I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Responsibility

Essential Question:

How does on-task behavior foster academic achievement?

Bridge:

Recognizing Behaviors

Content:

Study Skills: On-task Behavior

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: The student will experience a situation in which academic outcomes are related to on and off task behaviors.

Activity: Students are divided into five groups which are then seated together. Each group is given a special set of directions to follow while the teacher instructs the class in a vocabulary lesson. These directions ask four groups to engage in off-task behaviors during instruction by talking to each other, writing notes, working on homework, or daydreaming. The fifth group is asked to pay close attention to the skill lesson. The lesson is then conducted and all students are given the same quiz at the end. These are scored and each group determines its average. Averages are written on the board as each group reads its directions to the rest of the class. Scores of each group are related to the behaviors displayed during the skill lesson.

Assessment: The student's ability to relate different on and off task behaviors to different academic outcomes will provide the basis for the evaluation of the effectiveness of this activity.

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: The student will relate on and off task behaviors to classroom achievement.

Activity: Discussion. Students are asked to analyze the results of the above activity in a class discussion.

Which groups did the best on the quiz? Why do you think this was so?

Did anyone in the group talking to neighbors hear any of the lesson? How much did you hear?

Did anyone who was daydreaming hear the lesson?
. . . the note writing group?
. . . the homework group?

What do you think interferes with learning in each of the different conditions?

How did most students learn best?

What does this say for the best behavior to have during class times?

Assessment: Student understanding of the experience is measured in his/her written response to the following question: WHY is academic success dependent on student behavior during class?

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: The student will label specific actions of fictitious students in given descriptions as positivie or negative in tems of learning.

Activity: On or Off Task? Working in groups, students act out descriptions of fictitious students for the class. The class then discusses the behaviors shown, labeling them as ‘helpful’ or ‘harmful’ to given learning situations. At the end of the activity, the term ‘on-task’ is given for the helpful behaviors while the term ‘off-task’ is given to the harmful behaviors.

Assessment: The students’ ability to classify the behaviors shown as ‘on-task’ or ‘off-task’ and their relation to classroom learning forms the basis of evaluation for this activity.

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: 1) The student will be able to define 'on-task' and 'off-task' behaviors, give examples of each, and correctly classify given behaviors as such. 2) The student will be able to explain research findings related to on and off-task behaviors.

Activity: Let's Talk About It. Present students with information derived from educational research that shows the link between on-task behaviors and learning. Present the following questions, ask students to hypothesize the findings, and then share the actual results with the class. Let's Talk About Time - A Conversation Between a Student and an Educational Researcher. 1) Does the way time is spent in a classroom effect the amount of learning which I achieve? Yes. In a study of 87 classrooms in 1980, those classes which did not engage in as much teacher instructed activity, did not achieve as much. Not only does student on-task behavior help learning, but the amount of time in which students are actually engaged--busy with--the learning activity effects the amount of material learned. 2) If a student only talks with others off and on, does it really hurt? Yes. Frequent behaviors such as social interactions (talking to others) cut down on student achievement. 3) If the class is working in groups, can I talk to my friends? Yes and no. Group activities have learning goals. Talking with group members about the assigned activity is an on-task behavior. Your teacher designs the learning activity so that by following the directions you can better achieve the learning goal. Talking to others in your group about the learning task is usually an important part of the directions. However, if you talk to your friends about something unrelated to the learning task, you are displaying an off-task behavior and your overall learning suffers. This is because you are not spending the needed time on the learning task. 4) A boy in my class is always goofing off telling jokes and getting the class to laugh. Is he hurting my learning achievement? Yes. By disturbing the time which you have to work on a learning exercise, he is interrupting your learning time. 5) If we increase our math class time, will than mean that we will learn more math? Maybe. The amount of time you spend in a class is not necessarily going to effect your overall learning rate. Researchers talk about something called 'student-engaged time' and claim that it is more important than the total amount of time spent in a class. Student-engaged time is the amount of time in which a student actively participates in a learning experience. That is, the time spent in a class when a student is not working on a learning task doesn't effect overall learning. If the added class time is to effect overall learning, it must be spent actively working on math. Therefore, more math time spent on math will help, but more math time used to socialize won't. 6) What if I spend a lot of time in math working on math problems, but I get them all wrong? An educational researcher named Filby Fisher has introduced a new term, academic learning time, which takes accuracy into account. According to his research, learning occurs when a student spends time on learning exercises and does the work with a high level of success. This would seem to indicate that if you spent a lot of time doing problems to wrong way, and were never corrected, this added time wouldn't be helpful to your overall achievement. You would be well advised to check your work periodically to be sure that you're doing it right. From this discussion, generate several lists of behaviors, those which are generally on-task behaviors and those which are off-task behaviors can be different if called for by the teacher in a learning situation. Write the lists on large paper and post for further consideration.

