teaching kids to Stay on Task: social emotional learning curriculum

Social Emotional Learning should be a component of every classroom. Teaching students how to behave and to set expectations is a huge component of any classroom management system and is also a necessity in todays world. Today I am going to talk to you about teaching the importance of staying on task in the classroom.

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Why Teach the Behavior?

Students who stay on task demonstrate the ability to remain focused on an activity through completion. This skill is important for students to be able to do the highest level of learning. Staying on task also allows the teacher to concentrate on instruction. It assists students requiring help. Above all, students who are able to stay on task are able to complete activities independently or with minimal assistance. Their classmates are also not bothered by interruptions or distractions.

How to Make a Strong Student?

Strong students are actively engaged during their independent work. They also pay attention during group instruction and discussions. Staying on task is an important skill to master in all classrooms within the school. Focus is necessary to complete most daily tasks regardless of the location.

Generalizing the Behavior Skill

It is important to stay on task in the community. Staying on task while in public helps keep students safe at all times.

What is Behavior Basics?

Behavior basics uses direct instruction each week to build strong students and it also sets them up for success in learning and in life. Direct instruction, discussions, interactive activities, review pages, reading extension activities and data collection make this program a complete program to meet student, teacher, parent and administrative needs. To learn more about the Behavior Basics Program, read all about it HERE.

The three individual components that make up the entire program are:

How to Teach Staying on Task:

To learn more about the Behavior Basics Curriculum, read more HERE. Each behavior basics lesson has a lesson plan with a weekly overview for the teacher or staff to implement at a work center.

To teach staying on task, the Behavior Basics Curriculum lesson includes:

*While a weekly guide is provided, the materials can be used in any way that fits your students needs in a shorter or longer period of time!

Classroom Posters

A poster is included to post in your classroom. Reference it throughout the week of instruction. It includes the title of the behavior lesson and one real photo.

Family Resources

It is important to communicate with families when working on big skills such as behavior to generalize the skills in all settings. Two formats are provided for you: a half sheet parent newsletter and a newsletter/ homework worksheet are included. Some teachers may decide to send home a copy of the social story as well.

For direct instruction, use a social story to teach the behavior skill of classroom rules. Social stories help visual leaners and students with limited reading ability.

Four levels of social stories are also included:

Discussion Questions & Worksheets

Following direct instruction with social stories, you can facilitate a classroom discussion. A staff discussion page, student participation sticks and student response worksheets are all included with 10 yes/no questions. Teachers are able to add to these questions how they see fit for their kids needs or to elaborate to require more than a yes/no answer.

Also included are student response sticks. Teach students to simply raise the yes/no stick to answer the question. There are two levels to these sticks to make for easy differentiation within your classroom:

Coloring Pages

Coloring pages are a great way to disguise the behavior being taught in a fun hands-on way! While coloring students can discuss what they are coloring and why it relates to the behavior of the week.

Interactive Notebook Pages

Here is a hands on, interactive notebook activity to help generalize the classroom rules. It includes one page to create, shown below. Each behavior basic interactive notebook page comes in two versions and is all black/white for easy printing.

Each behavior basics interactive notebook activity comes with clear, visual instructions for students. Every page comes with a picture step by step for students to follow along. You can print these out and store in a binder from year to year or project them on the smart board for easy use.

All the materials you need to set up interacts notebooks in your classroom are also included:

Cover options (black & white and color)
Unit tabs
Table of Contents

Review Pages

Simple review pages are included to assess student’s knowledge on classroom rules.

There are 4 levels of assessments included:

Focus Board Pieces

Each behavior basics lesson ends in a way for students to share the new skill they have learned with others. Students so often are able to read and recite facts from a story, but struggle with applying it to the “real world.” Simply set up a focus board in the beginning of the year like this:

Focus board slips are included because they help build a loving and happy community within your classroom. They also build successful students. There are two levels of focus board slips for easy differentiation within your classroom. Each focus board slip comes in two versions:

1: Non- writers
2: Writers

Certificate of Completion

Also included is a certificate of mastery for students to receive!

Reading Extension Activities

Picture books provide a fun alternative to direct instruction to teach the basics of behavior. These books provide critical thinking and hands on activities for extension activities in your classroom! To read more about the Behavior Basics Book Club, click HERE.

For teaching staying on task to students, I like reading the book, The Most Magnificent Thing, by Ashley Spires. You can find the book on amazon (affiliate link) or your local library!

Story Lesson Plans

A lesson plan/guide is provided to help teachers and staff with an in depth read aloud activity. Included in the lesson plan:

Anchor Charts and Reading Response Worksheets

Following the read aloud, complete a whole class anchor chart. This discussion anchor chart is a great way to implement deeper discussions and build further understanding of classroom rules.

Following the whole group anchor chart, students can complete their own reading response worksheet. activities.

Directed Drawing Activity

Also included is a directed drawing lesson to incorporate arts while also discussing classroom rules.

Take Data and Assess

Teaching behavior skills is important. It is also important to track students progress in mastering behavior skills. To help you implement IEP goals, track progress and communicate progress to all members of the IEP team I have created a staying on task behavior basics data bundle. Included is:

To learn more about the Behavior Basics Data Bundle, click HERE.

Want to See More?

Behavior basics uses direct instruction each week to build strong students and set them for success in learning and in life. Direct instruction, discussions, interactive activities, review pages, reading extension activities and data collection make this program a complete program to meet student, teacher, parent and administrative needs. The three individual components that make up the entire program are:

The Behavior Basics Program consists of 60 different lessons focusing on 60 different common behaviors. These lessons are broken up into 4 units. To read more about each unit, click below: