“It’s hard do the collaborative work of a Professional
Learning Community if your school is struggling with student behavior and
school climate issues”. This was a comment from a teacher at a recent workshop.
We agree.
Co-author and friend, Tom Hierck and I recently hosted the “launch” of our 2-day workshops based on our book, “Pyramid of Behavior Interventions: Seven Keys to a Positive Learning Environment”. The team at Solution Tree always does a great job of putting
on these professional learning opportunities. Participants were actively
engaged and their feedback was very positive.
What became clear to the K-12 educators in this session is
what Tom and I (and our third author, Chris Weber) have been saying for years. In
terms of school improvement, behavior and academic success are inextricably
linked. Students struggling academically, often act out with negative behavior.
Students with behavioral challenges, often struggle with academic success. The challenge for educators is in finding a way
to address academics and behavior.
Both are important.
In our book, we have re-phrased the core PLC questions to
also consider behavior:
- How is it we want our students to behave?
- How will we know if each student has learned how to behave?
- How will we respond when some students do not behave?
- How will we extend and enrich the learning for those students who have demonstrated proficiency?
In our workshop, we demonstrate how school teams can tackle
the issues of behavior and academics at the same time. By combining of the proven practice and
structure of the Professional Learning Community (PLC) model with the research-based
concepts of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS), school teams can
create the systems and interventions required to improve student behavior and
learning simultaneously.
The PLC structures that support this work include:
- Collaborative Teams
- Collective Inquiry
- Data-Driven Dialogue
- Targeted, Results-Oriented Interventions
The PBIS practices that support this work include:
- Creating a school-wide Behavior Matrix
- Collaborating on agreed-up values, priorities and essential outcomes
- Targeting instruction based on evidence or data
- Generating a tiered approach to intervention
Of course, there is more to this work than can be simplified
into a few bullets in a single blog post.
What we heard from participants as they spent the two days making the connections
between behavior and learning, was that creating a school climate that is
conducive to a collaborative focus on student learning is important work.
Participants also agreed that creating a pyramid of interventions that
addresses both behavior and academics is critical for school improvement.
Web Site: www.heartofeducation.com
