Practical+Applications

Practical Applications

FOCUS ON PREVENTION
 One of the main tenants of Dr. Jones' classroom management strategy is a focus on preventing misbehavior and learning problems. The focus of both Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and Response to Intervention (RtI) is prevention. PBIS focuses on the prevention of discipline problems, and RtI focuses on the prevention of learning problems. As in most models of prevention, overriding importance is given to primary prevention as the only viable means of cost containment. To illustrate, both programs use the following pyramid:

(Jones, 2010).

CLASSROOM STRUCTURE

 * Teach classroom routines as carefully as you would teach any other lesson, with enough practice to produce correct performance.
 * When you teach classroom routines, be an embodiment of the saying "We are going to keep doing this until we get it right."
 * Spend whatever time you need at the beginning of the semester teaching your routines to reduce wasted time during the remainder of the semester.
 * Have a "Bell Work" assignment for students as soon as they enter your classroom.
 * Create chores for your students. The rule of chores is "Never do anything for students that they are thoroughly capable of doing for themselves."

ROOM ARRANGEMENT

 * Proximity and mobility, or "working the crowd," will prevent many disruptions.
 * Arrange the furniture in your classroom to create walkways so that you can move around the room easily.
 * Have the students learn by doing, one step at a time, so that you can circulate among them to check their work.
 * Make corrective feedback as brief as possible by focusing on the next step rather than on lengthy explanations. (Jones, 2000).

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16px;">LIMIT SETTING
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 29px;">(Jones, 1974).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Correct identification of potentially disruptive behaviors.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Mobility which increases physical proximity to students.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Development of a repertoire of gestures and brief verbalizations signifying that a student was out of order.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Facial expression and tone of voice consistent with mild disapproval
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Quick response to disruptions, often interrupting the disruption before it can elicit peer attention or approval.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Reinforcement of appropriate behavior in another student following disapproval.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Reinforcement of appropriate behavior in the disruptive student as soon as possible (i.e. DRO, differential reinforcement of other behavior)


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">LESS SITTING, MORE DOING **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Students become engaged in learning when they are active. They love to do. Sitting passively as the teacher explains complex material is a prescription for tuning out.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Teachers should break the lesson down into more manageable steps using a Visual Instructional Plan (VIP).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Effective teachers break lessons into small chunks, and each chunk gives the students something to do. It is active by nature. As students work, teachers “work the crowd” to monitor performance.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">﻿(Jones, 2008)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">PREFERRED ACTIVITY TIME (PAT) **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">﻿Two main types of PATs are enrichment activities and learning games.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Students earn PAT time by displaying on task behavior.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Learning games serve as both a motivator for good behavior and a way to review important material.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">PATs can be frequent short activities or less frequent and longer in length.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">A selection of various PAT games can be found at [].