Introducing a Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Program to First Graders

EDU 609
Gwynedd-Mercy University
Jenny Baker

Summary
A series of three positive behavior classroom lessons was conducted with first grade
students. Pre- and Post-surveys were administered to determine if instruction on positive
behaviors increased their knowledge and understanding of the concepts. The results data was
inconclusive, possibly because the first graders may not have been completely accurate in their
survey answers.
Background
During my second internship for my School Counseling certification program, I worked
at an elementary school. This school has a Positive Behavior and Interventions program (PBIS)
called C.A.R.E.S. This acronym stands for cooperation, attitude, respect, empathy and safety.
All school personnel begin teaching these qualities from the first day of school to the last. Every
two months, a different theme is taught. For example, the first two months of school focuses on
cooperation. Then the next two months, the instruction focuses on attitude and continues as such
for the remainder of the year. There is a reward system for any student who demonstrates
CARES behavior in the form of "Lucky's Loot". This loot is handed out randomly to individual
students and/or entire classes for demonstrating the monthly positive behavior. "Lucky's Loot"
can be turned in for prizes and each class as a whole can earn rewards as well. In addition, the
entire school can earn school-wide celebrations if enough loot is collected. For individual
students who have not earned enough loot to participate, the students are not allowed to join in
the festivities, but must work on learning more about CARES behavior. After reading many
articles and information on the success of PBIS programs, I was very excited to work in a school
with a program already in place.

My counselor conducts guidance lessons for all grades in the school. She focuses on
introducing CARES behavior with the kindergartners and 1st graders. She uses a set lesson plan
for both grades, which is part of the district's guidance curriculum. In the first grade classrooms,
the guidance counselor uses the "I-Care Cat" curriculum from the Peace Education Foundation.
She teaches five lessons based upon this curriculum. For my project, I used these five lessons as
a framework, made revisions, and added some additional activities. The research question for
this project was: What impact does direct instruction on positive behavior skills (CARES) have
on students CARES behavior knowledge?
Research Design
Participants
For this action research project, participants included 20 first grade students. The
classroom consisted of 9 girls and 11 boys at the time of the initial survey. One student receives
emotional support services and is hearing impaired, another student receives learning support
and one student is in the gifted program. During the course of the project, one student moved to
a different school during the weeks of my instruction and one student was not present for the
Post-Survey (the emotional support student), so only 18 completed the Post-Survey. Both
students' information was not used in the data analysis.

Methodology
Over a four-week period, I delivered five 30-minute lessons (Appendix A) in a first grade
classroom. Pre and Post survey data was collected during the project timeframe.
During the first lesson, I conducted a Pre-Survey (Appendix B) to determine students
knowledge level of CARES behavior. The examples of CARES behavior were listening, using

hands for helping, kind words, understanding feelings, and responsibility. I explained to the
students what the purpose of the survey was and asked for complete honesty in their answers. I
tried to be very explicit that this was a collection of information to help me learn how much the
students knew about CARES behaviors.
During each lesson, I introduced the I-Care rule for the day and then played the
accompanying I-Care Cat CD. After a whole group discussion of the particular rule, the students
would complete a related activity to reinforce the lesson. After the initial lesson, I began each
following lesson reinforcing the previous lesson's rule. Repetition was very important to ensure
the students remembered the information. The five I-Care Cat rules are:

we listen to each other,

hands are for helping not hurting,
we use I-Care language,
we care about each other's feelings, and
we are responsible for what we say and do.
The last lesson included a culminating activity during which we reviewed the five rules,

and the students then completed an I- Care quilt. Each student received two paper squares. They
were to draw or write examples of I-Care rules. The entire first grade completed these squares,
and the squares were connected to make a quilt. The quilt was hung in the hallway near the
counselor's office. This quilt is a display of many different I-Care examples, which support the
PBIS program at the school.
At the conclusion of the final lesson, the Post-Survey was administered. The Post-Survey
was the same exact survey which the students took during the first lesson. I explained the survey
and gave the instructions in the same manner as the Pre-Survey
Results

