Perillo

Nicholas Perillo
Diff 512
Dr. Hunt
20 April 2015
Article Critique #1
I am currently working with gifted students in the Cuba Rushford
after school enrichment program. One student in the program is often
disruptive in the classroom and calls out answers whenever she
pleases. With this being said, I chose to look up techniques for
improving disruptive behavior in the classroom.
In this article van Lier states programs aimed at the reduction of
disruptive behavior in the social context of the classroom are therefore
important for the prevention of disruptive behaviors(van Lier, van der
Sar, Muthen & Crijnen, 2004). One form of classroom management
that the article highlights is the Good Behavior Game (GBG). The GBG
is a classroom based management program that aims to improve
student behavior. It promotes prosocial behavior through explicitly
defining and systematically rewarding appropriate behaviors thus
placing emphasis on positive rather than on negative behaviors as well
as by facilitating the interaction between disruptive and non disruptive
children through a team based approach (van Lier, van der Sar,
Muthen & Crijnen, 2004). According to van Lier, van der Sar, Muthen,
and Crijnen, the GBG was proven effective in the reduction of

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disruptive behavior in elementary schoolchildren . This GBG starts with

teachers discussing the necessity of forming class rules and how the
students should choose the classroom rules with the teacher. The
rules need to be displayed as well. Then the teacher assigns groups or
teams of 3-4 students. Each team receives a number of cards, and
teams are re- warded when at least one card remains on their desk at
the end of a 15- to 60-min period. Teachers, however, take a card when
a student violates one of the rules. Teams and students are always
rewarded with compliments. Winning teams receive tangible rewards
(stickers) directly after each game, in addition to weekly rewards (if
they won at least two out of three games that week) and monthly
rewards (van Lier, van der Sar, Muthen & Crijnen, 2004).
Throughout my personal experiences I have seen adaptations of
the GBG work and it can be very effective. Students are held
accountable for each other as well as themselves. It also doesn't
single out the person it may have been implemented for. In my field
block placement the teacher I was working with used an adaptation of
this and it really worked well.
The interesting part about this game is it is made for expansion.
Teachers have the ability to have their GBG grow and grow throughout
the year and then when it has expanded enough, it can be generalized
to other subject areas. I think this article could be helpful when looking
for techniques and methods to limit a students disruptive behaviors.

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The Good Behavior Game is an elaborate process that takes longer

then my given time with the program.

Nicholas Perillo
Diff 512
Dr. Hunt
20 April 2015
Article Critique #2
I am currently working with gifted students in the Cuba Rushford
after school enrichment program. One student in the program is often
disruptive in the classroom and calls out answers whenever she
pleases. With this being said, I chose to look up techniques for
improving disruptive behavior in the classroom.
The article starts by defining an interruption and what is
considered interruptions briefly before going into interruptions in the
classroom. Interruptions are a frequent occurrence for elementary
school teachers and their classrooms. Each interruption also takes
time away from class due to a need for teacher reaction to the
interruption. Partin then goes on to tell about how teachers have the

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ability to minimize interruptions. The author, Ronald Partin, gives a list

of potential strategies that help minimize interruptions. The first was
to analyze your interruptions. In this strategy the teacher would time
how long and how frequent the interruptions were and try to analyze
the timing and see if there was a reason for the specific interruption.
The second he mentions is to discourage interruptions. This idea just
basically eliminates all other stimuli that might cause any interruptions
such as an open door etc. Partin also mentions that when interruptions
occur, teachers should follow a three-step process. The first step
would be to keep the intervention as brief as possible. The second
would be to minimize the impact upon the learning activity, and the
last would be to assure that the same interruption would not occur
again. Partin states, success in dealing with interruptions comes from
prevention, when possible, and from minimizing their duration and
impact (Partin, 1988).
I think that Partin puts together some very helpful pointers as far
as eliminating classroom interruptions. I agree with Partin that in many
cases the interruptions occur simply because the offender is not
aware that his or her behavior is disruptive (Partin, 1988).
Throughout my personal experiences I can totally agree with this
statement. The student I have been working with has expressed that
she doesn't think she is doing anything wrong. If the students is
unaware they cannot be wrong. I think if the teacher does not

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establish a model for the desired classroom behavior, the interruptions

can possibly be a ignorance reason. If the students are unaware of the
rules they may not know they are doing anything wrong.

