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Shelby Murphy
PBSP
Towson University
Spring 2017
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Background Information:
Gabriel is a 7th grade student at Ridgely Middle School. Gabriel is in both Inclusive and
Self-Contained classes. His Language Arts class is a Self-Contained class. In this class, there is
one Special Educator with a total of seven to eight children. In his Inclusion classes, there are
an average of twenty-seven students with one General Educator and one Special Educator.
Generally, there is a Para educator in the room who offers services to another student. Ridgely
is a PBIS school that incorporates a school-wide behavior plan with both incentives and
consequences. Students are offered Ridgely Bucks for positive behavior. Depending upon the
teacher, students can trade them in for various prizes. For negative behaviors, there is
progression chart that categorizes negative behaviors and the consequences associated with
them. Often times, Gabriel does not receive Ridgely Bucks due to his hyperactivity.
He is often out of his seat, distracted internally and externally, and has significant difficulty
staying focused on a task presented to him. He also has difficulty maintaining materials he
need for each day, including his glasses. His demonstration to initiate, sustain, and follow
through on tasks is challenging for him. These skills also play a role in his socialization with
peers; although Gabe seems to be self-aware and perceptive, he often has difficulty relating
to his peers due to his difficulty of regulating his physical space and actions. It appears
that his executive functioning and hyperactivity are impacting him significantly in school. Gabe
Literature Review:
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1. Evans, S., Owens, J., Bunford, N. (2013). Evidence-based psychosocial treatments for
The article reviews and updates literature that focuses upon the strategies and
trainings used for children who have ADD/ADHD. Specifically, the article addresses
interactions. The article analyzes the procedures, strategies and outcomes of practices
that can be implemented to increase positive behavior in children who have ADD/ADHD.
The strategies for classroom teachers and fostering peer relationships will be helpful for
successful student.
2. Toplak, M. (2015). ADHD: making a difference for children and youth in the schools.
This article is similar to the one above. The article addresses specific strategies
for teachers to implement when working with students who have ADD/ADHD. The article
focuses upon strategies that teacher can use to foster relationships with children. The
strategies critiqued in this article can further develop how I interact with Gabe. In
addition, the strategies critiqued can help Gabe build his peer relationships.
The article addresses the need for teachers to implement effective disciplinary
will help to eliminate the specific behavior by the student. Lastly, the reinforcement
consequences by the student. Targeting Gabes compulsion to constantly walk the room
and hit/touch other students may help Gabe to recognize what he is doing wrong and
correct it.
4. Gold, M., Richards, H. (2012). To label or not to label: the special education question for
This article analyzes the theory that African-American children have been,
historically, over represented in special education. The article specifically discusses the
notion that labeling, whether through good or bad intentions, will have adverse,
detrimental effects on the child. This article is a resource that allows the teacher to see
the possible effects that labeling and classifying have on children, in particular, African-
American children. This also may give insight into why particular behaviors may be
displayed. Inherently, the child may feel that he or she is at a disadvantage, thus,
5. Bhattachary, A., Geisomini, M., Perez-Fuster, P., Abowd, G., Rozga, A. (2015). Designing
69-78.
This article examines how motion-based activities can impact the behavior of
students who have autism. This includes: student engagement, peer-directed social
behaviors and developing motor skills. The article gives teachers suggestions on how to
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create and then implement such activities for children in the classroom. For a child like
Gabe who likes to move around, incorporating kinesthetic activities in the class that are
related to instruction will help him to remain focused while doing something that gets him
moving around the classroom. I would introduce a one-on-one activity with Gabe to get
him acclimated to the activities and then I would gradually encourage his peers to
participate as well. This would allow for social interactions and relationship building.
I currently am in my full time internship and work with Gabe on a daily basis in his
7th grade Language Arts class. I work with him almost on a daily basis and will converse
with him on various topics ranging from activities that he is interested in to his
progression in his studies. However, there are times when I have to reprimand him for
his hallway behavior. Typically, I will observe Gabe running down the hallway, staring into
classrooms or touching other students. These behaviors are seen in the Self-Contained
classroom as well. Overall, Gabe is a student who enjoys school and desperately wants
to build relationships with both adults and peers in the building. For purposes of
gathering data, I went into multiple classrooms during my planning periods or other free
On day one, I observed Gabe in his Self-Contained Language Arts class. The
class is specifically for children who are in the Behavior and Learning Support (BLS)
program.
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Gabes teacher, Mrs. Watchinsky, allows her students earned free time in class.
