classroom+management+and+intervention+strategies

Welcome to the #1 Classroom Management and Intervention Strategy Wiki for Middle and High School Educators
 * Got Questions? Email the site contributors directly**
 * Majlinda**
 * Christine**
 * Rich**

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**1. Introduction:**
A lot goes on in the classroom environment but let's face it, there are many circumstances in a students life that an educator cannot control. Factors such as culture, home, diet, medication and socio-economic status are just a few of the daily challenges that a teacher struggles to overcome in the class. Despite these obstacles, there is good news. There are many opportunities and factors you as an educator can control in the day to day execution of your classroom. If you are a new teacher and worried about differentiating you can still pull it of in the most basic of environments and the most basic of systems. Tomlinson states in her book __The differentiated classroom: responding to the needs of all learners__ (2006) that differentiation could occur in a classroom where children are in rows and most of the work done in silence. “Yes I think there are many principles of differentiated instruction that could be applied in that setting; you could still offer appropriately challenging content. You could offer activities at levels that provide moderate challenges for different learners. You could offer product assignments that wrap around individual interests and intelligence strengths" (Tomlinson 2006) She goes on to further say that given an opportunity to select a different model she would do so "in a heartbeat". If you are a new teacher and classroom behavior and structure is an enhanced area of concern then one of the behavioral/social models below may help you gain that structure to begin differentiating and allow you to grow with the class and create more freedom.

As teachers we create a stable classroom that promotes the steady growth and cognitive development of students. When students misbehave in the classroom they are actually communicating through their emotions and their wisdom it’s the teachers sole responsibility to act as a facilitator, and a filter to try to find a teachable moment in the direst of situations. Sometimes the most bizarre and strangely presented behaviors can extract their roots from basic everyday needs and these basic needs must be isolated before learning can begin (Maslow 1963).
 * A solid classroom environment that responds to behavior or social deficiencies equitably;**

**A. Behavorial/Social**
When to intervene is something that takes time and experience. One thing is for sure; it is difficult for students to learn and teachers to teach when there are behavioral issues in the classroom. Teachers must understand that when students are misbehaving they are in fact communicating to you and giving feedback that something is wrong in their learning environment and they want you to fix it. The key is to identify the students who are most in need of intervention strategies. "Children raised in poverty, living in chaos or without models, whom are English Language Learners or struggle with phonological processing, memory, and speech hearing impairments are in most need of instructional intervention."( Honig, Diamond, & Gutlohn 2007) According to Smith, some students are socially inappropriate and struggle to understand core content material, but what has the most negative impact on their education is their noncompliance and disrespect or the teachers and administration. These behaviors often cause these students to be suspended or placed in a restrictive environment like a self-contained classroom or in a separate program away from disabled and non-disabled peers. Suspending students takes them away from an academic learning environment and leaves them on the street with no one watching out for them, which leads to lower academic achievement and increases the chances that the students will act up in the future (Smith 2006). We need to find different interventions to help these students be successful in the classroom. These include behavioral/social and academic interventions. An instructional intervention is a planned set of procedures aimed at teaching social and/or academic skills.**// ; //** It is more than a single lesson and less than an entire curriculum. It is planned and driven by data. It is sustained over a series of time. It targets and focuses on skill sets and is goal oriented. We propose to you that the following behavioral/social intervention systems are in fact a type of instructional intervention that focuses on teaching and modeling social skills for everyday success in the classroom.

**1. Level System**
Behavioral interventions can include a level system in which their appropriate behavior can earn them privileges in the classroom. The levels come in different shapes, sizes and numbers but have consistent themes throughout. On the beginning levels safety and appropriateness in the classroom are the goals. The secondary levels focus on building responsibility with peers, staff and teachers. Teachers begin to take new actions regarding problems and family relations.The upper levels involve advanced independence and treatment and academics becomes more rigorous.

**2. Token Economy**
"Rules alone have been known to exert little effect on classroom behavior" (Madsen, Jr., Becker, & Thomas, 1968). Token system is an intervention system where students can earn points that they can use to get themselves candy or small trinkets from the classroom school store. Problems often arise when children have disregards for the tokens being offered.

