
scanning.
Provide feedback
during the
activity and
at the conclusion
of the activity.
Teaching Lessons on Expectations
This is another way to illustrate what we have just discussed.
Teaching expectations and rules in a PBS classroom goes on all day long. The teacher thinks of teaching behavioral expectations as part of his/her job.
Discussion
This concludes our discussion of teaching rules.
We have discussed teaching rules at length to emphasize their importance—they are basic and essential for a positive and supportive classroom.
Ask any participants who have established and taught classroom rules to share their experience with the audience.
Begin the cycle again for
the next activity. 6

7. Develop Classroom Schedule
Establish predictable schedules
illustrate with icons, time, etc.
Schedule non-instruction time
administration time
personal time
Evaluate the variety and time for each activity.
Develop classroom schedule
Discussion
Ask participants why they think developing a classroom schedule is an effective classroom management strategy.
Unstructured and unscheduled time in a classroom is an open invitation to disruptive behavior.
Scheduled time is one of the basic proactive variables that is under teacher control.
70% of the school day should be scheduled for academic activity.
Show slide
Establish predictable schedules—designate regular activities. Illustrate using pictures and icons so all students understand what is taking place during a designated time.
Schedule non-instruction time—for administrative duties (attendance, lunch count, etc.) and personal time (restroom breaks, individual student conferences, etc.).
Evaluate the variety and time for each activity—as with every aspect of teaching, teachers need to reflect on their schedule to decide if they are providing a variety of teaching activities and are allowing an appropriate amount of time to each activity.

8. Sample Schedule 5 Min Teacher Directed Review of Previous Concepts
10 Min Teacher Directed New Concepts
10 Min Teacher Directed Guided Practice
25 Min Independent Work
10 Min Teacher Directed Guided Practice and Review
5 Min Homework Review
Sample Schedule
This is a sample schedule for a secondary classroom.
Remind participants that this would be posted in the classroom where all students can see and refer to it often.

9. Effective Routines - Rationale
The number one problem in the classroom is not discipline; it is the lack of procedures and routines. A vast majority of the behavior problems in the classroom are caused by the failure of students to follow procedures and routines.
-Harry Wong
Effective Routines-Rationale
Now we are going to talk about the second “R”—routines.
The same teaching process that we described earlier to teach rules can be used to teach routines.
A nonschool example where we are taught the routines and procedures is at the Department of Revenue License Bureau. Just think of how chaotic it would be without the signs reminding us of what documentation we need to bring, which line to be in, how to write out your check, etc.
Reference
Wong, H.K. (1998). The effective teacher: The first days of school. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications.

10. Teach Routines Think through and establish procedures
for transition times and basic regularly
scheduled activities
Establish clear expectations for student behavior and clear expectations for adult behavior
Plan, Post and Teach!
Tell-Show-Practice-Feedback loop
Consistently teach all day, every day
Reflect: Are routines working? Why or why not?
Teach Routines
Handout
#15 Halls Ferry Student Expectations
Think through and establish procedures—transitions from one setting to another or one activity to another are often problematic, which result in kids being off-task. In an entire week, schools spend at least one day in transitions. For most children, transitions are ok, but children with challenging behavior have difficulty with transitions.
Establish clear expectations—this requires looking at all the details and steps you want students to take. Also, all adults (paras, volunteers, etc.) need to know the routines and what behavior is expected of them. For example, if a teacher has a specific time, cue and procedure for students lining up to leave the room, the paraprofessional needs to know where they are expected to stand and help with the routine.
Plan, post and teach—once again we cannot expect students to know the routines without teaching the routines to the students. Effective teachers will remind and consistently enforce established routines every day, throughout the day.
Reflect—again, teachers must reflect on their classroom routines and if they are effective.
Refer participants to Handout #15 Halls Ferry Student Expectations as an example of routines established by a school.

11. Give Precorrects Precorrects function as reminders
Opportunities to practice
Prompt for expected behavior
Especially helpful before teacher anticipates behavior learning errors
Give Precorrects
This is a list of basics for using precorrects.
Precorrects are reminders.
Precorrects can give students opportunities to practice the expected behavior.
Precorrects can be verbal or modeled prompts for the expected behavior.
Precorrects are provided when teachers anticipate students will not display the appropriate behavior.

