Introduction

“Jarrod is a seventh grader—I don’t know what to do about him! He is all over the place. He touches other students’ stuff and disrupts their concentration. He refuses to finish his classwork and hinders others from finishing theirs.” “When I tell Sasha, an eleventh grader, what class assignment to do, I’m ignored. When I repeat myself, I’m ignored again. So, I repeat myself yet again and tell her that if she doesn’t answer, I’m sending her to the office. She gets up and leaves. I want compliance.” “Derek, a second grader, will begin his independent mathematics assignment, but he often wants me to sit with him to complete it. He is capable of completing the work on his own; however, he lacks the motivation to finish it independently.”

We (Staci, Calli, and Mandy) are aware that many of you, as teachers, can relate to these student scenarios. We understand that students with challenging behaviors can negatively alter your school day and perhaps even your outlook on teaching. Each of us has been in that place of discouragement. We’ve spent long nights reviewing the cumulative folders of students who display problematic behaviors, trying to

find the solution to their issues. We have tried sympathizing with these students one week and taking a sterner approach the next. We have exhausted ourselves searching on our computers for research findings and strategies that we can immediately implement for these students, knowing that a basic internet search is unlikely to give us the professional or research-based answers we need.

The following snapshots come from our experiences as teachers struggling and eventually—through learning, developing, and implementing new strategies— succeeding in addressing challenging behaviors students have brought to our classrooms.

Staci reflects:

My teacher-preparation program included a few courses in special education but no courses in classroom management . Although I was a general education kindergarten and fourth-grade teacher, each year, I had several students with disabilities as well as some very active students who some would call the “problem students .” I found that I loved working with these students because I could tell they were good kids but misunderstood . Providing them a little bit of encouragement and being their champion made their faces light up, and they began to talk to me more . I could tell I was making a difference even though I wasn’t really doing much but showing them I cared about them and their education . This was something, but I wanted to do more . I constantly looked for strategies to help my students be successful . I went back to school to get my master’s degree in special education with an emphasis on behavior disorders . As I was finishing my degree, I moved from kindergarten to fourth grade, and that’s when I met a student named Cody . I got an earful of negative information from his previous teacher but did not let it scare me away . He was a tough student . He had built walls from his years of adverse experiences and often came across as defensive . His parents, particularly his mom, were abrasive . I was excited to put my training to use, thinking I was magically going to make his school experience better overnight, and boy, did he prove me wrong! Through persistence, I began to develop positive relationships with Cody and his parents by getting to know all of them; I even went to his football games . Changing years of negative experiences takes time, even with the best strategies in place . The road was often bumpy, but Cody and his family knew I cared about him and wanted him to be successful . Years later, I got a message from Cody and his mom telling me that being in my classroom had changed his schooling experience and helped him continue on even though he still did not always have the best school experiences after leaving my class . He is currently in the U .S . Army Infantry .

Calli recalls:

I didn’t have a single classroom-management or behavior-management course in my teacher-preparation program . Needless to say, I entered my first year of teaching completely unprepared to navigate students’ challenging behaviors . I remember asking my colleagues for advice and being told more than once to put some type of reward system in place . I remember thinking, Nope! The students should know how to behave. I struggled for a couple of years and then started paying attention to what was happening in classes that flowed smoothly, and I finally started implementing the strategies you’ll find in this book . There was a lot of trial and error, but I got it! In my last year of teaching before I left to pursue my PhD, my middle schoolers were working on a draft of their essay when my assistant principal opened my classroom door, stuck his head inside, and whispered to me, “Oh, sorry! I didn’t know they were testing!” I replied, “They aren’t . They’re just all on task!”

And Mandy remembers:

Several years into teaching, I met Virgie . I thought I was well prepared, or even overprepared, for a student like Virgie . After all, I had earned two degrees in special education (a bachelor’s degree in special education and a master’s degree in behavior disorders) . I was wrong . Virgie, a sixthgrade student, lived with his single mother, his younger sister, and his mom’s continuingly shifting social circle and unstable relationships, which disrupted his home environment . His eyes revealed his anger for life and disdain for school . I took his anger personally more times than I care to admit . His apathy seemed directed specifically at me . I often wondered if taking directives from a female teacher was difficult for him due to his troubled relationship with his mother . He didn’t seem to respond the same way to male paraprofessionals in our classroom . I could count at least five tier 1 and tier 2 positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) practices implemented within our classroom that were structured for student success . I perceived that the other students in my classroom responded positively to these tiered strategies; however, Virgie did not . He would sit at his desk, shout profanities, taunt his peers, and refuse to work . I asked myself hundreds of times a day, “How can these interventions not work?” The situation seemed hopeless . After working with me for two years, Virgie finally made strides with one of the evidence-based practices that we will be discussing in this book .

After twenty-plus years each of teaching in classrooms, and after years of training to work with individuals who behave in challenging ways, we know how difficult it is to motivate and engage students who exhibit resistant and even hostile behaviors. And we know how difficult it is to learn how to address these behaviors through a slow and sometimes confusing process of trial and error. It’s even more frustrating when you lack adequate strategies to bring positive change to this difficult work. These are the

reasons why we wrote this book for you, novice and veteran K–12 teachers. Through practical, evidence-based, culturally responsive, and easy-to-implement strategies, we provide you the tools you need to address the challenging behaviors in your classroom so that you can spend your energy developing engaging lessons and building positive relationships with all your students. While you may have heard of the strategies in this book’s eight chapters, or you may be familiar with some of them, we provide specific guidance to make sure you understand how to implement each strategy with fidelity and guarantee the best outcomes for you and your students.

Chapter 1 begins with an examination of factors that can contribute to challenging behaviors in students. We look at environmental factors stemming from aspects of students’ nurturing, such as their family, community, teachers, and peers, and we look at the role genetic predisposition might play. Next, we consider unproductive reactions to challenging behaviors; these reactions of both the students themselves and the adults in the students’ lives include developing learned helplessness and ascribing blame for students’ challenging behaviors rather than addressing the behaviors. We then pair this consideration of unproductive reactions with productive behaviors and mindsets that help lay a foundation for effectively implementing the seven evidence-based strategies that make up the core of this book.

Chapters 2–8 encompass the seven strategies themselves: (1) student choice, (2) token economies, (3) high-probability sequencing, (4) classwide peer tutoring, (5) self-monitoring, (6) opportunities to respond, and (7) precorrection. Each chapter provides detailed guidance on the strategy it addresses, ideas for reinforcing the strategy, culturally responsive practices related to the strategy, tips for incorporating student interests into strategy implementation, and problem-solving tips for the strategy. A fictional scenario based on real-life school and student situations is also woven throughout each chapter to illuminate the issues and strategy the chapter addresses. Chapters close with a Concluding Thoughts section and a “Questions for Reflection” reproducible that invites readers to write in the spaces provided and in doing so envision themselves implementing the chapter’s strategies, confronting challenges, exploring benefits, and so on. This book includes additional reproducible templates of helpful figures and an appendix of print and online resources that are linked to each chapter’s content.

We offer this book as a comprehensive resource for any educator looking for guidance on working with students who have challenging behaviors. It will give you a wealth of tools and the flexibility of a toolbox, wherein you may move about the chapters in the order that works for you, choosing the strategies that fit your needs. When you finish reading, you will be able to motivate all students to engage in academic work.