Behavior is Language:
Strategies for Managing Disruptive Behavior
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Instructor Name: |
Dr. Karen Lea |
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Facilitator: |
Mick R. Jackson MS/ED |
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Phone: |
509-891-7219 |
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Office Hours: |
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST Monday - Friday |
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Email: |
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Address: |
Virtual Education Software |
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23403 E Mission Avenue, Suite 220F |
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Liberty Lake, WA 99019 |
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Technical Support: |
Introduction
Welcome to Behavior is Language, an interactive distance learning course,
designed to give you a new perspective on student behavior and effective tools
for facilitating positive student change. Behavior
is Language provides a developmental framework for understanding what
students are trying to tell you through the “language” of their behavior. The course teaches behavioral
techniques and intervention strategies that remediate disruptive behaviors,
reduce power struggles while increasing classroom control and reduce your
workloads and burnout. This program helps you, as well as students, find
creative, effective solutions to behavioral problems.
After you have completed your studies
in the chapters on behavioral theory and interventions, you will be presented
with various classroom scenarios in which you will be able to practice and hone
your skills for interpreting behavior, determining appropriate interventions
and effectively debriefing your students.
Although all of the course content
presented in this course can be applied to any person of any age or ability
level, some of the intervention strategies require that a certain level of
intellectual and verbal skill be possessed by the students if they are to
complete verbal and written debriefs. Debriefs will need to be adjusted for
younger or less skilled individuals.
Course Materials (Online)
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Title: |
Behavior is Language: Strategies for Managing Disruptive
Behavior |
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Author: |
Mick
Jackson MS/ED |
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Publisher: |
Virtual Education
Software, inc. 1995, Revised 2004, Revised 2010, Revised 2013, Revised 2016,
Revised 2019, Revised 2022 |
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Instructor: |
Dr.
Karen Lea |
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Facilitator: |
Mick
Jackson MS/ED |
Academic Integrity
Statement
The structure and format of most
distance-learning courses presume a high level of personal and academic
integrity in completion and submission of coursework. Individuals enrolled in a
distance-learning course are expected to adhere to the following standards of
academic conduct.
Academic Work
Academic work submitted by the
individual (such as papers, assignments, reports, tests) shall be the student’s
own work or appropriately attributed, in part or in whole, to its correct
source. Submission of commercially prepared (or group prepared) materials as if
they are one’s own work is unacceptable.
Aiding Honesty in Others
The individual will encourage honesty
in others by refraining from providing materials or information to another
person with knowledge that these materials or information will be used
improperly.
Violations of these academic standards
will result in the assignment of a failing grade and subsequent loss of credit
for the course.
Level of Application
This course is designed to be an
informational course with application to work or work-related settings. The
intervention strategies are designed to be used in the remediation of
behavioral problems with students ranging in age from approximately 10 to 18
years. Some alterations may be needed if you are working with younger children.
Expected Learning
Outcomes
As
a result of this course, participants will demonstrate their ability to:
·
Review and discuss how
students communicate thoughts, feeling, emotions, issues, and fears through
their behavior when they cannot communicate verbally and learn to effectively
interpret student behavior.
·
Understand and explain
how a child’s World View develops and factors that may cause this view to
negatively impact the student behavior both in and out of the classroom.
·
Articulate a child’s
Inner World development and factors that may cause this development to
negatively impact the student behavior both in and out of the classroom.
·
Discuss how students
attempt to script teachers into familiar authority roles that may be counter
productive to the student’s education and behavioral adaptation.
·
Learn, discuss and do
further research on the affects safety, consistency and trust have on the
classroom environment, student behavior and learning outcomes.
·
Describe how to recognize
when students are setting up potential power struggles that can negatively
impact classroom safety, control, behavior and learning.
·
List and discuss general
rules about student-to-student and student-to-staff personal space issues and
how to set guidelines and policies around personal space that are effective for
all students.
·
Recognize family issues
and dynamics that may strongly influence a student’s behavior; causing social,
emotional and behavioral issues in the school setting.
