This unit focuses on behavior management practices and strategies in a classroom setting. It outlines key strategies such as connection building, organizational techniques, collaboration among adults, and establishing routines and expectations.
No matter what strategy or practice your team is using to support a child’s behavior, it’s important to teach, model, and practice it outside of the moment. Additionally, make sure that everyone on the team is using the strategy or practice with fidelity, meaning they are doing it exactly as it was designed to work.
Here an example…
Let’s say, a team has decided to use a research based strategy like Check in Check out (CICO).
Multiple people on the team are part of the plan for checking in with the student, but not everyone on the team is aware of the standard way to lead this intervention. Not everyone has come to the behavior meetings, and so when they are implementing the process they are not doing so with fidelity or consistency across the child’s experience with other adults in the school. Because there is no fidelity, it can be hard to say that the practice is or isn’t working because it could be the lack of the fidelity that is influencing the child’s outcomes.
If we are all on the same page with our wording, our connection approaches at these Check ins and Check outs we can be assured that the child’s behavior is likely to adjust for the better.
WATCH THIS VIDEO TO LEARN ABOUT CHECK IN CHECK OUT- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdGEpLT1GSE
Here is more info on this research based practice…
As a Tier 2 intervention in PBIS, Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) can give students a boost and allow them to meet behavioral goals that can lead them back to Tier 1. Check-In/Check-Out intervention forms can be customized to reflect behaviors that need additional focus. Teachers provide feedback to the student on these behaviors throughout the day.
Reasons to use CICO in your behavior plan implementation:
- Provides structure and planned adult-student connection in a student’s day
- Creates accountability and reliability for the child- all kids like the safety of knowing someone cares to check-in
- Provides teacher feedback to student and parents based on collected data and conversations
- Creates internal motivation for the child to work to make things better throughout the smallest increments of time
- Improves student behavior
- Increases academic success
- Creates a stronger home-school connection
Identifying Students Who Will Benefit from Check-In/Check-Out Behavior Intervention
Because the Check-In/Check-Out behavior intervention applies to a smaller number of students needing Tier 2 supports, there are certain criteria you can use to identify these students:
- A student who struggles with level one supports you have been trying to implement and help them with
- Poor academic, engagement, or social situation outcomes
- Poor organizational and/or time management skills
- Struggles with emotion, focus, attentiveness, staying on-task
Often, behavioral issues in the classroom are pieces in a larger puzzle. Some students struggle developmentally and need a helping hand to strengthen their skills. Others may have external factors affecting their behavior.
Succesful Check-In/Check-Out Behavior Intervention in PBIS
Students assigned to a CICO intervention check in with a coach/mentor at the beginning of the day to set goals for the day. This adult can be a counselor or other staff member who is not an instructor for that student (it could be a paraeducator). Typically, the student uses a “points card” that spells out the goals for each part of the day. As the student progresses through the day, their teachers evaluate behavior and assign points for meeting their daily goals. At the end of the day, the student checks out with the same staff member they began the day with, assessing their points total for the day. The final component of this process involves the student taking their points card to a parent at home, returning it signed at the next morning check-in.
These check ins and check outs could be designed to be at smaller incremental moments throughout the students’ day. Especially if they are having a hard time making it through part of their day.
At its most basic, the check-in/check-out meeting is an opportunity for student and mentor to work together to improve behavior. This intervention works well for students who respond well to adult attention (when the function of their behavior is attention).
The mentor encourages the student to reflect on:
- what they did well,
- how they feel,
- what they need to work on.
Students learn to
- self-monitor,
- internalize successes,
- develop self-esteem.
Successful CICO doesn’t focus on the student’s struggles in behavior. Instead, it centers on:
- the positive behavioral goals met
- the efforts made by the student to attain those goals.
CICO is part of a CONNECTION STRATEGY-
Connection Strategies → Build a relationship with each child and helps a student trust that you know and care about them as an individual. It can be hard to make sure to see, hear, know, understand and like each child in the room. But it is essential that teachers try to do this with every child, and most importantly, with the child that is struggling with their behaviors.