If you find yourself feeling stressed about these students and spending an inordinate amount of time on handling their behavioral challenges, it is likely that your classroom environment is being negatively impacted. Furthermore, you may be concerned that a student’s lack of control or social-emotional skill deficits are causing their social status or self-image to suffer, or notice a pattern of peer rejection, social isolation, or negative attention-seeking behavior. If so, you may wish to consider implementing one (or both) of the following best practice behavioral interventions.
Teachers can identify which positive behaviors they’d like reported, and may wish to rotate the desired positive behaviors (e.g., kindness, helpfulness) according to prosocial skills lessons or other character building themes, as applicable. A Tootling Goal can be set periodically and when it is achieved, the whole class can earn a fun activity of some sort.
This link summarizes each of the steps involved in preparing for, introducing, and implementing the best practice Tootling intervention. A brief materials list and suggested variations and considerations are also included.
It involves teaching students about authentic compliment-giving and how to know they’ve received a compliment (i.e., providing steps and examples, included below) and identifying and praising peer’s prosocial behaviors during brief daily meetings. Teachers identify the number of points needed to earn a group reward, and publicly monitor group progress toward this goal.
Examples of compliments include saying something nice about someone’s physical appearance, noticing they were generous with sharing or turn-taking, recognizing someone’s contributions to a group project, or describing how someone was helpful.
PPR’s four steps in compliment-giving are as follows:
- Look at the person.
- Smile.
- Report something positive the person did or said during the day.
- Then, make a positive comment, such as, “That was awesome.”
This link describes the steps in introducing, implementing, and evaluating the best practice Positive Peer Reporting intervention.
These templates will help you get the Tootling or Positive Peer Reporting intervention off and running in your classroom. Please request assistance with planning and implementation and let us know how it goes for you and your students!
Rathvon, N., (2008). Effective School Interventions, Second Edition: Evidence-Based Strategies for Improving Student Outcomes. New York: The Guilford Press, p. 134-146.
Skinner, C. H., Cashwell, T.H., & Skinner, A. L. (2000). Increasing tootling: The effects of a peer-monitored group contingency program on students' reports of peers' prosocial behaviors. Psychology in the Schools, 37, 263-270.
Wright, Jim. Intervention Central Website, Retrieved 2/1/2016 from http://www.interventioncentral.org/print//behavioral-interventions/schoolwide-classroommgmt/positive-peer-reports-changing-negative-behaviors-