·
Review and describe how
some parents may become enmeshed with their child and be unable to separate
parent needs from the child’s needs and how, in or out of their awareness,
parents may actually sabotage the student’s educational experience.
·
Learn how students with
siblings may be involved in sibling rivalry issues and how those issues could
negatively impact the student’s relationships with peers and disrupt the
learning process.
·
Understand and explain
how they as teachers may have negative thoughts and feelings about certain
students and/or may counter-transfer negative thoughts and feelings onto their
students.
·
Use effective and
efficient methods to gather information on family dynamics and structure that
may be used to plan an effective behavioral intervention plan for the student.
·
Discuss how their own
issues and Ego Tortures can influence and impact how they work with certain
students and groups.
·
Employ a behavioral
intervention system that is individualized; is sensitive to each student’s
social, emotional and behavioral issues; and maximizes each student’s chances
of correcting and/or effectively monitoring their own behavior so they may
achieve positive academic learning outcomes.
·
Practice the most
effective methods for giving verbal and non-verbal behavioral reminders to
students.
·
Learn and practice the
most effective methods for assigning students interruptive time-outs and
methods for verbally debriefing students off of these time-outs.
·
Learn and practice the
most effective methods for assigning written debriefs to students needing to
discuss their behavior and come up with acceptable behavioral alternatives.
·
Learn and practice the
use of a quiet area, which students may be assigned to when behavioral
intervention is required.
·
Learn and practice when
and how to assign In-School-Suspensions to students who exhibit out of control
behavior that is threatening, unsafe and/or damages property.
·
Learn and practice when
and how to assign Out-of-School-Suspensions, which align with state and
district policies, to students who exhibit out of control behavior that is
threatening, unsafe and/or damages property.
Course Description
The course, Behavior is Language, has been divided into four chapters. The
first two chapters, Behavior is Language (BIL) Parts I & II, explain why we
choose to view student behavior as a kind of unspoken language. These two
chapters provide a framework for understanding why certain students react to
teachers, aides, peers and society in such dysfunctional, disruptive behavioral
patterns. There are twenty subject areas, which are sequential and should be
completed in the order in which they are presented in the program. After
completing these twenty areas you should have the basic framework for understanding what causes the dysfunctional
patterns that lead to the majority of students’ behavioral problems in the
classroom and other school settings. This information is not designed to be the
total encyclopedia of aberrant student behavior. To cover all areas and issues
affecting students’ behavior would take hundreds of hours of research. However,
these chapters should give you a firm grasp on how to begin interpreting
students’ behavior into an understandable language.
Chapters 3 and 4 describe intervention
strategies, which we refer to as “clubs.” We will present twenty intervention
strategies that remediate difficult student behavior. Don’t be upset if you
have heard of, or even used, some of these intervention techniques before. How
and when an intervention strategy is used goes a long way in determining its
effectiveness. These strategies are designed to be effective when used with the
new framework of understanding presented in the previous chapters. The clubs themselves
are used not only to remediate behavior, but also to help you gain further
insight into a student’s Self View and World View. Using them in the manner and
style in which they are presented will take you out of many power struggle
situations. It also will place ownership of problems back on the student. These
intervention strategies can be used in a step-by-step manner as natural
classroom consequences for disruptive behaviors or rule violations.
The exercises in chapters 3 and 4 are
followed by scenarios. In the scenarios you are introduced to 15 students with
various backgrounds, emotional issues and behavioral problems. Various
classroom, school and social situations will be presented to you, and it will
be your job to determine which intervention strategy would be most effective in
remediating that particular student’s behavior. You will notice that some of
the scenarios are similar, but the students involved are different. This has
been done to illustrate the point that the same behaviors may need to be
handled in different ways. A student’s background, behavioral history, and
current situation all play a role in behavioral intervention and remediation.
First there are practice
scenarios, followed by graded scenarios. Chapters 3 and 4 require that you pass
the graded scenarios with a score of 70% or higher before you can access the
exam for that chapter.
After completing each chapter you will
be required to take an examination.
