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[Narrator] When students make academic learning errors, we respond by assessing the error, reteaching, providing opportunities for practice, and monitoring their progress. But what about when students make behaviour errors? Well, it's much the same.
We can help students learn and practice positive behaviour through explicit teaching and high rates of positive, constructive, specific feedback, and by responding consistently, appropriately, and effectively to behaviour errors.
Today, I'm going to show you what our school has put in place to help teachers respond to behaviour errors.
First, we worked with staff to clarify our minor and major behaviours. Then we developed a continuum or menu for responding to minor behaviour, beginning with the least intrusive responses through to the most time-intensive, direct responses.
And to build a school-wide response to major behaviours, we worked with our staff and school leadership to develop an agreed educative approach.
In the classroom, the goal is to restore the learning environment quickly using the least intrusive response from our continuum. I usually start with an indirect approach to minimize disruption. This may include proximity or nonverbal cues.
If the inappropriate behaviour continues, I use a more direct approach, such as redirecting the behaviour. I do this by giving a brief, clear restatement of the expected behaviour, and where possible, I try and link it to our classroom behaviour expectations.
If the student is still having trouble demonstrating the expected behaviour, I may need to reteach the classroom rule and give the student opportunities to practice.
Once the student demonstrates the expected behaviour, I give them praise. But if the inappropriate behaviour still continues, I direct the student to choose between the expected behaviour and a less-preferred alternative. When options are paired in this way, students will often make the preferable choice, right Amar?
If I've tried less intrusive approaches and the student still isn't engaging in their learning task, then I might have a private discussion with them to discuss their behaviour and agree on a plan for improvement.
Together, these techniques help me respond quickly to behaviour errors before they escalate and give students the support they need to demonstrate expected behaviour in the classroom.
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