Individual Student Study Overview

General Information:
Teacher Grade 2 Subject All-Elementary
Student
X
Age 7 Grade Level: 2 Male Female: x

Description of students behavior and work habits:

This student has had a difficult year. Her behavior is off-task the majority of the day. This includes
refusing to complete assignments, walking in and out of the classroom and doing handstands
against the back wall of the classroom. She responds to most directions with an inappropriate
response such as "You aren't the boss of me" or simply saying "no." If she is upset, this student will
often throw tantrums, hide under tables or shelves or even throw items across the room (including
chairs). She often tries to argue with students and staff over just about everything.

In her work, this student is very disorganized. Her desk is cluttered with papers and small food
items that she holds onto from breakfast, including crackers and juice boxes. She leaves books
and papers all over her desk and throws things on the floor when she is through with them.

Occasionally, she is able to sit through an entire lesson without issue and complete an
assignment correctly while taking pride in her work.
Information on students academic achievement:
This student is currently reading at grade level expectation (Fontas and Pinnell letter K/L in
January 2017) and is close to Goal level in math as per district assessments in January focused
on subtraction and a Common Core assessment. In writing, this student just about meets grade
level expectations.

When she is able to complete assignments, she completes them accurately and with precision.
When she is focused, this student has the desire to do well. She perceives herself as "smart" and is
able to set goals for herself in the classroom when guided.

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 Part 1: Motivation and Mindset
Goals for Student Growth
Based on your learning in Week 1, identify one or two goals for the student related to the
motivation and mindset theories you studied.

One of the goals I have set for this student is to complete more in class activities based on a desire
to learn. According to the article describing Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation, when students are
motivated to learn something they are interested in or want to complete, they will perform better
than if they are motivated by rewards, although behavior changes will be slow (Vanderbilt
University Center for Teaching, 2012).

A second goal is to spend more time in the classroom engaging in positive behavior and
working towards creating a positive environment for herself and others.

Plan of Action
Describe a plan of action that will move the student toward achievement of the goal(s)
outlined above. Explain how you will use strategies presented in the Week 1 resources
and the steps you will follow when implementing this plan.

In order to achieve the goals set above, I will work towards providing more opportunities for
"observational learning" to increase "behavioral capability" (University of Twente, 2010). It is stated
that "Behavioral capability means that if a person is to perform a behavior he must know what the
behavior is and have the skills to perform it" (University of Twente, 2010). As the teacher, I need to
provide as many opportunities to develop the skills needed to perform. This means that I will
rearrange seating and positive reinforcement around this student purposefully so that she is able to
consciously or unconsciously observe those around her that make positive choices, in turn helping
her to develop strategies for changing her behavior.
Previously, I have tried using intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for this student in the classroom,
such as small rewards or minutes of free time based on the amount of time she is able to follow
directions and act appropriately. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching states "extrinsic
motivators can often distract students from learning the subject at hand. It can be challenging to
devise appropriate rewards and punishments for student behaviors. Often, one needs to escalate
the rewards and punishments over time to maintain a certain effect level. Also, extrinsic motivators
typically do not work over the long term. Once the rewards or punishments are removed, students
lose their motivation" (Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching, 2012). In an effort to get back to
personal intrinsic motivators of learning, as opposed to extrinsically trying to keep this student
calm, I will use some of the strategies presented such as giving her more freedom in her learning
choices, more hands-on activities and getting to know her better (Vanderbilt University Center for
Teaching, 2012). Specific ways of doing this include choosing topics, a variety of activities and
more kinesthetic learning such as STEM and having lunch with her at least one time per week.

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Describe what impact you expect this plan to have on the students motivation and/ or
mindset
The majority of this students off-task and harmful behavior is due to wanting and needing attention,
whether it is positive or negative. I expect that by highlighting her positive behavior more so than
normal and focusing on almost only the aspects I want her to model and learn, she will want to be
encouraged by positive reinforcement as opposed to negative. When engaging in more choice,
having more attempts to learn in different styles and getting to build a better relationship, I expect
that this student will become more motivated to do well intrinsically as opposed to needing a reward
and will be better able to understand the difference between how she feels from success as
opposed to how she feels from visiting the schools main office (Vanderbilt University Center for
Teaching, 2012).
Hopefully, an increase in intrinsic motivation and positivity will help her to decrease the negative
behaviors and in turn the attention she wants. By encouraging more self-monitoring, emotional
reaction skills and other personal mindset skills, along with working towards a more positive
environment will hopefully help to start remodeling her personal conceptual model for her behavior,
creating a more positive cyclical effect (University of Twente, 2010).
References:
University of Twente. (2010c). Social cognitive theory. Retrieved from
http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20Clusters/Health%20Communication/Social
_cognitive_theory/
Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. (2012). Motivating students. Retrieved from
http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/teaching-guides/interactions/motivating-students/

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Part 2: Self-Responsibility
Based on your learning in Week 2, identify one or two goals for the student related
to developing greater self-responsibility.

