Updates

1. Behavioral Principles & Teaching Applications Part 2&Collaborating and training paraprofessionals

2. Updates

3. What makes a good prompt? • Increases likelihood of correct responding • Focuses attention on relevant features of task (Sd) • Ease of delivery • Ease of removal across trials • Good prompts are determined by the demands of the task AND the presenting skills of the learner. • As weak as possible (least intrusive) • Should be faded as rapidly as possible

4. Guidelines for Selecting Prompts • 1) Select the least intrusive, effective prompt • 2) Combine prompts if necessary • 3) Select natural prompts and those related to the behavior • 4) Provide only after students are attending • 5) Provide in a supportive, instructive manner before response • 6) Fade as soon as possible • 7) Plan fading procedures beforehand

5. Activity:Provide examples of these methods for teaching a skill in your classroom • Prompting • Modeling • Verbal prompt • Visual Prompt • Shaping • Fading • Chaining

6. Generalization • Predictable/appropriate responding in noninstructional or nontraining conditions • Transfer of stimulus control from trained to nontrained antecedent stimuli

7. Example • Caesar learns to raise his hand to ask for teacher assistance in homeroom. In social studies & math periods of the day, he also uses hand raises to ask for assistance. He doesn’t use hand raises at home at dinner table. • Generalized responding

8. Maintenance • Durability of performance over time • Durability of stimulus control over time • Continued performance when instructional conditions are removed

9. Examples • Having learned to use hand-raises to obtain teacher assistance during the first week of school, Caesar continued to use the appropriately strategy the rest of the school year. • After learning how to successfully use “look cool & walk away” during peer conflicts in 8th grade, Cleo continued to use the strategy in 9th & 10th grades.

10. Directing Paraprofessional Work • Define the similarities & differences between teachers & paraprofessionals • Describe different ways in which paraprofessionals can be effectively utilized in general education settings • Suggest specific strategies that paraprofessionals can be taught to improve the quality of education • Describe ways in which teachers can effectively monitor & provide feedback to paraprofessionals

11. Importance • Your responsibility to provide leadership in classroom • Includes directing the work of paraprofessionals • What you do or don’t do will impact student learning • Parapros are play a significant role • Parapro supports that are not well designed can result in: • Poor peer relationships, unhealthy dependencies, limited access, • Giangreco & Doyle, 2004

12. Welcoming & acknowledging paraprofessionals • Be certain they have a place of their own (e.g., desk or table) • Put a coffee cup or plant on their desk at beginning of the year • Establish routines to students that the teacher and paraprofessional are working together • Ex: paraprofessional participate in beginning/end class routine • Create opportunities for their input • Share student’s goals for the unit. “Do you have any thoughts on her participation?”

13. Orienting Paraprofessionals • Orient them to the school, classroom, & students with whom they will be working • Don’t “throw them into things” • Giangreco et al., 2001 • Intro parapro to school community: office staff, teachers, nurse, etc. • Be sure they are familiar with school policies • Show where supplies are kept • Provide policies on student confidentiality • Support for the classroom NOT the student

14. Students they will support • Provide them information on the students they will support (e.g., IEP at a Glance) • Through a course or a series of staff development work shops to learn essential skills about being a paraprofessional • Topics should include (CichoskiKelly et al., 2000): • Collaborative teamwork • Families & cultural sensitivity • Characteristics of youth with various disabilities • Roles & responsibilities of all team members • Implementing teacher-planned instruction

15. Establish parameters • Clarify their role • Your responsibility to: • Prepare plans to guide paraprofessional in instruction, assessment, decision-making, instructional methods & communicate with families • Many teachers introduce new concepts and skills before asking parapro to provide ongoing teaching and practice • Allows teacher to model instructional approaches for the para and gain firsthand info to adjust future lessons

16. Planning for paraprofessionals • One of the keys to good teaching is good planning • Daily & weekly schedule of activities indicating what, when, who, where • Parapros schedule should be linked to classroom schedule • Should be clear what they should be doing for each activity in class • Develop plans that provide the content and level of info required for them to carry out the plan

17. Things to consider when planning for parapros: • How much info does the para need to implement the teacher-planned lesson or activity? • What is the essential information? • What makes the most sense? • How can planned information be provided in ways that do not create unnecessary paperwork?