Student Expectations
As a student you will be expected to:
·
Complete all four
information sections showing a competent understanding of the material
presented in each section.
·
Complete all four
section examinations, showing a competent understanding of the material
presented. You must obtain
an overall score of 70% or higher,
with no individual exam score below
50%, to pass this course. *Please note: Minimum
exam score requirements may vary by college or university; therefore, you
should refer to your course addendum to determine what your minimum exam score
requirements are.
·
Complete a review of any section on which your examination
score was below 50%.
·
Retake any examination,
after completing an information review, to increase that examination score to a
minimum of 50%, making sure to also be achieving an overall exam score of a
minimum 70% (maximum of three attempts). *Please note: Minimum
exam score requirements may vary by college or university; therefore, you
should refer to your course addendum to determine what your minimum exam score
requirements are.
·
Complete a course evaluation form at the end of the course.
Chapter Topics
Chapter 1: Behavior is Language! – Part
I
1. Behavior
Is Meaningful – What is meant by this term and why does it matter?
2. World
View – How do impaired children view their environment?
3. Self
View – What are the underlying beliefs that cause children to react in certain
ways?
4. Scripting
– How do children script us into playing roles for which we are not prepared?
5. Safety
Is Everything – The key to all student intervention and change. How do you
build a safe environment?
6. Building
Consistency – How do we build classroom consistency to facilitate positive
student change?
7. Building
Trust – How is trust related to consistency and safety, and what is its
importance to remediation?
8. Illusion
of Control – Who truly controls a student’s behavior?
9. Power
Struggles – What are they and how do you avoid them?
10. Letting
Go – Can you maintain classroom control by giving more control to your
students?
11. Dead
End – How do you keep out of situations that trap you into lose-lose
situations?
12. Outside
the Classroom – How can you use this information in all parts of your life?
13. Personal
Space – Why do students need to be aware of their and other people’s body
space?
Chapter 2: Behavior is Language! – Part
II
1. Counter
Transference – What is it and how does it affect your work with your students?
2. Family
Dynamics – What information is important to know about the family before you
attempt to remediate a student’s disruptive classroom behaviors?
3. Sibling
Rivalry – How are sibling roles brought into the classroom and played out with
peers?
4. Enmeshment
– How does this family dysfunction play a part in a student’s classroom
behavior?
5. Gathering
Information – What information is essential to gather before and during your
work with a student, and where do you look for this information?
6. Avoiding
the Blame Game – How do you keep from using the family dysfunction as a
scapegoat?
7. Ego
Tortures – How do we make our own job more difficult by the things we think and
say to ourselves?
Chapter 3: Intervention Strategies
(CLUBS) – Part I
1. Reminders
– What are these? How and when should they be used?
2. Interruptive
Time-Out – How can you make this strategy work more effectively?
3. Time-Out
with Verbal Debrief – When should aberrant behavior be discussed with the
student?
4. Time-Out
with Written Debrief – When should a written debrief be used?
5. Quiet
Room with Verbal Debrief – What is this and what is its remedial goal?
6. Quiet
Room with Written Debrief – Why and when should verbal and written remediation
be used?
7. Quiet
Room with Calming Activity – What can be done before a child acts out?
8. Floating
Consequences – How do you make sure consequences affect the students and not
you?
9. Self
Time-Out – What can a student do to monitor his/her own emotional levels?
10. Stop
Action – How can you make students accountable for classroom behavioral
problems?
11. In-school
Suspension – When do you use higher-level consequences for extreme behaviors?
12. Isolation
Areas – How do you set up effective isolation areas within your classroom?
Chapter 4: Intervention Strategies
(CLUBS) – Part II
1. Silent
Observer – How can a student participate in key classes or activities, even
when receiving a consequence for disruptive behavior?
2. Logical
Consequences – How do we set consequences so they closely match the negative
behavior?
3. Symbolic
Consequences – How can you assign consequences that will be meaningful to the
student, even when restricted by your environment?
4. Support
Groups – How do you use the peer group to help support students in crisis?
