How to Track, Monitor and Improve Desired Student Behaviour

Have that one (or several) students in your class or small group that need explicit instruction and motivation on how to behave? Do they need to consciously think about their actions and see them visually written down in the form of goals? You may need to track and monitor student behaviour to help them improve.

They may benefit from a behaviour tracker. A behaviour tracker serves as a visual aid and reminder for a student to focus on and reach a certain goal. It should motivate them (preferably intrinsically) to achieve a desired behaviour. A behaviour tracker can be used daily and can be shared with the parents daily or weekly depending on the situation. It should be flexible and allow for the student to feel a sense of achievement.

You can use any format to set student goals, record and track desired student behaviour; but if you are short on time and looking for a ready made one, you can download one here.

I usually do not use these in resource, but they are a tool I provide to homeroom teachers when needed.

Elements on a behaviour tracker and how to use them:

1. Create a template that fits your schedule or the desired number of times you wish to check-in or report behaviour. The charts in the above package are fully editable as well. Each template comes with a comments page meant to be printed on the backside as additional space.
2. Fill in the headings of the table – the times when you wish to record behaviour. In the example above, the goal did not pertain to recess and lunch, so I did not fill those out.
3. Print: once the template is custom to your schedule, print as many copies as you’d like weeks to observe the student (I print double sided with the comments page). I then punch holes, and place these in a duo-tang. If the child has a behaviour plan, I print it and add it to the front on the duo-tang.
4. Involve student: discuss one or two possible goals WITH the child for them to work on that week, and a reward they would like to have if they achieve their goal. Some rewards include free time, coloring time, playing time, choose a prize from the prize box, iPad time etc…. It is important that the child feels responsible for his/her actions. Too many goals though, and the child can become overwhelmed.
5. Result: Place a checkmark if the child achieves the goals in the allotted time. The teacher chooses how many checkmarks the student needs to achieve their goals. I put a sad face if they didn’t achieve their goals.

Should you need to store your files for each student, check out my blog post on organizing student files.