18. Basic components they need to understand: • Purpose of activity • Objectives within the activity that may differ by student • Materials needed • How to arrange the learning environment • How to get & sustain student attention • How to introduce the activity (e.g., demo, explain) • How to encourage student participation • How to relate activity to previous learning

19. Basic components continued • What desired responses look like • How and what feedback to provide when students give desired responses • What to do when students are nonresponsive • OR give incorrect responses • What data to collect and how it should be recorded • How to end the activity • What to do if the plan does not seem to be working

20. Communicating with Parapros • Developing expectations • Create mechanisms for communication • Make sure they know who to talk to when problems arise • Preparing ahead • Be sure they are aware of dates, times, locations of meetings • Be a good model of planning instruction • Understanding Perspectives • Let them know that different perspectives are welcome • Ask them questions, Listen, & Speak clearly

21. Ten tips to collaborating effectively with paraprofessionals • Start & end each day with them. • Provide them with constructive feedback ASAP. • Say thank you frequently for specific acts • Ask them how you can help • Demonstrate what you mean • Recognize the individual & unique contributions of each parapro • Occasionally meet together way from school

22. 8. Demonstrate what you mean 9. Encourage them to keep a daily journal of activities, thoughts, and feelings 10. Advocate for their professional growth. Adapted from Lee, 1999

23. Resources • Minnesota Paraprofessional Consortium • http://ici.umn.edu/para/ • National Resource Center for Paraprofessionals in Education & Related Services • http://www.nrcpara.org/ • National Clearinghouse of Paraeducator Resources: • http://www.usc.edu/dept/education/CMMR/Clearinghouse.html

24. Work as collaborative teams • Decisions are made at numerous points, but only after team members share their different perspectives on the student, engage in relevant discussion, problem solving, and then reach consensus as a team (Friend & Cook, 2010) • Nonconsensual decisions tend to reflect a narrower range of information and risk being of poorer quality (Snell & Janney, 2005)

25. Effective Instruction “ “Holding a student responsible for assigned material is not teaching, even though it is a large part of modern school and university practice.” B.F. Skinner, 1968

26. Understanding the Stages of Learning • Acquisition • (build initial stimulus control) • Fluency • (develop speed, accuracy) • Maintenance • (durability of skill across time) • Generalization • (performance of behavior under appropriate, non-trained conditions)

27. Stages of Learning • Acquisition: new at task, instruction crucial, student not accurate • Fluency: accurate and increase in speed • Maintenance: skills retained over time • Generalization: skill in new contexts (discriminate) • Adaptation: modify skill for new situation

28. Acquisition • Teaching discriminations • Positive examples • Maximally different negative example • Minimally different negative example • Positive examples • Teach what to do, and when to do it. • The behavior • The signal (discriminative stimulus) • Prompting, fading, shaping, rewarding

29. Learner characteristics at acquisition stage • Student performs none or up to about half of the task • May need to cue or prompt initiation • May need a low-error prompt system • Possibly break skill down into smaller components • Give frequent positive feedback

30. Fluency • Improved rate of responding • But fluency is more than just rate • Fluid motions • Absence of pausing • Speed in decision-making • Rhythmic • Build fluency through practice • Math facts, chromatic scale, second language • Fluency is an index of the power of stimulus control that has been established.

31. Fluent learner characteristics • Student performs more than half of the task • Add realistic speed and quality criteria • Add to skill to make it more functional (e.g., monitors speed & quality) • Enrich skill with communication choice, or social behaviors • Drop all intrusive requests • Fade intrusive prompt • Shift attention to natural cues and prompts • Thin out reinforcement • Shift to natural reinforcement

32. Maintenance • Stability of responding over time • Variables that affect maintenance • Building fluency with initial instruction (level of stimulus control • Regular opportunity to perform • On-going access to contingent rewards (reinforcement) • Access to competing alternative behaviors that are contingently reinforced.