However, within the first five minutes of class, Gabe is out of his seat, touching and
talking to other students. Because of this, his free time is taken away from him. In
addition, he is not allowed to use his laptop (device). Throughout the mod, Gabe
displays continued attention-seeking behavior. Gabe continually gets out of his seat and
goes over to other students where he proceeds to touch students. As a result, minor
pushing between Gabe and the other students occur. Gabe is reprimanded and moved
to a different area of the class so that he is not distracting others. I have noticed that
Gabe likes the attention of students, whether it is positive or negative. Based on the
data, Gabe was asked to return to his seat five times during this mod. While this is a
On day two, Gabe was observed in his Mod 9 Science class. This is an Inclusion
class. Upon entering the class Gabe was very talkative. His Science teacher, Mrs.
Houchens, reminded him of her expectations and how he should enter the room quietly.
During the course of the class, Gabe got up to get a tissue and then once more for hand
sanitizer. Again, Mrs. Houchens reminds him of the expectations and asks him to return
to his seat. As students were taking the test, Gabe begin to look around the room and
became unfocused. He was fixated on his belongings, but was redirected to take the
test. In this class, it was noticed that both Mrs. Houchens and the students mostly
ignored Gabe when he became disruptive. Therefore, the attention that he wanted was
not there. In this environment, Gabe worked and behaved much better than previously.
He was only off task or out of his seat one time. Juxtaposed to his Language Arts class
on the same day, he was observed engaging in the same off task behaviors as day one.
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Gabe got out of his seat multiple times and was told several times to stop talking as
students were taking a quiz. Eventually, he was sent out into the hallway to sit quietly.
On day three, Gabe is observed in both his Inclusion science class and in his
Self-Contained Language Arts class. In Science, students were working on a lab that
included students visiting different stations. During transitions from one station to the
next, Gabe went over to a group of students and placed some of his clothing on his head
in an attempt to gain attention from his peers. Gabe was ignored by his peers and was
redirected to his own workstation. It was noted that Gabe is much calmer in this
environment and the students largely ignore his behavior. In his Language Arts class,
Gabe displayed the same behaviors as previously mentioned. He was out of his seat a
total of seven times and was asked to return to his seat a total of six.
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Upon a review of Gabes records, his behaviors are consistent with what has been previously
observed. Gabe started to display these behaviors while attending Pinewood Elementary. It was
noted that as he progressed in elementary, there was an increase in his attention seeking
behavior. Gabe had been observed engaging in touching of other students and constantly
leaving his seat to distract others. Because of this, there is a lack of socialization that Gabe
displays when he interacts with peers. It was also noted that his elementary teachers often had
to isolate Gabe so that he would not distract them. This isolation included moving him to an area
in the classroom that had less external stimuli, sending him to another teacher, or allowing him
to work in the office or with a guidance counselor. This behavior is also typical of what has been
The data that was collected over a three-day period demonstrates that Gabes disruptive
an Inclusion environment. Gabe tends to be more disruptive when the attention that he seeks is
given to him. When the behavior is ignored, he does not engage in significant disruptive
behavior. I am interested in finding out why the behavior is seen more in self-contained
environments. I am also interested in finding out the dynamics of the relationships that he has
with those students who are also in his Self-Contained class. In addition, Gabe tends to exhibit
these behaviors more during periods of transitions. He is usually disruptive at the beginning of a
class and when there are kinesthetic activities occurring. I am also wondering what it is about
seeking in the Self-Contained setting. Gabe is a student who is on the Spectrum, which makes
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social interactions a weakness for Gabe. When in the Self-Contained class, negative attention is
often given to Gabe by his other peers in the class. It does not matter if the attention is negative
or positive Gabe seems to seek both. I have concluded that the behaviors that Gabe exhibits
are only present in the Self-Contained classes and so these will be the classes where we focus
on the plan for Gabe. Gabe is not trying to avoid work because when given a quiet space to
work he enjoys participating in the lesson and will willingly complete his work. Gabe must work
on not seeking the negative attention from other students by going out of his designated area,
touching other students, and using negative language. From the data collected, Gabe constantly
has shown to decrease negative behaviors greatly when the other students ignore him. In the
Self-Contained setting, the students do not ignore Gabe when he has outbursts, leaves his
area, touches others, and uses negative language with his peers. The students in the Self-
Contained class will give Gabe the attention he is seeking and this causes Gabes negative
behaviors to continue.
