Courtney Rogers

SED 420
Competency Indicator Positive Notes!
My field placement at Buxton Center Elementary school has been such an important
experience for me as an inspiring elementary education teacher. When deciding on a child to do
positive notes for in the second grade classroom that I was assigned to be in, my cooperating
teacher and I both had the same child in mind. For the sake of privacy I am going to refer to this
child as T.
Ts problem behavior was centered upon organization in particular taking too long to
transition. Taking too long to transition is defined as not following the teachers instructions
immediately when she states them. As I have learned from taking the course SED 420 a student
exhibits a particular behavior to avoid something or to obtain something. The goal of the positive
note plan for T was that his teacher and I wanted him to replace the undesirable behavior of
taking too long to transition with the desired behavior of following the teachers instructions
immediately and smoothly transitioning into the next desired task at hand.
When I first began observing T I noticed that his teacher had already set into place an
SOP transition checklist for him to complete each time a transition took place in the classroom.
There were four steps to the checklist. When I collected my baseline data there were four
transitions that took place. This meant that there were 16 total SOP steps that T could follow. The
results of my data are below:

9:30 a.m.-9:50 a.m. (Completed the 4 steps to the SOP Successful transition)
9:50-10:10 a.m. (Completed 4 steps to the SOP successful transition)
10:10-10:30 a.m. (Completed 1 of the 4 steps to the SOP not a successful
transition)
10:30-11:00 a.m. (Completed 0 of the 4 steps to the SOP not a successful
transition)

T completed 9 steps of the possible 16 steps (56%) from his SOP transition checklist during the
period of four transitions. This meant that he successfully completed two transitions out of the
four that occurred.
After discussion with my teacher and sharing my data collection with her, she and I
decided that I would create a positive note plan for T that would include distributing positive
notes to him two times per day for following his SOP transition checklist that allowed smooth
transitioning when followed correctly. I came up with a plan that his positive notes could simply
be Paw-Z tickets on a different colored piece of paper and that he needed to earn at least 2

positive notes per day with the goal being ten positive notes per week. If he earned eight by
Thursday when school ended, he could have three I-pad uses instead of two on Friday if he
succeeded in earning his two positive notes on Friday as well. This contingency was set up just
for T to be successful so it was an independent contingency. T, my cooperating teacher and I all
had a discussion as to the positive notes plan for him with him and the reward he could earn. He
was very excited!
On the first day of the intervention T earned both of his positive notes for successfully
following his SOP and completing two transitions in the morning. Due to the fact that I would
only be at Buxton Center Elementary School once a week I needed to make sure that my
cooperating teacher was on board to continue the positive notes for T weekly. She was absolutely
willing to comply with the plan but agreed only to focus on the positive notes before noon time
as she felt that trying to implement them all day would be too much for her to handle.
Directions/Training Notes to Ts positive behavior plan!
Ts goal: To earn two positive notes per day for displaying the desired behavior of smooth transitions.

Each time that T is displaying the desired behavior of smooth transitions by following his
SOP checklist he should earn a positive note. His goal is to earn two positive notes per day with
a weekly goal of ten by Friday. If he is successful in earning his positive notes then his chosen
reward is that he gets three IPad uses instead of two on Friday. It is important to write exactly
why he is receiving his positive note on the back of his positive note. T will have an envelope
located in his desk in which he will put his positive notes in. At the end of the week he is to take
the envelope home with the positive notes inside and share them with his parents!
Results of Ts positive note intervention!!!
Ts baseline data collected
On the day that I collected my initial data there were four transitions that took place. This meant
that there were 16 total SOP steps that T could follow. The results of my data are below

9:30 a.m.-9:50 a.m. (Completed 4 of the 4 steps to the SOP Successful transition)
9:50-10:10 a.m. (Completed 4 of the 4 steps to the SOP Successful transition)
10:10-10:30 a.m. (Completed 1 of the 4 steps to the SOP Not a successful
transition)
10:30-11:00 a.m. (Completed 0 of the 4 steps to the SOP Not a successful
transition)

T completed 9 steps of the possible 16 steps from his SOP transition checklist during the time
frame of four transitions.