Nicholas Perillo
Diff 512
Dr. Hunt
20 April 2015
Article Critique #3
I am currently working with gifted students in the Cuba Rushford
after school enrichment program. One student in the program is often
disruptive in the classroom and calls out answers whenever she
pleases. With this being said, I chose to look up techniques for
improving disruptive behavior in the classroom.

Perillo

The authors Reinke and Merrell stated that classroom

management is directly tied to levels of student involvement and
academic achievement, making it an important component of
teaching. Effective classroom management can help to decrease
disruptive classroom behaviors and increase student engagement in
the classroom (Reinke & Merrell, 2008). If a classroom teacher has
students fully engaged in a lesson then it decreases the chance for
disruptive behavior because students who are enjoying a lesson and
are deeply engaged want to learn and be a part of the class rather
then disrupting class. One method mentioned by these authors was
the Classroom Checkup which was developed to address the needs of
classroom level support while minimizing treatment integrity problems
common to school-based consultation. The CCU builds on existing
consultation models by emphasizing class wide change and
motivational enhancement strategies that are informed by extensive
social psychological literature(Reinke & Merrell, 2008). The authors
give many examples of methods that a teacher could use in order to
lead students towards the desired behaviors they need to display in
the classroom.
This article is thorough enough and makes a good point about
the importance for classroom management leading to disruptive
behaviors. It is very important to manage these disruptive behaviors
at the elementary level. Throughout my experiences I have seen first

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hand how these types of behaviors can lead to worse behaviors in the
future if not dealt with early on.

The difference between this article

and the other two mentioned above is that the authors were
performing an actual study using the CCU to see of the outcomes. This
study, although a preliminary investigation, it showed an increase for
all teacher during CCU.

SOURCES
Partin, R. (1988). Minimizing classroom interruptions. Clearing House.
29-31. Retrieved 06 February 2015.
Reinke, W. M., Lewis-Palmer, T., & Merrell, K. (2008). The classroom
check-up: A classwide teacher consultation model for increasing
praise and decreasing disruptive behavior. School Psychology
Review, 37(3), 315-332.

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van Lier, P. C., Muthen, B. O., van der Sar, R. M., & Crijnens, A. M.
(2004). Preventing disruptive behavior in elementary
schoolchildren: Impact of a universal classroom-based
intervention. Journal Of Consulting And Clinical Psychology,
72(3), 467-478.

BIP
Introduction:
For this Behavior Intervention Plan, I worked with KL (pseudonym). She
is a 9-year-old female in fifth grade. She attends Cuba Rushford

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Central School, which is an elementary school in a small rural area that

has 822 students (K-12). The elementary school in particular consists
of 378 students and that is grades P-5. The average classroom size is
about 16-25 students per classroom. The school also has a special
education department in a certain wing in the building.
Operational Definition:
KL speaks out of turn and calls out when asked to raise her hand. For
instance, If the teacher is asking questions and students are asked to
raise their hands to be called on for the answer, she will often call out
without raising her hand and blurt out the answer before her
classmates. She also answers questions even if she is not the one
called on which then gives away the answer to those who are raising
their hands as instructed. The function of her behavior is to attain
teachers attention.
Teacher Interview:
Since this is an after school program we do not have access to the
students general education classroom teachers. I reached out via
email to the teacher and have received no reply. Therefore, the most I
could get out of this section would be to try and answer teacher
interview questions based on myself in the placement. KL has
difficulty in math because that is her least favorite subject. That is also
her lowest grade on her recent report card, which also might play a
factor as to why she dislikes the subject. Other then the after school