Replacement Behavior:
Gabe should remain in his designated area during the duration of instruction time unless
directed to get up for supplies, etc. When Gabe is given permission to be out of his designated
area, he should keep his hands to himself. Gabe should follow the directions given and then
return back to his designated area quietly. When Gabe would like to speak during instruction
time, he should raise his hand quietly for the teacher to call on him. During free time, Gabe
should pick an activity that he will be doing while keeping his hands to himself and using
I will teach the replacement behaviors by giving the student sentence strips that include
reminders of good behaviors in his binder. When Gabe needs reminders of the correct behavior
I will point to the sentence strips and remind him of what is expected of him. During free time,
Gabe will be given options of what he can choose to do during this time. These activities may
include: sitting on device at seat or in hallway, sit in hallway, listen with headphones on device,
take a walk, sit silently, quietly talk to other students, use computers in back of room, etc. When
the student is directed to get out of seat, I will remind him to keep his hands to himself and
immediately go right back to his seat when finished. I will also give the student 3 strikes in class.
I will verbally tell the student each strike he is on during class and when we get to strike 3 he
must take a break in the hallway. The student will have some quiet time and then I will ask the
student if he is ready to come back into class OR he may continue his work in the hallway.
When the student gets 3 strikes, he will also be reminded that this will affect his weekly reward.
Each week the student will have a reward that he is working towards. The reward will be
decided between Gabe and me. At the end of Mod 3 each day Gabe will be given a different
small reward each week. The reward will be given to his adult aid (Mrs. Santiago) on Monday
and each day if he has positive behavior in Mod 3, he will receive the reward for a certain
amount of time each day. Each week the reward will change to keep Gabe motivated and
interested. When in class, Gabe will be reminded multiple times that he should be showing
positive behavior to prove that he can earn his reward from Mrs. Santiago. He may have this
I will teach the replacement behaviors as they occur in Mod 3 (Language Arts) each day. On the
first day of the implementation of this behavior plan, I will talk with Gabe about the sentence
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strips that will be on his desk, the verbal reminders I will give him, and we will talk about the
rewards he may receive for good behavior. I will explain to Gabe the rules of his reward each
day and that Mrs. Santiago will be in charge of what times he is aloud to have the reward. The
rules, rewards, and consequences will be the same each day for Mod 3 and will be enforced by,
4. How will you know when the student has learned it?
I will know that Gabe has learned the correct behaviors when the disruptive behaviors
eventually begin to be less frequent and he self regulates. The goal is for Gabe to not need as
many cues and reminders each day in class to keep his hands to himself, talk in an inside voice,
raise hand to speak, use kind language etc. I will know Gabe has learned the correct behaviors
when he does not need me to prompt him and remind him to do these behaviors each day.
Gabe will begin to self-correct the behaviors that he should not be doing and will refrain from
talking back to his teachers and peers. Gabe will come into the classroom, get the things he
needs, and choose a quiet activity he will participate in for the free time.
I plan to start out by having a fidget as a reward for Gabe when he does not touch
others, does not use negative language, and when he stays in his area. He will also be given a
board maker reminder. This social story reminds Gabe that he must keep his hands to himself
because others do not like it. I will tell Gabe that he will only have this social story until he
proves to me that he does not need this reminder on the front of his folder anymore. Each week
of the three weeks I will try a different reward with Gabe. He loses interest very easily and so I
want to make sure that he stays motivated. The first week we will try having fidgets as a reward
and then reflect on how it goes to see how we will move forward. When Gabe earns this reward
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it will be given to Gabes one on one adult to give to him at the appropriate times throughout the
day. At first, he will be allowed to stay in his seat and if the behaviors continue with these
methods, Gabes seat will be moved away from the other students. After the first week, Gabe
and I will sit down and reflect on how his week went and then decide from there what his next
Analysis of Plan/Reflection:
Team Design:
Gabes PBSP will involve his one on one Aid, Self-Contained teachers, his Inclusion teachers,
the Assistant Principal, and myself. I will continuously stay in contact with these individuals to
keep up with Gabes behaviors inside and out of the Self-Contained classroom setting. These
individuals will also let me know how Gabes hallway behavior is looking as well.
Gabes one on one will be a big part of whether or not he earns his reward for the day. The other
adults in the building will remind Gabe of the behaviors he should be displaying. His one on one
will remind him of his rewards throughout the day when I am not there to reinforce. This will
allow Gabe to be aware that his teachers and one on one will be looking for his good behaviors
and looking too see if he makes good choices throughout the day.