Plan of Action:
Describe a plan of action that will move the student toward achievement of the goal(s)
outlined above. Explain how you will use strategies presented in the Week 2 resources
and the steps you will follow when implementing this plan.
One of the goals that I have set for this student is to stay inside the classroom for at least an
hour without leaving.
The second goal is to complete assignments that are given during class time. ----
This student has difficulty staying in the classroom, in her chair and not disrupting others around
her. She often leaves without permission to go take a break in our buddy room, go to the library in
an attempt to talk or work with the librarian or goes to the main office to talk with the assistant
principal. When she is in the classroom, she does not sit in her chair but instead wanders around,
tries to do cartwheels and handstands against the wall and bothers other students. She doesn't
take responsibility for her actions, such as interrupting the learning of others or not following rules
and expectations. At the current time, I focus more on what I see her do and trying to fix them,
essentially following what C.M. Charles says is a "traditional method" of approaching "discipline
problems" (Charles, 2008, 145). When she is in her chair, I often try to positively reinforce the
behavior by positively narrating her. According to Lemov though, it is important to "differentiate
acknowledgment and praise" for students (Lemov, 2010). He states "In the long run, a teacher who
continually praises what's expected risks trivializing both the praise and the things she really
wishes to label "great." Eroding her ability to give meaningful verbal rewards and to identify
behavior that is truly worthy of notice is a dangerous practice for a teacher" (Lemov, 2010, 212).
Since staying in the classroom and a seat is an expected practice, I will stop praising and
acknowledging her ability to sometimes do it. Instead, I will work towards catching more of the
times that she is truly doing something that warrants the attention and is more specific to an action.
For example, assisting a neighbor on a project or with cleaning up breakfast could be used to
positively reinforce the behavior she is doing as opposed to staying seated.

To work towards the second goal and continued effort in the first, I also plan to work on "positive
framing" (Lemov, 2010). One of the most significant takeaways from this aspect that relate highly
to this student is the idea of "Live in the Now" (Lemov, 2010, 205). Since her behavior is so off task
the majority of the time, it becomes easy to wonder what is going to happen next and often expect
the worst since effort and following expectations and rules is few and far between. Lemov states
"Give instructions describing what the next move on the path to success is" (Lemov, 2010, 205) as
opposed to trying to correct the negative aspects of what students are already doing. I am hoping
that trying this strategy as opposed to working towards fixing what is not being done might help the
student to understand that her behavior is fixable and that she can do the right thing. Assuming the
best (Lemov, 2010, 205) will also help her to understand that I am confident in her abilities to do
what she needs to accomplish instead of giving her the impression that she is purposefully not
doing what she needs to.
In addition, I will also be working towards the Responsible Thinking Process with this student to
help her understand how her actions affect both her and others. As previously mentioned, I often
assume that this student will be doing something off task or dangerous because of the way she
normally acts. Instead of putting this towards negative narration or even re-framing it, I will break
from this common thought and in turn help her see her actions. Charles states "you display no
anger, because students see anger as an attempt to control them. You do not try to control them,
because doing so implies you d not believe they can resolve their problems or deal with conflicts.
You show respect by allowing students to live with consequences even when you disagree with
their decisions concerning behavior" (Charles, 2008, 148). Showing her respect and authority,
even when she might not be showing it to others, will allow her to gain insight into how she needs
to take responsibility.
 Describe the impact you expect this plan to have on the students level of self-
responsibility.
This student does not like to take responsibility for her actions and is very quick to blame everyone
else and things around her for the choices she is making. My hope is that by positively narrating
her authentic actions and experiences as opposed to her occasional ability to follow directions will
allow her to gain a desire to be inside the classroom as opposed to leaving. Showing her that I will
praise her for authentic actions as opposed to trivial expectations will encourage her to earn the
attention that she so desires and in turn, take more responsibility for her actions and completion of
assignments. It will also help to strengthen the relationship between the two of us in that she will
have more faith in my confidence, ability and the connection that we have built. Charles states that
"Ford insists that 'misbehavior' is never truly corrected by reprimands or punishment. It is only
corrected when students connect their actions to get what they want with the effects of those
actions on others. Students who don't understand this process continue to behave inappropriately,
meaning their behavior disturbs others" (Charles, 2008, 146). Since this students actions often
make me anxious and assuming of the worst, I am hoping that using the Responsible Thinking
Process and more positive framing will not only help her, but also me. In being more confident in
what I am saying and thinking, in essence taking more responsibility for my own actions, my hope
is that she will as well. As we move into this Responsible Thinking Process and in turn, help foster
more responsibility, she will hopefully be able to
answer more questions about what she is doing and why as opposed to acting first.
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Individual Study Overview
Revised September 2016 5
Reflection on Implementation
(Complete this section only if you chose to implement this part of your Individual Student Study.)
Write a reflection on what worked well during your implementation and the results you
achieved in terms of impact on the students self-responsibility. Also, describe what you could
do differently in your planning and/or implementation to have an even greater impact.

