Running head: BEHAVIOR CASE STUDY 1

Behavior Case Study

Britney Sawyer

EDTR502

November 20,2019

Professor Myers
BEHAVIOR CASE STUDY 2

Behavior Case Study Part One

The student that I have chosen to center my behavior study around is Trelle Qu. He is a

student in my class that does not have a 504 or IEP in place. But I feel he could most definitely

benefit from one of these programs. Trelle comes from a home environment where mom is

single, and dad is not in the picture in any capacity. Trelle is a ten-year-old African American

male who lives in a home where his older brother has already been in multiple fights,

suspensions, and expulsions. I have been told that his brother is to the point where he can only

attend school for a half day. Trelle lives in an impoverished area of town that has frequent

violence and homelessness. After having many conversations with Trelle and his mother I gather

that his mother sees the same behaviors at home that I see in class.

His mother seems not to be able to control him and he seeks attention seeking behaviors

because of this type of climate. In school Trelle is a helpful kid when he chooses to be and can

really succeed in anything, he sets his mind to. However, his attention seeking behaviors hinder

his potential in learning as well as other peers in the classroom. Getting Trelle on task is one-

fourth of the battle for him. He is capable of understanding and completing the work set before

him. However, he chooses to not do his work. His mother states he is ADHD and currently not

on medication. So, when he is on medicine, he is a night and day person. When he is on his

medicine, he able to focus and complete his work accurately. However, when he isn’t on his

medicine which is often, he has a hard time staying seated, wonders around the room, bothers his

peers, and unexpectantly interrupts class instruction purposely. It appears that no matter where I

seem to set Trelle he still has a hard time remaining in his given area. Even after providing him

with a small area and a clipboard that allows him to stand up out of his seat. His biggest

challenge is learning when to use his behavior management skills and his leadership skills.

Behavior Case Study Part Two

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As part of the Behavior Intervention Plan (Appendix A), I sat down and planned with

Trelle and formulated a behavior contract with him. We discussed the areas of concern I had for

him and he gave feedback on what the rewards and consequences should be. This gives him

more buy in on what is to be expected and the results of his behaviors. The consequences are

mentioned in the contract. They range from loss of time during recess to being given a referral in

power school.

In accordance with his behavior contract that Trelle signed the result of his losing

minutes from recess is when he is continuously reminded to follow class procedures. The loss of

Class Dojo Points are a result of the loss of recess and reminders fail to help reset him back to

expected behaviors. When the two previous consequences do not work then he will be expected

to make a phone call home and explain to his mom what he did and how he can fix it. He will

also have to spend time writing a think about it paragraph that tells me how he can improve the

remaining of his day. Dependent on the offence he may end up having to have a referral written

up in the power school system and sent to the office for further discipline actions.

Not every action is a negative reaction to Trelle’s behavior though. Trelle and I came up

with four positive re-enforcements that can be used if he has a good morning or a good day. I

have noticed that with Trelle his days need to be broken down into two parts. If he has a great

morning, then he is allowed to call and let his mother know, he can choose to have extra Dojo

points added into his profile, he can also ask to go to a buddy room as a reward provided that it

doesn’t interfere with class instruction time, and he is also able to earn extra time for Fun Day

Fridays. To serve as a reminder and to avoid having to call him out in front of the class we

developed a system of reminders for him. By tugging my ear I am reminding him to stay seated,

by putting my finger on my nose I am reminding him to remain seated and on task, and then by
BEHAVIOR CASE STUDY 4

putting my finger over my lips this means he needs to either lower his noise level or be quiet

depending on what the class is doing during that particular instructional time block. The way that

we will keep track of Trelle’s behavior daily is through a 3-scale smiley face report that is to go

to and from school for his mother to sign off daily (see Appendix C). The dates these where

documented for this assignment range from 09/02/19-10/16/19. During this time, I’ve noticed a

small trend for Trelle. He tends to be a self-sabotage all his good work. He craves attention even

if it means him not getting the right type of attention. I am working on changing this and have

noticed that my approach is slowly making a difference based on the statistics that I see in his

behavior logs. According to the information in the smiley behavior sheet he has only had four

“good days.” He had five “ok” days. Ok days are labeled as a rough morning or afternoon. But

the other half of the day was a good part of the day. As stated above I attempt to break the day

apart to help Trelle see that it is possible to have positive re-enforcement based on his behaviors.

Therefore, there are ok days. Trelle is a student who feeds on positive re-enforcement and

the knowledge that he has a chance to turn his day around. So before going to recess I make it a

point to let him know how his day is going and ask him what he can do to make it better or keep

it from being worse. The bad days unfortunately outweigh the ok days and good days. Trelle

accumulated 9 bad days. Bad days are based on behaviors we (Trelle and I) discussed were not

acceptable in the classroom environment (See Appendix A). Trelle is a student that works well

when he is focused. However, it is my thought that until he is on his medication, he will not be

able to improve by a lot. He is a student that needs the attention and positive re-enforcement as

much as possible. However, he does not understand what to do with this because he does not

have the adequate support on the home front to better understand these behaviors.
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Behavior Case Study Collective Data Sheet

As discussed in the paragraphs above the behaviors Trelle exhibited are graphed into

groups by the week below.

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4
3.5
3
2.5
Good Day
2
Ok Day
1.5
Bad Day
1
0.5
0
week 1 week 2 week 3 week 4

It is my thought that this behavior plan while well thought out and executed was a total fail. I feel

that for this student to succeed there must be tougher guidelines in place and consequences that

match the behavior exhibited. I see that in a way I may have crippled him by holding his hand

and breaking his days down. Giving him a directive to meet with no room for error or

compromise may be the better alternative for Trelle in the future. I feel that less rewards and

more repetition of expected behaviors would be the best approach for Trelle.

He is smart and has exhibited the ability to do his work. The behavior is what is getting

him into trouble. I feel that most of it is attention seeking behavior and a small amount is just the

need to be able to move about. See appendix C for the FBA process.
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Work Cited

Pennsylvania Department of Education. (2017, fall). FUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR

ASSESSMENTFBA PROCESS. Retrieved from

https://www.pattan.net/getmedia/eca12015-858b-4448-962d-

753816d71e20/FBA_ProcessBklt0516