I wrote this blog post several weeks ago…before this terrifying pandemic and all the associated changes to every aspect of my job as a teacher. I’ve been using this time to reflect on practices I want to improve in my classes next school year when we return. If you are in a place where you can think past survival mode, you may wish to do the same. Here are some Tier 1 and Tier 2 behavior interventions you can consider embedding into the daily structure of your class. Kids will be struggling to readapt to the rules and structure of school–not just EBD kids, but ALL kids. This can be a jumping off point for you to start setting up your classroom routines in order to make the transition back as successful as possible.

One of the most difficult aspects of behavior intervention is buy-in from general education teachers. Gen ed teachers often have the greatest amount of daily contact with students…but gen ed teachers are busy. They’ve got 25 (or more) kids to monitor, worry about, and educate. When a special education teacher or behavior specialist comes to a general education teacher with a a complicated, timed reinforcement schedule, that teacher probably has one of two knee-jerk reactions: to cry, or to punch the SPED person square in the face. It’s not because gen ed teachers are jerks; it’s because they’re already overwhelmed and know that a complicated plan is doomed to user failure. It’s not a lack of desire, but a lack of TIME. It’s also a lack of being able to split your body into four identical clones so you can simultaneously monitor the bathroom, reteach multiplication, counsel a troubled child, and attend a faculty meeting.

It seems like a lot of teams wait WAY too long to get the behavior specialist involved. They wait until classroom behaviors have become entrenched and the general education teacher is at her wits’ end. If there were one thing I wish I could persuade teams to do, it would be to provide effective and early training in tier 1 und 2 interventions. These are the types of interventions that some kids absolutely MUST have in order to be successful but that can become a part of the overall class structure and benefit all students. If teachers have simple, do-able strategies ready to implement (maybe even starting on the first day of school), they can more efficiently meet the needs of students whose behaviors disrupt class.

Here’s a general education teacher-friendly checklist of E2E Tier 1 und 2 Interventions that a SPED teacher can share with colleagues or that administrators can use to anchor a staff training.

I was a general education teacher for the first half of my career (English 9 and English 11, predominantly), so I made sure I didn’t put ANYTHING on that checklist that couldn’t be accomplished while providing quality instruction to 24 other students. It’s easier to be consistent if the interventions are based on our natural responses to cause and effect.

Although it’s late in the school year, any of these can still be implemented to improve behavior, and some may be worthwhile additions to your overall classroom structure beginning next August.

Stichworte: tier 1 und 2, RTI, gen ed teachers, behavior interventions, behavior team