High school example

Narrator: High-probability requests, high school example and non-example. During English class, Virginia often engages in off-task behavior and refuses to comply with instructional requests. In this example, Mrs. Ward effectively delivers a series of high-probability, or high-p, requests followed by a low-probability, or low-p. request to increase Virginia’s compliance.

Mrs. Ward: Take your paper out. Items on the table, and you’re going to see a picture of a shoe. Your assignment is to think about who the owner of that shoe might be and what might be happening in their life based on the shoe. Go ahead and start writing down your first impressions that you see.

Hey, Virginia, can you take out your materials, your writing materials, and get them organized? That would be your notebook, your paper, and your shoe picture.

Great! Wonderful! Can you put your name at the top of the paper? Thank you so much. You got that done so quickly. Can you pull three words that you think of when you see that picture?

Yeah, absolutely. “Sloppy.” So now you are ready to go. Go ahead and start writing. Who do you think the owner of the shoe is, and what do you think is happening in that perspective?  Ok, good job.

Narrator: To review, the teacher correctly implemented high-p requests. She delivered a series of three high-p requests in quick succession, offered brief verbal praise after the completion of each high-p request, and immediately praised the student after she complied with the low-p request.

High school non-example

Narrator: In this non-example, pay attention to how Mrs. Ward only gives one high-p request to Virginia before delivering a low-p request. Note how this affects Virginia’s compliance.

Mrs. Ward: Take your paper out. Items on the table, and you’re going to see a picture of a shoe. Your assignment is to think about who the owner of that shoe might be and what might be happening in their life based on the shoe. Go ahead and start writing down your first impressions that you see.

Hey, Virginia, can you get your materials organized for writing? You’ll need your journal, your pencil, and your paper.

Great job. Thanks so much. You’re ready to go, I think. Go ahead and start on the assignment.

Narrator: To review, the teacher attempted to implement high-p requests but was unsuccessful because she delivered only one high-p request instead of three to five and moved on to another task before making sure the student complied with the low-p request.