Teaching Expectations

Teaching plans should be developed before initially rolling out expectations in the behavioral matrix and whenever data suggests that improvement is needed in specific behaviors and/or specific locations. If there are multiple locations or behaviors that need improvement, the team will need to prioritize which behaviors to target and on what schedule. A common mistake that teams make is to teach a specific behavior and then move too rapidly to a new behavior or location. Although teams may initially roll out these expectations in multiple locations in the beginning of the year, some time and practice should be devoted to teaching practicing and acknowledging these behaviors in smaller clusters.

Each teaching plan should include the behavior and/or location being targeted, a specific grade level focus if appropriate, the duration of the teaching plan, specific objectives, descriptions of activities, and methods to practice and reinforce the new behavior.

The team should be clear about what data they will use to assess student behavior and how they will determine which behaviors to target. In some cases SWIS or other data sources may provide enough information to allow teams to make an informed decision quickly. In other cases the team may find that they need to gather additional information through surveys of staff or other methods.

When developing any teaching plan the following questions need to be considered.

• Which staff members will participate in teaching the plan and how will the staff have a chance to practice this teaching before they implement it?
• Which faculty and staff will be involved in helping students practice the new behaviors?
• Which staff members will be involved in recognizing positive behaviors when they occur? Although positive behavior can be acknowledged at any time and in any location, it is particularly important to recognize the demonstration of positive behaviors that have recently been taught.
• Who will prepare write and distribute the written teaching plan to the rest of the staff?
• How will families be informed in advance or concurrently with the teaching plan, and how might you suggest they support the development of these positive behaviors at home?

Teaching Behavior