I will formally observe Gabe each day and complete a tally chart of how many times Gabe is out
of his designated area, touching other students, and using negative language. While tallying the
amount of times Gabe exhibits these behaviors, I will also write down some information about
the day and Gabes behaviors. This will help me narrow down what is most influencing his
behaviors. Below are the note sheets I completed when observing Gabe throughout the 3
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weeks. I have also included a pie chart that shows which behaviors were mostly eliminated and
a bar graph that shows a visual of how certain behaviors decreased over time.
Day 1 2 3 5
Day 2 1 2 2
Day 3 0 0 3
Day 4 8 5 2
Day 5 0 0 0
Day 6 7 2 7
Day 7 0 1 0
Day 8 0 0 0
Day 9 0 0 1
Day 10 0 0 0
Day11 0 0 2
Day 12 0 0 0
Day 13 0 0 0
Day 14 3 3 3
Day 15 0 0 0
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Week 1 Week 2
33%
36%
44% 44%
30%
11%
27%
45%
27%
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12
0
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3
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The first day of implementing Gabes PBSP, I pulled him and his one on one into the
hallway to talk about the replacement behaviors I want to be seeing, ask him how he thinks his
behaviors are, talk about the social story, and ask him about rewards. I explained to Gabe that
for the first week we were going to see how he does at his seat and if he can control his
behaviors there. I mostly observed Gabe this first day after I spoke with him. I watched if his
behaviors would change solely due to the fact that he would get a fidget to take to his other
classes. When this class was over, I did not see a change in Gabes behaviors. He constantly
was out of his seat distracting other students and trying to touch a particular student (KM)
multiple times. Halfway through class Gabe was asked to sit outside of the classroom and work
alone because of his disruptive behavior. The next day I did the same thing; I talked with Gabe
before class and reminded him of what I was looking for and said that this was his second
chance to show me he could stay at his seat and earn the reward for the week. The behaviors
continued on the second day and the reward of the fidget did not seem to influence Gabe. At the
end of class I talked to Gabe and decided that the next day his seat would be in the back of the
class working with me. The next day I had to remind Gabe that he could not sit in the front of the
classroom and he must sit by himself at the back table with me during class. While Gabe was
sitting at the back table he progressed immensely. Gabe participated in the lesson, raised his
hand, and stayed focus all throughout class. I also observed that Gabe had two big markers that
he played with during class. It did not seem to be a distraction to Gabe, it seemed to help him
stay focused and on task. This made me think that if I gave him a fidget during the class time,
then it would benefit keeping his attention in the class. The fourth day I decided to give Gabe a
fidget at the beginning of class since he did so well and to see if this would help him focus. We
have a box of fidgets that I let him pick from. During this day in class Gabe had a very hard time
focusing and staying on task. He was up out of his seat much more and was very easily
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distracted. After class I then had a talk with Gabe about him having the fidget and explained the
behaviors that I wanted to see. That day in class the rest of the students were disruptive and off
task during class as well so it was hard to tell if the class was distracting Gabe or if it was the
fidget provided. The next day Gabe did not request to have a fidget. On day 5 Gabe came in
and needed to be reminded again to sit in the back of the class to stay focused. He was then
immediately prepared and ready to learn the rest of class. The 6th and 7th day proved to me
that there needed to be a change in the plan for Gabe. On day 6 Gabe was given the
opportunity to sit back at his regular seat since he did well the day before. Gabe began to
immediately show the same negative behaviors as before. The next day Gabe was sent to the
office within the first 10 minutes for punching a student in the back while they were playing
around. He should have been getting ready for class, but instead, Gabe was wandering the
class and playing with other students. Game was sent to the office and given a referral so the
next day he missed class. Day 9 was Gabes first day back in class and before he came in I
pulled him to the hallway to talk about the new reward tokens we would be doing and a
reminder of how he needs to make better choices to earn. That day Gabe earned a token. Day
10 Gabe came right in and sat at his seat in the back, which was a good choice for him to make.
Gabe earned a token on that day as well. On day 11 Gabe came in and immediately sat in the
back and got his stuff together, then sat quietly. Gabe earned a token on day 11 as well. The
next two days the school was closed because of snow. Gabe returned to school on the day 14
and sat immediately at his seat in the back of the class, which was a good start. For the next 20
minutes the students wandered around the class, did not stay in his area, touched other
students, and talked negatively to his peers. He was very disruptive during the first part of the
class. When Gabe began to be disruptive to the class, I pulled him aside to remind him about
that these were the last two days of the week to earn his tokens and that it did not look like he
was earning today. Class began at 10 and around 10:20 Gabe began showing on task
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behaviors and sitting quietly. By the end of the class Gabe turned his behaviors around and
ended up earning a token that day. Then on day 15, Gabe earned his reward token for the fifth
day in a row.
