Spencer Beck

Positive Transitions
Undesirable Target Behavior:
Students are not meeting transition expectations because they are not engaged and prepared to
learn with the defined time perimeter, they are often loud and at times physically disruptive
during transitions. This interferes by taking time away from academic focus, and can also cause
social/behavioral problems because of a lack of respect for classroom expectations.

Desirable Behavior Targeted:

The time perimeter for students to be in their seat prepared and engaged to learn is between :45
seconds 1:15 seconds depending on the daily plan. Being prepared consists of looking to
instructions to see which materials should be placed on the desk, and then placing all other items
(with the exception of necessities) away in their backpack. Engaged to learn can be functionally
defined as quiet and attentive to the teacher.

Types of Reinforcement:
1. While greeting students walk around with a bin and beads; students are given positive praise
and a bead is dropped in the bin if they have met the transition expectations.
2. Each week there will be a certain amount of transition opportunities. Five opportunities per
day would mean that each student could earn a total of 25 beads for the bin per week; if they
demonstrated the desired behavior each opportunity. Lets say for this example; there are 12
students in the class, this would mean there are 300 transition opportunities per week. If a class,
as a whole, is able to successfully transition on over 90% of opportunities; if the students earn at
least 270 beads than they would earn the overall reinforcement for that week.
3. There must be two lesson plans at the ready for one of the focus content activities on Friday
for this plan to work. This requires additional teacher work, but can be justified as beneficial to
student engagement and learning. The overall reinforcement will be that students have the
potential to change a lecture based lesson to a teacher led experimental discussion lesson if the
students achieve the 90% successful transition expectation.

Interactive Learning Activity:

The teacher led group discussion will scaffold content through purposeful guiding questions, and
will incorporate group analysis as an experiment aspect. This can be modeled by the teacher,
using a resource (youtube video, etc..), or conducted by the students. Students will be asked to

arrange the desks in a manner more suitable for group discussion, possibly a circle; anyway so
long as it is advantageous to student interaction and we as the teacher have room to lead
effectively. TEK 5.3A for Scientific Processes states students are expected to analyze, evaluate,
and critique scientific explanations by using logical reasoning, and experimental and
observational testing. We can navigate the scope and sequence of the semester to allow for the
possibility of a student-centered activity, as opposed to lecture, at least once a week (hopefully).
If a week of lessons is well prepared and executed, this interactive learning activity may be
conducted outside, the classroom can become tedious and it is important to remind students the
many ways in which they learn.

How to Teach the Desired Behavior:

Expectations for learning engagement and preparedness must be established. Instruct students
where to look to see the materials needed for the lesson and where to place their backpacks.
Instruct students that they must be attentive and ready to learn within an allotted time; and that
they can display they are ready by focusing on the teacher and sitting with the proper materials
on their desk. Posting the daily transition expectations under a welcoming phrase can help to
focus student attention, and remind them of the desired behavior. Behavior specific praise can
also be used to focus attention on desired behaviors and well-behaved students. Friendly time
reminders (such as t-minus twenty seconds to learning) can be given at appropriate intervals to
assure that students are not being overly social or rambunctious during transitions.

How to Teach the Plan:

If transitions become problematic to academic growth in the classroom, then the first thing we
must do as teachers is to acknowledge this with our students and explore why it is problematic.
Remind students that the goals of school is to help students expand their fields of knowledge and
understanding; and that knowledge is power. Discuss and establish transition expectations and
reinforcements with the class, and state to students that respecting the classroom expectations
allows for more mutual respect within the learning environment. Tell each student that every
time they earn a bead for the class it is symbolic of them contributing to a respectful and
productive learning environment.

Provide Options:
This plan could be introduced/implemented with any group of students in public school; because
they all deal with all east two transitions each day.