The desired outcome for this project was that the students would have an increase in
CARES knowledge after the delivery of the lessons. The hope was that the post surveys would
have an increase in "Yes/All the time" answers when compared to the Pre-surveys. However,
this is not what occurred.
Pre-Survey results are indicated below. All eighteen students answered yes to question 6,
which was "I use kind words". This result is interesting as having worked with 1st graders
before, kind words are not used all the time. Seventeen students answered yes to question 12,
which was "I know how to be responsible". The questions with the most variability in answers
were questions 1, 4, and 9.

Pre-Survey Results
18
16
14

Yes/All the Time

12

Maybe/Sometimes

10

No/Never

8
6
4
2
0

Post-Survey results are indicated below. The questions that had the least variability on
the post-survey were question 2, "I think I am a good listener" and question 11, "I know what the
word responsibility means". The questions with the most variability were 4, 9 and 10. These
questions dealt with using hands to help, talking about feelings and caring about others' feelings.

Post-Survey Results
16
14
12
10

Yes/All the Time

Maybe/Sometimes
No/Never

8
6
4
2
0

A comparison of Pre- and Post-Surveys are indicated in the following three graphs. The
questions that had no variability between Pre and Post "yes/all the time results" were questions 2,
9, and 11. These questions dealt with being a good listener, talking about feelings, and knowing
what the word responsible means. The "yes/all the time" answers decreased on the post-test for
questions 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 12. The "yes/all the time" answers increased on only questions 1
and 4.

Pre & Post

Yes/Always
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

PRE-YES
POST-YES

The greatest variability among answers for the Pre and Post surveys was the "maybe/sometimes"
answers. There was an increase for "maybe" answers on questions 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 12.

Pre & Post

Maybe/Sometimes
6

PRE-MAYBE
POST-MAYBE

4
2
0
1

10

11

12

Question #

There was not a great variability between the Pre and Post surveys for the "no/never" answers.

Pre & Post

No/Never
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0

PRE-NO
POST-NO

10

11

12

Question #

It is difficult to determine if any learning occurred for the majority of the students as their
answers varied from Pre-Survey to Post. Some students who had answered "Yes" on the Presurvey answered "Sometimes" or "No" on the Post-survey. There is no clear pattern among the
answers.
Out of 12 questions, the weighted average decreased between the Pre and Post Surveys.
Two questions' averages remained equal while only one question's average increased.

Weighted Average Comparison

3.50
3.00
2.50
Weighted Average

2.00

Pre-Survey

1.50

Post-Survey

1.00
0.50
0.00
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Question #

Implications
On the surface, the results appear very discouraging. It is possible that the lessons and
delivery were ineffective, therefore students did not learn CARES behavior and language.
Hopefully this was not the case! One possible way to interpret the results positively is that the
students may have thought they knew what CARES behavior was prior to the lessons and
therefore answered "Yes" to most questions on the Pre-Survey. After the lessons, it is possible
the students had a better understanding of CARES behavior, therefore, were more accurate in
their answers on the Post-Survey. Students may have provided more honest self-assessments on
the Post-Survey, therefore changing their answers to "Sometimes" or "No, never". The students
in this classroom are ages 6-7, so the accuracy of their answers and understanding needs to be
taken into consideration. A more effective evaluation may have been to track the number of
discipline referrals before and after the lessons along with teacher feedback. I believe this type
of project would need to take place over a longer period of time (at least 3 months) with at least a
lesson per week before analyzing discipline referrals and collecting teacher feedback. Another
option may have been to used the accuracy of the examples written on the quilt squares as an
assessment of their acquisition on knowledge.
Providing and analyzing data is critical to the success and future of school counseling.
With continuing cut backs in education, it is important to demonstrate the effectiveness of
comprehensive school counseling programs and how they support students' academic, career and
social/emotional development.