There are many things that I believe could have affected the outcome of my PBSP with
Gabe. When the school had two snow days during the last week of implementation, Gabe came
back and at first had a hard time adjusting back to the routine again. It took about the first 20
minutes for him to be reminded about his behaviors and adjust back to the correct replacement
behaviors. I believe this was because of the two snow days in between the week and this
skewed the data I had on how the PBSP was working for Gabe. Another factor that I think
affected the data was Gabe receiving a referral the second week of the PBSP. This seemed to
reinforce the behavior plan that I was implementing with Gabe and he realized that his behavior
was very serious. When Gabe returned to class after being in the office, he had very good
behavior and was earning almost every day afterwards. Another factor that played into the data
was the attendance of a specific student (KM). When this student was absent, Gabe would be
on task and would not seek attention from the students as much. When the students (KM) would
be in class, Gabe would wander the class to find this student and go out of his way to get
attention from the student (KM). Another factor would be that Gabe did not have a consistent
plan for longer than a week. The reward system changed twice and it was not until the last week
that I saw great amounts of improvement. I think that I would have been able to get more data if
I had implemented this plan specifically from the beginning. Gabe seemed to respond most to
the change of his seat along with the token rewards. The last thing that I believe could have
affected this plan would be the weekends. It is hard to get the student back into the routine
when over the weekend their behaviors have not been reinforced. It seemed like each time we
had a break, it would be harder to reinforce his good behaviors and replace the negative ones.
On the other hand, weekends are something that all students have and so I would conclude that
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the change in his behavior on Mondays was expected to be different than his behavior by
Thursday.
Reflection:
While working with Gabe throughout this PBSP, I gained a lot of knowledge about how to
help the student emit the targeted behaviors in other settings or situations. During the PBSP,
Gabe was being monitored in the hallways and in his other classes to make sure that the skills
we were practicing were being generalized throughout all school settings. The most important
part, maintenance and generalization of the targeted behaviors, was keeping in contact with the
other teachers and administrators that see him throughout the day. I learned that
communicating with the teachers in front of Gabe made him aware that his behaviors were
being watched in multiple settings. The most important was the hallways for Gabe. The hallways
are a very hectic and overwhelming place for Gabe and he tends to run and yell when
transitioning from classes. By having multiple teachers and adults looking out for Gabe, he knew
that there were other adults in the building expecting him to emit the targeted behaviors. These
steps helped Gabes hallway behavior greatly and allowed the behaviors to be generalized
This project really got me practicing my classroom management skills by being able to
narrow it down to one student. I got to work very closely with Gabe and in return I learned a lot
about him individually. This really enriched the experience and allowed me to figure out what
works for this one student and the specific things he needs to work on as a student. Classroom
management has always been tough for me and it has always been hard for me to find what
works when managing students. Usually you are trying to manage a whole classroom of
students, you do not always think about what works for each individual student. I now see that
what works for one student may not necessarily work for another. Gabe responds very different
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than the other students in the class and does not require the same management techniques as
the others. Gabe benefits from specific rewards to work towards each day and preferential
seating in a quiet area away from peers. These are things that I got the chance to learn about
him by working one on one with him throughout this positive behavior plan. I grew in my
knowledge of classroom management and now can apply these skills to my other students. I
have already begun using my knowledge in the 6th grade class that I am currently in. I now can
separate classroom management into individual student management. I have found some
things that work for the whole class, but now I can use these skills I have learned to hone in on
There are a couple of things that I would change in the future when implementing a
PBSP. While implementing Gabes PBSP, I had to try a couple different rewards to see what
would work for Gabe, this caused the amount of time to be shortened. Once I finally figured out
what seemed to work for Gabe, it was implemented for only the last week of the PBSP. In the
future, I would take the first couple weeks to try and see what works and then implement that
specific plan for about three more weeks to see if it is continuously effective. I believe that this
plan worked very well with Gabe, but it was for a short amount of time. Next time I would like to
see if it would continue to work over a longer time span. Another thing that I would have done
differently would be how I went about giving Gabe a fidget. He seemed to do better when he
brought his own fidget to class instead of introducing a new fidget during that mod. I started out
allowing him to take it to other classes as a reward but soon realized that it would work better if
he had the chance to use it in this class as well. In the future, I would have used the fidget more
effectively for Gabe and provided the option of one during his Self-Contained class time.
Nonetheless, I still believe that this was a very eye opening experience and showed me a lot