Chris Katona

SPE 303
Dr. Giannola
11/11/15
Functional Behavioral Assessment(FBA)
The student I chose will be addressed as John, for confidentiality
reasons. John is a third grade student who attends Maurice Hawk Elementary.
I have witnessed some of Johns behavior and his behavior can be
unwarranted and undesirable at times during class, since the first day I have
been in Johns class. John is bright and is great academically, but he
struggles with controlling his behavior at times. I chose him because of two
important reasons. Firstly, since the first day of my placement I have
witnessed how Johns behavior can be quite distracting and unwarranted at
times. Secondly Ms. Savage has told me that she thinks John struggles with
impulse control and is one of her more misbehaved children. From what I
have witnessed, John needs help in controlling his behavior, because the
behavior could get more distracting to the point where it causes detriment to
his learning and his classmates learning. The first few days of my internship,
I would just take mental note of how many times John was instructed to take
a break which is when he would go back to his seat to calm down. After
taking mental notes of Johns behavior, I compared my notes with my
cooperating teachers notes on his behavior and we agreed that his behavior
needs adjustment. Therefore, I had decided to create a behavior plan to help
better modify his behavior. Throughout the process of observing his behavior

to create a behavior plan that best suits his needs, I could find a pattern
where his behavior occurs the most, as well as the reason for his behavior.
His behavior is attention seeking; from his classmates, Ms. Savage, and any
other teacher in the classroom. He wants positive attention and wants to
make his classmates and Ms. Savage happy. My reason for this is because
whenever Ms. Savage sends him to take a break or any other teacher
punishes John in anyway, he becomes moderately upset. John is a friendly,
popular, caring, and loving child, but his behavior is holding him back from
being the fantastic student that he is capable of being.
Academically John is one of the more intelligent students in his class in
all subjects. John is able to learn material relatively quickly and understand
the material as well. A couple weeks ago the other Rider intern in my class
and I gave a lesson on graphs for math, and he was actively participating in
the discussion before and after the activity. He knew all of the answers and
was eager to show that he knew the answers. John does not have an IEP and
to my knowledge does not need to be assessed for one any time soon. The
area that John struggles in, as stated before, is controlling his behavior. His
behavior is common for children his age, but his behavior tends to distract
his classmates as well, which is the problem.
As I chose to do my behavior plan on John, I interviewed my
cooperating teacher about her concerns with him. She expressed the same
concerns I thought were alarming. She feels that his behavior is common for
boys his age, but can be distracting for his classmates, which is one of her

bigger concerns. Ms. Savage believes that John is a sweet child that does not
attempt to misbehave and does not intentionally try to distract his fellow
classmates. She has a theory that he has a hard time with impulse control
and is attention seeking. This explains why he is distracting his peers by
talking to them, because he wants their attention. He also wants the
teachers attention as well. Matter of fact, he has tried countless times to get
my attention too. Ms. Savages last concern is sometimes he constantly
needs redirection. Usually she redirects him by making him take a break,
but sometimes that does not help redirect him. Thus she wants to find
another solution that might be a better way to redirect him back on task.
The unwanted behaviors that I observed closely can all be placed into
one general category of off task behavior. The behaviors are getting up out
of his seat when not instructed to, talking to other students when the teacher
is trying to talk, and touching other students. Aside from the off-task
behavior, I also observed how many times his behavior was distracting to
other students, which was one problem that really seemed to worry Ms.
Savage. I observed John from 8:45 AM to 2:00 PM. My observations are
divided into two separate charts; a tally chart and a ABC chart, because both
charts demonstrate his behavior trends in more detail. The tally chart shows
how frequent each behavior occurs, while also showing the time in the school
day when the behavior occurs(transitions, whole-group discussion, seatwork,etc). This chart helps show a pattern of his behavior so I can better
pinpoint when his off-task behavior occurs most frequently. The ABC charts

shows specific instances of his behavior and the consequences that follow his
behavior. Both charts below show the data that I had collected on John.

Figure 1: Tally Chart

Observed

Transitions

Whole Group

Independent

N/A

Discussion
III
IIII

Seat Work
II
II

to
Touching

IIIIII

II

others
Distracting

IIII

Behavior
Out of seat
Talking when

Quiet Time

not supposed

others

Figure 2:
Time
9:15

Antecedent
Spanish teacher

Behavior
Got off the

Consequence
Instructed to sit

was teaching

carpet and onto

down.

them.
Spanish teacher

the rocking chair.

Got up on the

Teacher took the

was talking

rocking chair

chair and moved

about clothes in

again.

it away from the

Spanish.
Ms. Savage was

Called out the

circle.
Ms. Savage told

giving a lesson

answer without

him not to do

on Writers

raising hand.

that.

workshop.
Ms. Savage was

Was talking to

Was instructed to

giving a lesson

another

take a break

on Readers

classmate

workshop.

instead of

Ms. Savage was

listening to her.
Was talking to a

Was instructed to

wrapping up

student and

take a break

Readers

hugging them.