During implementation of the aforementioned plan, I noticed that this student was often able to
take responsibility for her actions and understood what she was doing wrong, she just often chose
to do it anyway. Using the Questioning Sequence presented by Charles in the Responsible
Thinking Process (Charles, 2008, 148) was a great way for her and I to discuss her classroom
choices and see that for every action, there is a reaction. As this students behavior is so off task
most of the time, using this method also allowed for there to be more concrete consequences for
the choices she made. Instead of letting some things slide because they happen so often and are
difficult to be controlled, I let go of the notion of control and instead focused on fostering her ability
to take more responsibility. In doing so, she chose to follow directions more often even when she
didn't want to when she knew that inevitably it would end in the same discussion and a different
consequence.

In trying to use more concrete and positive narration focusing on aspects other than following
expectations, I noticed that she was driven to complete more of an assignment when she knew
there would be praise from someone. I did not praise what was expected but instead used
encouragement and acknowledgment when she tried her best. In attempting not to assume the
worst, I also saw that she was less angry and hostile towards me and others.

Since this student still exhibits so many behaviors that are not conducive to the learning
environment, being disrespectful to both adults and other students, it has been hard to use the
Responsible Thinking Process all of the time as that would consume the entire day. My thought is
to work on designing a reflection sheet following the same questions so that she can self-reflect
and take responsibility for her actions with a paraprofessional or on her own when needed. In this
implementation, my hope is that she can see what she needs to do differently to get the desired
outcome of positive attention as opposed to earning negative attention for things she is choosing to
do.

Part 3: Causes of Misbehavior

Based on your learning in Weeks 34, identify one or two goals for the student related to
misbehavior. If the student you chose for this study does not exhibit misbehavior, then
choose another student for this part of the study.

Plan of Action
Describe a plan of action that will move the student toward achievement of the goal(s)
outlined above. Explain how you will use strategies presented in the Week 3 resources
and the steps you will follow when implementing this plan.
Goals:
1. To follow directions without issue.
2. Be kind to others around them (adults and students).

This student engages in misbehavior approximately 90% of the time during the school day. She is
constantly stating "you can't tell me what to do!" or "NO!" when told to do anything. In addition to
not following the directions, she also hurts others around her both physically and with her words.
She will pick up objects and throw them, stab people with pencils or hurt people in other ways. This
student exhibits behaviors that are typical of trauma, including "hurting others without seeming to
care, aggressiveness beyond what is typical, deliberately annoying others, jumpiness or
hyperactivity and unusual spaciness" (Teach for America, 2011). It is stated that "Traumatized
children, perhaps more than other students, benefit from structure, routines, positive
empowerment, and positive attention all practices you should be implementing as an effective
classroom teacher regardless of who fills your class. You have the opportunity and responsibility to
provide all of your students with with an environment that is safe, and in which they can experience
success" (Teach for America, 50). To help this student reach her goals, I intend to try to be as
consistent as possible in routines and positive attention. Since she is generally off-task and often
times dangerous, it is difficult to give her the positive "empowerment" and attention that she needs
and is looking for. My plan of action is to try to include something positive towards her every 2-3
minutes so that she feels safe and successful in the classroom as opposed to negative and hurt.

This student causes so many disruptions that it is often difficult for others to learn. To help her with
her goals, I will also try to respond differently to her disruption, using different strategies to redirect
her without constant verbal direction or re-direction in minor situations.

Another aspect to reaching these goals is consequences. Since this student exhibits so much
misbehavior, it is difficult to assign consequences to her actions as she would constantly be in
trouble. However, not having consequences for all of her actions also gives her the power she
wants. In turn, her behavior often makes me as the teacher frustrated because I spend so much
time disciplining. For her, I need to be more consistent in consequences so that she gains an
understanding that there are reactions for her actions. At the same time, I need to stay level
headed in my responses so that she understands that yes, she does have to listen.

