Feature 1.4 - Teaching Expectations

Essential Learning

Complete the online course: Leadership (Coming Soon!)

Read pages 131-137 of the Tier 1 Workbook to gain a foundational knowledge on teaching expectations
- Complete the discussion on page 137 as a team
Read pages 138-156 of the Tier 1 Workbook to learn how to write behavior expectation lessons
- Review sample lessons on pages 143-153 and look for commonalities and differences according to the age/grade levels they represent in relation to purpose, format, content, and setting
- Blank Acquisition Lesson Plan Template
- Blank Maintenance “Booster” Lesson Plan Template
Read pages 157-160 of the Tier 1 Workbook to learn how to schedule behavior expectation lessons
- Example of a Teaching Schedule from PBIS MO
Complete pages 14-23 of the NE PBIS Tier 1 Training Workbook

Additional Resources

Use the School-wide Expectations Teaching Matrix to develop lessons for school-wide expectations
Review Plans for Teaching Expectations to learn how to develop lessons for behavior expectations
Review Ideas for Teaching Expectations to learn other ways to teach behavior expectations
Learn how to Review Expectations after initial lessons are conducted

The task: Create a formal system, with written schedules, to teach expected behaviors directly to students across classroom and campus settings AND have at least 70% of students can list at least 67% of the expectations

Criteria for successful completion of the task

Design lesson plans and resources to teach expected behaviors to students
Develop a calendar to schedule when behavior expectations will be taught to students

Overview

“If a child doesn’t know how to read, we teach.

If a child doesn’t know how to swim, we teach.

If a child doesn’t know how to multiply, we teach.

If a child doesn’t know how to drive, we teach.

If a child doesn’t know how to behave, we ...teach? ...punish?

Why can’t we finish the last sentence as automatically as we do the others?"

Tom Herner, 1998

Creating a behavior matrix (Feature 1.3) is only the foundation of PBIS. Teaching the expectations is the step that puts PBIS into action in your building. It is also the step that can garner the most criticism from staff.

Often, the belief is that students should "know how to act", but that is not always the reality and even if they do "know how to act", each students' knowledge level may be different. Therefore, educators must apply the same teaching expertise to behaviors as they do academics.

“Teaching behavior as relentlessly as we teach reading or other academic content is the ultimate act of prevention, promise and power underlying PBS and other preventive interventions in America’s schools."

Bob Algozzine, Chuang Wang & Amy S. Violette, 2011

It is important, however, to design and plan behavior lessons that match your school culture and climate as a part of your PBIS implementation. Lessons often include creative elements, such as student skits and/or videos, which provide both positve and negative examples of behaviors. The internet is littered with many examples of schools who embraced this and, in doing so, have made the practices of PBIS a part of their schools' culture.

Lessons can also be emphasized by the schools feedback and acknowlegement system (Feature 1.9), when teachers focus their attention towards the behaviors that have most recently been taught.

It is also an opportunity to get students involved in the implementation process by having them be a part of the planning or even teaching process. Because of this, it is not only one of the most essential features of PBIS, it can also be one of the most fun!