1

Danielle Mercado
PBS Project Task Analysis
Step One
1. Choose a class from the class list that fits your interests in teaching. You will use this class for assignments
for each step.
Class #3
2. Name your students.
Maddox, Sage, Walker, Kade, Landon, Spade, Vienna, Isla, and Junior
3. Begin to add information as you imagine each student. Make sure to ensure that you add information about
some students that would make them ELLs and low socioeconomic students.
Maddox- Male, 8, Grade 3
o Learning Disability: Language processing disorder
o Strengths: Good relationship with teacher and good fine motor skills.
o Weaknesses: Readiness level in all academics, refuses to work at time, and cries when
teased by peers.
o Interests: Hot wheels cars, working a puzzle with the teacher or a female peer, and
computer games.
Sage- Male, 10, Grade 4 (Comes from single parent household)
o Learning Disability: Dyslexia
o Strengths: Beginning 3rd grade math skills and good peer relationships
o Weaknesses: 1st grade level reading skills and often refuses to follow teacher directions
o Interests: Sports and Arcade type video games
Walker- Male, 9, Grade 4
o Other health impaired: ADHD
o Strengths: Good relationships with peers/adults and wants to do well
o Weaknesses: Very active both verbally/physically, about 2 nd grade academically, and very
short attention span
o Interests: Easy puzzles, running games, and arcade type video games
Kade- Male, 10, Grade 5
o Low SES- Lives with grandfather who is currently living off of disability, often does not
have more than three meals total on the weekends, and gets roughed up in his
neighborhood
o Learning Disability/other health impaired: Dyscalculia/asthma
o Strengths: High 3rd grade reading level and desire for good peer relationships
o Weaknesses: Regrouping- addition and subtraction and cries/curses when peers tease/play
too rough
o Interests- Drawing, video games, and attempts board games with peers
Landon- Male, 11, Grade 5 (Comes from single parent household)
o Learning disabled/other health impaired: Non-verbal/diabetes
o Strengths: Reading mid-3rd grade- vocabulary/comprehension and good relationships with
adults
o Weaknesses: Math 3rd grade- problem solving in multiple step word problems, stops
rather than asking for help, and poor peer relationships
o Interests: Motorcycles- magazines/models and video games
Spade- Female, 10, Grade 5 (Comes from single parent household)
o Disability: Mental retardation
o Strengths: Enjoys school, good relationship with adults, and attempts relationships with
peers
o Weaknesses: Low 1st grade in all academics, social skills very immature for age, and can
be very stubborn, disorganized and messy
o Interests: puzzles, ability level games- video/board, and coloring

Vienna- Female, 9, Grade 4 (Lives with a foster family)

o ELL- First language is German, was introduced to English at age 6 but still struggles
regularly as parents do not know English.
o Disability: Emotional disturbance
o Strengths: Regrouping in addition to subtraction, basic geometry/patterns, and good peer
relationships with friends
o Weaknesses: Reads on a kindergarten level/resists instruction, sometimes refuses to
follow teacher instructions, and curses when angry
o Interests: Drawing and talking with friends
Isla- Female, 11, Grade 5 (Comes from single parent household)o Low SES- Mother is currently unemployed so the living environment is poor, other
children complain about the smell of her clothing.
o Learning Disability: Dyslexia and dyscalculia
o Strengths: Reading 3rd grade- phonics/vocabulary and basic beginning 3 rd grade math
skills
o Weaknesses: Reading comprehension, math- problem solving in multi-step problems, and
tantrums- curses at peers when teased
o Interests: music- listening to and/or singing and drawing
Junior- Male, 10, Grade 4
o Disability: Autism
o Strengths: Savant calendar/maps skills, increasing ability to speak in complete thoughts,
and nice to others
o Weaknesses: Hypersensitivity to texture and limited communication/comprehension
ability
o Interests: Organizing books in the library, music, and performing in the inclusion music
class