5. OSS
– What behaviors constitute an out-of-school suspension; what tasks should be
assigned to the student while out of school; and how should the student
re-enter the classroom?
6. Consequence
Ladder – How do you individualize your classroom remediation and discipline
strategies to meet the needs of the individual student?
7. Grandma’s
Rule – What is it and why is it important in the classroom setting?
8. Individual
Program Adjustment – When and how do you adjust a student’s regular program to
meet his/her needs when in crisis?
9. Attunement/Claiming
– Why is it important that a student feel claimed in your classroom and how do
you help a student attune to your program?
10. Working
Harder – Do we need to do more as teachers to get better?
Practice Section
Scenarios
A set of classroom scenarios will be
presented after you complete chapter 3 and after you complete chapter 4. The
scenarios will ask you questions about various student behaviors and how you
would deal with those behaviors in a classroom setting. Feedback on your
answers will be given to you after each scenario.
The sequence for chapters 3 and 4 is
the same. You must read the chapter, complete the practice scenarios and then
take the graded scenarios. Once you have achieved a minimum score of 70% on the
graded scenarios, you may continue on to the chapter exam. If you do not pass
the graded scenarios you may retake them. The course will track your score.
Examinations
At the end of each chapter, you will be expected to complete
an examination designed to assess your knowledge. You may take these exams a
total of three times. Your last score
will save, not the highest score. After
your third attempt, each examination will lock and not allow further
access. Your final grade for this course
will be determined by calculating an average score of all exams. This score will be printed on your certificate (your graded scenario
scores are not included in this average). As this is a self-paced
computerized instruction program, you may review course information as often as
necessary. You will not be able to exit
any examinations until you have answered all questions. If you try to exit the
exam before you complete all questions, your information will be lost. You are
expected to complete the entire exam in one sitting.
Facilitator Description
Behavior is Language was
originally developed by a team of professionals with educational backgrounds in
the areas of psychology, mental health, special education, behavioral
intervention, and general education. Professor Mick Jackson MS/ED is a Behavior
Intervention Specialist with a Master’s Degree in Special Education and a focus
on behavioral theory. Professor Jackson has 15 years of combined experience in
self-contained special education classrooms, resource rooms, and hospital day
treatment in K–12 settings. He has developed and overseen mental health and
intervention programs and has directed staff in four states. Professor Jackson
has worked as a higher education adjunct faculty teaching distance courses in
behavioral theory, Attention Deficit Disorder, and reading remediation for the
past 26 years. Currently his courses are being offered through distance
education programs with more than 100 institutions nationwide. He is the
current President and Dean of Faculty for Virtual Education Software and has
been working on distance course development since 1995. Please
contact Professor Jackson if you have course content or examination questions.
Instructor Description
Karen Lea holds a Ph.D.
in education. Dr. Lea has fifteen years’ experience teaching at the K–12 level
and another fourteen years’ experience teaching education courses at the
undergraduate and post-graduate level. Currently she is a coordinator for a cadre
of instructional developers and project manager for aerospace online training.
Dr. Lea has been professionally published over fifteen times and has served on
over a dozen panels and boards, including serving on the NCATE (CAEP) Board of
Examiners. Please contact Professor Jackson if you have course content or
examination questions.
Contacting the
Facilitator
You may contact the
facilitator by emailing Professor Jackson at mick@virtualeduc.com or calling
him at 509-891-7219, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. PST. Phone
messages will be answered within 24 hours. Phone conferences will be limited to
ten minutes per student, per day, given that this is a self-paced instructional
program. Please do not contact the instructor about technical problems, course
glitches, or other issues that involve the operation of the course.
Technical Questions
If you have questions or
problems related to the operation of this course, please try everything twice.
If the problem persists please check our support pages for FAQs and known
issues at www.virtualeduc.com and also the Help section of your course.
If you need personal
assistance then email support@virtualeduc.com or call 509-891-7219. When
contacting technical support, please know your course version number (it is
located at the bottom left side of the Welcome Screen) and your operating
system, and be seated in front of the computer at the time of your call.
