Throw the Flag

Using throw the flag...

- Gamifies behavioral reinforcement
- Provides a visual cue reminder of behavioral expectations
- Establishes community

Implementation

Overview

Throw the flag is a management strategy that plays on a connection to athletics/sporting events.
Variations can include adaptions on other penalty systems that different sports use.
A community discussion determining the co-authored expectations is initiated.
The system is introduced as a way of providing a visual for minor behaviors being demonstrated by the class as a whole such as disruption, voice level, and other off task behavior.
- - A yellow flag symbolizes a warning and a reintroduction of expectations for the class.
  - A red flag symbolizes a more urgent reset and a discussion on expectations as a class.

Core Components

- The system must fit the students and your style
- both red and yellow flags with the symbolism is defined
- Students share in the crafting of the norms and guidelines

Proactive Implementation

- Proactively implementing the Throw the Flag starts with teaching the system at the beginning of the year. The students should have say in how the real or metaphorical "flag" is communicated. Punishments should not be attached to this strategy.

Responsive Implementation

- Responsively implementing Throw the Flag should come from a need to increase awareness or draw attention back to the expectations for the entire class. Students should practice what happens when the "flag" is thrown.

Connection

If the need is connection then the system should not be about a specific student but the class as a collective.

Skills Training

If the need is skill building then the flag system may be associated for a specific time or type of task combined with a specific skill.

Awareness

If the need is awareness then "flag" should communicate or signal a connection back to the classroom values or expectations.

Emotional Regulation

If the need is regulation then the "flag" may signal that a student may be dysregulated and has the option to take a sensory or regulation break.

Consider Factors Prior to Start

Gender, race, function, topography, family dynamics, interpersonal relationships

Resource availability, classroom instruction, physical space, time, technology

Intensifying or Fading During

REMINDER

- Make a note to document when you're starting this intervention.
- After 10 consecutive school days of implementation, use collected data to determine the intervention's effectiveness.