Establish a classroom atmosphere that celebrates the sharing of learning. Have opportunity for students to practice new learnings. Make student learning available to the larger community, i.e. books students write are shared with other classes, students report in school paper, student work is displayed at school, etc.

Skit: On-Task Behaviors are Alive and Well Practice/ Present

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.