As well, I plan to speak to the PPT Chair/Special Education Department about initiating a FBA or
specialized plan for this student since her behavior is so adverse (Teach for America). Working
with others to find a solution or try to manage through the remainder of the year will be helpful in
getting her the assistance she needs.

Finally, I have implemented a few different reward/reflection systems for this student/behavior
management techniques without success. I will commit to sticking with one for longer than a few
weeks to see if it has any impact on her ability to behave.

Describe the impact you expect this plan to have on the students behavior.
When a student experiences trauma, it is difficult for them to behave positively in the classroom.
For this student, the trauma she has experienced over the last several months has severely
impacted her ability to behave, treat others with respect and learn.

I expect that the above plan will help the student see that she can work well in the classroom
despite some of the frustration she is experiencing.

One of the most notable parts of the plan that I hope to see success from is monitoring my own
behavior in response to her own. When she misbehaves and in turn, I "misbehave" by either yelling
or getting nervous, it makes not only her but everyone else in the class anxious.

Being consistent in consequences is one aspect of the plan that might have the most impact on
how this student behaves. In C.M. Charles "Paths to Positive Discipline," Charles quotes Barbara
Coloroso (2002) stating that "when students misbehave, they must be guided to accept ownership
of their behavior and then figure out how to deal with its ramification. Through repetition of this
process, they develop self-control" (Charles, 2008, 74). With consistent consequences, she may
eventually see that her actions do have reactions and that she cannot do whatever she would like.

Working with an additional team (Special Education) will hopefully allow this student to receive
some services that she is not currently getting. While she has already been referred to our Climate
and Culture Leader to work with a youth group outside of school, she does not have anyone in
school to assist her such as a counselor. Working with this team may also help me to come up with
a behavioral plan that is specifically designed to her needs.

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Reflection on Implementation
(Complete this section only if you chose to implement this part of your Individual Student Study.)
Write a reflection on what worked well during your implementation and the results you achieved
in terms of impact on the students behavior. Also, describe what you could do differently in
your planning and/or implementation to have an even greater impact.

After setting these new goals and thinking about the implementation of the plan, I went straight to
the PPT chair to set up a meeting with her, the students mother and other members of the special
education team in order to start working towards a FBA and plan to help her. Since this student
does exhibit so much misbehavior across the school, the PPT chair was more than willing to move
forward in this meeting so that we could at least come up with some options. In addition, I found
out that the students mother had already brought in a doctor referral to move forward with a PPT.
While this has not occurred yet, getting the meeting set up and starting to think about what could
be done in planning is a step in the right direction.

The next step was to design a behavior chart/contract for this student to use in the classroom to
assist with managing her behavior. Together we had a discussion about her behavior, why she
makes the choices she often does and what she would like to work towards if she makes the right
decisions. Following Anderson's suggestions in "Individualized Behavior Contracts," I designed a
sheet of paper that outlined the conversation we had. One of the most difficult aspects was
creating the actual target behaviors. Anderson states "behavioral objectives must be just as
specific, observable and measurable as academic objectives" (Anderson, 2000). Since this student
misbehaves in almost every aspect, we focused on small things that would have the biggest
impact (i.e. not talking and moving during carpet time, completing two assignments...). We also
designed a menu of reinforcer'ss as per Andersons suggestion (Anderson, 172). Sitting with the
student to allow her to choose her own positives got her thinking about what she actually wanted
to do.
For the first two hours of the day, using this behavior contract and a sticker chart on her desk
worked well. She earned three rewards (break box in another room, computer time and a snack)
during this time period. However, after this time, she ripped the chart off of her desk and into small
pieces. I immediately gave her a concrete consequence for ripping it up (cleaning it off the floor)
and taped a new one to her desk. The immediate and concrete consequence relating to the action
helped her see that she could not do what she wanted. We went through this same scenario
several times in one day, and even more in one week but eventually, she did stop ripping it up and
instead misbehaved in a different way.

Overall, the implementation of more positive reinforcement, contracts and attempting to stay
more neutral in combination with the self-responsibility plan implementation has allowed her to
show some progress. It has not been dramatic nor consistent but hopefully continued effort and
consistency in both areas will allow it to occur more often.

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Individual Study Overview
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 Part 4: Habits of the Mind
Based on your learning in Week 5, identify one or two goals for the student related to Habits of
the Mind.

