Combining Behavior and Academic Instructional Support to Improve English Learners Reading Outcomes

1. Combining Behavior and Academic Instructional Support to Improve English Learners Reading Outcomes Jorge Preciado University of Oregon

2. Overview • Applied Behavior Analysis/Behavior Management Principles • Function-based Behavior Support • Instructional Design Variables • Reading Acquisition

3. Review of the Research The two greatest risks for school failure are: • (a) the display of a very challenging behavior pattern (i.e., antisocial behavior, aggression, opposition-defiance, bullying, etc.) and • (b) early school failure, especially learning to read. (Walker & Shinn in Shinn, Walker & Stoner, 2002)

4. Students who cannot read are at risk for: • having difficulty completing homework assignments in content areas • referrals for special education • teen pregnancy • drug and alcohol abuse • dropping out of high school • delinquency • unemployment • homelessness (McGill and Franzen, 1987)

6. Three key elements • Classroom Behavior Principles/Function-based Behavior Support • Positive behavior support – establishing conditions where behaviors are explicitly taught and reinforced to improve pro-social behavior • Behavior support is most effective when designed based on the function of a student’s behavior • Instructional Design Variables • Correct academic placement • Teaching explicitly • Providing multiple opportunities to respond • Reading Acquisition • Blending, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension Strategies

7. Ineffective Instructional Design and Delivery Failure to acquire literacy skills Frustration-level task presented Incorrect academic responding Decreased academic engagement Punishment/ extinction of academic responding Sanford, 2006

8. Ineffective Instructional Design and Delivery Frustration-level task presented More severe problem behavior Inability to Read Decreased academic engagement Escape or avoid academic task Sanford, 2006

9. Effective Instructional Design and Delivery: • Explicit Teaching • Frequent Opportunities to Respond • Appropriate Placement Successful acquisition of literacy skills Instruction-level task presented Correct academic responding Increased academic engagement Reinforcement for academic responding Sanford, 2006

10. Statement of the Problem • Low income and Spanish speaking English Language Learners (ELLs) generally struggle academically (Goldenberg, 1996; Haager & Windmueller, 2001; Vaughn et al., 2005) • 85% of Latino ELLs in fourth through eighth read below grade level (Goldenberg, 1996; National Center for Education Statistics, 2004) • Overrepresentation of Latino students in special education (Artiles et al., 2005; De Valenzuela et al., 2006) • Most research conducted on Latino ELLs has focused on language development and not on reading (Anderson & Roit, 1998; Gunn et al., (in press); Linan-Thompson & Hickman-Davis, 2002; Weber, 1991) • Literature regarding Latino ELLs and problem behaviors is sparse

11. Continued • If problem behaviors are related to escape or avoidance of grade level academic tasks, a negative reinforcement condition could be established. • How?

12. How these word are used in this context: • “Negative” means that something is taken away. • “Reinforcement” means the behavior is more likely to happen again.

13. What is “negative reinforcement?” • A consequence that makes a particular behavior more likely to happen again because the person avoids something aversive or unpleasant.

14. Scenario • Ms. Kerns thought an easy way to get students to quit arguing about assignments would be to let the students who argued skip some of the questions or have more time to do assignments. • However, over the next few weeks, that actually lead to more students coming up with arguments about assignments more often.

15. Scenario • Juan is in the first grade. Juan dislikes reading because he is a poor reader. During reading class, Juan hits his peers whenever his teacher Mr. Suarez asks him to read a passage. Immediately, Mr. Suarez sends Juan to the principal office for fighting.

16. Scenario • Esteban is in the second grade and he is reading below grade level. Esteban likes to sing songs in class and talk to his peers during reading class. Ms. Rivera scolds Esteban and then sends him to the back of the room to work. Esteban puts his head down and does not bother his peers for the rest of the period.

17. Applied Behavior Analysis: What is it? • “A way to understand and predict human behavior” (Alberto & Troutman, 2003, p. 2) • “Systematic application of behavioral principles to change socially significant behavior to a meaningful degree . . . • users of these principles [are able] to verify a functional relationship between a behavior and an intervention” (Alberto & Troutman, 2003, p. 531)

18. Can Applied Behavior Analysis Help? • “Applied behavior analysis . . . is probably the most widely used process for addressing a variety of learning and behavior problems. • There is no doubt that more data are available to support behaviorally based interventions for ameliorating behavior problems than for all other models combined” (Jackson & Panyan, 2002, p. 30).

19. How Can We Help Mr. Suarez? • Conventional wisdom is to get tough on the student as this will make Juan comply. • If problem behavior is caused by escape of task, conventional wisdom will backfire, escalate the problem, and create animosity between Juan and Mr. Suarez (McIntosh, Chard, Boland, & Horner, 2006: Patterson, 1982: Preciado et al., 2009; Sanford, 2006).

20. Competing Pathway Model Desired Behavior Perform Task Consequence Praise Student Antecedent Grade level reading task Behavior Problem Behavior Maintaining Consequence Escape from grade level reading task Alternative Behavior Student will receive reading academic support (e.g., Decoding skills, review/preview, vocabulary instruction, and task completion support Student will raise hand and ask for a break from task or seek peer and/or adult help to complete task

21. Function-Based Behavior Support • Four ways to quantify behaviors: • A) Escape • B) Attention • C) Access to a tangible • D) Self-reinforcement

22. ABC’s of Problem Behavior • Antecedent • Behavior • Consequences

23. Antecedent • “The circumstances that exist in the environment before a behavior is exhibited” (Maag, 2004, p. 402) • Here are some examples of antecedents for common behaviors that you can probably guess: • Phone ringing • Teacher asks a question in class • Billy calls Tara a name that is an ethnic slur

24. Behavior • “What individuals do – their observable actions . . . can be verbal or nonverbal. . . . • [In classrooms] includes actions students undertake to indicate they have [gained] knowledge” (Maag, 2004, p. 403).