Minimum Computer
Requirements
Please refer to VESi’s
website: www.virtualeduc.com or contact VESi if you have further questions
about the compatibility of your operating system.
Refer to the addendum
regarding Grading Criteria, Course Completion Information, Items to be
Submitted, and how to submit your completed information. The addendum will also
note any additional course assignments that you may be required to complete
that are not listed in this syllabus.
Bibliography (Suggested
Readings)
Apak, J., Taat, M. S.,
& Suki, M. N. (2021) Measuring teacher creativity-nurturing behavior and
readiness for 21st century classroom management. International Journal of
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Cautela, Joseph R.
(2013). Covert conditioning. Pergamon Press.
Cervone, D., & Pervin,
L. A. (2015). Personality, binder ready version: Theory and research (13th
ed.). Wiley.
Chosak, A., Marques, L.,
Fama, J., Renaud, S., & Wilhelm, S. (2009). Cognitive therapy for
obsessive-compulsive disorder: A case example. Cognitive and Behavioral
Practice, 16(1), 7–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2008.01.005
Collier-Meek, M. A.,
Sanetti, A. H., Sanetti, L. H., Minami, T., & Eckert, T. (2019, May 14).
Identifying critical components of classroom management implementation. School
Psychology Review, 48(4), 348–361. https://doi.org/10.17105/SPR-2018-0026.V48-4
Eldevik, S., Jahr, E.,
Eikeseth, S., Hastings, R. P., & Hughes, C. J. (2010). Cognitive and
adaptive behavior outcomes of behavioral intervention for young children with
intellectual disability. Behavior Modification, 34(1), 16–34.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0145445509351961
Evertson, C. M., &
Emmer, E. T. (2012). Classroom management for elementary teachers. Prentice
Hall.
Eysenck, H. J. (2013).
Learning theory and behaviour therapy. Journal of Mental Science, 105, 61–75.
https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.105.438.61
Franks, Cyril M. (2014).
Conditioning techniques in clinical practice and research. Springer.
(Originally published 1964)
Freiberg, H. J., &
Lamb, S. M. (2009). Dimensions of person-centered classroom management. Theory
Into Practice, 48(2), 99–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405840902776228
Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (2015). Health behavior: Theory,
research, and practice. Wiley.
Gold, J. R., &
Stricker, G. (2013). Comprehensive handbook of psychotherapy integration.
Springer Science + Business Media.
Hardin, C. J. (2011).
Effective classroom management: Models and strategies for today’s classrooms.
Pearson.
Hirsh, S. E., Lloyd, J.
W., & Kennedy, M. J. (2019). Professional development in practice:
Improving novice teachers’ use of universal classroom management. Elementary
School Journal, 120(1). https://doi.org/10.1086/704492
Kerns, W., & Walls,
B. P. (2022). Classroom management in urban schools: The need for meaningful
field experiences and mentoring. International Journal of Teacher Education and
Professional Development, 5(1), article 42.
Levin, J., & Nolan,
J. F. (2009). Principles of classroom management: A professional
decision-making model (6th ed.). Pearson.
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A. L., Carter, D. R., & Dickey, C. R. (2009). Differential effects of a
tier two behavior intervention based on function of problem behavior. Journal
of Positive Behavior Interventions, 11(2), 82–93. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098300708319127
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Jain, S. (2019). Adolescent mental health: Issues, challenges, and solutions.
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X., & Shorey, S. (2022). The effectiveness of educational interventions on
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and meta-analysis. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 23(1), 132–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838020933867
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DeBaryshe, B., & Ramsey, E. (2017). A developmental perspective on
antisocial behavior. American Psychologist, 44(2), 329–335.
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McGraw-Hill.
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research and practice (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Weinstein, C. S., Romano,
M., & Mignano, A., Jr. (2010). Elementary classroom management: Lessons
from research and practice (5th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Course content is updated
every three years. Due to this update timeline, some URL links may no longer be
active or may have changed. Please type the title of the organization into the
command line of any Internet browser search window and you will be able to find
whether the URL link is still active or any new link to the corresponding
organization’s web home page.
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