Alanna Gaylord's Art Education Portfolio

Description:

            Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support, PBIS, is a framework that establishes positive relationships between students and teachers in order to promote positive behavior and increase interest in learning. PBIS can be implemented in both the classroom and at the school-wide level in order to create a social culture designed around positive interactions towards learning and relationships. PBIS was developed when the general consensus felt that a new system was needed for teaching students with behavioral disorders. Since its development, PBIS has expanded to include all students in an effort to reduce behavioral misconduct in the classroom setting and act as an academic and social support.

            The Responsive Classroom is a classroom management approach that values social and emotional growth as important as academic growth to create a safe learning community. The Responsive Classroom was developed in the 1980s by the Northeast Foundation for Children (NEC) which is an organization of public school teachers formed to discuss the developmental needs of children in elementary education. It also focuses on accommodating and understanding student individual learning styles, as well as cultural and family backgrounds.

 

Analysis:

            PBIS is a school-wide support framework based on research studies supported by the Department of Education on student behavior which is implemented in a school-wide tiered system aimed at preventing misconduct and rewarding positive behavior which in turn promotes a safe and positive learning environment. PBIS can be broken down into a tiered system: primary supports, secondary supports, and tertiary supports. Primary supports include clear behavioral expectations and praising appropriate behavioral actions in the classroom and school setting. Secondary supports target at-risk students in the classroom, for instance students who are disruptive, aggressive, low-achievement, and have poor peer relations. Secondary supports enter students into behavior education programs such as social skills, conflict resolution, and anger management. The final tier creates a support team for individual students who have surpassed the at-risk category, this includes students who are aggressive and have low-achievement and behavioral issues. Individual behavioral interventions plans (BIPs) are created for students to define their behavioral issues and to assign goals surrounding prevention, minimizing, physical safety, and to reward appropriate behavior.

            The Responsive Classroom is a research based classroom management model that was founded by a group of public school teachers interested in teaching not only academic behavior but social skills as well. This approach lays out clear expectations for student behavior in the classroom, which encourages positive behavior and social interaction within the classroom. This model utilizes specific activities, such as morning greeting circles to encourage interaction between students and the teacher beyond simply learning content knowledge. This approach also incorporates several different academic and social models that are designed to engage learners, build skills, and promote critical thinking. For instance, logical consequences is a powerful way of responding to children’s misbehavior that not only is effective in stopping the behavior, but is respectful of children and helps them to take responsibility for their actions. The discipline model of the Responsive Classroom teaches students that discipline is a combination of empathy and structure and that it’s important to learn self-control and the impact of our actions on the community. The interactive model of this approach provides demonstrations that explain specific skills and their importance, questions the procedure to insure understanding, and encourages feedback from students as they practice. This model also allows students to discover content and materials without instruction from the teacher. The Responsive Classroom also utilizes a community model, which provides individualized planning for students, recognize students’ family and cultural backgrounds, and incorporates parent involvement in the community. The Responsive Classroom aims to individualize student learning as well as acknowledge the diverse backgrounds of each student and their families.

 

Reflection:

            At Albert D. Lawton Intermediate School, I had positive experiences with both of the classroom management strategies PBIS and the Responsive classroom. I found that PBIS helped to establish positive relationships between my students and I as well as it helped to promote positive behaviors and increase my students’ interest in learning. Overall I found that PBIS is a classroom management strategy used to create a social culture designed around positive interactions towards learning and relationships. I also found the Responsive Classroom to be a successful classroom management strategy in the art classroom. This approach provides clear expectations for student behavior in a classroom, which encouraged positive behavior and social interactions. I found that it also aims to engage learners, build skills, and promote critical thinking. Through my student teaching, I found both PBIS and the Responsive Classroom to be two very useful and successful classroom management strategies.