12:30

Workshop.
Morning meeting

Talking to other

Told to pay

1:50

Starting math

students
Hugging other

attention
Told to Take a

students

break

9:30

9:45

11:30

12:00

As seen through both figures, it is evident that John needs to be aware of his
behavior so that he can learn to control his behavior. If he does not learn to control
his behavior it could limit his learning as well as his classmates, and that cannot
happen. Without positive or negative reinforcement, John will have a much more

difficult time learning how to control his behavior on his own. As seen in Figure 1, his
behavior becomes worse when he is at the carpet for whole group discussion and
when he is at his seat doing independent work. These periods are the longest in
time, so that could be a reason for his behavior to be the worse during these times.
Transitions from one period to another period are usually quick, so John does not
have a lot of time to misbehave. Also quiet time is relatively short, so again he does
not have much time to misbehave. A benefit I see from figure 1, is the amount of
times he acted up during quiet time, which is only once. This is a good sign because
it shows that John respects the teacher to follow her rules and he respects his
classmates because he allows them to read and unwind before the next subject.
The other positive sign is that figure 1 shows that John is able to control his behavior
in shorter spurts, because quiet time is not as long as independent work or carpet
work. The ABC chart also shows that his behavior becomes distracting during whole
group discussion and independent work. All of the scenarios in the chart are when
the class was either at the carpet or John was alone doing independent work. Two
positives come away from this chart as well; There is evidence John can control his
behavior for spurts and during partner work he is on task. In the ABC chart, I am
referring to the gap between 9:30 and 11:45, because during this span John did not
act out once. This could be because during this time the students were in their
reading and writing workshop groups. During group settings, I have observed John
becoming the leader of the group and keeping on task as well as keeping his
classmates on task. This is great behavior for a student to have at any level,
especially the elementary school level. John also knows how to not boss his
classmates around, but instead be a positive person when encouraging his
classmates to work. These observations give evidence that John is a great student

and with some help from a behavior plan, John could become the star student that
all of his teachers know he can be.
For his behavior plan, I think that John should become aware of his behavior
and that his teachers should slowly put the responsibility of his behavior on himself.
I believe that John can be an outstanding student and leader one day, so with his
personality, I feel that putting the responsibility on him could make his behavior
much less distracting and more on task. I also believe that John seeks attention,
therefore Johns behavior should not be reinforced through punishment or negative
reinforcement, but instead positive reinforcement. This is because through positive
reinforcement, Ms. Savage can give positive feedback for short-term praise, as well
as John receiving prizes for long-term goals. Thus, I have created a self-monitoring
note strategy as well as a teacher-student approach. In this behavior plan, I am
focusing on John staying on task; which includes him listening to the teacher and
not talking during that time, not getting up out of his seat when he is not supposed
to, and not distract others during instruction. As previously stated, there are two
components to this behavior plan. The first part of the behavior plan is a big sticky
note on his desk that serves as a reminder for his behavior. For instance the sticky
note could have his two behavior reminders Are you using your ears to listen when
someone else is talking? and Are you staying focused and sitting down when told
to sit down during instruction? The last question could be, Are you being
courteous to your fellow classmates and letting them learn? This chart will help,
especially in the beginning because a teacher could tell John to look at his chart, if
he is off task. This will help him realize what he is doing and how it is detrimental to
the learning environment. This is also allowing the teachers to place the
responsibility of his behaviors on himself. This could be more beneficial because as

he gets more familiar with the plan, the teacher can ask, How are you misbehaving
right now? This would cause John to look at his chart and tell her how he is
misbehaving. The teacher could then follow up with asking How can you be more
on-task? All of this allows John to see how his behavior is affecting his learning and
his classmates learning, while also helping him learn how to control his behavior.
The second part of this plan will help him control his behavior more, because it
involves positive reinforcement(both short-term and long-term). This chart will be a
game board that has spaces to move, and he has a paper piece that can be moved
at the end of each day. If John was on task(as defined by the three actions above)
then he can earn three spaces to move at the end of the day, if John was on task for
only two of the actions above for most of the day, then he can move two spaces at
the end of the day. The pattern continues for being on task for only one of the
actions. If John is not on task for the majority of the day for any of the actions, then
he does not move anywhere. At the end of each day Ms. Savage and John could
discuss how his behavior was for the day and then talk about how far he should
move for that day. By having this conference at the end of each day, it allows John
to give evidence of his behavior in favor of moving spaces, which is causing him to
be more aware of his behavior. Therefore, it is connected with the first part of the
plan. The idea of this game board is that different prizes(5 minutes extra free-time,
a free snack, a free homework pass, etc..) will be farther down the board. The more
ideal prizes like 5 minutes extra free time, will be far down the board, which will
create a long-term goal for John to achieve. If John really wants a prize farther down
the line, he will have to work on his behavior to get there. The other great part
about this plan is that the board is set-up for short term goals as well like (after 5
spaces he gets a free pencil, and things in that nature). The pencil and pens are

important because John likes pens and pencils. This plan also sets up opportunities
for the teacher to praise his behavior, which will be a lot more in the beginning of
the plan, for positive reinforcement. The short term and long term set-ups in this
plan are crucial because John has to be interested at first and then remain
interested throughout the plan. The little prizes and Ms. Savage praising his
behavior will be in the beginning to keep him interested and then once he is
interested in bettering his own behavior, the long-term goals are great because he
has to continue to be on his best behavior to reach the big prizes he wants. I believe
that this plan will help show him how his behavior is effecting others as well as
himself, give him strategies on how he can limit his unwanted behavior, and help
give him the reinforcement to become a more on- task student. With this plan, John
should be able to become the great student that he has the potential of becoming.
Unfortunately, I was not able to implement this plan with him, but I feel that
given the information Ms. Savage has told me, along with my observations, that this
plan could work perfectly with John. From the observations I have made and my
cooperating teachers comments, I believe that John is a great kid and will become a
fantastic student once he is able to control his behavior. The charts that I would use
in my behavior plan are below, which both show what I was talking about earlier. I
would insert the changes that I talked in detail about above. For instance, for the
behavior-reminder card, I would not have pictures but just reminders for him. It was
also be an index card like the one below. Lastly, I would differentiate the behavior
board game, to meet the needs of John more. Overall, I found this assessment to be
an effective and efficient way to learn about my student in more depth, while also
learning how to evaluate and change the frequency of unfavorable behavior.