Limiting Off Task Behavior with Incentives

Jared Wright

Grand Valley State University

Professor Goericke

EDI 685 3/19/2020

 Introduction

Many of the schools in the state of Michigan are moving towards 40% of a teacher’s

evaluation being based on student performance. It is good practice to try to keep all engaged

and on task. The problem that I noticed is that students who were cable of listening to and

following directions were frequently producing off task behavior which in turn lead them to

miss important instructions that were given. I decided that my ability to keep students on task

would be an indicative precursor to my effectiveness as a teacher. My action research is

limiting off task behavior. This paper will describe the process of how I completed my action

research. The paper will be broken down into four parts which are; academic research,

recording data and incentives, data summary, reflection and future research.

Before I began my summary on my action research, I want to inform the reader that at

no point in this paper will I be using student names. I sought and obtained approval by my

mentor teacher on the way that I was going to record my data. I created codes for types of

behaviors so that if I accidently misplaced a sheet, a person would not be able to read it with

out the key. Each student was treated fairly, and I tried to conduct the research from an

unbiased point of view.

Academic Research

During the second week of my action research I paused and began looking at the data

collected. It is important to note that during this week of pause I decided to form a

questionnaire to gage the students’ feelings on the subjects that they were learning throughout

the day (the method of how this was conducted will be explained later in this paper). As I
noticed that some of my students were off task, I decided to do some online research on my

topic.

The first article that I decided to look at was titled “Classroom Strategies for Maintaining

Student Focus” by Jared James Gershler. In the article the author talked about how the

attention span of adults and students is much shorter than what it used to be. He described

how the factors of a student’s attention span fell into three groups: distractions, student

interest and understanding, and learning preferences. I was most interested in the distractions

factor. The author divided distractions into two categories manageable factors and

unmanageable factors. I found it important that student behavior fell under the manageable

factors list. With the quote “The duty of an instructor is to first identify which classroom

disturbances are manageable” I decided to figure out how to manage with my students’ off task

behavior (Gershler, 2012, 5).

The next article I decided to use in my action research was titled “How to Keep Kids

Engaged in Class” by Tristan de Frondeville. In this article the author described many

techniques a new teacher could use to keep students engaged in the classroom. These

strategies ranged from starting the class with a mind warm-up to using signaling to allow

everyone to answer the proposed question. The most important information came from when

the author coined the term “dead time”. The author defined dead time as a time when there is

a lack of engagement by students. “Dead time interferes with students’ learning and is

contagious. It lures those who are on task into wondering, ‘Why should I pay attention if others

aren’t?” with this quote I knew my choice of keeping students on task was validated

(Frondeville, 2009).
 I decided to research one more article about keeping students engaged. The last article

was titled “Engaging students Creating Classrooms that Improve Learning” by Peter Goss. This

article is a wonderful piece of work that looks into the science of engaging students. The article

relates student’s behavior and participation to how productive they are on standardized test.

Though it may seem obscure, one of the most important things that I took away from the

article was how teachers should conduct themselves. The quote “teachers should model and

reinforce good behavior. Teaching and reinforcing new skills can increase appropriate behavior

and enhance a positive classroom climate” suggest this (Goss, 2017, 26)

The last thing that I wanted to research on was providing proper incentives to achieve

on task behavior. As a perused the internet I landed on one site that lists many unique

incentives. These incentives ranged from building an escape room to coupons for food

franchises. The incentive I liked the best was choose how your teacher would dress for a day. I

decided that I would use this incentive for students that did not have any marks against them.

The a list of incentives can be found with this link:https://thatafterschoollife.com/classroom-

incentive-ideas.html. My professor was also helpful in providing me with a list of 50 free

incentives that I could use for my class.

Before starting the next round of data collection, I reflected on the online research that

was conducted. I knew I wanted to limit the amount of manageable distractions for my

students; mainly I wanted to manage student behavior. I knew that if I could manage student

behavior to a point where they were creating less distraction, I would be able to negate the

amount of “dead time”. To my friends I am known for being a goof ball. More than a few times

a day I would have my students engaged with appropriate humor up to the point were some
people would consider the class being riled up. I knew that in order to promote on task

behavior I would have to limit the amount of goofiness that I would present to the class. I

would also have to understand that it was not fair to expect the class to be silent, when just

two seconds ago I created chaos with my goofiness. Lastly, I knew I wanted to give students

incentives to stay on task. I also wanted to reward students who did not have any checks

against them. My plan was to continue with recordings and see how incentives would affect

student behavior.

Recording Data and Incentives

Certain behaviors and actions were noted as I completed my action research. The

method that I used to record these behaviors and actions was a tally sheet. I decided to break

up the day into two portions. The first portion that would be recorded would start after

breakfast and end as students went outside for lunch recess. The second portion that would be

recorded would begin as students returned to the classroom from lunch and would end as

students left the school to return home. I decided that I would complete my initial weeklong

recording without describing to the students what I was doing. If a student asked what I was

doing I replied with the simple statement of “I am doing research”.

After the weeklong initial recording I paused the “in class” research to find scholarly

articles that gave insight into keeping students engaged. During this weeklong pause I wanted

to know how my students felt about each subject that we did throughout the day. I created a

questionnaire that asked students 5 questions. I asked how the students felt about math,

science, reading, writing workshop, and phonics. Students could choose one of the three
possible responses. The first possible choice was a frowny face and would indicate that the

students did not enjoy the subject. The second possible response was a neutral face and would

indicate that the students had no feelings of joy or dislike for the subject. The last possible

response was a smiley face and would indicate that students enjoyed the subject. These

instructions were given to the students along with a brief “do your best” speech.

