Helping a Student Learn When Behavior Impedes Learning

Haleigh A. Dykes

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION RESULTS NEXT STEPS

One of the first things I noticed upon My name is Haleigh Dykes. I am an Elementary One thing I noticed upon analyzing the yes/no charts With This Particular Student
entering into my final internship in a Education major at the University of South Florida. was that the results were dependent on which teacher • Build up our teacher-student relationship.
second-grade classroom was how far was in charge of him at the time. For example, when he • Find a way to relate this procedure to an intrinsic
behind, academically, one of my For my final internship I was lucky enough to be was with me and my CT he would leave his area more motivator instead of an extrinsic motivator.
students was. I began observing him interning in a 2nd grade math and science classroom often than he would when he was next door with the • Instead of resetting the timer every so often, tell
from the beginning to see if I could in a Title I school in Pasco County Florida. In my language arts teacher. him that in a set period of time he will be given x
pinpoint what was causing him to fall school we use a positive based intervention system number of opportunity to earn his snack of
so behind. After a while, I realized and we believe that all students can achieve, we call However, the amount of time he spends in his area has choice. Then give him a no each time he moves
that because of his behaviors he was this the J curve because unlike the bell curve it now drastically increased. Prior to implementing the from his area.
struggling to complete his work and doesn’t come back down. yes/no chart, the student would elope from the
often was needing to be sent out of classroom almost daily. But now this does not happen With Other Students
the classroom to a buddy room due In my classroom I noticed one student that was really anymore. Since this was not my classroom, I was not able to
struggling academically and so I began observing him try all of the strategies I wanted to try. So, here is a
to these behaviors. I decided to
to see how I could help him to grow his brain. During
conduct research to try to problem In addition, I’ve noticed improvement on the quantity of short list of some other strategies that I would like
this time I found that a lot of the reasons that
solve this so that my student would work that is completed as well as the quality of the work to try should I ever have a similar student in my
Michael (pseudonym) was struggling was because of
no longer be falling behind that is completed. own classroom.
his behavior. Because of this I wanted to find out
academically due to his behavior. • Engaging students in conversation about a topic
how can I help a student learn when behavior
One of the biggest things I have done impedes their learning?
Table 1. Yes or No Chart of their choice when they walk into the door.
while trying to problem solve this Yes No
• Have lunch bunch, or something similar, with
has been working alongside the When I was in school, there were times where I let students to build up relationships.
school’s ESE coach and speech behavior interfere with my academics. Most of the March 6th 26 4
pathologist to try to pinpoint what time that behavior was only because of something March 6th 26 8
has been a struggle for this student that was going on at home. I believe that if a teacher CONCLUSIONS
since the beginning of his schooling had taken the time to help me learn through it, I March 8th 14 8
experience. I was given access to would have done much better in school. • When students remain in their area for the
this student’s individualized March 9th 29 6 majority of the day, the quantity and quality of
educational plan (IEP) and have used their work improves.
March 12th 13 8
the information on there as a METHODS AND MATERIALS • Some students don’t immediately respond to
method for problem solving. March 13th 12 0 intrinsic motivation and require something
According to his IEP his goal is to With my CT, the ESE coach, and speech pathologist, tangible in order to be motivated.
remain in his area for a minimum we came up with a strategy to try to help Michael • All students are able to learn if they are given the
three minutes with no more than to start staying in his area. We decided to try Time Spent in Area appropriate learning environment and area to
two teacher redirections. I decided taping a square where he sits and setting a timer 100% learn in.
Percent of Time in Area

that this would be a good place to for two-minutes after which we circled yes or no on
start when working with my student. whether he stayed in his area for the full time or 80%
not. If he received a yes, he got one goldfish,
60%
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pretzel, or animal cracker.
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CONTACT 20%
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Haleigh Dykes 0% 4. Steven T., P. (2009). The Effects of Teacher-Student Small Talk on Out-of-Seat Behavior. Education And
University of South Florida 3/6 3/7 3/8 3/9 3/12 3/13 Treatment Of Children, (1), 167.
hdykes@mail.usf.edu 5. Wolf, M. M. (1970). Timer-game: a variable interval contingency for the management of out-of-seat

(813) 469-1452
Sample Data Dates behavior. Exceptional Children, 37(2), 113-117.

Figure 1. Yes/No Data Figure 2. Yes/No Data

Chart 1. Time Spent in Area