Introduction
The classroom management plan will be implemented in regards to the 12 special needs students, who have to be provided with appropriate support and a required portion of knowledge with minimum disruptions and maximum instructional time.
Room Arrangement
Students enter the room full of natural lighting that comes from 4 windows. There is a green carpet in the middle of the room with 12 separate tables facing each other in a circle on it. Students can see and analyze each other’s work and participate in various processes sharing personal experience. My table is also in the circle not to promote the distance with students, but it is separated from the students’ tables by two spaces from each side so that I can walk through the room any side I want. There are many supplemented materials for lessons.
Rules
The main rule of the classroom is to demonstrate respect to each other regardless of someone’s skills and possibilities. Students with special needs should also follow the rule to talk about their demands raising their hands to keep order in the room. All these rules are written on the board and have to be repeated in case someone neglects them.
Procedures
Students get access to an agenda that informs them about lesson plans and activities. Several personal questions take place at the beginning of a lesson to involve students, homework check is next, then new material is explained, and quizzes or games can help to improve the understanding of the required material.
Reward System
During a lesson, students are encouraged to get stars for their participation, answers, and ideas. At the end of a lesson, a student, who has more stars, becomes “a class star” and is supported by the applauses. Each month, there is a choice of the most frequent stars’ holder, who gets a special promotional prize.
Individual Behavior Contract
Students fill in the contract as a kind of a serious document in their lives. They mention the rules to be followed and prove the fact that they are informed about the consequences of breaking the rules. It should help them become more serious with their educational process and realize that they are grown-ups.
Class Meetings
Meetings with parents and student-parents meetings should be organized to discuss the achievements of each student. Teacher-parents meetings aim at discussing students, their strong and weak points, abilities, etc. Children-parents-teacher meetings help to develop appropriate family relations and connect them with the educational process.
Paraprofessional Support
A professional psychologist may be invited for individual communications with students and their parents in case a teacher observes some problems with a child, his/her attitude to a learning process, and readiness for classes. This support should be optional still available.
Behavior Intervention Plan
Identification
Jane Smith (6-year-old African-American girl)
New York for All Kids School
09 April 2015
Ms. Kleenword (a supervisor)
IEP Team Participation
09 August 2015 is the date for the team to check the effectiveness of the plan
Purpose of the Plan
- Help Jane, who suffers from attention deficit disorder, to learn new material and behave properly in a classroom;
- Guide a supervisor how to treat a child with special needs;
- Determine the changes in a child’s behavior regarding the interventions offered.
Interventions in Other Settings
The interventions cannot be used in other settings except the classroom with a chosen child because her needs and supervisor’s possibilities are properly identified.
Target Behavior
- Cannot focus on a certain task without additional help;
- Too much impulsive in case she is not able to comprehend a task given;
- Cannot demonstrate good performing skills and meet all the instructions set;
- Can get bored soon.
Antecedents of the target behavior are based on the environmental changes and family problems (Jane’s parents got divorced, and the child should spend more time with her mother or be divided between parents regarding the court decision).
The problems with Jane’s behavior are frequent indeed because the girl needs constant support and attention. She wants someone’s taking care of her and giving all necessary explanations to everything that happens around. She may have the attacks supported with aggression and cries. Still, these attacks are not too long and maybe stopped using new activities offered.
TB consequences show how to cause desired and undesired behavior. As soon as Jane is provided with additional attention, she gets calm and may spend half an hour doing the task given. With appropriate support and explanations, she may be involved with the other tasks in case she knows she can be rewarded.
Summary
Functions of the Target Behavior
Jane’s behavior is a kind of protection against the world around. She does not like it when something goes against her will, and the only method she can use is her aggression and panic that may be replaced by additional attention from the adults’ side.
Student’s Strengths and Preferences
Jane demonstrates good learning skills. She is good at memorizing information, but she needs a stimulus. She can be easily distracted by the activities offered. It is easy to offer her some new ideas and activities to replace the target behavior and avoid the development of problems.
Interventions to Decrease TB
- Provide a student with clear explanations;
- Spend more time communicating with a child;
- Make sure a task is clear;
- Check if a child can start working.
Interventions to Increase RB (Replacement Behavior)
- Support a child with the chosen activity;
- Offer some new ideas in case Jane gets bored;
- Try to change the subject of communication.
Interventions to Maintain RB
- Explain the possibility of encouragement;
- Demonstrate the existing rewarding system;
- Use only visual explanations.
Reflection
Description of the Domain B and the TPEs
Domain E, Creating and Managing Effective Environments for Student Learning, consists of two TPEs: instructional time (TPE 10) and social environment (TPE 11) (Commission on Teacher Credentialing A-15). The domain focuses on the necessity to plan time and lessons and consider the students’ abilities and needs at the same time. It is not an easy task to manage instruction time, be confident that all students can achieve their learning goals, and follow the standards defined (Churchill, Mulholland, and Cepello 50). The creation of an appropriate learning environment takes an important place in class management and cannot be neglected. Teachers should know how to keep classroom issues in a culturally safe manner and promote students working independently or in groups.
Application of the Domain B across all TPEs
Both TPEs of Domain E help to realize that students’ success in education depends on the environment considerably. Teachers have to think about each detail creating a room, developing a plan and rules, analyzing students’ needs and expectations, and following certain time frames. Lemov admits that time management may become a kind of a team sport that can organize children with special needs and help them to concentrate on particular goals together and be rewarded separately (221).
Personal Views on the Domain and the TPEs
The success of the learning process directly depends on classroom and time management as well as on the properly created environment for students with special needs (Wiseman and Hunt 20). It is necessary to consider the surroundings when teaching ordinary students; talking about students with special needs, the idea that their learning environment should be perfect is out of the question. Teachers have to work hard, evaluate students’ behavior, and cooperate with parents and special experts to provide students with the necessary help.
Artifact 1 and the Domain
The first artifact is an independently developed classroom management plan for the 12 children with special needs. It helps to develop a powerful reward system, several rules that can encourage students, and several procedures that involve students in a learning process. Taking into consideration the TPEs of Domain E, teachers should never neglect the environment. Even the color of wallpapers or a carpet can matter as they can both distract students or encourage them to learn the necessary material.
Artifact 2 and the Domain
The second artifact is a behavior intervention plan developed for a girl with special needs because of her attention deficit disorder. A professional supervisor should evaluate the conditions under which the mentioned disorder can be developed and a problematic behavior can prevent an education process. The artifact is a possibility to connect two TPEs: on the one hand, the attention to instructional time is necessary for a student with special needs; on the other hand, social environment is a concept that cannot be neglected by a teacher, who aims at providing a student with the required portion of the support. Domain E with its two TPEs as well as the artifacts underlines the importance of care, respect, and fairness in a classroom.
Works Cited
Churchill, Lisa, R., Mulholland, Rita, and Cepello, Michelle, R. A Practical Guide for Special Education Professionals, Boston, MA: Pearson, 2007. Print.
Commission on Teacher Credentialing 2013, California Teaching Performance Expectations. Web.
Lemov, Doug. Teach Like a Champion 2.0.: 62 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2014. Print.
Wiseman, Dennis and Hunt, Gilbert. Best Practice in Motivation and Management in the Classroom, Springfield, Illinois: Charles C Thomas Publisher, 2008. Print.