Deidra Wilson 17

Rise to the Top

Undesirable Behavior Targeted: Calling out answers in class without raising hands during instruction time. Speaking out in
class without permission interferes with learning because it often interrupts the teacher or other students, it doesn’t allow
time for other students to formulate a response, and doesn’t give all students a chance to participate.
Expected Behavior: When a student wants to ask question or discuss something further, the students will quietly raise their
hands and wait for the teacher to call on them before speaking.
 When the teacher or a student is speaking, all other students’ are paying attention.
 When the student wants to speak or ask a question, they will raise their hand.
 When the student is raising her/his hand, s/he should be quiet.
 While the student’s hand is raised, s/he should be sitting still.
 The student will wait for the teacher to call their name before speaking.
Types of positive reinforcements – Reinforced – when & how?
1. Immediate R+ The teacher will verbally acknowledge the desired behavior, example: “Thank you for raising your hand
quietly and calmly”, and give each student 1 light-green pom-pom.
2. Ongoing R+ Displayed For every 20 light-green pom-poms, the students will get 1 dark-green pom-pom in a bucket. When
students fill 1 bucket with dark-green pom-poms (about 25), they will receive one level of the food chain posted on the board.
The food chain starts with phytoplankton, then copepod, shrimp, striped bass, and finally, shark.
3. Overall R+ When all five levels of the food chain have been obtained (5 buckets are filled) the class will play “Food-Chain
Tag”.
4. The teacher will keep a bag of light-green pom-poms readily available. While the student is asking a question or giving a
response after raising their hand and being called upon, the teacher will pass out light-green pom-poms to each student. At
the end of the day, the teacher will pool all light-green pom-poms together and add 1 dark-green pom-pom to the bucket for
every 20 light-green pom-poms. It is estimated that students will receive 100 light-green pom-poms per day which equals 5
dark-green pom-poms per day, totaling about 25 dark-green pom-poms per week. This will get the students about 1 level of
the food chain per week and “Food Chain Tag” will be played the next day, in about 6 weeks, allowing extra time to gain the
first level.
Interactive Learning Activity-Once the students have 5 buckets of dark-green pom-poms, the class will play “Food Chain Tag”.
*Each student will draw a card with a marine organism from a paper bag. This will be their role in a game of food-chain tag.
*Each student will get a gallon sized zipped bag and place the name of their organism in the bag. The bag is the organisms
“stomach”. *The class will go outside for the game of tag. *The green pom-poms represent phytoplankton and will be spread
on the ground in the area where the game of tag is conducted. *Copepods eat phytoplankton, shrimp eat copepod, striped
bass eat shrimp, and sharks eat striped bass. *The students will “eat” their respective organism. The students in the role of
“Copepod” will pick up phytoplankton from the ground and put them in their baggies, or “stomach”. The students in the role
of “Shrimp” can eat a “Copepod” by tagging the “Copepods”. The “Copepods” then have to empty the contents of their
“stomach” into the “Shrimp’s” “stomach”. *This rule is the same for the different organisms. The organism higher on the food
chain can tag the organism immediately lower on the food chain and the tagged students then empty the contents of their
“stomach” into the predator’s “stomach”. TEKS: (Science-3.9B) identify and describe the flow of energy on a food chain and
predict how changes on a food chain affect the ecosystem such as removal of frogs from a pond or bees from a field;
(Mathematics-3.4H) determine the number of objects in each group when a set of objects is partitioned into equal shares or a
set of objects is shared equally; (English Language Arts and Reading-3.15A) follow and explain a set of written multi-step
directions.
Teach the Desired Behavior: The teacher will first explain the steps required to raise their hands quietly. Then the teacher will
model the behavior. Then the students will practice the behavior as a class, going through one step at a time. The teacher will
also demonstrate a non-example.
Teach the Plan: At the beginning of the day, the teacher will teach the desired behavior to the class by going through all of the
steps using the bulletin board. Then the class will practice as a group. The teacher will then explain the immediate, ongoing,
and overall R+ using the bulletin board.
Provide Options: If students have trouble keeping up with their pom-poms, the teacher can provide cups to hold their pom-
poms. The cups can be kept on the students’ desks and this will also serve as a visual reminder of the desired behavior. If
certain students are still having trouble raising their hands before speaking, the teacher can offer (in private) to add an
additional reminder by writing on their cup. The teacher can also verbally recognize when all students are on-task and not
talking during individual work-time and pass out pom-poms to each student.
Demonstrate All Necessary Items: Light- and dark-green pom-poms, notecards with the names of marine organisms:
Phytoplankton, Copepod, Shrimp, Striped Bass, and Shark, a gallon sized zipped baggie for each student, 5 buckets
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