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Julia Wilson

SERP 301C

Sherry Mulholland

18 September 2018

Benchmark Part 1

My case study child’s name is Ryan. He is currently not on an IEP; however, he is being

documented daily for his behavior in the classroom. My first day in my placement, my mentor

teacher had a meeting with Ryan and his mother about his behavior within the classroom and

how we need to come together to make a change happen. My mentor teacher decided to put him

on a daily documentation plan with an incentive program. He needs to get 4 out of 5 stars every

day to be able to receive his incentive. In the beginning of the process, his incentive was to call

his grandmother at the end of the day if he got 4 out of 5 stars. This worked for a week. Over

time, he did not care about talking to his grandmother or not so the behaviors continued. During

the parent-teacher conference, my mentor teacher and his mother decided that his incentive will

be able to go to football practice with his step-dad. His step-dad coaches a football team and

being able to go with him and see the team is something special for Ryan. We all think that this

incentive will help solve a lot of behavioral problems in and out of the classroom.

The main behavioral problem that we are seeing is that he is saying very inappropriate

things to other student’s in the class, as well as to teachers and other faculty members. His

language is one of the main reasons he is on a daily documentation plan. Another behavioral

problem that we see with Ryan is that he always finds a reason to get up, talk to me or my

mentor teacher, and moves around the classroom. Now, this can be for a variety of reasons and is

another reason we are documenting him daily. We jumped to the conclusion that he wants, or
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needs, attention from us that he might not be getting at home. It seems possible, however might

not be the only reason. When doing independent work, he moves to a table closer to the board

that nobody sits at because he cannot see the board from his assigned seat. It came to our

attention that he failed the vision test that every child takes in the beginning of the school year.

We are unsure if that is a reason for behavioral issues, but it is another factor that we must take

into consideration.

In an article titles, Addressing Behavior Issues With an IEP, Molly Hovork stated that

“educational needs can be academic or social, as both classroom and non-classroom behavior

have a large effect on academic performance.” I think this is important and extremely relevant to

my case study student because he knows his letters, sounds, and number recognition, so we know

that it is not cognitive, however it is still just as much as important and needs to be addressed.

The article goes on to say that many behaviors can be addressed with a behavior intervention

plan, or in our case, a daily documentation plan. We are hoping that Ryan’s behavioral issues can

be addressed and discontinued as a result of our daily documentation, however we have to keep

in mind that that might not be the case and have to start taking further action, such as an IEP.

Another article I found toward behavioral issues in the classroom with regards to an IEP

is titled, Behavior Intervention Plans: What You Need to Know. The author, Geri Coleman

Tucker states that problem behaviors must first be identified. These can include disrupting the

class, showing aggression toward the teacher or other children, acting unresponsive or

withdrawn, refusing to do classroom work, or using inappropriate or harassing language. For as

long as I have been with my current placement, I have seen Ryan behave in at least two of these

ways. My mentor teacher has been talking with the faculty member in charge of IEP’s and has

talked about doing the behavior intervention plan, however she wants to see how the daily
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documentation and incentive program plays out for a few more weeks to see if there are any

improvements with that. If not, we will then move to the behavior intervention plan.

Behavioral Goals for Individualized Education Plan by Jerry Webster talks about

behavioral goals and how to stay away from the negative sides of behavioral goals and how to

keep them positive. He thinks that teachers should avoid behavioral goals because it could

potentially label students as they go through teachers and grade levels. To have a good

behavioral plan, each objective should be stated in a positive manner. Common behavior

challenges are aggression and out of seat behavior. If a child has problems coping with their

anger in your classroom, it is best to have their behavior improvement plan show that the child

will learn to identify their feelings of anger and then relocate themselves to an area of the room

where they can be able to calm themselves down. A way to help with out of seat behavior, which

is the behavioral issue that I have been seeing with Ryan quite often in the classroom, is to use an

incentive program. For example, in this article the child was rewarded with social activities for

amounting a certain number of stars. Social activities included being line leader. There are many

options that can help cope with that behavioral issue that I can start using in my placement

classroom with Ryan.

Although Ryan is not on an IEP, there are accommodations that need to be made for his

daily behavior. My mentor teacher has strategically placed him on the carpet and at his work

table so that he is surrounded by students who work very hard and do not get distracted easily.

He is also not placed next to his friends that could disrupt his learning and working ability. When

he is supposed to be working during work time, he finds a reason to come up to me and my

mentor teacher and ask a question about anything. We are unsure if he is unable to do the work

or he simply does not want to. The other day during work time, he came and sat with me, without
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anyone asking or telling him to, because I was at a table by myself that was closer to the board.

He worked extremely well there and would ask me if he was reading the words correctly. He was

rewarded with a Robins Rocks, which is the school-wide incentive program, because of how well

he was working.
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Observation from 9/12/18:

Ryan overall had a fairly good day. He was focusing during class time and worked hard

on his math work. He came over to sit by me at an empty table that was closer to the board and

worked very well on his work. I rewarded him with a school-wide incentive called “Robins

Rocks”. These are my notes from that math activity.

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Observations from 9/17/18:

On this day, Ryan did not have a productive morning. We started off the morning with

math and he was not paying attention or working on his work. I had to come over and sit next to

him and help him individually, which got him to do the work. When we went to OMA, which is

their music and art time, he was not sitting in his chair in a respectful way. He continuously was

rocking back on the legs and laying down on the table while the music teacher was trying to

teach. He was redirected two times and then eventually my mentor teacher had to move him to a

chair that was closer to her. His behaviors continued. These are my notes from that morning

(math and music).

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References

Hovorka, M. (2014, November 13). Addressing Behavior Issues With an IEP

Tucker, C. G. (2014) Behavior Intervention Plans: What You Need to Know

Webster, J. (2018, January 21). Behavior Goals for Individual Education Plans