Creating a productive classroom environment includes encouraging productive behaviors. For each teacher action listed below, describe what the teacher should do by providing an illustration or teacher comment/direction:

Creating a productive classroom environment includes encouraging productive behaviors. For each teacher action listed below, describe what the teacher should do by providing an illustration or teacher comment/direction:

a. Cue appropriate behavior
b. Reinforce desired behavior
c. Remember that different things are reinforcing to different students
d. When the baseline level of a desired behavior is low, gradually shape the behavior over time by reinforcing closer and closer approximations
e. Provide opportunities for students to practice desired behavior in a variety of contexts
f. Give feedback about specifics behaviors rather than general areas of performance:
g. Once students are exhibiting a desired behavior frequently, continue to reinforce it intermittently to prevent extinction:


a. Cue appropriate behavior: When working on a group project teacher states, "Please remember a point I made earlier: You are more likely to create a good product when all group members contribute their ideas."
b. Reinforce desired behavior: To a student who has just completed an oral book report teacher says, "Nice job, Larry. Your descriptions of the characters were quite vivid and colorful. I certainly want to read the book now, and I suspect that many of your classmates do as well."
c. Remember that different things are reinforcing to different students: Teacher allows students to engage in favorite activites during the free time they earn each days.
d. When the baseline level of a desired behavior is low, gradually shape the behavior over time by reinforcing closer and closer approximations: A teacher praises a shy and withdrawn boy for smiling or making eye contact with peers. After such behavior becomes more frequent, the teacher begins praising him when he responds to classmates' questions or comments. As the latter behavior increases, the teacher praises the boy only when he initiates a conversation.
e. Provide opportunities for students to practice desired behavior in a variety of contexts: When teaching social skills to a group of students who have difficulty getting along with peers, a school counselor conducts role-playing activities in which the students practice giving compliments, listening to others' perspectives, resolving social conflicts, and so on. The counselor than discreetly observes the children as they practice their new skills in class, the lunchroom, and the school yard and gives them feedback and suggestions in later group meetings.
f. Give feedback about specifics behaviors rather than general areas of performance: As kindergartners clean up after art a teacher says, "I like how you all are remembering to pick up the scraps of paper around your desks. And look how Janet and Jacob are collecting every group's markers and glue bottles without my even having to ask them!"
g. Once students are exhibiting a desired behavior frequently, continue to reinforce it intermittently to prevent extinction: Over a three-month period, a teacher has taught a distractible second grader to stay on task for longer and longer time periods. The student can now stay on task for thirty or forty minutes at a stretch, which is quite sufficient for most independent seatwork assignments in class. Throughout the rest of the year, the teacher continues to praise the student at least once a week for his on-task behavior.