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enrichment program KL doesnt receive any other supports for her

giftedness in school. I think based on the what was said in the student
interview that a priority for KL to succeed in her classroom would be to
recognize her more. She complained about not receiving praise for her
great work and that is why she acts out and calls out and speaks out of
turn. She is trying to be recognized.
Student Interview
KL was very willing to participate in a student interview once she found
out she wasnt being graded for it. When asked how she felt about
school she told me that she liked school a lot because she gets to do
fun things like science and social studies. She enjoys science and
social studies the most in school and does really well in them. Her
least favorite subject is math and she said it was strictly because it was
her worst and she likes to be right.
When asked about the classroom rules, she was able to name four
very important class rules such as hands to yourself, no excessive
talking and be prepared. She also mentioned that she thinks the
classroom rules are all fair. When asked if she gets in trouble in the
classroom she said no, NEVER. KL mentioned that school is not to hard
or too easy but when it comes to a lot subject areas, especially reading
comprehension, I get them all right. When asked how school could
be made better she told me that if school got rid of math and music
and instead added gymnastics she would never want to leave. She

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attends gymnastics after school three days a week and it is her

favorite hobby. The last question I asked KL was if she felt that adults
noticed her achievements in the classroom. She said her parents
always notice but as far as school professionals she said the opposite.
She said teachers dont recognize but she often tries to make them
recognize her achievements in the classroom.
The last question is what made me think was the major reason for her
need to call out in the after school program. Since she is maybe not
getting her necessary praise in the classroom, when she comes to the
after school program she seeks out that attention or praise for her
knowledge. She did also mention that she doesnt get in trouble ever
in class. I found this troubling but I think it may be due to her growing
complacent with her role in the classroom. I think KL yearns for more
attention in the classroom but has become used to not getting it. That
is why I think she calls out and speaks out of turn in the after school
program. The fact that the STEM program is after school also plays a
factor as to why she acts the way she does.

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BIP 2
Baseline Data:
For the data part of this behavior intervention plan I chose to use and
ABC report form in order to track the frequency and timing of the
behavior. In this ABC form the observer or teacher marks down the
time of the behavior along with the antecedent, behavior and
consequence of the behavior. This chart allows me to see how the
student reacts to different questions and what happens when the
consequences differ. Below the ABC chart is a Frequency-Interval chart
that helps tell me how many times the behavior occurred within each
15 minute period of the program.
Antecedent Behavior Consequence (A-B-C) Report Form
Place observation occurred: The little library room on the third floor.
Environmental conditions (6 students, KL is in the after school enrichment program that
consists of two teachers and six students. The room has six hexogen shaped tables.)
Date: 03/26/15
Time
3:07 pm

Antecedent
Teacher asked
question about

Behavior
KL calls out the
answer without

Consequence
Teacher asks
students as a

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3: 15 pm

3: 18 pm

3:36 pm

directions
expecting
student reply
with hand raise.

being selected.

Question asked
about lesson.

KL shouts out
the answer
before the
teacher even
finishes asking
the question

Students were
asked to make a KL vocalizes her
prediction for
prediction
the experiment. without being
called on.
Fellow student
answers
question
incorrectly.

3:52 pm
Teachers give
directions to
clean up and
pack up for
home.

Frequency- Interval Chart

Kl calls out and

corrects peer
with demeaning
tone.

whole to please
raise their
hands when a
question is
being asked.

Teacher informs
her that she
needs to
remember to
raise her hand
and be selected
to answer.
Teacher tells her
she will not get
the treat at the
end of the
lesson if she
keeps calling
out.
Teacher tells
student I will not
ask again to
raise our hands
and do not talk
to our peers like
that.

Student mocks
teacher out loud
while she is
Teachers let it
talking.
go and keep
getting ready to
leave.

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Time

Number of times she

called out

Number of times she

didnt call out

Total number of
questions asked

3:00-3:15

3:15-3:30

3:30-3:45

3:45- 4:00

Analyze Data and formulate a hypothesis: The function of the

behavior is to attain attention from his teacher.

What does the data tell us?

I chose to use an A-B-C chart to track the amount of questions asked
versus the amount of questions that KL called out on and spoke when

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it wasnt her turn. During the first day of data collection, she called out
5 times out of 11 questions. She expressed her need to always be
right which makes her want to be the first one to answer questions
correctly. Then the fact that she feels she isnt recognized for her
abilities plays an even bigger role. She calls out in order to gain the
teachers attention and show her capabilities in the subject area. I
noticed that she was not only calling out when a question was asked
but also often just talking to herself out loud to gain attention. An A-BC chart was the best way to track the behavior because her behavior is
calling out without raising her hand. There was no specific pattern of
time as to when her behavior occurred other then when questions were
being asked. The teachers verbal consequences did not have much of
an effect on KL. With that being said I counted the number of
questions asked in each lesson and compared it to the number of
questions where KL spoke out of turn or called out. Due to her need for
multiple prompts to follow directions, she will need an intervention
plan put in place so that the behavior stops or decreases.