Step Two
1. Use your students to make up two A-B-C examples.
Vienna: A-During lunch, she changed her mind about the dessert she has chosen but it was too late
to switch them out. She was told, Im sorry but no, you will have to have the dessert on your tray
or none at all. B- She flipped over her lunch tray, scattering food all over the table and floor.
Then, swore, using the F word three times before slamming her head down on the table and
covering her face. C- She was verbally reprimanded after she was taken out of the lunchroom. She
was reminded of the rules and a report was written for her parents. The children who witnessed the
incident were in shock and remained stunned into silence for the rest of the lunch period.
Landon: A-During recess, he was being teased by two other male students. They were making fun
of his running shoes because they were old and dirty looking. While they were making these
comments, Landon continued to slowly back away into the corner of the fence. B- He began to
scream and cry loudly until the boys left and then would not let the teacher come near him to help.
He refused to come back to class. C- He was left alone for the duration of recess but then has to be
physically guided to comply while children from other classes snickered and pointed. They were
quietly discussing how they thought he was strange and crazy.
2. Describe how deficits affect the behavior of one of your students.
Landon may have a social skill deficit because he has trouble connecting to his peers and building
relationships with others. He often cries when group work is announced and often isolates from
the rest of the class. In order to perform a tasks effectively, he often requires that instructors high
levels of reinforcement and increased motivation.
Step Three
1. Write an operational definition for behaviors of one student in your class list.
Walker: Was asked a question directly and did not answer until the question was repeated a third
time, when given an in-class assignment did about half the work then stopped and began chatting
with other students, picked up other students items without checking to make sure they belong to

2.

him, was seated by the window and failed to participate in the lesson choosing to watch the birds
outside instead, and forgot homework at home daily.
Watch a role play of scenes acted out in class to complete step A and to interview the actor who represents
the teacher of the student before completing the first four of the five steps for functional assessment and
intervention planning listed below.
A. Gather data both indirectly and directly. For this step you will observe role play and take
notes on an ABC chart. You will also interview the teacher after the role-play.
A-The teacher is reading a book to the class. The students are sitting at their desks
listening to the teacher read and answer questions that the teacher asks. B-Deanna was
off task, attempting to distract other students by talking to them. She would call out the
answers to the teachers questions and often made irrelevant comments like, When is
recess? or My pen is purple. Look at my water bottle. C- The teacher appears to
ignore the student at first. He continues with his lesson like normal as if he doesnt hear
Deannas comments. Then, he dismisses her distracting behavior and tries to redirect her
attention to the lesson. He specifically asks her questions about the story and attempts to
continue to keep Deanna on topic. The students ignore Deannas behavior as well. They
also humor her or reassure her that the lesson will be over shortly and encourage her to
pay attention.
Interview- After interviewing the actors, we find out that Deanna has been acting like
this frequently and it is usually around the same time in the day. It is usually after lunch,
during the lesson right before recess. The students say they have become accustomed to
her behavior and hardly notice anymore.
B. Analyze all sources of data, looking for consistent patterns.
With all the information gathered, we can see the behavior occurs at the same point in
the day. Also, she makes similar comments everyday as if shes reading a script. She also
knows which students are easy to distract so she talks to them everyday.
C. Formulate hypotheses about conditions under which problem behaviors do and do not occur,
and the functions of those behaviors. Compare your hypotheses with your group members
and finalize your hypotheses.
I think that the problem behavior occurs when during the same type of lesson because
everyday after lunch, the class studies reading. The function of behavior is to avoid a
specific type of learning task, which is reading. The behaviors do not occur or occur less
frequently when she is being engaged one-on-one with the teacher. Another function of
behavior is to gain attention from peers and teachers.
D. After whole class discussion, work in small groups to develop intervention plans to modify
antecedents for problem behaviors, teach new behaviors to better enable the person to
manage those antecedents, and strategies to enable the person to access desirable
consequences through appropriate behavior rather than inappropriate behavior.
An intervention plan to modify antecedents for problem behaviors would be allowing
Deanna to have her own book to follow along with the teacher so she can focus on the
task. Another plan would be to try having the reading lesson at a different time of the
day. A new behavior that could be taught to Deanna to better enable her to manage those
antecedents would be raising her hand and waiting to be called on before speaking aloud.
Strategies to enable Deanna to access desirable consequences through appropriate
behavior would be giving Deanna privileges when she does the corrected behaviors like
early recess for the class. Another strategy could be giving her candy as a reward.

