Academic Strategies Involved

Instructional Strategy Sam The Encouraging Appropriate Behavior Specific Praise strategy is based on delivering positive reinforcement in the form of either verbal or written praise. It can help to foster desirable and appropriate relationships between students and instructors, and requires pedagogues to utilize a number of timely plaudits that are related to specific actions and academic behaviors for students.

This strategy would be of immense benefit to Sam since he has a lengthy history of underachieving, and it would behoove him to gain attention in a classroom setting that is rewarding and for positive, on-task behaviors. Implementing this strategy with Sam would likely require utilizing a variation of types of praise with "other forms of behavior and reinforcement strategies" (Curran and the Iris Center, 2003, p. 6) since he is not used to approbation.

Criterion specific rewards serve as a preemptive means of "managing classroom behavior" ( Curran and the Iris Center, 2003, p. 9). They provide an extrinsic form of motivation in that students get privileges, social or material rewards for adhering to predefined, specific forms of behavior. As with most forms of motivation for students, it is necessary to vary the sort of rewards that students can access so that they will remain continually motivated to engage in the actions that warrants these rewards. This particular strategy should benefit Sam for a number of reasons.

Firstly, since he has a history of underachieving it is necessary to supplement specific praise with other means of motivation. Additionally, the implementation aspect of these rewards will ensure that Sam knows exactly what is expected of him. The choice-making strategy allows students to choose certain aspects of their academic lessons -- which gives them a sense of involvement and pride in taking ownership of their own learning.

To implement this strategy instructors need to identify student areas of interests, devise options that they can choose from related to pedagogy that coincides with those interests, and offer them to students accordingly. This strategy will benefit Sam in particular because it coincides nicely with criterion-specific rewards in that having such choices can actually function as one of those rewards. Additionally, this strategy is important for Sam since it "heightens student engagement and reduces disruptive behavior" (Curran and the Iris Center, 2003, p. 13).

Heather Effective rules are one of the hallmarks of classroom management and, by extension, of teaching in classroom environments. This strategy involves a brainstorming process in which pedagogues guide students through the formulation of basic, finite (in terms of the number) rules pertaining to classroom behavior. Teachers then post those rules in conspicuous places around the classroom and remind students of them as needed. Heather quite obviously will benefit from this particular strategy for a number of reasons.

The most eminent of these is the fact that by interrupting others she is breaking these rules. Therefore, it would immensely benefit her to be reminded of the rules, to partake in making them, and to be praised for adhering to them. In many ways, contingent instructions are the first form of the disciplinary process after traditional preemptive measures have proved ineffective for a particular situation at a certain point in time.

This strategy works by as immediately and as discretely as possible reprimanding a student for inappropriate behavior while simultaneously issuing a command to get him or her back on task. Such a strategy would provide considerable efficacy with Heather, who has demonstrated a proclivity for engaging in inappropriate classroom behavior.

Additionally, the proper implementation of this strategy involves a timely approach, brevity and, ideally, eye contact, which could serve as a simple reminder for what she is both not supposed to be doing and to engage her in that which she is. The Group Contingency strategy makes use of the entire classroom, or of smaller groups in that classroom, to produce the desired behavior for individuals or groups. There are three different codifications for this strategy, which can function independently, dependently, or interdependently.

More importantly, perhaps, the contingencies can involve either goals or negative consequences for behavior. Dependent group contingencies reward or punishe individuals for their interactions with groups. Independent contingencies reward or punish multiple individuals, while interdependent contingencies reward or punish the entire class. Such a strategy will help Heather because it will help her to understand the consequences of her reactions as they relate to others -- which is what she likely needs.

Doug Based on the case study information provided about Doug, it largely appears as though he would benefit from the choice-making strategy. This strategy is most appropriate for Doug out of all of the strategies identified previously in this document because it would best help him to take ownership of his education and to become more engaged with the classwork at hand. One of the prime issues that Doug is challenged with is simply beginning his assignments independently.

It is noteworthy that he does not lack in intelligence or in intellectual ability; his interests in science and engineering confirms that he has the mental acuteness to perform well in school. However, his level of interest in his schoolwork does not match that of his own personal interests primarily because the two do not coincide. Utilizing the choice-making strategy, however, could help to reconcile both of these interests and effectively engage Doug in his schoolwork.

In terms of implementing this strategy in my classroom, I would begin by ascertaining as much information as I could regarding Doug's specific interests in Legos and robots. I would begin by telling him that we are going to begin working on robots and Legos in class soon, and I wanted to get his 'expertise' about why they are interesting.

Having attained that information, I would compile a general list of options and apropos curricula that could incorporate principles of building/engineering -- if not outright Legos sets -- and robots and principles of robots into language arts and math lessons. I would also incorporate choices that are based on additional interests such as sports, flowers, and other aspects of technology so as not to alienate the other students.

Then, after teaching general concepts related to these two areas of academics, I would issue choices to students (or at least to Doug) regarding application assignments that reinforce those concepts. That way, I could increase the propensity for getting Doug to start his assignments on time and to complete much more of them than he was prior to implementing the strategy. Ellie I am fairly confident that the singular strategy that would best help Ellie to reach the goals set forth by Mr. Salinas is the group contingency strategy.

My confidence stems from the fact that Ellie's difficulties in English stem from her dearth of participation in group activities. Furthermore, in this particular class group work is vital to the grade that students receive. Quite simply, Ellie needs to increase her involvement with peer interaction in academics -- which could.