12. Precorrect Examples
“ Remember, before you leave class, collect all your materials, put your papers in the bin, and quietly walk out of the room.”
“ Sam, show us how to be respectful and line up quietly for gym.”
Precorrect Example
Read the examples.
Note that the second example is a school-wide expectation “Be respectful.”

13. Encourage Expected Behaviors
Providing praise for correct academic
responses and appropriate social behavior
leads to:
Increases in student correct responses
Increases in on task behavior
Decreases in disruptive behaviors
-Sutherland, 2000
Encourage Expected Behaviors
The rationale for positive teacher and student interactions seems so obvious; we are probably preaching to the choir today.
We know that if we praise students for correct academic responses and appropriate social behavior, they are more likely to give correct responses, be on task and therefore, be less disruptive.
Reference
Sutherland, K. S. (2000). Promoting positive interactions between teachers and students with emotional/behavioral disorders. Preventing School Failure, 44(3),

14. Positive Feedback Feedback should be: Accurate
Specific and descriptive
Contingent
Age-appropriate
Given in a manner that fits your style
Positive Feedback
Accurate—teachers want to be sure they are giving positive feedback when students are “hitting the mark” of appropriate behavior.
Specific and descriptive—it is important to state the feedback so the students know definitely what you are praising. “Good job” and “Good work” in and of themselves are not specific and descriptive enough for students to know what they did that was positive.
Contingent—teachers need to give positive feedback based on the behavior or the students will dismiss the feedback.
Given in a manner that fits your style—maintaining consistency will help students know you are sincere.

15. Ratio of Interactions
Teachers should strive to keep a 4:1 ratio of positive-to-negative statements
Each time you have a negative interaction with a student, tell yourself you owe that student 4 positive interactions
Identify specific times during the day you will give positive feedback
Schedule individual conference time
Scan the room searching for appropriate behaviors
Engage in frequent positive interactions with all students
Ratio of Interactions
Teachers should strive to keep a 4:1 ratio. This is a general guide and goal to strive toward.
These are some techniques for a teacher to reach the goal of the 4:1 ratio.
This ratio is difficult because we often are so happy when a student is acting appropriately we don’t want to jinx it by giving the student a positive statement.

16. Examples of Non-Verbal Feedback
Wink
Nod
Thumbs-up
Pat on the back
High-five
Hug (when and where appropriate)
Examples of Non-verbal Feedback
Often it is not appropriate and convenient to give verbal feedback. For example, if a school rule is to be quiet in the hallway, the teacher will want to use non-verbal feedback techniques.
Here are some examples…

17. Effective Reinforcement Strategies
Behavior(s) are determined and taught
Reinforcement is contingent upon appropriate behavior
Be generous with reinforcers at the beginning
Reward class when:
Students who have not exhibited behavior in the past are exhibiting the behavior now.
Students who have exhibited behaviors in the past continue to exhibit them.
Effective Reinforcement Strategies
Reinforcement Strategies are systems designed to increase desired behavior by giving the class something the students value.
Behavior(s) are determined and taught—the teacher decides the behavior to increase, such as raising hands, and teaches the expected behavior.
Reinforcement is contingent upon appropriate behavior—students have to earn the reward and it is not taken away.
Be generous—at first the teacher should give out lots of tickets, points, or whatever the reinforcer might be.
Reward the class when students who have not exhibited behavior in the past are exhibiting the behavior now—this helps get the students attention and increase the likeliness they will increase the behavior. Of course, teachers do not want to forget to give reinforcers to those students who have always exhibited the expected behaviors.
We have modeled an effective reinforcement strategy throughout this institute by giving the tickets when our “class” has complied with requests.
We will share more examples of effective classroom reinforcement strategies in Module Two.

18. Components of An Effective Teaching Plan
Define classroom rules based on school-wide expectations
Outline routines (attention signal, etc)
Establish schedule for teaching routines and procedures
Decide strategies for encouraging appropriate student behavior and discouraging problem behavior
Plan a variety of instructional strategies
Establish effective classroom environment
Components of an Effective Teaching Plan
Handout
# 22 Blank Effective Teaching Plan
This slide provides an overview of the components or parts of an effective teaching plan.
Refer participants to the #22 Blank Effective Teaching Plan form they can share with their teachers.

