Summary: The educator sees that a student is performing an attention-seeking behavior. Regardless of the response to the behavior, the student gains what they want from the interaction: attention of any kind. This strategy includes ignoring or redirecting the attention-seeking behavior and instead offering attention at times not corresponding to the behavior. The procedure includes estimating the number of attention-seeking behaviors and trying to match the number of random positive attention attempts, slowly weaning the amount until the student is no longer exhibiting those behaviors. The purpose of this is to decrease the amount of student attention-seeking behaviors and to break the perception that negative attention-seeking behaviors will garner the desired response of attention.  

Behavioral functions: Attention - This strategy would address a student’s desire for attention while dismantling the negative attention-seeking behavior. 

Example: I notice that a student is continually shouting out answers and interrupting their classmates several times throughout the class period. Instead of responding to the behavior with attention, I would acknowledge that the student said something and move on. I would begin to introduce different positive attention at random times, including calling on the student when I hear something they said within a small group discussion/asking them to share out with the larger group, check in on the student’s progress on an assignment, or give more specific positive encouragement during a task when I notice a student not engaging in the negative attention-seeking behavior.  

Summary: Developing a procedure for a student to evaluate their own progress towards a goal. This can look very different for each student, but student/teacher collaboration must be prioritized while creating the goal, recording method, schedule, and cue. Once the “behavior target” has been defined by the teacher and student, they will work to create a routine or procedure of tracking the student’s progress towards the behavior target. The purpose is to encourage a student to be more reflective of their behaviors and create a routine of monitoring their behaviors independently over time.  

Behavioral functions: The behavioral functions of this strategy will look different depending on the identified “behavior target.” For example, if the target behavior is to be on task or to complete an assignment, the behavioral function could be “escape,” because it works to get students to identify when they are exhibiting avoidant behaviors when an assignment gets too difficult or they are fearful of receiving a negative grade, so they choose to not turn in or complete an assignment at all. 

Example: There is an example above to describe behavioral functions, but I see calling out most frequently in my field placement. If the target behavior is to limit the amount of times a student is calling out during a class period, I may take the student away from their peers to have a conversation with them to identify if they view this behavior as problematic. If they don’t, I would attempt to share my perspective and the perspective their peers may have of this behavior. If they do, I would proceed to work with them to create a plan to decrease the behavior. We may work to create a plan such as: the student keeps a running talley of the amount of times they call out during a class period, to be monitored from the beginning of a period to the end. Once the behavior has been established with teacher-cues, I would most likely have a conversation with the student to determine if they would prefer the task to be student-cued, instead. I would continue accuracy checks until the student and I feel comfortable reducing the frequency of monitoring. I would encourage the student to continue self-monitoring if they felt it benefited them, and would re-start the strategy if the behavior increased in the future. 

Summary: Targets more broad goals for a class for the entire class to achieve. There are three types of group contingencies: independent, dependent, and interdependent. Involves rewards for positive behavior that uses classroom dynamics and peer influence to achieve. The procedure includes identifying the goal you want to set for your students, and deciding if it is student or class-dependent. If it is class-dependent, you choose an independent or interdependent contingency type. Then, you would create a plan of how you were going to track class progress and identify logistics (what the prize will be, how long you will track progress before the reward is awarded/not earned, and how you plan to communicate expectations to students). While implementing the contingency, you would stay consistent with your defined expectations and work to verbally acknowledge positive behavior that works towards the goal. The purpose of this strategy is to create classroom buy-in for achieving a certain behavioral goal. 

Behavioral functions: Like the Self-monitoring strategy, the goals are identified on a case-by-case basis, and could serve a variety of behavioral functions depending on the identified behavior and desired outcome. 

Example: I identify that my students have not been turning in their in-class assignments after completing them. Because this is a class-wide issue, I determine that I want to do an interdependent contingency. I set a goal to have students turn in their work on time. I make a plan with my students that if they all turn in all their classwork for an entire week, we will plan to do (some kind of special reward determined with the class to create buy-in) on the Friday of the following week. This creates group accountability and students begin to check in on each other to determine if they have turned in their classwork at the end of the period. They can also “see the end” of the plan. The goal is also to establish the routine of students turning in their classwork at the end of the period, which would hopefully continue after the plan had been carried out. If, by the end of the week, all students have turned in their classwork from the week, we would do the fun thing that was promised. I would ensure that we are consistent in the deadline of Friday of next week, and carry out their special reward.