Check-In & Check-Out

 Some students need a reason to behave in a desired way. Most of you have most likely heard of reward systems, especially if you've read my previous posts. There seem to be a million different reasons WHY students act the way they do, and I still could not even name the majority of them. One that I have run into quite frequently is attention-seeking behavior. Your students want your attention because maybe they don't get any at home, or if they do- it's negative attention. Sometimes kids only know to behave in an undesirable way to gain attention. This, while ultimately very sad, is true for a lot of our kiddos. One way that you can help to rewire them in this sense is to ignore undesirable behavior and pay attention and 'reward' desired behavior from your kiddos. This works for many, but sometimes there are still a few that need the attention either way. One of my favorite interventions is the check-in & check-out tool. At the beginning of class, you check in with your student about how they are feeling, what they may need, or anything else they want to share. This would also be a great time to frontload them with what is to come in the following lesson. 

Example:

"Jimmy I am so happy that you came to check in with me! How are we feeling right now?"

"I feel okay. I'm hungry and tired."

"Oh, man. Now that you say something, I am a little hungry too. Luckily, we have our morning snack right after we do reading, I think we have apples today! Do you think you can wait that long or would you like to have a few crackers before reading at my desk?"

"Crackers, please."

"Perfect. Let me grab them!" *give crackers* "Here you go, buddy! Okay, so while you have a snack, let's talk about reading. I know that reading is hard sometimes for us, even I get bored sometimes, but we are going to read for 30 minutes at our desks and then it will be time for those apples. How does that sound?"

Checking in can be good or bad for students. It is important for you to focus on THEM during this time so that they know you care. Likely, if they do not feel safe (yet), they will not have a solution or idea as to what can help them. They may be short or not give much information but don't worry- just keep working on building that trust and a positive relationship with them. 

Check-outs can go pretty similarly. This is a time to talk about what you say the student doing well and what could be done differently. Sometimes students get rewards if they do X amount of work or behave in a desirable way, but for others- your undivided attention can be enough. I'll share an example of a check-out where a student did not behave desirably and one where they did. 

Example:

"Jimmy! You did so well today staying at your desk during reading time! what was your favorite thing you read about? It looked like you were really into your books!:

"Miss Kylie I learned that when a crab loses a leg, it can grow back! That is why some of the big ones have tiny little claws and the other one is big!"

"That is so cool! I might have to check out that book to learn more about it! Maybe later in the year, you want to think about doing research on a crab for our ocean unit! Are you ready to have those apples now? Maybe you want to help me pass out napkins to the rest of our friends so we are all ready to go once I get them cut, what do ya say?"

"Sounds good!"

Example:

"Thanks for coming to chat with my Jimmy. I noticed you had a hard tie staying in your seat during reading. Thanks for being quiet on the rug though! What books were you able to read?"

"I didn't read any of those books."

"Oh no, it makes me sad to hear that. Is there a reason why you didn't want to read?"

"They are boring and dumb!"

"Jimmy that is not very kind, many of the books we have are class favorites and they have a lot of good stuff in them!"

"I don't care. I don't want to."

"That's okay, maybe tomorrow we can switch your books so you can find something that IS interesting to you and not boring so we can read for the whole 30 minutes instead of laying on the floor. What do you think?"

"Okay, but I'm not reading the horse book ever again."

"You don't have to! We have lots and lots of books that I know you haven't read yet, we can try some of those instead! Anyways, the reading is done for today so we can worry about it tomorrow. I'm still kinda hungry after those crackers we had, do you wanna help me pass out napkins to our friends so we can hurry up and have apples?"

"Yes, I'll get them."

Although check-outs don't always go well, especially when there is an undesired behavior, it is still important to do them. This will help your student to feel seen and heard, even if they did not behave how you wanted them to. It is also important to note that this is not a time for them to get in trouble. This is a time to learn about alternative choices they could have made and how to fi the ones they already made. If you noticed, Jimmy was able to pass out the napkins at the end of each different kind of behavior he displayed. It is important to give your students a job or something positive to get their minds off of what went badly and move on. This will help to stop the behavior in its tracks. 

I hope that you guys can use check-ins & check-outs with your students! There is no "wrong way" to do it really, just take the initiative and try different things. You never know- maybe this will help cut some of those undesired behaviors in your classroom!

Best of luck,

Kylie

Resources:

https://www.pbisrewards.com/blog/check-in-check-out-behavior-intervention/