25. Consequences • “Circumstances that change the environment shortly after a behavior is displayed and that affect the future performance of the behavior by serving to increase, decrease, or maintain it” (Maag, 2004, p. 405)

26. Alternative Behavior • In order for students to attain a more socially appropriate behavior, students need an alternative behavior that serves the same function as the problem behavior. • What do you mean by same function?

27. Hypothesis Statement • Determine (hypothesis statement) which of the four behavioral functions does the student exhibit. • Conduct Competing Pathway Model. • Remember to make the problem behavior irrelevant, inefficient, and ineffective.

28. Start with Antecedent • How can we manipulate the antecedent to make the problem behavior irrelevant? • Problem Behavior: Julio makes noises during independent reading time. • Hypothesis Statement: Attention • Antecedent Manipulation: Speak to Julio ahead of time and discuss possibility of Julio orally sharing an event with the class. This will allow Julio access to peer attention.

29. Behavior • Make the problem behavior inefficient! • Access to attention is easier to obtain than engaging in problem behavior. • Julio gets up in front of class and shares that he will go to his cousins house over the weekend to celebrate his birthday.

30. Consequence • Make the problem behavior ineffective! • Provide Alternative Behavior to support student with behavior problems during independent reading time. • Alternative behavior must be the same function as the problem behavior.

31. Scenario • Juan is in the first grade. Juan dislikes reading because he is a poor reader. During reading class, Juan hits his peers whenever his teacher Mr. Suarez asks him to read a passage. Immediately, Mr. Suarez sends Juan to the principals office for fighting. • Antecedents, behavior, consequences?

32. Competing Pathway Model Manipulate Desirable Behavior Consequence Antecedent Behavior Maintaining Consequence Alternative Behavior (1. Same Function) (2. Academic and Behavior Intervention) Manipulate

33. Let’s Practice • Look at the scenario and provide a competing pathway model. • Let’s review • Think of one of your students and conduct a competing pathway model.

34. Teach Social Skills Everyday • Teach expectations and routines explicitly, systematically, and directly • Teach maintenance and generalization • Reinforce appropriate behavior • Be consistent • Provide opportunities to practice appropriate behaviors/Role Play • Provide constructive feedback

35. Expectations and Routines • Expectations are rules (e.g., Be safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful) • Routines are procedures that occur in classrooms (e.g., passing out paper, lining up, sitting at the carpet, listening to peers) • We must teach expectations and routines daily (Alberto & Troutman, 2009). • Teaching social skills is the equivalent of teaching the five big ideas in reading!

36. Continued • Expectations are rules: • Positively state 3-5 classroom rules • Positively Stated: Be Safe • Negatively Stated: Do not hit your peers. • Avoid terms such as: Do not and/or Never • Routines are behaviors: • Passing out paper, waiting in line

37. Let’s practice • State 3-5 classroom expectations (rules) that can be positively stated. • Examples: Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful • Use expectations to teach 3-5 classroom routines

38. Maintenance and Generalization • Students need to be firm on skills (maintenance). • Students need to incorporate learned skills into new settings (generalization). • Provide scaffolding support in new settings to assure student success! • (Alberto & Troutman, 2009)

39. Instructional Design Variables • Correct academic placement • Teaching explicitly • Providing multiple opportunities to respond

40. Correct Academic Placement • Place students at his or her instructional level. • Placement testing and progress monitoring. • Instructional level-responding with 85% success rate on material. • Homogeneous grouping • Always think-Acceleration (Why)? • How can my students catch up?

41. Continued • Flexible grouping • Small or large group • Good rule of thumb: Less attentive students who need more time in mastering skills, require small group instruction. • Selecting Instructional Materials • Using templates to make instruction explicit and systematic.

42. Continued • Always teach more of the following: • Phonemic awareness (blending and segmenting) • Letter sounds correspondences • Word reading • Irregular words (introduce several lessons before they appear in stories) • Story reading-accuracy

43. Teaching Explicitly • Use Model, Lead, Test. • Teach skills so that students can rely on strategies/framework (not memorization). • Decrease teacher wording. • Avoid vocabulary and sentence structures that are confusing for students. • Pre-teach critical vocabulary: Academic language and Tier 2 words.

44. Continued • Introduce one skill at a time. • Provide guided practice. • As students gain skills, teacher formats will decrease in structure. • Present appropriate introductory examples. • Provide discrimination practice. • Sequencing skills.

45. Continued • Teach pre-skills of a strategy. • Introduce high-utility skills before less useful ones. • Introduce easy skills before more difficult ones. • Separate confusing strategies and information.

46. Continued • Introduce new information at a realistic rate. • Provide adequate practice and review. • Think and teach to Mastery! • Develop accuracy and fluency. • Increase practice and feedback when introducing a new skill. • (Carnine et al., 2006)

47. Let’s Practice • Take one skill (one that you would like feedback) from your core book. • Plan how you would make the skill more explicit. • Incorporate templates into the lesson. • Practice teaching the skill to yourself. • Practice teaching the skill to a peer.

48. Providing Multiple Opportunities to Respond • Monitoring group responses. • Incorporate unison responses. • Watch students eyes and mouths. • Sit low achieving students in the center. • Individual Responses (After students have mastered a skill).

49. Continued • If students make errors during individual turns, teacher needs to provide more practice during unison responses. • Correcting errors (Five Steps). • Model, Lead, Test, Firm up, and Delayed Test.

50. Continued • Teaching to Mastery. • Level of practice determined by skill level of students. • Motivate students (Teacher point game). • Practice skills daily. • Do not introduce new information too quickly.