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...
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…
