Conduct Expectation for Students // Lamplighters Yeshivah Parent Handbook
results. The child is now different as a result of this
additional experience with the world. It may be a very
small change or a very big one. The cumulative col-
lection of these experiences is what we call the child’s
behavioral history. This triplet---information, action,
results---is the basic foundation of all learning. It gets
repeated over and over, 24/7, 365 days a year, countless
millions upon millions of times during a child’s life. It is
literally the ABC of behavior analysis: A = Antecedent =
information presented to the child; B = Behavior = ac-
tion taken by the child (thought, speech, and physical
action); C = Consequence = results of the child’s action.
Empirical research has demonstrated that by changing
these three elements in clever ways all education issues
have solutions. The limiting factors are our cleverness,
our flexibility and our determination to succeed with
every child.
This basic fundamental understanding leads to a very
clear way how to do problem solving when educational
issues pop up and even how to properly design curric-
ulum, teacher mentoring and classroom rules to proac-
tively eliminate the problems beforehand. It is a matter
of knowing the ABC’s and changing them them based
on empirically proven techniques. In general terms we
either want more of some type of behavior (let’s call
these the START BEHAVIORS) or less of some type of
behavior (let’s call these the STOP BEHAVIORS).
How do we create START BEHAVIORS? This is done
in two general ways: Impressionistic lessons that use
stories and drama; lessons given in small groups that
match the instructional needs of the child. The success
of each small group lesson is determined by the quality
of its many Learn Units: a) teacher presents informa-
tion; b) student responds; c) teacher gives feedback;
d) student takes action based on feedback. All of these
have to be customized for the child. Much work at LL
has been devoted to creating the right curriculum and
the right teacher mentoring to make this possible.
part of a) we have what is called our “Thinking Room.”
This is a kind of “time-out” room but in practice it is
much more than that. The way we use this at LL moves
from a) to b). The child, with guidance of the teacher
who stays with them in the “TR,” is given an opportu-
nity to better understand the b), making better choices.
This requires considerable skill on the teacher’s part to
look for the right “teachable moment” after the child
calms down and becomes reflective.
The best cure for most issues in education is good learn-
ing. However, lets say that, for whatever reason, in spite
of our best proactive efforts, something isn’t working
right. What do we do? The first step is a non-emotive
look at data. What is actually happening? This data
can be obtained in many ways: remote camera obser-
vation, observer in the classroom, cumulative data on
student progress, whiteboard sessions with teachers
and other professionals, etc. The focus here is on what
we call “actors and events.” What are the actors (teach-
ers, peers, curriculum, Montessori works, etc) and the
events (changes over time to the actors). This discus-
sion has to be done in very concrete way, like watching
a movie, with a minimum of speculation. Once there is
consensus on this, we can start placing the the data into
the ABC bins. This leads, very naturally to experimen-
tally changing the ABC’s and seeing what happens. By
using ideas from empirically tested research, help from
above, and artistic creativity, a couple of rounds of this
“action research” usually solves the problem.
How do we handle STOP BEHAVIORS? There are two
components to the mastering the STOP BEHAVIORS:
a) cutting off the positive consequences to making bad
choices; b) education on making better choices. As a
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