**3. PBIS**
PBIS stands for positive behavior intervention system. PBIS focuses on minimizing behavior in the school through 3 levels of interventions and individual plans for 5%-10% of your students who cannot function in a standard classroom. The use of PBIS in schools is widespread throughout the U.S. (Sugai & Horner, 2002). It specifically offers a primary, secondary, and tertiary level of intervention. A basic component of the PBIS approach includes identifying students in one of three categories based on risk for behavior problems. Once identified, students receive services in one of three categories: primary, secondary, or tertiary. These interventions may be behavioral and or academic interventions, incorporating scientifically proven forms of instruction. The interventions become more focused and complex as one examines the strategies used at each level. To learn more about PBIS and its response to behavior with tiered interventions click [|here].

**5. Learning Contracts**
Learning Contracts or Behavioral Management Plans are agreements between teacher and student. They include a skill component; a content component; a time line; specification of expectations (behavior, and criteria for successful completion and quality) and signatures of agreement to terms (ACSD (1997), Tomlinson (1995)). Learning contracts set both positive and negative consequences. They increase student responsibility and provide some freedom for the student in acquiring skills and understanding. media type="youtube" key="fmV7roZKjqA" height="200" width="364" // [In this clip Mr. Ray Demonstrates the perfect Differentiated Classroom Environment with clear expectations, a safe // // physical environment,well established structure,interaction with the community, and using "ticket to leave" with the new student "Nemo."] //

=**B. Instructional**= To differentiate instruction is to recognize students' varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning and interests; and to react responsively. Differentiated instruction is a teaching and learning process for students of differing abilities in the same class. The intent of differentiating instruction is to maximize each student's growth and individual success by meeting each student where he or she is academically and assisting in the learning process.

According to the authors of differentiated instruction, several key elements guide differentiation in the education environment. Tomlinson (2001) identifies three elements of the curriculum that can be differentiated: Content, Process, and Products.


 * //a. Content//**
 * //Several elements and materials are used to support instructional content.//These include acts, concepts, generalizations or principles, attitudes, and skills. The variation seen in a differentiated classroom is most frequently in the manner in which students gain access to important learning. Access to the content is seen as key.
 * //Align tasks and objectives to learning goals.//Designers of differentiated instruction view the alignment of tasks with instructional goals and objectives as essential. Goals are most frequently assessed by many state-level, high-stakes tests and frequently administered standardized measures. Objectives are frequently written in incremental steps resulting in a continuum of skills-building tasks. An objectives-driven menu makes it easier to find the next instructional step for learners entering at varying levels.
 * //Instruction is concept-focused and principle-driven.// The instructional concepts should be broad-based, not focused on minute details or unlimited facts. Teachers must focus on the concepts, principles and skills that students should learn. The content of instruction should address the same concepts with all students, but the degree of complexity should be adjusted to suit diverse learners.

**//b. Process//**

 * //Flexible grouping is consistently used.//Strategies for flexible grouping are essential. Learners are expected to interact and work together as they develop knowledge of new content. Teachers may conduct whole-class introductory discussions of content big ideas followed by small group or paired work. Student groups may be coached from within or by the teacher to complete assigned tasks. Grouping of students is not fixed. As one of the foundations of differentiated instruction, grouping and regrouping must be a dynamic process, changing with the content, project, and on-going evaluations.
 * //Classroom management benefits students and teachers.// To effectively operate a classroom using differentiated instruction, teachers must carefully select organization and instructional delivery srategies. In her text, //How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms// (Chapter 7), Carol Tomlinson (2001), identifies 17 key strategies for teachers to successfully meet the challenge of designing and managing differentiated instruction.

**//c. Products//**

 * //Initial and on-going assessment of student readiness and growth are essential.//Meaningful pre-assessment naturally leads to functional and successful differentiation. Incorporating pre and on-going assessment informs teachers so that they can better provide a menu of approaches, choices, and scaffolds for the varying needs, interests and abilities that exist in classrooms of diverse students. Assessments may be formal or informal, including interviews, surveys, performance assessments, and more formal evaluation procedures.
 * //Students are active and responsible explorers.//Teachers respect that each task put before the learner will be interesting, engaging, and accessible to essential understanding and skills. Each child should feel challenged most of the time.
 * //Vary expectations and requirements for student responses.// Items to which students respond may be differentiated so that different students can demonstrate or express their knowledge and understanding in different ways. A well-designed student product allows varied means of expression and alternative procedures and offers varying degrees of difficulty, types of evaluation, and scoring.

Below is an excellent "graphic organizer" that can help one understand the difference between the guiding principles of differentiation and actual instructional strategies.