19. Correct Student Behavior Errors
“Emotion Free” response
More effective if students have been taught expected behaviors
Minimize attention other than signal of error
Praise for appropriate behavior
Correct Student Behavior Errors
Even though we are discussing positive behavioral support, teachers still need to correct students when they make errors and perform inappropriate behaviors.
“Emotion Free” response—corrections are more effective if teachers use a business-like voice and manner.
More effective—this goes back to the idea that student behavior errors are learning errors. It only makes sense that corrections will be more effective if students have been taught the behaviors in the first place.
Minimize attention—teachers need to signal to the student that they have made an error, but otherwise, attention needs to be minimal. Teachers don’t want to reinforce the misbehavior with adult attention.
Praise for appropriate behavior—it is important to re-teach the behavior, and praise the student when it is performed correctly.

20. Correct Student Behavior Errors
Steps to Take
1. Signal that an error has occurred
Refer to rules: "We respect others in this room and that means not using put downs.”
2. Ask for an alternative appropriate response "How can you show respect and still get your point across?"
3. Provide an opportunity to practice the skill and provide verbal feedback
"That's much better, thank you for showing respect toward others.”
Correct Student Behavior Errors
Activity
Before reviewing this slide, ask the group what they do when a student makes a math or reading error.
Discuss how they come up with a remediation plan similar to the steps as listed here for correcting a social skill learning error.
Effective teachers always state the desired behavior instead of highlighting the inappropriate.
Effective teachers have a consistent way to respond to student errors in social skills.

21. Classroom Management Strategies
Physical arrangement of classroom
Positive teacher-student interactions
More reinforcement strategies
Techniques to improve compliance
Active participation
More Classroom Management Strategies
These are more strategies teachers can use to manage behavior in their classroom that we will discuss today.

22. Increasing Positive Interactions
Based on the concept that most students want and need adult attention.
Leads students to feel like valued members of the learning community
Increasing Positive Interactions
These are more basics of increasing positive interactions.
Based on the concept that most students want and need adult attention—this is a basic premise that for the most part, students want and need adult attention.
Leads students to feel like valued members of the learning community—it is difficult for a student to feel valued when the majority of the interactions with his/her teacher are negative. Using the student’s name is very important to all students and is especially important in high school, when students sometimes feel they are just a face in the large crowd and not an individual.

23. Do Problem Students Deserve Positive Attention?
Students are not equal.
Some have received a lot of attention from infancy.
Some have received very little attention.
Many have only received negative attention.
Do Problem Students Deserve Positive Attention?
Trainer Note: The next 5 slides have been created to show the question first. After you discuss the question, you must push Enter on your laptop to show the answer(s).
Discussion
Show the question. This question may be one you are having now, which is rather fundamental to the concept of increasing positive interactions with students.
Discuss as a large group.
Push Enter to show our answer. The short answer is yes, problem students do deserve positive attention. This is because all students do not come to school with the same positive background. We discussed this early in Module One.

24. What Do You Do When You Just Don’t Like the Student?
Be professional!
What Do You Do When You Just Don’t Like the Student?
Discussion
Show the question. This is the question many of the participants may be thinking but don’t want to state.
Discuss as a large group.
Push Enter to show our answer. It is difficult to be positive with someone who you may have ill feelings toward. Teachers are the adults in the situation and need to always act professionally.
Distribute a ticket to the team that participates more actively and say, “Thank you for being responsible and actively participating.”

25. Who’s In Charge of the Mood of the Classroom?
Of course, the answer to this question is the teacher.
Now we are going to share some specific strategies to help teachers enhance or improve the classroom atmosphere.

26. Lottery Tickets Determine the behavior(s) you want to reinforce
Teach the behavior to the students
Give the student a ticket when you see the behavior.
Have student write his/her name on ticket
and put ticket in box/bin.
At a designated time, draw a ticket out of the bin and present a reinforcer to the student whose name is on the ticket.
Lottery Tickets
Again, this is another strategy to reward the entire class.
These steps describe how the student earns the tickets.
Reference
Jenson, W.R., Rhode, G., & Reaves, H.K. ( ). The tough kids tool box. Longmont, CO: Sopris West.

