Behavior Management Cue Car

Behavior management cue card instructions:

1. Print out this card or your own version of the card.
2. Choose your method:
   1. Tape a card on the upper right corner of each student desk.
   • Laminate the card
   • Use clear shipping tape to secure it to the desk
   2. Hang it from a lanyard around your neck or keep it in your pocket
   • Laminate the card
   • Punch a hole in the top of the card to hang from a lanyard
3. Explain the card to the students:
• You might say, “I want to use a system to help the class stay on track without embarrassing anyone by saying something out loud. I also want a way to praise you and let you know that I’m pleased with good behavior and choices without causing embarrassment. So, I’m going to use this card to let you know my expectations or give kudos – quietly. Here is an example of the card and what the pictures mean.”
• Explain what each picture means.
• Explain that you do not expect students to say anything in response.
• Explain how you will use the card.
4. When a student needs to be redirected, simply walk quietly up to the student.
• Make eye contact – and preferably smile. The point is to minimize the possibility that a power struggle will ensue.
• After eye contact is made with the student, point to the picture that sends the message that you need to deliver.
• Do not wait for a response.
• Turn around and walk away.
• If a student chooses to say something in response to a redirection, they are inviting a power struggle.
• Avoid taking the bait if at all possible. Turn and walk away and wait to see if the student complies.
5. When a student earns praise, simply walk up to the student, make eye-contact, smile and point to the ‘praise’ picture.
• Do not wait for a response.
• Turn around and walk away.
6. Be generous with your praise. Students should receive 5-7 positive statements from the teacher in ratio to each negative comment.

I love teaching this session! I’ll cover:

*Practical strategies, tools, forms, and tips for defining paraprofessional roles, collecting data as well as cueing strategies for tests, quizzes and more.

*Identify meaningful and effective resources to recognize personality types and determine how to collaborate with opposite and varied personality types.

*Proactive ways for paraprofessionals to prevent discipline problems and positive ways to deal with challenging behavior when it occurs.

*Proven, practical strategies to effectively and efficiently adapt coursework, homework and study assignments to meet IEP, RTI and 504 requirements and increase student academic achievement

Paraprofessionals are such a valuable part of the educational process. I know that the paras that I worked with were often my right arm, never mind my right hand.

If you are in the area of these presentations you can find more information about the sessions at www.ber.org. I would love to see you there. Let me know that you read it in my blog!

• How and when will professionals and paraprofessionals communicate about concerns, student updates, intervention progress, etc.?
• Who will be responsible for communicating with parents?
• Will communication with parents be verbal or written? What parameters should the paraprofessional work within? Are there times when communication should be deferred to the classroom teacher, special educator, or administrator?
• When should conversations with parents be documented? When should they not be documented? If documented, what form should that documentation take?
• Exactly who should the paraprofessional report to if any conversation with a parent occurs that might cause concerns, or where student issues need to be related?

If you are just joining the discussion, please take a look at the previous installments, which address lesson planning, instruction, and behavior management.

• What are the behavioral expectations and rules for students in the classroom?
• What methods are used to gain student understanding of classroom expectations and rules?
• How will students perceive those expectations and rules in regards to the paraprofessional’s authority? Who clarifies the paraprofessional’s level of authority?
• How should the paraprofessional deal with misbehavior, disruptions, or problems that occur in the classroom?
• Who will provide the paraprofessional with positive behavior management training when necessary?

• Will the paraprofessional provide input into the planning process for either specific students or the class in general? If so, how will the classroom teacher gain that input?
• Will the paraprofessional have input into lesson planning, or planning for reteaching?
• When and how should the paraprofessional’s experience in the classroom contribute to interventions used with non-responders or students with special needs?

Teachers might discuss with their paraprofessionals how they will plan for their work in the classroom. Paraprofessionals might ask their collaborating teachers about their expectations and discuss how those expectations will be dealt with. Other items to reflect upon include: “How will the paraprofessional meet instructional goals?” “What are the teacher’s expectations for participation in classroom management?” and “How will the classroom teacher and paraprofessional communicate with each other?”

In this first part of a four part article, we’ll take a look at some “discussion starters” and questions that teachers, and their paraprofessionals, might consider to get on the same page and move forward.