Step Four
Using your chosen class, discuss the following to modify antecedents of behavior for specific students:
1. Write three rules
Listen and follow directions, like raising your hand before speaking or leaving your seat.
Respect your classmates and your teacher.
Keep hands, feet, and objects to yourself.
2. Write procedures for:
Entering the classroom

Enter the room as quickly and quietly as possible.

Unpack/get books for the morning.
Turn in homework.
Sharpen two pencils.
Get started on bell work.
Large group instruction
Move to carpet and sit in a circle with legs crossed/hands in lap.
Raise hand and wait to be called on to speak.
When at desks, sit up straight and have eyes on the teacher.
Individual work
Prepare materials on desk.
Zip your lips and throw away the key.
Prop folders to create a personal work space.
Dismissal from class
Check that your agenda is filled out correctly.
Turn in or put away your work.
Turn in all broken or dull pencils
Check under and around your desk for trash.
Gather all of the items you brought with you to class that need to go home.
Thank a classmate for something they did to help you today.
Line up quietly by the door to be dismissed.
Discuss how you will teach your rules and procedures.
I will begin teaching my rules and procedures the first day of class. I will first show a video I
would have created over the summer audibly and visually relying the rules and procedures of my
classroom. I will then take the children through the procedure by modeling to them the actions I
would like them to take. I will then call on students to speak through the rules and give examples.
I will call on students to show the class the procedures and allow the class to correct any mistakes
in the routine. There will also be posters hanging around the room in case the students forget
throughout the year so they can review. I think this is the most effective way to engage each type
of learner.
Develop the allocated time for instruction in your class.
8:15-9am: Unpack/Bell work
9-10am: Reading
10-11am: Science/Social Studies
11am-12pm: Lunch/ Recess
12-1pm: Math
1-1:45: Flex Time
1:45-2:30pm: Specials (P.E., Computer, Art, Music, etc.)
2:30-3pm: Writing/Spelling
3-3:15: Prepare for Dismissal
Develop a routine for teaching one of your subjects.
Math: Start with an encouraging song about opening our minds to new information, pass out and
complete fast facts folder that is catered to each childs ability, move to the carpet and do some
mental math, teach the lesson after that, move back to desk and complete worksheet
independently, and compare the answers with a partner. Then, three students are called up to the
document camera to show and explain their work.
Describe how you plan to create a positive/calm climate in your classroom.
I will encourage students at all time to be confident in themselves and in others. I will have a
compliment jar so students can fill out slips of papers that others can choose if they are having a
bad day. I will allow for students to take break when they feel overwhelmed. I will have filter
lights to remove harsh lighting and organize my classroom to be like home. I will tell the children