Week 1 Results!
T met his goal! On the first day of the intervention T earned both of his positive notes for
completing two transitions. By the end of week one T had earned his ten positive notes goal and
earned his free IPAD time.
Week 2 Results!
During my visit with T I noticed something I had not noticed about him before. He is a VERY
visual learner and his transition SOP worked so well for him at times because it was taped in the
corner of his desk and he was able to follow along with it whenever needed. T did not meet his
goal for week two. Being the fact that I discovered how visual he was as a learner I took that
information and came up with an additional part to his positive note plan.
Week 3 Results!
I decided that T could potentially have more success from his positive note plan if he had some
sort of visual aid in front of him in which he could visually keep track and see how many
positive notes he had earned throughout the day (Before he was simply putting the notes in an
envelope in his desk). We constructed a sheet with little boxes on it that T could color in each
time he earned a positive note for following his transition SOP and transitioning smoothly. I also
decided that instead of making his goal two notes per day for a total of ten per week to earn I-pad
time we would construct the plan so that as soon as he earned ten positive notes no matter what
day of the week it was he would earn his reward that day. T and I spoke about the new plan and
he agreed that it would benefit him to have something in front of him. During the time that I was
there I was able to give T a positive note. At the end of the week T had exceeded his goal!

Graph of Data!!!!
Effect of positive notes on completing steps to SOP transition checklist
b a s e li n e

%
o
f

1.00
0.90

s
t
e
p
s

0.80

c
o
m
p
l
e
t
e
d

0.50

0.70
0.60

0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
baselineMar 24th Apr 7thApr 14th

Dates of Intervention
As seen from my graphs above my positive note plan intervention was successful. During my
baseline data collection the student completed nine steps out of the possible sixteen steps from
following his transition SOP checklist. Out of the four transitions that I collected data on he only
successfully completed two of them during my baseline data collection. During week one of my
intervention my student responded immediately, and earned his goal which was ten successful
transitions (2 per day) for the week. During week two of the intervention my student did not
meet his goal as he only earned nine positive notes for only completing nine successful
transitions. Before the week three intervention I re-evaluated and added an additional step to the
positive note plan and he exceed the goal earning twelve positive plans for successfully
completing twelve transitions.

I believe that my positive note plan for T was beneficial in helping his overall positive
well-being. T is a bright student with a lot of character whose problem behavior seemed to
outshine all of his other amazing qualities. When I implemented my positive note plan for T I
was ecstatic at how accepting and excited he was to begin the intervention. I believe that
implementing this intervention for T helped him realize that he was capable of transitioning
smoothly, and that he was in control of the outcome of the week and the reward he could receive.
Week one of the intervention for T was a success and I was elated when my cooperating teacher
emailed me and shared with me that T had reached his goal for the week and had received his
extra IPAD time. There is no greater feeling then knowing something you did helped someone
else. Week two of Ts progress on his positive note plan seemed to regress slightly. T had a great
beginning of the week but struggled to meet his positive note goals by the end of the week. The
benefit of being able to observe in a classroom is that during week two I noticed how successful
Ts transition SOP checklist was for him at times due to the fact that it was taped on the corner of
his desk so that he could always refer to it. After his struggle to meet his goal during week two of
the positive not intervention I created an additional piece to his plan. At the beginning of week
three I shared my plan with my cooperating teacher. I took my observation data and decided that
T could benefit from having some sort of visual aid in front of him in which he could visually
keep track and see how many positive notes he had earned throughout the day (Before he was
simply putting the notes in an envelope in his desk). His cooperating teacher and I constructed a
sheet with little boxes on it that T would color in each time he earned a positive note. We also
decided that instead of making it so that he had to earn two positive notes per day for a total of
ten by Friday to earn his reward that as soon as he earned ten positive notes no matter what day
of the week it was he would earn his reward that day. This made it so that T didnt have to wait
until the end of the week for reinforcement, and it also kept the encouragement for his desired
behavior going because if he didnt earn two positive notes on a Wednesday with the previous
plan he would not have been on track to earn his reward for the rest of the week so the incentive
wouldnt be there for him. From this change in the positive note plan T has successfully been
meeting his goal! This whole process has been a new thing for me, and I have had successes and
setbacks. The things that went well from my positive note intervention were that Ts problem
behavior had a significant reduction. The one thing that I wish I had done differently when
implementing this intervention was the fact that when I had originally set up the plan the goal
was two notes per day for a total of ten at the end of the week. When T struggled to meet his goal
during week two I had to revisit my intervention and set into place a visual aid, as well as
changed the expectation (whenever he earned ten notes he earned his reward regardless of the
day of the week). I wish that I had thought of this originally! This experience has been amazing
in every way. To be able to implement what I have been learning from SED 420 into an actual
classroom and with an actual student has prepared me for my own future endeavors and for that I
am forever grateful!