Lesson Planning:

• Will the paraprofessional provide input into the planning process for either specific students or the class in general? If so, how will the classroom teacher gain that input?
• Will the paraprofessional have input into lesson planning, or planning for reteaching?
• When and how should the paraprofessional’s experience in the classroom contribute to interventions used with non-responders or students with special needs?

Colleen Ransom, a special education teacher at Longview Middle School, had just this problem when trying to help her students memorize the preamble of the U.S. Constitution. What Ransom created was a great way to incorporate pictures and symbols into printed materials, like the preamble, that will help not only special needs students, but any student who struggles with memorization.

Ransom added pictures to parts of the preamble she thought her students would have trouble understanding. For the word domestic, for example, she added a picture of a family. It was her theory that the better her students understood the words they were memorizing, the better they would remember them.

Here is Ransom’s creative solution to her inclusion needs, as well as an example of ways to teach the more complicated parts of the Constitution. (I will add links to the documents here once its online)

In September 2010, however, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California threw out these regulations after a group of California parents and advocacy groups sued the federal Education Department saying that teachers working towards their education were most likely to be found at schools where the majority of students were minorities. The parents of these students had no way of knowing that their children’s teachers were still working towards their certifications, the suit said, because they were described as “highly qualified.”

In December 2010, however, Congress undid the California court’s ruling that interns and other teachers working toward their certifications should not be classified as “highly qualified.”

According to a blog by Education Week reporter Nirvi Shah, this move by Congress has “made groups representing children with disabilities, minority children and teachers—including both the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association—angry. Late last month, they sent a letter to President Barack Obama about their concerns.”

“Our concern with this provision (and with any federal policy that reinforces the unequal allocation of fully trained and certified teachers to all students) is that it disproportionately impacts our most vulnerable populations: low-income students and students of color, English-language learners, and students with disabilities who are most often assigned such underprepared teachers,” the letter said, according to Shah.

Still, according to Alexa Posny, assistant secretary for the Office of Special Education, classifying interns and teachers working towards their certifications as “highly qualified” may be necessary in coming years as the number of special education teachers in this country shrinks.

“”When we think about the teachers working with kids with disabilities, they need to be the most effective, the most highly qualified, the most skilled we have. If you can teach a child with a disability, I’ve always said you can teach any child,” Posny said in an interview with the website Disability Scoop. “What we’ve got on the other side, is we know that within five to 10 years, the majority of our teachers who are special educators are probably going to retire. I believe we’re going to need 40,000 to 50,000 more special educators in the next 10 years. That’s a big pool. We need to make sure that the alternative-route programs have teachers just as prepared as anyone else.”

Still, this statement leaves many wondering which is more important- quality or quantity?

Role-modeling appropriate behavior is a vital and necessary component of an effective approach to behavior management.

Who we are, what we think, and what we believe is revealed through our words and behavior. If we buy into the adage “Boys will be boys,” our words and behavior will reflect it. If we have prejudices, they will be apparent.

Young people are more likely to do what we do, rather than what we say, and therefore it is vitally important to be self-aware and change our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to reflect the image we want our youth to model.

For example, sometimes as teachers, parents, or adults in authority, we do not realize how we speak to children. Our tone of voice and choice of words, especially when disciplining, may be reinforcing negative patterns of behavior with children. This became glaringly obvious to me in my early years as a parent as I listened to my seven-year-old when she was angry with me. I often heard my words, my tone, and saw my facial expressions coming from her little body.

Another important part of being a positive role model for young people is showing them respect. Lack of respect from our youth is a common complaint heard from adults today. I am often astounded, however, by the lack of respect some adults show towards young people.

Youth are often treated as lesser beings. Children are ordered around without a “please” or a “thank you.” Because they are defenseless, they are often the scapegoats of misplaced anger. Their needs are often disregarded.

All of us may be guilty of disrespecting our children’s rights sometimes when we are tired, frustrated, or angry. It must be the exception, not the rule.  When we do treat young people in a disrespectful way, the most empowering thing we can do for our children, and for ourselves, is to admit we made a mistake.

When we admit our errors to young people, we teach them that it is okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are for learning. We are modeling a willingness to be honest, to own our behavior, and to learn from it. This is a powerful example to set for our youth. We want the same behavior from them when they make a mistake. Should we expect less of ourselves?

Excerpted from Paraprofessionals and Teachers Working Together by Susan Gingras Fitzell.