5
that I will always protect them and stand up for them so they can come to me to talk about
anything. I will start and end the day with a high-five or hug, if the child is comfortable, and
constantly remind them how important they are to the class.
Step Five
Using your chosen class, discuss how you will teach new behaviors to better enable students to manage antecedents
to problem behaviors:
1. Describe how you will choose social skills to teach your students on the universal and tertiary levels.
I would use the ACCESS method to teach my students social skills on the universal and tertiary
levels. ACCESS is an acronym for the basic principles of universal design that can be used to
access the classroom setting. ACCESS stands for applicable, capability, clarity, expression, safety,
and size/space. My universal class wide social skills would relate to the individual social skill
needs because all these students could benefit from learning about the social skills that only
certain individuals are lacking. The students who have mastered the social skills that we review
will be able to assist those who have not. For example, Vienna is great at sharing and waiting her
turn but Maddox and Sage are not. As part of ACCESS I would deliver a message to the class
about sharing and waiting our turns by applying each part.
2. Describe the criteria for your choice of a social skills curriculum based on the priority behavior needs of
students and also on how you will integrate the arts into your social skill curriculum. Discuss how you can use
social stories, role-playing, and any other way to integrate the arts into social skills curriculum.
When I create my lesson plans I will consider each part of ACCESS and incorporate it into my
curriculum. In order to teach a social skills curriculum based on the propriety behavior needs of
students I would need to, first and foremost, make sure the curriculum is relevant to the students
needs as a whole. For example, Isla and Walker often make do not use their manners like please
and thank you. To function in the world, as they get older they must learn to be polite or people
will disregard them and consider them to be rude people. The other students could use review on
manners to their benefits as well. Maddox and Sage have trouble sharing and waiting their turn.
They will be doing collaborations from here on out so they need to learn immediately how to
handle this. In order to make the social skills curriculum applicable, I would assess the children to
ensure that what I am teach makes sense and is not above or below their level. To continue, I
would also ensure that the social skills curriculum has the capacity to change to meet the
individual needs of each student so that they are not being repetitively thought a skill they have
already grasped or holding other children behind. Clarity is important to me when teaching
students about social skills because it is such a fragile topic that can be misinterpreted. The goal is
to have a curriculum that clearly expresses the expectations for each student. Another important
part of ACCESS that needs to be used in my social skills curriculum would be my expression of
the lessons and techniques. The lessons will be to the point but not lack emotional empathy so that
I am able to understand how the student is doing. This will go hand in hand with clarity. It is
necessary that the curriculum be based upon safety so that the students never feel threatened in
any way when learning. Also, size and space of the location in which the curriculum is taught
should be well accounted for because, for example, social skills are difficult to teach in large
groups. I would integrate arts into social skills curriculum with social stories, role-play, animated
videos, picture cards, and songs.
3. How will you facilitate the generalization of social skills? How will you help students to demonstrate their
replacement behaviors in all environments and not just in your classroom?
I will facilitate the generalization of social skills to peers using role-play and video modeling. It is
important to not only talk about the social skills but also give real life examples that would apply
to anyone, in all situations. One way to help students to demonstrate their replacement behaviors
in all environments and not just in the classroom is to purposely put situation into my lessons that
force the students to use the skills I have thought them, without them knowing it. Students could
also be shown examples of social situations that will happen in real life so when they recognize
these situations in another environment they will know how to behavior appropriately. Students on
the tertiary level who struggle more with this could have someone prompt them of when to use
their skills or they could have a physical piece of paper that reminds them of what they are to do.
For example, an index card that has rules about please and thank you. When we are outside of the

6
class other authority figures will use point sheets to provide feedback on how the students did
demonstrating their replacement behaviors in environment where I am not present. For example,
the cafeteria lunch ladies will have point sheets and they will return them to me at the end of the
lunch period for review. This is important for motivating student to practice in other environment
and provides me with important data to know where they are generalizing the skills and where
they are not.
Step Six
For steps 6 through 8, discuss the following strategies you will employ to enable your students to access desirable
consequences through appropriate behavior rather than inappropriate behavior.
1.

2.

3.

4.

Develop a reinforcement system for your class. Include the following:

Identify the types of problems that need to be addressed.
There are a wide variety of issues in this class because of the amount of different disabilities
and unique attributes of each student. Two of the major problems are avoidance and trying to
gain attention. Each student does one of these at a different time at lease once a day. For
example, sometimes they will sharpen their pencil, get a drink of water, or use the bathroom
multiple times to avoid work. They will also act out by making funny face, saying jokes, or
argue with me to gain attention from their peers or me.
Identify the target replacement behavior for each of the problem behaviors. (What do you want the
students to do instead of the problem behavior?)
The target replacement behavior for avoidance is staying on task. If a student needs to get out
of their seat they need to raise their hands and receive permission. The target replacement
behavior for gaining attention will be to complete leadership tasks around the classroom and
take responsibility.
Select the behaviors that have high priority for intervention.
Gaining attention has a high priority for intervention because it is distracting to the class and
wasters valuable teaching time.
Determine the schedule of reinforcement.
The schedule of reinforcement will be a continuous schedule of reinforcement. That means that I
would deliver reinforcement after every correct response from my students. The student would be
able to turn in their tokens at the end of each week or the end of each month, if they so choose.
The schedule for individual would be the students who have saved up the most tokens at the time
they are turning them in would go first. At the class wide level the schedule would change based
on their behavior as a whole for the week.
Describe how you will teach the system to your students.
The student will be taught indirectly about the system. I will give examples and model the
behavior I expect from students, instead of calling out. For example, if I tell a student they are
wrong and they do not argue with me about it I will smile at them. Another example would be if a
student tells the truth about an accident rather than lying to gain attention. I will then reinforce
them with a positive comment. I would also take time at the beginning of the year to directly teach
them about my reinforcement system and how they can earn reinforcers. We will role-play some
situations where they would decide if a reinforce is given.
Describe how you will monitor the effects of the system on target behaviors.
I will monitor the effects of the system to target behaviors by keeping a tally of how many times
the student demonstrates the replacement behavior instead of the replacement behavior. I will
focus on what I want them to do and keep the tally marks as data to track how well the
intervention plans are working by creating a daily graph so that students can see the relationship
between daily behavior choices, weekly progress, and monthly progress. The students can also
graph their own points to increase their self-monitoring and self-evaluation. This will also provide
visual data for me to conference with the student on how daily choice making impacts their
progress and counsel them on better choice making to attain the reinforcement wanted.