Intervention:
The student wants to attain attention from her teacher. The student
attends an after school enrichment program in which the students read
higher grade level books and do activities with them as well as science
experiments and many more. I believe an intervention is necessary to

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eliminate this behavior. Since the student is looking for the teachers
attention at her successes, the first part of this intervention would be
to recognize each and every student in the after school program
equally for getting questions right and doing good things in the room.
This will help decrease the students want to be recognized and attain
attention. As far as the intervention plan goes, we decided to put in
place a management technique that could be used for the entire after
school program so it didnt single KL out. In order to do so we decided
to use a raising hands technique for disruptive behaviors. How it works
is that when a student is calling out or speaking out of turn, all the
other students are supposed to raise their hands so that the student
who was displaying the undesired behavior will see that the class is
paying attention but is not accepting of these behaviors. Teachers can
also use a strike system on top of this technique. Lets say the student
calls out and all the students quietly raise their hands once. Then the
teacher will give that student a ticket for calling out. With this you can
put a limit of how many until the student is in the penalty box which
means they would have to take a walk. We did not instill the ticket
aspect of the method but the hand raising did occur. Each time one of
the students called out and the rest raised their hand they get a
chance to re think their behaviors and change them for the better.

Antecedent Behavior Consequence (A-B-C) Report Form

Place observation occurred: The little library room on the third floor.

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Environmental conditions (6 students, KL is in the after school enrichment program that

consists of two teachers and six students. The room has six hexogen shaped tables.)
04/02/2015
Time
3:10 pm

Antecedent
Teacher asks a
question to the
class.

3:23 pm

Teacher asks a
question to the
class.

3:38 pm

3:42

Teacher asks
question to the
class.

Behavior
KL calls out
before teacher
can even ask
students to
raise their
hands.

KL calls out the

answer asked
by teacher.

KL raises her
hand but calls
out answer
without being
called on.

Teacher asks
question to the
class.
KL raises her
hand quietly
and answers
when called on.

4/7/15
Time

Antecedent

Behavior

Consequence
A couple
students raise
their hands but
some forget.

All the students

raise their hand
and she stops
mid call out
from saying the
whole answer
and raises her
hand.
Students raise
their hands and
KL apologizes.

Teacher gives
student praise
for answering
correctly.
Consequence

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3:10 pm

Teacher asks a
question to the
class.

3:23 pm

Teacher asks a
question to the
class.

Time

KL calls out
before teacher
can even ask
students to
raise their
hands.

KL calls out the

answer asked
by teacher but
gets quieter as
she finishes her
answer.

Students raise
their hands and
she stops mid
interruption.

All the students

raise their hand
and she stops
mid call out
from saying the
whole answer
and raises her
hand.

Number of times she

called out

Number of times she

didnt call out

Total number of
questions asked

3:00-3:15

3:15-3:30

3:30-3:45

3:45- 4:00

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Reflection:
Developing and creating a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) is a long
process that allows teacher to collect data and analyze it so that they
can come up with a plan to fix it. Behavior Intervention Plans are
made when a student or students who display undesirable classroom
behaviors, the teachers do research and collect data on the type of
behavior being displayed and try and come up with a plan to fix it. I
enjoyed this type of project because it allows us to get great
experience in creating a BIP. The only issue was the time frame. Due
to receiving a placement late and the fact that the program is strictly
an after school program it was a little more difficult to create this BIP.
It would be much easier to do in a classroom setting when the teacher
was with the students all day and could collect more detailed data such
as time frame of the behavior and much more. As far as KLs behavior

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goes, I believe that she will improve her behavior as she gets older and
more mature as long as she gets the attention she yearns for when she
is successful in the classroom.

Student Interview Questions:

What do you think of school?
What do you like best? Least?
What are there rules in the classroom?
What do you think of them?
Do you get into trouble sometimes? Why do you think?
Generally is work too hard for you? Too easy?
What would make you like school better?
Do adults notice when you do a good job?