Background Information

Kendall is a 10-year-old white female in the fourth grade at Pathways Elementary school.

She is an intelligent girl and constantly proves to me that she is capable of doing the work but

does not give herself the credit. She seems to be very insecure and struggles with self-

confidence; I have seen this portray itself in the classroom through her work and behaviors. I

cannot think of any time that she has missed school since I have been in the classroom, and she

generally shows good behavior in class, but there are some actions and behaviors that present

themselves enough to become disturbances.

She struggles to follow directions while in school and often gets in trouble for not doing

as she is told or not paying attention. Academically, she has the potential to do very well and

succeed with her studies; however, she often falls short due to rushing through her work or not

doing what she knows that she should be doing. She will skip through activities during clipboard

tasks and do what she wants to do instead, usually reading, and when I ask if she has finished all

of her work first, she immediately jumps into doing what she hasn’t done yet. I have also

explained that it seems as though she is always aware that she is doing something wrong because

whenever I call her name she will instantly say “sorry” and do what she should be doing, which I

think is funny because if she continues to exhibit the same behaviors then she really is not sorry

for doing it.

I would consider her average when it comes to her social skills because she tends to keep

to herself most of the time, but can get talkative, which typically occurs when she should not be

talking. I have not noticed her hanging out with any particular people, and she is usually found

by herself during lunch or recess. I have noticed her behaviors towards other students, and she is

always friendly and eager to help, but there are a few students who do not always welcome her
help. Some of her classmates are very independent and confident in their abilities, so they do not

listen to Kendall when she explains how to do something correctly, but I would say Kendall is

right nine times out of ten.

I do not know much about her home life because it is a touchy subject for her and she

does not talk about it much. I found out from Mrs. Kent that she lives with her mom and sees her

dad every other weekend. This sometimes affects her behavior in class because she will come

back on a Monday morning after spending the weekend with her dad and will be very quiet and

seemingly upset.

Overall, Kendall has so many skills and abilities, but they are hidden behind her inability

to listen, pay attention, and follow directions. She gets out of her seat without asking, ignores

directions, calls out during instruction, and overall does what she wants. If I can eliminate or

diminish at least one of those behaviors, then her success in school could drastically change.

Statement of Problems or Target Behavior

My class is generally very well-behaved, so most of the disruptive behavior involves

calling out without raising hands or getting out of their seats without asking. I decided to choose

Kendall for this case study because she showed those behaviors most frequently. The problem

behavior includes any time she calls out or speaks without raising her hand first, unless she is

otherwise told to call out. Most of the time, she will call my name, start talking without being

called on, or start talking/asking questions as I walk by. She was told to give herself a tally every

time she got out of her seat to ask me a question, talked or called out during discussion without

raising her hand first, or called my name instead of raising her hand. I chose to include when she

got out of her seat as well because it occurred frequently with calling out and they often went
hand-in-hand. I decided to observe and gather data over the time span of a day because her

behavior is sometimes different between classes and I thought I would get better and more

accurate results.

Data Collection

Number of Call-Outs
25

20

15

10

This line
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graph
0
18-Feb 19-Feb 20-Feb 21-Feb 22-Feb shows the
Number of Call-Outs
number

of call-outs that Kendall exhibited in a day for one week of class time. This graph exhibits the

frequency of the behavior before interventions were implemented.

 Number of Call-Outs Post
20
18
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2
0
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Number of Call-Outs

This line graph shows the number of call-outs that were observed every day for four weeks. This

graph shows the frequency of call-outs during the intervention plan.

Description of Intervention

To improve her behavior in class, I implemented an intervention plan that included her

tallying her “problem behavior” every time it occurred. I purchased a small, pocket-sized

notebook that she could carry with her in between classes. She labeled every day with the date

and every time she called out, I told her to give herself a tally mark. While she was keeping track

of her own tally marks, I was also keeping my own record to make sure she was being honest.

Throughout the first week of the intervention plan, she had to constantly be verbally reminded to

give herself a tally; however, as the weeks went by, she started becoming aware of herself and

her behavior and started giving herself tally marks without needing me to tell her. She was
holding herself accountable and being mindful of her own call-outs. Sometimes I would just

have to look at her and give her “the eye” and she would know to give herself a tally, but I tried

to keep it as non-verbal and as I could so as to prevent further disruptions to the class.

We had a discussion before I started the interventions and I explained what was going to

happen over the next few weeks, then we talked about what types of rewards she would receive

for showing progress during the intervention program. Every day, her goal was to get less tally

marks than the day before; if she reached that goal, she got to sit inside and read with me during

recess. Every week, if she had earned reading time four out of five days, then she received

candy. She picked out her own rewards based on what she knew would motivate her to watch her

behavior. She loves being able to sit inside and read because it gets too hot outside during recess

and her candy treats would be any type of full-sized candy, rather than just a few skittles or once

piece of candy. The rewards she chose were within reason and did a great job with helping her

achieve her goals.

Results and Conclusions

The beginning of the intervention period was rough because her and I were both getting

used to the plan and remembering to tally the behavior. Based on the data and my observations

during class, I would consider this intervention successful. Before the interventions were

implemented, Kendall averaged 19 call-outs a day, with the highest amount recorded being 20

and the lowest being 17. By the end of the intervention period, the average amount of call-outs

during interventions was nine call-outs, with the average for the fourth week being four. Going

from an average of nine to an average of four shows a lot of progress with Kendall’s behavior.

Thought I would have like for the average to be lower, I am still happy with the results. She
showed me throughout this time that she is capable of putting in the work/effort it takes to

succeed in the classroom and has actually asked that we continue the behavior management

throughout the rest of the year. She has improved her attitude and behavior immensely by paying

attention more in class and correcting herself if she calls out or gets out of her seat without

asking. Now that the intervention period is over, I will continue to give her tally marks and hold

her accountable as well; however, I am going to work on self-correcting with her. Sometimes she

will still get up and start walking but will then realize what she needs to do and will sit back

down with her hand raised until I call on her. If she recognized her mistake and corrects it before

I can call on her to tally, then I praise her for realizing what she needs to do and going back to fix

it. I will also continue the reward system where she gets to read with me after school for

achieving her daily goal and receives candy for achieving her weekly goal, but I will be altering

the goals each week in an attempt to get rid of the behavior completely.

I really enjoyed this case study because I was able to work with one student directly on

achieving their behavior goals, which allowed me to focus more on those specific behaviors, but

it was sometimes difficult to also control the whole class.