Karin Ackerman October 30, 2012 Managing the Learning Environment Describe the context/situation: While at the hallway

table working on the lessons activities, D complains about the work. His friends walk by several times, along with other teachers and large groups of students. He says its too hard and that he cannot do it. He completes the activities in the lesson, but continues to exclaim that its too hard and that he cannot do it. Operational Definition: As D is working on an activity during the lesson, he groans, puts his head in his hands or on the table or rests his head in his elbow. He then uses negative self talk: This is to hard. These words are too big. I cant do this, its too hard. This is stupid. I dont know! Baseline Data: Dates: Number of times used: 10/1 10/2 10/2 10/2 10/3 8 2 4 9 0 1 18 13 8 6

D uses negative self-talk an average of 9.2 times during each lesson. D can exhibit this behavior very often during the half hour reading session. Depending on the day he can do the work with few complaints, or he can use negative self-talk numerous times in the session. The trend seems to be that he has more days that have large amounts of negative self talk. Proposed intervention: -desired outcomes or expectations: I want D to complete the activities in the Rewards intervention without using negative self talk. He will work on each activity and attempt to complete each one without expressing that it is too hard. If he doesnt understand something or cannot figure out the answer, he can ask for help. He can only ask for help if he has attempted to do the problem or activity on his own. The expectation for D will be that he does not use any negative self-talk during the half hour session I work with him. I will tell D the expectations I have for him and all students. I will tell him that he cannot say a problem or activity is too hard. He has to attempt

to do the problem before he can decide he does not understand it. I will explain to him that if he finds that the activity really is difficult and he cannot figure it out on his own he can ask for help. I will explain to him that he has to attempt to complete the different activities by himself then he can ask for help. If he does find that the problem or activity is too difficult, he cannot use negative self talk he has to ask for help. -Antecedent strategies: The environment we are working in is distracting. I may also be embarrassing for him to be working one-onone with a teacher while his friends are in larger groups. I would move our group to the special education classroom down the hall, where there are less distractions and he may be less embarrassed because his friends wont see he works one-on-one with a teacher. Not being in the hallway will also help him focus on the activities. There wont be the distraction of his friends or his teachers walking by. I will encourage him to not use negative self-talk by making a chart that shows his progress in decreasing the amount of negative self-talk he uses. This chart will encourage him to continue to not use negative self-talk. -consequence strategies: At first I will explain to D that he can only use negative self talk a maximum of 8 times during our half hour session. If he only uses negative self talk 8 or fewer times then he will move forward one space on the board. Each day that he only uses self talk a maximum of 8 times his marker will move one space on the chart. When his marker reaches the goal on the chart he will receive a piece of candy from the jar in the special education room. Each week the number of times he can use negative self talk during the session will decrease by 2 until he is expected to not use negative self talk at all. data collection: I will collect data every day. I will track this data to determine if the intervention is working. I will use chart similar to the one pictured above. During the lesson I will mark a tally every time D uses negative self-talk. I will then graph the number of tallies to show the trend in the use of negative self-talk.