Identification and Correction of Off Task Behavior
Instructors often compete with various sources of stimulus to gain and hold the attention of their students. It would seem that most students that are highly interested in the subject matter are the easiest to keep on task. However, not all of my students are captivated and engaged in learning as easily. A small percentage of my class has required almost constant redirection to stay focused on their responsibilities. Until recently, I have had to decide on whom it is that deserves my attention the most; the students that appears to be on task but could benefit from my further instruction, or students that will not work unless I am standing over their shoulder. I found it important to discover the reasons that these students display such a lack of desire to perform. Is it because of their inability to focus, a lack of interest, or some other reason? Once these reasons have been identified, corrective action may be implemented.

Taking all of my literature review and professional interviews into careful consideration, I created an action plan that would help to identify my student’s specific issues. My concentration was focused on the following questions:
• Is the student truly interested in pursuance of a career as an auto technician?
• Does my curriculum delivery method match the student’s learning style?
• How can I make the student more self-aware of off- task behavior?
• Am I making the appropriate accommodations and adaptations for the students that require specially designed instruction?
• Are the tasks related to my specific field too difficult for some students to understand?

I have had one particular student in my class that has been the most puzzling to me. He is now a senior and for the past 3 years that I could rarely get him to perform. He would only do the bare minimum required in my class to receive a passing grade. I frequently had to remind him to get to work, extend due dates, and redirect him from accessing and watching anime on the class computers. One time, he even opted to read a hardback novel in my class instead of the assigned chapter. The most troubling thing about this student is that I couldn't get him to participate in hands-on activities in the shop. I have had many conversations with him about his career choice and reasons why he feels like my shop is the best placement for him; he consistently upheld his stance that he wanted to continue in my class despite his lack of performance. Upon examination of his grades in his other classes, I discovered that he was doing very well in his advance level academics. The first phase of my action plan was to have my students take an on line interest survey on www.iseek.org. It was no surprise to me that the student’s best choice of career was identified in the field of computer technology. After sharing my findings with the students IEP coordinator and guidance, the student decided that it was in his best interest to switch to the Computer Networking Program. Even though this student has benefited the most from the interest survey, some of my other students have become aware of the fact that they may be suited to a different career.
One of my female students was delighted by the fact that she was recommended to pursue a career in health occupations. She told me that she was indecisive on which class she really wanted to take, Health Occupations or Automotive Technology. She has been another student that is frequently off task. We discussed her options in detail and she decided that she would like to stay in my program. We both agree that she didn't do well in the first nine weeks because she failed to turn in assignments. This is primarily due to the fact that she was too busy goofing off to complete her work. Since having our conversation, I have noticed that she is more aware of her behavior and has turned in more assignments.
In another case, one of my sophomores that are frequently off task has been recommended to pursue a career in administration and politics. After a long conversation about our mutual expectations with my program, he is absolutely sure that he would like to continue his enrollment. Because he has infrequently submitted assignments, the student did not do well in my class during the first nine weeks. Even though he has expressed a desire to remain in my class and is aware that he may be better suited to follow a different career path, he has made no effort to improve his performance. At this point, I was still hopeful that the solution to this student’s off- task behavior may be found by answering my other questions.
I find it noteworthy to state that the interest survey is not an infallible tool for evaluating students’ success in a program. In fact, some of my best performing students were recommended to choose different careers. It is however, a handy tool for permitting students to evaluate and make career choices.

To further my plan of action, I have decided to employ a practical tool that has proven to make my students “self-aware” of their productivity. In industry, we are paid in dollars for each unit of work we produce. This information is tracked in different ways, the most common of which is a time-card. In my program, my students are now being paid in points for each day of work that they are able to document on a weekly time-card. The time-card contains a section for the student’s name, the date, POS task list numbers, a description of the work performed each day, and instructor initials if needed to maintain student honesty. The time card is submitted on the last day of the school week and is evaluated and graded at the beginning of the next school week. Once evaluated, the time-card is returned to the student to add to their professional portfolio.
In addition, failure to submit the time card adversely affects the student’s grade. A day of absence may be made up by completion of an alternative homework assignment. However if a student is present for class and cannot account for the time spent in class, they will receive 0/5 points for the day. After the third week of implementation, the students still require prompting to submit the time-card but are also reminded when they forget as they look at their grades online. This technique has also been helpful in penalizing students that are frequently absent.

