The Hallway Worksheet
Mr. Okafor co-teaches seventh-grade science with a general educator, Ms. Lindqvist. Third period has 28 students, including Devon, who has an emotional disability. Devon's behavior intervention plan includes a cool-down pass to the resource room. In the last three weeks Devon has flipped a desk twice, both times during independent lab work right after a peer laughed at his reading of the procedure aloud. Paraprofessional support was cut in October. Ms. Lindqvist now sends Devon to the hallway with a worksheet during labs 'to keep the room safe,' so Devon has missed four labs. Other students have started calling the hallway 'Devon's office.' Devon's lab grade has fallen from a B to a D, and he has begun refusing to enter the room at all on lab days.
1. Using antecedent-behavior-consequence reasoning, what is actually driving Devon's behavior, and which environmental changes should come first?
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The antecedent pattern is unusually clear: the outbursts cluster around reading aloud in a group, peer laughter, and loss of the paraprofessional who previously scaffolded that moment. The behavior functions as escape from a public, aversive reading task - the hallway worksheet then reinforces it by delivering the escape every time.
Priority changes, all antecedent-focused:
- Remove the public reading demand. Pre-teach the procedure vocabulary, give Devon the procedure in advance, or assign him a lab role that does not require reading aloud to the group (materials manager, data recorder).
- Structured group roles for all students, so no one is singled out.
- Reinstate proximity support or another adult check-in at lab start.
- Teach and rehearse the cool-down pass so Devon has a sanctioned exit before escalation rather than after.
The reasoning the exam rewards: when a behavior is escape-maintained, the fix is to reduce the aversive demand and teach a replacement, not to remove the student from instruction.
2. Ms. Lindqvist's hallway practice - how should Mr. Okafor evaluate and respond to it?
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Several problems compound:
- It is a de facto change of placement made unilaterally by one teacher. A pattern of exclusion from instruction amounting to missed labs is not a classroom management choice; it is a change the IEP team must make.
- It removes access to the general curriculum. Four missed labs is real instructional loss, visible in the drop from B to D.
- It reinforces the escape function and is likely increasing refusal on lab days.
- It creates stigma ('Devon's office'), which harms peer relationships and the least restrictive environment.
Response: Mr. Okafor should not simply overrule his co-teacher in front of students. He should (1) get Devon back into labs with an antecedent plan immediately, (2) request an IEP team meeting to review the BIP and consider whether the paraprofessional cut was appropriate, and (3) document the instructional loss in case compensatory services are later at issue. If the team decides a brief, supervised, structured break is needed, that belongs in the BIP with a time limit and a return plan.
3. What should the revised behavior plan specify so it can be implemented and monitored in a co-taught room?
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A usable plan names observable specifics:
- Target and replacement behaviors, operationally defined (e.g., 'requests a break using the pass' instead of 'manages frustration').
- Antecedent strategies tied to the identified trigger: pre-taught vocabulary, assigned non-reading lab role, teacher check-in within two minutes of lab start.
- Who does what. With two adults, the plan must state which adult delivers the check-in and who supervises the pass, or it will not happen.
- Data method that survives a busy room - a simple frequency tally on the lab clipboard, not a narrative log.
- Decision rules: if more than X incidents in two weeks, the team reconvenes.
- A fading criterion for any adult proximity support.
Reasoning: plans fail in co-taught settings when roles are ambiguous. The exam favors specificity, a replacement skill, and a built-in review trigger.