Step Seven

7
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Write a description of how you would use the Premack Principle with a student in your classroom.
The Premack Principle is a variation of activity reinforcement, where in order to participate in a
preferred activity, the student must first engage in a less-pleasant task. Kade loves drawing and
coloring, especially with brand-new art supplies. He really doesnt like working on the fast facts
addition and subtraction work sheets. Unfortunately, these work sheets need to be completed
weekly so I would tell Kade that if he complete his fast facts addition and subtraction worksheets,
then he will be able to spend time working with the new arts supplies.
Develop a token system for your students. Explain how you plan to implement the token system.
My token system would involve slips of paper resembling money. To keep things simple and easy
for the children to understand, I would only use papers that amount to $1 each. At the end of the
week, each child adds up the amount of money they have earned and can turn it in for different
prizes, like stuffed animals, candy, or key chains. The children will receive a $1 every time they
exemplify behavior of a great student. For example, if they are walking with their hand behind
their backs in line but other students are not, they will receive a dollar.
Develop a contract for one of your students. Explain how this contract will work with the token system in
your classroom.
Landon stops working when his assignment is too difficult or he doesnt understand it. Rather than
asking for help from the teacher by raising his hand or asking a peer at his table he just wont
complete the assignment. The contract will state that if Landon raises his hand or asks a peer for
help when he is struggling 75% of the time during the our of math lessons then he will receive
$3 from the token system. If Landon does not meet this criteria and just stops doing his work
more than 15% of the time, he may have $3 taken away. For every additional time he asks a
question past 75% then he will be allowed to be the first to trade in his tokens for prizes at the end
of the week.
Write a description of how you will use stimulus control with your students.
One way I will use stimulus control with my students is by changing up their learning
environment. Many of my students are triggered to act out when they are sat at their desks,
working independently. Their inappropriate behavior is controlled by the stimulus of sitting at
their desks. Of course, I will try to keep the children from acting out at their desks because they
are required to do work there sometimes but I will interfere by having them do work in different
areas of the classroom. They can choose to sit on the carpet one day or on the beanbags another.
Taking them outside to do their work could also be a way to use stimulus control with my
students.
Develop a group reinforcement system for one of the classes you teach.
There are three different reading groups within our class. In each of these groups I will have the
same group reinforcement system. This system will involve the presentation of a specified reward
that depends on the behavior of the whole groups individually. It will work like this: The reading
groups are assigned a book to read at home every night. The next day the group answers questions
about the book that was assigned. In order to receive a Popsicle at the end of the day to eat with
their snack, each member of the group must speak at least once during the discussion. Whatever
they say must be about the book they read or related to the book. If even one person does not
speak about the book, that whole group will not be given a treat. This gives reinforcement to the
students so they read the book and consider the material. Without this group reinforcement system,
they tend to not read the book or participate in discussion.
Write a detailed description about how you will implement a self-management technique with one of your
students.
I could implement the self-management technique of self-monitoring with Spade because she is a
very messy, disorganized student. Being messy and disorganized causes Spade to often lose her
assignments or get distracted while working. I wont be able to constantly tell her to stay
organized so self-monitoring is the best technique. It involves tracking ones own behavior and
making choices to discontinue inappropriate actions. Spade and I will create a check list of things
to do to keep her organized like Place homework on left side of green folder and Clean up
writing utensils and put into pencil case before leaving the classroom. The list will be taped to her
nametag in view whenever she is seated at her desk. Before we leave the classroom, she will go
over the list to ensure she has checked off each task.