The next phase of my action plan involved evaluating my students’ learning style and differentiating instruction to match the learning style of the students that were most frequently off task. I used an online evaluation tool from www.educationplanner.org. For the most part, the results did not surprise me. However, I found it interesting that one student that frequently fails to complete reading assignments had been identified as a visual learner. This is the same student that has been recommended by the interest survey to pursue a career in administration and politics. This begs the question: Since the work that is not being completed falls in the domain of his identified learning style, will differentiated instruction work with this student? I attempted to find out. For one straight week, I assigned all of my students a task to complete in the shop. I demonstrated two pieces of equipment, asked the students to return demonstration, and practice on the machines. I found that this student preferred wandering around the shop and talking to other students over practicing the assigned task.
Another interesting result that the learning style survey has brought to light involves a student that has required much redirection of much misbehavior. The student primarily wishes to work in the shop and has been identified as a tactile learner. Because he is a senior, he has earned the ability to spend most of his time working in the shop. However, he will frequently refuse to complete the work that has been assigned to him and opts to sit in the classroom. In addition to his lack of desire to perform, he frequently acts out dramatically and is verbally abusive with his classmates. His classmates have expressed that they are unable to concentrate because of his mannerisms. I believe that this student may remove himself from his assignments in order to deal with his emotional issues, however; it is causing other students to lose focus. Even though I have been working with the SAP team to help the student, his misbehavior seems to be getting worse. Currently, there is talk about finding a better placement for the student in order to better suit his needs. The student has been temporarily suspended from school for four days and I have already noticed a positive change in all of my students due to my class’s lighter atmosphere.
On a positive note, one student was helped by differentiation. He has haphazardly rushed through written assignments in order to have shop time assigned to him. Even though the assignment is done, he doesn't complete it to my satisfaction. If shop activities are assigned after a written lesson, he seemed to find the tasks too difficult to complete. I believe that this is because he lacks the base knowledge that he should have attained during the written assignment. I have included more verbal instruction in my delivery to help my verbal learners understand lessons and assignments. He seems to require less redirection to remain on task and works more independently.

I found that the answer of my last two questions was discovered by following the accommodations that are part of the specially designed instruction plan for the one student that is still having trouble staying on task. The student requires prompting to remain on task (as needed) and proximity to the instructor. I decided to concentrate my efforts on the proximity aspect since the prompting the student does not seem to be working. After assigning the rest of the class on projects in the shop, I selected the three students that are the most frequently off task to work with as a group. As I offered demonstration to the students on a task, I asked for verbal feedback from each student to check for understanding. I stayed with the group of students as they each returned demonstration. Two of the students have been independently practicing this task to the point of proficiency, while the student with the accommodations will not work independently. If I walk away to work with another student, he continues to wander around the shop and socialize with the other students. I plan to ask for a meeting with his IEP team in order to discuss the need for a personal aid for this student. I also wish to share my findings in this research relating to this student. Perhaps he may not be properly placed in my program. Focusing on the positive results relating to the other two students of this group, I can conclude that the individualized attention was totally effective.

Even though I had to abandon the plan to track each student’s individual occurrences of off task behavior, I was able to notice enough positive changes throughout the process to realize it was working. The evidence surfaced in the form of improved grades and student engagement. Overall, I feel that my action plan accomplished my goal. Most of my students seem to require less prompting to remain on task. However, in one case I have a plan in place to continue my efforts to help the student gain focus. In another case, the student requires help that is most likely beyond my abilities. To quote a wise FRP from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Janice Livingston, “Sometimes Travis, you can’t move mountains with some students”. Though I am a little upset about the one that got away, I am happy that I was able to help the majority.

As part of my first week of school activities, I plan to have all of my students complete the online interest survey and learning style survey. The sooner this information is collected, the sooner it can be used to help my student to succeed. I also plan to continue with the other practices that I have developed in the study. Student time cards are still in the beta test phase however, they seem to have their merits. In addition, accommodations that are recommended for students with IEP’s have been proven to work with students without one. I plan to try accommodation strategies with every student that seems to need them.
As future groups of unique students enter my program, I am sure that I may have to develop another strategy or two to help my students stay on task. As for the present, I am grateful that this project has been successful.