Maggie Kearns Phase 3 Managing the Learning Environment

Context of Behavior: The student, MB, is a senior at Centennial High School. He is following a life skills curriculum. He is in a vocational placement at the Champaign Public Library, where he works twice per week for 1.5 hours. He rides the MTD bus back and forth from the library. His duties at the library include retrieving books from the basement, sorting them alphabetically, and putting them back on the shelf. During his time at the library, MB frequently uses inappropriate language. The focus of this program is to decrease the number of occurrences that he uses this language.

Operational Definition: Student uses inappropriate language while in transit and while at the library doing various tasks, such as taking the elevator, waiting for the bus, putting books back on the shelf, etc. The language that he uses is sometimes in response to a question he has been asked, when he is told to do something, or at random times when there was no prompt to speak. The language includes phrases or words that do not belong in the context of the situation or do not properly answer the question he was asked. Examples of this language include Merry Christmas, Who cares, or I love you.

Baseline Data Summary: Data was collected on three different occasions. Because the student goes to the library every Monday and Wednesday, these were the days used to collect data. Throughout the three days of data collection, the student used inappropriate phrases varying amounts of times. The first day, there were four instances that he used the language. The second day of data collection there were thirteen instances, and the third day there were five instances.

These results indicate that there is an inconsistency in the amount of times MB uses the inappropriate language.

Desired Outcome of Plan: The outcome of this plan is to decrease the amount of times that MB uses inappropriate phrases, as defined above. Ideally the goal is for the behavior to be eliminated entirely. This will be communicated to MB through a lesson on appropriate and inappropriate language in the workplace, including examples. Each day while in transit to the library, MB will be reminded of how he is expected to speak at the library and provided with appropriate examples of discussion topics.

Consequence Strategies: In order to decrease the use of inappropriate language, the student will receive the privilege of being able to check out a book, DVD, or magazine at the end of his shift at the library if he has used 3 or less inappropriate phrases. At the end of the shift, but before checking something out, I will speak with MB and explain to him that because his language was appropriate and expected behavior at work, he will be able to check out an item. The number of instances may be adjusted throughout the course of the program in order to most effectively reinforce his behavior. If MB uses inappropriate language at the library, he will immediately be told that the language he used is not expected of him and that he should choose a green phrase instead. A tally mark will be recorded on the data sheet for the corresponding date, which will be communicated to him. At the end of the shift if he has more than 3 inappropriate phrases he will not be allowed to check out any materials. We will have a short discussion as to why he did not

earn the privilege of checking out an item and come up with ways that he could improve his behavior for the next day at work. The data for this plan will be collected on a table that includes a column with the date of work and another column to tally the number of inappropriate phrases being used. The data from the table will be transferred to a line graph in order to easily interpret the information being collected.

# of Inappropriate Phrases
14 Number of Inappropriate Language Occurances 12

10

8 # of Inappropriate Phrases

0 9/9/13 9/11/13 9/13/13 9/15/13 Date 9/17/13