33. Learners at the maintenance stage • Student performs more than half of the task • “Schedule it” and expect student to perform • Add to the skill to make it more functional (e.g., initiates, prepares) • Enrich skill with communication, choice, social behaviors • Drop all intrusive requests • Fade intrusive prompts • Shift attention to natural cues • Thin out reinforcement • Shift to natural reinforcement

34. Generalization • Defined: • Target behavior is performed under conditions beyond those used during instruction. • Generalization can be desired (e.g.“greeting skills”) or undesired (saying /b/ in the presence of “d”). • Build generalized skills through selection and sequencing of teaching examples

35. Characteristics of learners at the generalization stage • Student performs more than half of the task • Vary settings • Vary instructors, supervisors, others • Vary materials • Vary conditions and teach problem solving • Enrich skill with communication, choice • Drop all intrusive requests • Fade intrusive prompt, reinforcement • Shift attention to natural cues & natural reinforcement

36. Adaptation Generalization Maintenance Fluency Acquisition Stages of Learning

37. Review • 4 basic elements of behavior • Response, Antecedent stimulus, Consequence, Setting Event • 9 principles of behavior • Stimulus control, Positive reinforcement, Negative reinforcement, Positive punishment, Negative punishment, Transfer, Generalization, Maintenance • Applications to teaching • Prompting, Fading, Shaping, Task Analysis, Design of Instruction, Instructional objectives, Behavioral objectives.

38. Examples • Teaching reading in second grade • Objective: Hailey will read at 100 words correct per min with the Open Court text. • Acquisition: • Fluency: • Maintenance: • Generalization:

39. Example • Decrease problem behavior • Objective: Mikai will not hit, kick or bite others on the playground. • Mikai will play cooperatively with others on the playground without hitting, kicking, or biting for 5 consecutive days. • Acquisition: • Fluency: • Maintenance: • Generalization:

40. Instructional Activities (acquisition) • Direct instruction • Systematic teaching of target skills: reading, math, social-behavioral skills • MODEL  LEAD TEST

41. direct instruction (“little di”): Steps • Gain attention … ”Everyone eyes on me.” • Review previous material to: Check for understanding to ensure students remember How previous material is relevant to new material • State goal State Expectations Positively • New content in small steps Explicit Instruction, range of examples, logical sequence) • Model Demonstration of the skill • Lead Prompted (guided) practice Unprompted practice • Test Independent practice

42. Instructional Concepts • State expectations positively • Explicit instruction • Range of examples • Logical sequencing

43. Instructional Concept #1 State Expectations Positively Teach them what you do want them to do

44. Ineffective Instruction • Sets the occasion for student failure

45. No elbowing others No kicking No hitting No pinching No biting No scratching Etc. . . 2+2 is not 1 2+2 is not 2 2+2 is not 3 2+2 is not 5 2+2 is not 6 2+2 is not 7 Etc. . . Teaching Behaviors Behavior: Peer Relations Academic Skill:Addition

46. Hands and feet to self or Respect others 2+2 = 4 Teaching Behaviors Behavior: Peer Relations Academic Skill: Addition

47. Instructional Concept #2 Explicit Instruction Be Direct

48. What is the Best Way to Facilitate Academic Success? • Teaching - teacher structures a lesson, models skills, and leads students through practice or key skills. • Facilitate - teachers sets up activities wherein students discover key skills. • Support - teachers simply oversee students and offer support for whatever they do. Should we teach, facilitate, or just support?

49. Explicit Instruction Large-Scale Research and Meta Analyses • Direct Comparison Meta-AnalysisFavor explicit instruction 87.3 %Tie 0.6 %Favor other methods 12.1 % • Students of all ages and abilities • Academic and social behaviors • Especially effective with low performers • Very successful with disadvantaged students

50. Instructional Concept #3 Range of Examples Show all the possibilities