27. Techniques to Improve Compliance
Do not use a question format
Get up close
Use a quiet voice
Look ‘em in the eyes
Give them time
Don’t give multiple requests
Make more start requests
Verbally reinforce compliance
Get up and move
Techniques to Improve Compliance
Give Attention Signal to reconvene the group.
We are continuing to discuss classroom management strategies.
Many teachers struggle with getting students to follow their directions. This is a list of effective and specific strategies that have been effective in improving student compliance and disrespect.
Do not use a question format—a student is more likely to comply if the teacher makes a statement. Also some teachers have developed the habit of adding “ok?” to the end of a request or direction. This question is not appropriate when the teacher is not really giving the student a choice.
Get up close—it is more difficult to ignore a request when the teacher is close to the student. If the teacher stands within three feet of the student, he/she is likely to comply.
Use a quiet voice—a raised voice will not help the teacher achieve compliance.
Look ‘em in the eyes—this is similar to getting up close.
Give them time—it is important to give the student enough time to process the teacher’s request and then respond.
Don’t give multiple requests—this may cause confusion and chaos. Give only two requests for compliance. Also give only one direction at a time.
Make more start requests—tell the students what you want them to do more often than what you don’t want them to do.
Verbally reinforce compliance—if you want students to comply, you need to reward them for doing so.
Get up and move—the teacher is going to have to be active to implement the list above!

28. Increasing Opportunities to Respond ~ Active Participation
Encourages everyone to become involved in learning
Increases rate of responses of all learners
Increases attainment of material presented
Allows reluctant learners a secure environment to practice
Decreases inappropriate or off task behavior
Increasing Opportunities to Respond—Active Participation
These are the benefits of getting all students to actively participate in learning:
Encourages everyone to become involved.
Increases the number of responses for everyone in the class.
Increases attainment—since more students are responding they are more likely to learn more and attain the material being presented.
Allows reluctant learners to respond—when everyone is expected to be involved and participating, those learners who are insecure or have not been successful in the past, will feel more safe and willing to practice.
Decreases inappropriate or off task behavior—with a faster pace and active participation, students do not have time to be off task.

29. Practice Time!
Students should be reinforced at a rate of _____ to ______.
Everyone.
Universal strategies used in classroom management are to teach rules and _________.
PBS stands for_________________.
Practice Time
Tell the participants you will use the same signal of putting hands down when you want them to answer the question.
Students should be reinforced at a rate of 4 to 1.
Universal strategies used in classroom management are to teach rules and expectations.
PBS stands for positive behavior support.
Discuss how this engages all in instruction.
It is important to pause and give students time to think. This is particularly helpful for students with learning difficulties.
Even if all students don’t give a response, they will hear the correct answer. That is why this is such a good strategy to help reluctant learners.
Give a ticket to the team that participates and say, “Thank you for being responsible and actively participating.”

30. Sustaining and Maintaining Effective Classroom Practices
Ongoing staff development
Effective teaching plan
Peer coaching
Mentoring
Supportive environment
Team based problem solving
Positive parent contact
Sustaining and Maintaining Effective Classroom Practices
As we mentioned earlier, it can be difficult to change teachers’ habits. These are some ideas to help teachers sustain and maintain effective classroom practices.
Ongoing staff development—staff development supports an environment where teachers are expected and supported for learning and changing their classroom practices.
Effective teaching plan—a good plan is helpful when incorporating new teaching techniques into the classroom.
Peer coaching—having teachers observe and give feedback is a very effective professional development activity. There must be a great deal of trust and respect among teachers for this to be effective.
Mentoring—a mentor serves as someone to discuss new ideas with. In addition, mentoring helps an inexperienced teacher learn from an experienced and fluent teacher skilled in effective classroom management strategies.
Supporting environment—if self-evaluation and peer coaching are going to be a standard operating procedure in the school, everyone must be supportive as teachers learn, reflect, re-teach and evaluate.
Positive parent contact—parents who are informed about classroom management strategies will more likely be supportive and give useful feedback to the teacher.

31. Effective Instruction
increases the likelihood
of correct student responses
Correct responding is
correlated with positive
teacher interactions
Effective Instruction
In summary, we have been discussing effective instructional strategies to help manage student behavior.
Effective instruction increases the likelihood of correct student responses—all the strategies we have discussed are proven to increase the likelihood of correct responses by students.
Correct responding is correlated with positive teacher interactions—we have discussed the importance of positive interactions as a method to increase correct responding.
Effective instruction and correct responding lead to increased academic achievement of students and positive behavioral exchanges between students and teachers—this is the “bottom line” of student learning and a positive learning atmosphere.
Reference
Gunter, P. L., Hummel, J.H.,  & Venn, M. L.(1998). Are effective academic instructional practices used to teach students with behavior disorders? Beyond Behavior, 9(3), 5-11.
Leading to increased academic achievement
of students and positive behavioral exchanges
between students and teachers
Gunter, Hummel, & Venn, 1998