As I began the second week of recording student behavior, I described to my students

what my action research was and how I was going to be recording the information. After

describing the action research to the students, I then proposed an incentive to achieve model

behavior. I told students that if every student had five or less marks of disruptive behavior or

off task behavior then I would come up with something fun to do as a reward. I also told the

students that if a student did not have a single check against them then I would plan something

extra special with them (due to the coronavirus shutdown and other in school events, I was not

able to reward the students that had no marks against them). This incentive was going to be,

“Pick What the Teacher Wears For a Day.” I was going to give the students the option of a ninja

turtle, superhero, foot pajamas, or wearing a princess tiara with my normal outfit. I feel that

the kids would love this because it went against what I normal would wear (tie, nice pant, and a

long sleeve shirt).

Data Summary

As described earlier in this essay when I began recording students, I did not give them a

full explanation to what I was doing. I wanted to get a week worth of control data to see how

my incentives worked. I created 5 codes (later six) that would indicate what the student was
doing when they were off task. The five initial categories are as follows: talking out of turn, not

participating, not paying attention, no eye contact, and distracted. The sixth category was

listed as defiant behavior. I added this because I did not first expect any of my students to act

defiant. I only recorded this for only a few students. These situations that occurred were

important enough that I decided to write critical incidents report on them.

The first day was rough. I felt that I was constantly writing codes down on the clipboard.

I knew going in that I had a few students that I would have to frequently remind to get back on

task. It really surprised me how much of the data these few students accounted for. In that

first day roughly 73% of marks that I made for off task behavior came from only 4 students. I

decided to keep trudging on because I did not want to pollute my control data. At the end of

the first week I had recorded 175 marks of students doing off task behavior; with 62 marks

being recorded on the first day. The only thing that I can speculate with the amount of marks

on the first day is that the kids had just gotten back from a long weekend.

With the first week in the books I looked back and noted any commonalities that

seemed to appear in the data. I devised a plan on what I would do next and began the

academic research that was described early on in this essay.

During the second week of my action research I paused and began my online research.

During this time, I gave the students a questionnaire to complete. I have formatted this section

so that it is easier to read. Here are the findings:

For math 65% of students said that they enjoyed math, 10% felt so so and 25% of students said

they did not enjoy math.

For science 75% of students said that they enjoyed the subject, 10% felt so so and 15% of

students said they did not enjoy the subject.

For reading 70% of students said that they enjoyed the subject, 15% felt so so and 15% of

students said they did not enjoy the subject.

For phonics 65% of students said that they enjoyed the subject, 25% felt so so and 10% of

students said they did not enjoy the subject.

For writing workshop 65% of students said that they enjoyed the subject, 30% felt so so and 5%

of students said they did not enjoy the subject.

I was not too surprised with the results that I got back from my students. Most of my

students listed that they liked most subjects. There were only a handful of students that did

not enjoy some subjects, yet still I wondered if this enjoyment level of the subject was affecting

on task behavior. The surprises that came were students that marked that they did not enjoy a

subject and that subject was a strength of theirs. It is important to note that one student

finished the questionnaire before I had time to explain what they needed to do. In each

question the student selected that they did not like a given subject. I pulled the student aside

and asked if that was really how they felt knowing that they did not listen to instructions. They

replied, “it is my choice to have these answers down” and I left it at that.

Once I informed students on what I was doing with the clip chart, I told them about the

incentives that they could earn. The first day of week three went very smoothly. I only

recorded 15 marks, with that being said, I did have one student that had over 5 marks, thus the

class did not earn the class incentive. At the end of week three I had only recorded 94 marks of
off task behavior. I was happy that with the incentives in place I nearly cut in half the off-task

behavior. The students had earned the class incentive two out of the five days.

It is important to note that I had 8 students that did not have any marks for off task

behavior. When time allowed for it, I was going to make a big deal about how these 8 students

did not have any marks against them. They would be able to choose what I would wear for a

day out of the choices I gave earlier in this essay. I felt that this wasn’t going to be enough so I

decided that I would plan a pizza party with the 8 students. Sadly, I did not get to do any of this

because of the mandatory shutdown.

Reflection and Research to Come

As this action research comes to a close, I have learned a few helpful tips. The first

helpful tip is that you must model on task non-disruptive behavior. As discussed earlier I am

known for being loud and silly. This research has made me realize that I cannot expect students

to do what I say if I had created chaos a few moments early. I have also learned the importance

of an incentive. It was amazing how quick my students changed their action when they knew

their incentive was extra time for recess. I was also amazed at the level in which other students

made their peers accountable. There were many times when I over heard whispers to students

like “hey, you need to pay attention so we can get extra recess time”, or “stop talking to me

because I want to earn the Super-Secret Surprise.”

When I selected the topic of “on task behavior” for my action research I did not know

how extensive the topic would be. With “on task behavior” I could have researched more on

how to keep students engaged throughout the day. This could have been broken down into
each subject and every hour of the day. In my classroom there is a lot of whole group teaching.

I might be able to next observe the difference between on task behavior levels with whole

group teaching verses leveled group teaching. I would also like to research why some students

liked or disliked any of the core subjects (was it because of the way I presented the material,

was the content too hard or too easy, or did they need more or less time with the material).

As I talked to Matt on how his research was going, I really liked how he implemented his

research. He decided to record on a select group of students instead of the whole class. I like

this better because It can lead to specialization of incentives presented to the students.

Conducting the research this way could also improve the relationships that I have with each

student, for the simple fact that I am spending more time with the students.

To conclude I am glad that I chose this topic for my action research. Given time I would

like to expand on the topic and look at other ideas that were listed above. The one regret that I

do have is not being able to implement my incentive. I think the kids would have thought this

hilarious.
Work Cited