16 Tips for Helping Students Meet Classroom Behavior Expectations

May 2, 2024

All students benefit from positive classroom supports that will help them meet their teacher’s behavior expectations and reach their academic goals. For students with serious emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD), effective supports are even more vital to their success in school.

As a teacher, how can you modify your classroom environment and instruction to meet the needs of students who struggle to meet behavior expectations? Excerpted and adapted from Understanding and Supporting Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders by Vern Jones & Al (Skip) Greenwood, today’s post offers 16 tips that will help you support positive behavior and learning—for students with EBD and for their peers, too.

1. Start by examining your classroom arrangement. Ensure that your classroom is set up so you have good visual and physical access to all students.
2. Consider your classroom seating arrangements. Provide preferred seating options such as carrels, dividers, or a seat close to a peer model/tutor.
3. Remove distractions prior to beginning academic work. Examine potential distractions such as the temperature, lighting, and spacing in your classroom.
4. Review your daily schedule to ensure there are opportunities for breaks, goal setting, and reflection.
5. Review the quality of transitions in your classroom, and consider ways to make your transitions more efficient.
6. Support successful completion of work to reduce students’ feelings of stress and frustration. Make adjustments as needed to ensure that the student experiences a high rate of success.
7. Engage the student in goal setting to keep them focused on learning. Have students set realistic goals regarding the amount of work to be completed and time to complete it.
8. Help learners with organizing their work. Add structure such as highlighting work they will be doing and providing manipulatives.
9. Increase engagement by allowing the student to make choices regarding their academic work.
10. Provide support through small-group and/or one-on-one instruction.
11. Monitor peer interactions to ensure that the student is not a victim of bullying.
12. Listen to your students’ ideas about what will help them.
13. Examine your use of behavior-specific feedback given to the student.
14. Empower learners to advocate for themselves. Teach your students how to communicate clearly when feeling their rights are being violated.
15. Assist the student in monitoring and sharing their progress. Incorporate daily or weekly progress reports.
16. Ensure that all adults are consistently communicating high expectations to the student.

When students feel valued and supported by their teachers and their peers, and when they’re involved in engaging instructional activities, their behavior will often be positive. Use the tips in this post to respond to the academic and social support needs of your students—including those with EBD. And for more in-depth guidance on helping students with emotional and behavioral disorders succeed in school, add today’s book to your professional development library.

Understanding and Supporting Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

By Vern Jones, Ph.D., & Al (Skip) Greenwood, Ph.D.

This comprehensive text gives professionals a deep understanding of the key issues associated with EBD and practical, trauma-informed approaches for working with these students in a variety of settings, from general education classrooms to specialized intervention programs.

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