Step Eight
1. Write a detailed description of how you would use each of the following in your classroom. Remember that
each strategy must be used correctly and ethically.
Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible Behavior (DRI)
DRI is used to praise a behavior that is impossible to perform concurrently with the
undesirable conduct. In other words, as a teacher, I would be reinforcing the children
for their appropriate behavior rather than scold them for the opposite. For example,
Vienna often screams out curse words when she is angry. The DRI for this behavior
would be to praise her when she uses age appropriate language like, Oops or Uhoh, rather than scold her when she uses explicit language.
Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behaviors (DRA)
DRA is used to reinforce the appropriate behavior instead of reinforcing the
inappropriate behavior. In other words, as a teacher, I would be reinforcing an
alternative behavior to the inappropriate behavior and ignoring the inappropriate
behavior. For example, Spade talks out in class to gain my attention rather than raising
his hand. I will ignore the talking out and only reinforce appropriate hand raising and
waiting quietly for my attention.
Differential Reinforcement of Lower Levels of Behavior (DRL)
DRL is used to reinforce a gradual decrease in inappropriate behavior. In other words,
DRL is when the instructor reinforces the individual only after the target behavior
occurs at a predetermined low rate. As a teacher, I think it would be easiest to give
tokens when the student reaches their goal like drawing from a prize box. This would
work well with Sage because he often refuses to listen to my directions. He has
dyslexia so whenever the assignment involves reading, he just doesnt participate. I
would try offering the prize box when only refuses to do reading assignments about
50% of the week rather than 100%. Then the next week, I would need him to do his
assignments about 60% of the time and only ignore the reading 40% of the time to get
to the prize box. I would continue this and lower the target by 10% each week until he
does not do it anymore.
Differential Reinforcement of Zero Levels of Behavior (DRO)
DRO is a behavior procedure in which the reinforcement is delivered after an interval
of time that the problem behavior does not occur. If the problem behavior occurs
during the interval, then the interval is reset. In other words, I would ignore the
problem behavior while reinforcing any appropriate/replacement behaviors within a
defined period of time. For example, Kade plays too rough with peers, which leads to
physical altercations on the playground. Each month that Kade does not get into a fight
at school, he receives a special treat. If Kade does get into a fight during the month, the
he cannot receive the treat for that month and has to wait until the end of the next
month. Throughout the months I will remind the class to be gentle before we go out to
the playground.
Extinction
By definition, extinction is the elimination of the source of reinforcement to extinguish
an undesired behavior. For example, Isla has a tendency to throw tantrums when she
wants attention. The best way to get her to stop, as a teacher, is to not react at all. I will
continue to teach the class and not address Isla at all when she is throwing a tantrum.
The only issue I see with this strategy is that the students might find it more difficult to
ignore her than I can so I will provide tokens to the students who disregard her
behavior so they continuously do it. I will tie in time out to extinction by sending Isla
to time out for severe behaviors so that the other students will see that when they
choose to disrespect the class learning time, then they must work by themselves in time
out until they show they are ready to act like part of the class.
Response Cost
Response cost is a level III intervention that involves removing something desirable to

9
decrease inappropriate behavior. Basically, the student has something they want taken
away when they participate in an inappropriate task. Walker has ADHD so he needs to
develop self-monitoring and self-evaluation to increase his focus and decision making
skills. I will have him check off every x amount of time if he is on task and he will earn
x tokens for how much he is on task. Recess is the reinforcement for him that he earns
based on how many tokens he has. If he does not earn enough token then he will have
recess taken away and he will have to work on the work he didnt do in class.

Time Out
Time Out is defined as physically removing a student from the teaching environment so
that he or she receives no reinforcement from the teacher or peers. I would implement
this in my classroom by creating an area where there is limited visibility to peers and
the child realizes they have chosen to work independently and are not part of the class
learning. This is the way of an efficient time out as the students continue to do their
work but no longer have the privilege of being among their peers as they do so.