Assessment: Quality of student lists and ability to remain on-task (!) for the activities.

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: The student will be able to identify both on- and off-task behaviors in given examples; will be able to assess his/her own behaviors for the same.

Activity: Identifying On-Task Behaviors. Students complete and discuss an activity sheet entitled, "Identifying On-Task Behaviors." Once complete, each student evaluates his/her own most frequent on and/or off-task behaviors. These assessments are to remain confidential. Students are asked to put them in a safe place so that they can check their progress in several weeks.

Assessment: Student mastery of on- and off-task behaviors is measured by their responses on the activity sheet.

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: The student will identify examples of on- and off-task behaviros in his/her daily classes.

Activity: Classroom Observations. Students are given observation sheets on which to record at least three examples each of on- and off-task behaviors. The directions ask students to watch for examples in team classes (in which team teachers would have been notified of the activity). Once observations are complete, group members are to share them and select their favorite examples from those noted. These are to be kept confidential between group members until they have completed the following activity and presented it to the class.

Assessment: Student observations on their activity sheets serve as a measure of student understanding of on- and off-task behaviors.

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: The student will create a skit showing both on- and off-task behaviors; will implement a system for self-monitoring and rewarding his/her own on-task behaviors.

Activity: On-Task Behaviors are Alive and Well. Working in small groups, students are to create skits showing examples of both on- and off-task behaviors. These skits should be set in a classroom (to be defined as any learning environment) and should show examples of behaviors shown by students of their own age.

Assessment: Evaluation of the planning phase becomes evident in the performing phase of this activity which follows.

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: The student will create and perform a skit showing on- and off-task behaviors in a learning setting; . . . will implement an on-task program to monitor and reward on-task behaviors.

Activity: On-Task Behaviors Are Alive and Well. Students practice and perform their skits for the class which discusses the on- and off-task behaviors shown in each. Once all skits are shown, introduce a 'Self-Monitoring and Reward' Program to the students. Explain that the purpose of the program is to help students become more aware of their behaviors during class times and to increase the percentage of time during which they are on-task. Go over the findings of Edward Workman in his book, Teaching Behavioral Self-Control to Students, briefly describing his belief that individuals are in control of their own behavioral self-control and have the power to improve themselves. Explain the basic mechanisms of the program: Students will each be given a weekly Self-Monitoring sheet. Explain that every class hour the alarm clock will go off once every twelve minutes, roughly dividing the class time in fourths. At the time the alarm sounds, students are to assess their own behaviors and answer the questions, "Am I on-task?". If they answer 'yes', they are to give themselves a point. If the answer is 'no', they are to skip the point that time. Each day the maximum number of points possible is four, and multiplied over the five days of a normal week, the maximum weekly points possible is 20. If a student earns 80% of the possible weekly points, or 16, he/she will be rewarded at the end of the week with a treat. (This treat can be any small reward--a piece of candy, ten minutes of free time, a pass to do only half of a homework assignment, etc.). The sheets should be set up and ready to go for the next day. *** Note: When I first tried the self-monitoring program, I became very perplexed. I realized that many of the students were 'lying' on their sheets. That is, they gave themselves points when they didn't deserve them. However, the overall attention of the class was markedly improved. While the alarm was a disruption initially, we all got used to it and could almost mark sheets while we continued our activity. However, I still couldn't figure out why on-task behaviors were better overall while many of the students really didn't qualify for points when the alarm went off. A visiting principal helped me out. She explained that while some were not on-task when the alarm went off, they were put back on-task at that time. In other words, at four times during the hour, any student who was off-task was put back on. As a result, any student who was off-task was put back on. As a result, the overall class on-task behavior was much improved. It must be noted that this was first tried with a group of students which was comprised of top and bottom students with very few in the average range. It, therefore, contained a number of students who benefited from being put back on-task. Classroom observations help teachers too!

Assessment: Enjoyment of skits.

Assessment, Phase Five,Performance, Creative Use of Material Learned: