How do you develop an effective behavior management plan?
Page 9: Action Plan
The final core component of a classroom behavior management plan is an action plan—a well-thought-out timeline for teaching and sharing the rules, procedures, and consequences with students, families, and other relevant school personnel. The action plan includes:
- What needs to be done
- How it will be done
- When it will be accomplished
The table below briefly outlines the actions that teachers should accomplish in order to effectively implement a classroom behavior management plan (i.e., what needs to be done).
| Actions | Description |
Develop a toolkit |
Create or gather materials that a teacher will need to implement a classroom behavior management plan, such as:
Remember: Whenever possible, letters sent home should be written in language that is easily understood (e.g., jargon-free terms, family’s home language). |
Teach the plan to students |
Take time to teach the specific rules and procedures that students are expected to follow and the consequences for certain behaviors. To effectively do so, teachers need to create:
Remember: Communicate a rationale for all rules, procedures, and expectations that is reflective of the backgrounds of students and their families. |
Share the plan with others |
Include information in the action plan about how to inform parents and other key school personnel about the classroom rules, procedures, and consequences. This is especially important for paraprofessionals and other support staff to ensure consistency. Remember: The classroom behavior management plan will be more successful if parents are aware and supportive of classroom expectations. |
Review the plan with students |
Plan lessons throughout the year to review the components of the classroom behavior management plan, remind everyone of expected behavior, and troubleshoot problems. Remember: Reviews or booster sessions should occur at logical intervals throughout the school year (e.g., following winter break, the first Monday of every month). |
Did You Know?
A classroom behavior management plan will be more successful if students are rewarded for following rules and procedures (remember all those positive consequences!). Building recognition activities into an action plan is just one more reminder for teachers to reinforce positive behavior.
Checking in with Ms. Amry
Now that you have a general idea of what the teacher needs to do to implement an action plan, click here to view Ms. Amry’s action plan. Note that she addresses what needs to be done, as well as how it will be done and when it will be accomplished.
* Sample Elementary Action Plan * |
||
Toolkit |
||
| What | How | When |
| Develop rules and procedures |
|
Prior to start of school |
| Post rules and procedures |
|
Prior to start of school |
| Create a handout of rules and procedures |
|
Prior to start of school |
| Create a note for positive parent contacts |
|
Prior to start of school |
| Obtain office referral form |
|
Prior to start of school |
Teach the plan to students |
||
| What | How | When |
| Teach rules, procedures, and consequences to students |
|
First week of school |
Disseminate the plan |
||
| What | How | When |
| Share with colleagues and assistants |
|
|
| Disseminate to parents and request buy in |
|
|
Review the plan |
||
| What | How | When |
| Schedule review sessions | Note review sessions at four-week intervals in the lesson-plan book | Prior to start to school |
| Identify and review components that are problematic | Decide which component to focus on and then review and role play with students | Throughout school year, as needed |
Listen as Michael Rosenberg discusses some considerations for teachers who want to ensure that their classroom behavior management plan is sustained and reinforced over time. Next, Lori Jackman talks about the importance of including informative items in the action plan for substitute teachers. Finally, Delale O’Connor explains how to make an action plan more culturally responsive or sustaining.
Michael Rosenberg, PhD
Professor, Special Education,
SUNY New Paltz, Professor Emeritus,
Johns Hopkins University
(time: 1:50)
Lori Jackman, EdD
Anne Arundel County
Public Schools, retired
Professional Development Provider
(time: 1:02)
Lori Delale-O’Connor, PhD
Assistant Professor of Education
University of Pittsburg
School of Education
(time: 2:30)
Transcript: Michael Rosenberg, PhD
We think of the action plan as being the to-do list for rolling out the comprehensive behavior plan in one’s classroom. Think of it as the components of a task analysis. As you’re completing this task analysis, what are all of those things that you need to do in order to make this plan happen? First, it’s important that you give the plan a chance to work. Your students are going to test you at every interval. Remember, be consistent throughout the plan. Second, re-teach the management plan at regular intervals. This is important if you want the students to remember all of the elements of the behavior plan. Third, directly teach the plan to new students. Many of us work in environments where there is a high degree of students transferring in and out of the building. New students coming in don’t necessarily know the plan, and that plan needs to be taught to those students. Fourth, share the plan with others. Make sure that the administrators in the building know the plan. Prepare a way for a substitute teacher to implement the plan. Be sure that related service personnel are aware of the plan, and that they can share in administering the plan. Finally, show the positive side of the plan to parents. Parents enjoy knowing that their children are being recognized for appropriate behavior while they’re at school. As you have found, comprehensive behavior management takes time and effort. The important lesson here is that this can be done, and our classrooms can be responsive to all children.
Transcript: Lori Jackman, EdD
One of the items that you could think about putting in your action plan would be a summary to a substitute. In most classrooms, you have to have a substitute folder, and that could be one of the opening documents that would let that substitute know that you had a classroom management system in place, and here is the basis of it. Even maybe design an opening lesson for that substitute teacher to let the students know they’re on board with your management system. Certainly, we’ve all had, “No, no, no. My teacher doesn’t do it that way!” It can be a little bit awkward, but by the kids seeing that the substitute is on the same page as much as possible with the classroom teacher and that the systems are still in place can really be beneficial to having a better substitute day. And, ideally, if you’ve got a management system in place where kids are starting to learn to regulate their own behavior, not behaving because you’re standing over them, not behaving because they are afraid of you, they will rise to that occasion.
Transcript: Lori Delale-O’Connor, PhD
I always like to say the action plan is a living, breathing document that changes and is updated to reflect the needs of the classroom, and that those needs of the classroom, of course, come from the teacher, but also come from the students and the families. So you may find not even in the middle of the year, but a few weeks in that as we get to know each other better, there’s some needs that we didn’t recognize or address, or there are some things that we didn’t expect. Part of that is just being transparent and saying that families can expect communication about it. And for the students you can expect that we’re going to talk about this sometimes, but then connected to that is thinking about the ways this is communicated. There’s, I think, a lot of work done more recently on what school or teacher communication with families can and should look like to better support families in both understanding what’s going on and feeling included and in feeling like they can participate. Part of that is engaging in that communication in a variety of ways, finding out how do parents best communicate and respond. Is it by way of course management systems? Is it by way of a letter home, although those often end up crumpled into the bottom of backpacks? Is it by way of a direct phone call? I know that some teachers are engaging in TikTok videos or other modes of short, to-the-point communications with clear opportunities for feedback. And so what is an opportunity that if I’m a parent in a classroom or I’m a caregiver in a classroom that I can say I can just text you back? I can leave a voicemail. I can send an email. And then also, of course, taking into consideration language needs. Is this available in all of the languages that are spoken among your students and in your classroom? Recognizing that for some schools and for some teachers, that’s going to need a little bit more lead time because things are going to need to be translated. Another really, really strong way to support this is engaging parents or caregivers as partners early on. If you have parent liaisons who are getting the word out, they would be a source that might have already gained the trust of other caregivers. You might have parent liaisons who share information and make sure not only that it gets out but there are clear ways to get feedback if it’s needed.
Activity
Now it’s time to decide how you will implement your behavior management plan.