Plan of Action:
Describe a plan of action that will move the student toward achievement of the goal(s)
outlined above. Explain how you will use strategies presented in the Week 5 resources
and the steps you will follow when implementing this plan.
1. Successfully use a desk chart/sticker chart in order to manage impulsiveness.
2. Make some form of commitment to persevering through classwork and other issues that arise.
For the first goal, defining impulsivity is the first step in achieving it. As a second grader, the
understanding of what it means to be impulsive could be there but likely isn't yet. For this student,
impulsivity is a major issue. She often picks up items large and small to throw, shouts out, screams,
tries to do cartwheels and attempts to hurt others. She is often out of her seat, talking and disrupting
others and leaves the classroom without permission. The first step in defining what it means to be
impulsive is designing a "When, Why, How" chart (Costa & Kallick, 2009, 208) and Y-chart (Costa &
Graham, 33) together in order to better understand the word. To complete this chart, I would first
give some examples of what it means to be impulsive as there needs to be some reference. The
"When, Why, How" chart would be done first to "describe situations where it would be
useful[...]when would they use that habit? Why would they use it? What might it look like? (Costa &
Kallick, 2009, 208) focusing on that managing impulsivity piece. In conjunction, the Y-Chart would
be completed to get further into the topic. The Y-Chart needs to be done in a way that is positive so
we would go through each section, describing what it looks like, what it sounds like and what it feels
like specifically to manage impulsivity (Costa & Graham, 33). After completing both of these charts
to truly understand what managing impulsivity looks like in a variety of ways, we would design a plan
chart/sticker chart in which the student could be rewarded for demonstrating what she discussed in
the charts. This chart would look like specific examples of managing impulsivity (for example, I
stayed in my seat during reading) and allow the student to self assess. Costa and Graham state that
"keeping an inventory such as a checklist during class interactions, when solving problems, and
after interacting with others can help individuals and groups gather valuable data upon which to self-
reflect and plan for learning as they self monitor more effectively" (Costa & Graham, 34). Allowing
the student to work on self-monitoring is just as important as managing her impulsive nature.
For the second goal of making a commitment to perseverance, we would follow a similar protocol to
that of managing impulsivity. Instead of making both charts, this activity would solely use a Y-Chart.
After completing the chart with what it looks, sounds and feels like to persevere, the student and I
would develop a rubric in conjunction with an additional checklist. Costa and Graham state that
there are major differences between checklists and rubrics although both allow students to self-
monitor. They state that while a checklist allows a student to see an amount, a rubric gives them the
opportunity to truly reflect upon the quality of what they have done (Costa and Graham, 35). Based
on their sample rubric, the statements would be formatted as "I can or I did" so the student could
truly assess whether or not she completed what she need to do. They state that "Each category
should be sufficiently clear so that students can learn from the feedback about their behaviour and
see ways to improve" (Costa and Graham, 35) so there would be multiple categories for her to rate.
Describe the impact you expect this plan to have on the students internalization and use
of Habits of Mind.

Costa, Anderson and Kallick state something of the upmost importance related to gaining an
understanding of what a Habit of Mind means to a student. They write that "As students explore
meaning they develop a greater capacity to articulate more sophisticated definitions and acquire
more concepts associated with the Habits. They develop a basic literacy around the language of
Habits of Mind. They are able to draw upon a greater range of examples and build more complex
analogies and they begin to connect them to their own experiences and recognize them in others.
They become able to reflect on times when they have (or should have) used a particular habit"
(Costa, Anderson, Kallick, 2008). In essence, as a student learns more about the Habits of Mind
and works specifically using the terminology and definitions of what each means, their awareness
of the world around them grows two fold: they are not only able to identify what they did but they
are able to associate a Habit of Mind to go along with it.
For this student in particular, gaining insight and understanding of conscious choices and impulsive
actions and connecting a Habit of Mind to it will create a greater responsibility to her actions. When
the student is able to look at her checklist and rubric and ask whether or not she has completed the
items with fidelity or her actions match certain descriptors, she will be able to better understand
how the Habits of Mind relate to her and others around her. This is especially true in Managing
Impulsivity. By working towards less impulsive behavior and using specific examples to guide her,
her understanding of what it means to be impulsive or less impulsive will develop so that she is
able to use specific examples and connections.
The same is true for persevering. As the student uses her Y-Chart and checklist/rubric to
understand how her actions relate to specific examples and successes, she will be able to connect
times when she did not persevere (no check/sticker) to the times she did (reward) and in-turn
develop the skills she needs to succeed.