**1. Tiered Instruction**
Tiered activities are a series of related tasks of varying complexity. Teachers use tiered activities so that all students focus on essential understandings and skills but at different levels of complexity, abstractness, and open-endness. Differentiation of tiered instruction relates to content, process and product. Differentiation of content refers to a change in the material being learned by a student. For example, if the classroom objective is for all students to subtract using renaming, some of the students may learn to subtract two-digit numbers, while others may learn to subtract larger numbers in the context of word problems. Differentiation of process refers to the way in which a student accesses material. One student may explore a learning center, while another student collects information from the web. Differentiation of product refers to the way in which a student shows what he or she has learned. For example, to demonstrate understanding of a geometric concept, one student may solve a problem set, while another builds a model. . [].

Below are different activities and strategies that can be used in the classroom to assist students and teachers with the learning process. They include activities that give students choices to learn and show their understanding. There are also stratgies that teachers can use in their classrooms to help the students gain competency with the curriculum.

**2. RAFT (Role-Audience-Format-Topic)**
RAFT is a writing strategy that can be used in all content areas. It offers students a choice in their writing assignments. Students get to choose their assignment based on their interests. Click here for more info on RAFT and other instructional strategies [])

**3. Scaffolding Instruction**
Scaffolding Instruction is a specialized teaching strategy geared to support learning when students are introduced to a new subject. Scaffolding gives students a context, motivation, or foundation from which to understand the new information that will be introduced during the coming lesson. Activities include: activating prior knowledge; breaking a complex task into easier chunks; showing examples; modeling through "thinking aloud" talk; offering hints; using verbal cues; using mnemonic devices; facilitating engagement; using graphic organizers; teaching vocabulary terms before reading; inviting students to contribute their own experiences that relate to the subject. Click here for more on scaffolding - ([])

**4. Cubing** Cubing is a technique which assists students to consider a concept from six points of view, by giving students suggestions on how to conceptualize a particular concept( describe it, compare it, associate it, analyze it, apply it, argue for it or against it).

**5. Independent Studies**
Independent Studies are activities that allow students to explore most any topic with varying degrees of structure based on the students readiness for independence, readiness, interest, and learning profile.

**6.Learning Contracts (educational)**
Learning contracts are agreements between a teacher and a learner. The teacher decides which skills are to be mastered, and establishes the guidelines for the quality of the work. Students take on the responsibility of learning these skills. Contracts include signatures as well.

Web Inquiry is a student-centered and teacher-guided instructional approach that engages students in investigating real world questions that they choose within a broad thematic framework. Students acquire and analyze information, develop and support propositions, provide solutions, and design technology and art products that demonstrate their thinking and make their learning visible**.**
 * 7. Web Inquiry**

**8. Orbital studies**
Orbital studies are independent investigations which allow students to select their own topics**.** Teachers help students develop a plan, method of presentation, and rubric for assessments. Students choose one of the selected topics to research, they keep logs on their time, the resources they used, and reflections of what they learned.

**9. Think-Tac-Toe**
This is a method which offers a collection of activities from which students can choose three activities in a row based on varying learning styles and preferences. []

4MAT is a method for helping all learners be successful. Planning instruction is based on four learning preferences; mastery, understanding, personal involv ement, synthesis. The 4MAT system is designed to provide every student witha preferred task during every lesson. [] For images of 4mat learning go to [|www.google.com/search?q=4mat+learning&hl=en&client=safari&tbo=u&t]
 * 10. 4MAT**

To learn more about instructional strategies click here: []

=10. Works Cited=

Hall, T., Strangman, N., & Meyer, A. (2003). //Differentiated instruction and implications for UDL implementation.// Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum. Retrieved June 10, 2012 from []

The Access Center: Improving Outcomes for All Students K-8. //Differentiated Instruction for Reading.// U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. Retreived June 16, 2012 from []

Tomlinson, C. A. (2000). Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary Grades. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education.

Tomlinson, C.A. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Tomlinson, C.A. and Eidson, C.C. (2003). Differentiation in practice: A resource guide for differentiating curriculum. Grades K-5. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Tomlinson, Carol Ann. (2005). Traveling the Road to Differentiation in Staff Development, Journal of Staff Development.

#|Tomlinson, C.A. and McTighe, J. (2006). Integrating differentiated instruction + understanding by design: Connecting content and kids. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

#|Tomlinson, C. (2010). Homepage - Differentiation Central. Institutes on Academic Diversity in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. Retrieved December 22, 2010. From []

McDonnell, J., Mathot-Buckner, C., & Ferguson, B. (1996). Transition programs for students with moderate/severe disabilities. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.

Meese, L. (1994). Teaching learners with mild disabilities: Integrating research and practice. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Compah