Facilitating Voice Through Choice: Embedding Low-Intensity Behavior Strategies into Routine Writing Instruction
First Presenter's Institution
The University of Alabama
First Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Elizabeth Michael is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Special Education at The University of Alabama. She has over 7 years of experience working with students with disabilities across grade levels and educational settings including inclusive, resource, self-contained and residential special education settings from K-12 grade. Her background includes B.S., MAEd, and Ph.D. degrees in general and special education. Her current research focuses on equitable and trauma-informed writing interventions and supports along with social-emotional instruction for students with and at risk for emotional behavioral disorders.
Document Type
Event
Primary Strand
Positive Behavior Interventions and Support
Relevance to Primary Strand
This presentation focuses on an evidence-based low-intensity behavior strategy (choice making) embedded within an evidence-based instructional approach (strategy instruction) for writing when working with students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. The focus strategies and instructional approach within this presentation are easily implemented within tiered systems of support for all students while also demonstrating effectiveness for students with disabilities. This presentation highlights the importance of strategy use across academic and behavior domains when working to support students in a positive and proactive way.
Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics
Student Learning and Development
Brief Program Description
Writing is a necessary skill for success in school and in life that presents a challenge for many students. Students with and at risk for EBD often struggle with the complex skills required when writing. This presentation highlights an evidence-based embedment of strategies to support the complex needs of students who demonstrate difficulty with written expression and making choices. Considerations for the classroom are presented.
Summary
Writing is a complex skill that draws on a student’s basic content knowledge, academic skills, motivation, and a variety of cognitive and metacognitive strategies. When writing students are required to consider the content they are writing about along with a knowledge of mechanics and motivation to complete a writing task. In addition, students must maintain an understanding of the different genres and the requirements of successfully engaging with that content. All these factors create a taxing process, particularly for students who already demonstrate deficits when writing. For students with and at risk emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), comorbid academic and behavioral needs make the already taxing writing process an additional challenge. Years of research point to the need for strategies targeted to address the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs of these students. To meet this need, researchers have called for the embedment of low-intensity behavior strategies within targeted instructional approaches as well as within typical classroom instruction and daily routines. This presentation highlights the functionality of choice-making, a low-intensity behavior strategy when embedded within a strategic instructional approach for supporting genre-specific writing. The procedures for implementing both choice-making and the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) instructional approach for writing will be presented. Additionally, procedures and considerations for embedding the strategies within routine instruction will be discussed. Participants will leave with practical, real-world strategies ready to implement upon returning to their educational setting. Results of implementing SRSD with embedded choice-making are presented along with considerations when implementing these strategies in more restrictive educational settings.
Evidence
Students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) present major deficits in language, literacy, and written expression that present the need for more significant academic and social supports (e.g., Ennis et al., 2017; Gagnon & Leone, 2005; Scott et al., 2011). At the elementary level, students with EBD function at least one year below grade level, and by high school, this gap has grown with students falling at least 3.5 years below grade level in subjects related to language, literacy, and writing (Coutinho, 1986; Falk & Wehby, 2001). Over any other student with any other disability eligibility, students with EBD are more likely to be placed in restrictive settings (e.g., residential treatment facilities). It is critical for teachers working in AE settings to have evidence-based strategies to implement with students to improve academic skills like writing. Researchers have continued making progress in their understanding of the processes involved in writing with emphasis placed on the need for explicit strategy instruction and integration of self-regulation skills to support students with EBD in the complex writing process (MacArthur et al., 2022). Proficient writers have a toolkit of strategies for planning, drafting, evaluating, and revising. These are complex skills for a student to navigate simultaneously and present an even larger challenge for students in grades K – 5 as they are still developing their academic writing abilities. Writers who are still developing often show little goal-directed behavior while writing and often approach a writing task by retrieving any somewhat relevant information and writing it down with little attention focused on planning, organization, or audience (Graham & Harris, 2000). For teachers working with students with and at risk for EBD on improving writing skills, it is important to implement interventions that explicitly instruct and support students’ writing skills while also supporting self-regulation skills that promote task engagement and follow through with the demands of the writing process.
In addition to exhibiting academic deficits, students with and at risk for EBD exhibit behavior deficits that are necessary for educators to address. To address these deficits, researchers have called for the embedment of low-intensity behavior strategies into typical classroom instruction and daily routines (e.g., Lane et al., 2015). Low-intensity behavior strategies have been defined as strategies that can be implemented across content areas with minimal planning and training (Lane et al., 2018) with examples including behavior-specific praise, precorrection, active supervision, instructional choice (i.e., choice-making), and instructional feedback. These strategies require minimal materials and are compatible with a variety of academic activities and contexts (Lane et al., 2015) while deliverable by any adult within and across settings. These strategies can increase academic engagement and performance (e.g., Ennis et al., 2018a; Ramsey et al., 2010), may increase peer interaction opportunities (e.g., Ennis et al., 2020), and can provide a context for more frequent, positive feedback related to student academics (e.g., Ennis et al., 2018b; Lane et al., 2015). The proposed presentation highlights the results of embedding choice-making within a strategic instruction approach while providing participants with real-world considerations to take back to their classrooms.
Learning Objective 1
Participants will be able to identify procedures for implementing choice making in the classroom and when embedded within academic instruction.
Learning Objective 2
Participants will be able to identify steps within the self-regulated strategy development and connect choice making procedures to the instructional approach.
Learning Objective 3
Participants will be able to determine previously established instructional and classroom routines where SRSD with embedded choice making will fit in their educational setting.
Recommended Citation
Michael, Elizabeth L., "Facilitating Voice Through Choice: Embedding Low-Intensity Behavior Strategies into Routine Writing Instruction" (2023). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 94.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2023/2023/94
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Facilitating Voice Through Choice: Embedding Low-Intensity Behavior Strategies into Routine Writing Instruction
Writing is a complex skill that draws on a student’s basic content knowledge, academic skills, motivation, and a variety of cognitive and metacognitive strategies. When writing students are required to consider the content they are writing about along with a knowledge of mechanics and motivation to complete a writing task. In addition, students must maintain an understanding of the different genres and the requirements of successfully engaging with that content. All these factors create a taxing process, particularly for students who already demonstrate deficits when writing. For students with and at risk emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), comorbid academic and behavioral needs make the already taxing writing process an additional challenge. Years of research point to the need for strategies targeted to address the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs of these students. To meet this need, researchers have called for the embedment of low-intensity behavior strategies within targeted instructional approaches as well as within typical classroom instruction and daily routines. This presentation highlights the functionality of choice-making, a low-intensity behavior strategy when embedded within a strategic instructional approach for supporting genre-specific writing. The procedures for implementing both choice-making and the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) instructional approach for writing will be presented. Additionally, procedures and considerations for embedding the strategies within routine instruction will be discussed. Participants will leave with practical, real-world strategies ready to implement upon returning to their educational setting. Results of implementing SRSD with embedded choice-making are presented along with considerations when implementing these strategies in more restrictive educational settings.
