priate behavior. Having to self-assess and self-record can interrupt inappropriate behav-iors. For example, if Emma is playing with her pencil, she will need to stop this behavior to self-assess and self-record. In this example we use a hypothetical student, Steve. Steve has a great deal of difficulty staying on task. He daydreams or wanders around the room, sometimes shooting make-believe jump shots. When he stays on task, however, he has no difficulty doing the work. The problem seems to occur frequently during spelling prac-tice. His main problem is that he becomes distracted very easily and engages in impulsive behaviors. Here’s an example of how SMA instruction for Steve might go.
Step 1: Defining the Target Behavior
Steve’s teacher, Mrs. Barrett, wants to reduce the time Steve is daydreaming or wander-ing around the room. To do this she will try to increase the time Steve spends in his seat doing his work. The behaviors she will target for self-monitoring are (1) writing spell-ing words, (2) raisspell-ing his hand for help, (3) watchspell-ing the teacher, (4) stayspell-ing in his seat.
Step 2: Collecting Baseline Data
To collect baseline data Mrs. Barrett will count the number of times that Steve gets up from his seat during spelling practice time over a period of 3 or 4 days. She will make a tally mark on a 3″ × 5″ card each time the behavior occurs. At the end of the period she will graph the data.
Step 3: Obtaining Willing Cooperation
At this stage Mrs. Barrett meets with Steve to discuss the problem and get him to buy into trying SMA. Here’s an example:
“Steve, I wanted to talk with you today about some problems you’ve been hav-ing. You are really having problems paying attention to your work and this has been going on for a while. Last week you missed recess three times because you didn’t get your spelling work done. But I’ve noticed that when you finish all your practice, your spelling is great. I know a way to help you out with the problem you’re having. I’ve done this with kids just like you and it worked really well. I think it would really help you to pay attention better.
That way you won’t miss out on playing basketball at recess. Would you like to try it?”
After the buy-in it’s time to explain the procedures.
Step 4: Instruction in Self-Monitoring Procedures
At this step Mrs. Barrett (1) defines the behavior Steve student will self-monitor, (2) ensures that he can discriminate the behavior, and (3) explains the self-monitoring pro-cedures.
“OK, Steve, let’s talk about paying attention. Why is it important to pay atten-tion?”
Mrs. Barrett discusses the benefits of paying attention (e.g., get work finished, learn more, don’t miss recess, get better grades). Next, she discusses the specific behaviors involved in paying attention.
“Now, Steve, can you tell me some things you do when you’re paying atten-tion? Let’s make a list.”
She makes a list of the behaviors, and discusses each one briefly, focusing on the behav-iors that she wants Steve to self-monitor (e.g., looking at the teacher, being in his seat, listening to the teacher, doing work, asking for help). Next, she discusses behaviors that happen when Steve is not paying attention.
“You did a really good job with what you do when you pay attention. Now let’s talk about what you do when you’re not paying attention.”
As before, she makes a list and discusses the behaviors (e.g., looking out the window, walking around the room, playing with his pencil). Then she asks Steve to demonstrate behaviors that show paying attention and not paying attention, in order to ensure that he can discriminate the behaviors that indicate he is paying attention from those that show he is not paying attention.
Next she introduces the “beep tape” used to cue students to self-assess and the self-recording sheet. Figure 6.1 gives instructions on how to make a tape. Figures 6.2 and 6.3 show examples of self-recording sheets. Note that these sheets can be very sim-ple. However, it’s a good idea to include reminders on the sheets (i.e., the specific behaviors that indicate paying attention). Here’s how Mrs. Barrett instructs the student in the procedures.
“Now, Steve, I’m going to show you how to help yourself pay attention. In a minute I’m going to start a tape. On the tape, every once in a while, you will hear a beep. When you hear the beep, you should ask yourself, ‘Was I paying attention?’ What do you do when you hear the beep? [Steve responds.] That’s right. You ask yourself was I paying attention. Then you use this sheet [intro-duces recording sheet] and mark ‘yes’ if you were paying attention and ‘no’ if you were not paying attention. Look at the top of the sheet. It has a list of what it means to pay attention. Let’s practice a little. I’ll pretend to be the student and you tell me what to do.”
She starts the tape. When he hears the beep Steve should be able to tell Mrs. Barrett she should ask if she was paying attention and mark the sheet. You may also wish to model paying attention and not paying attention and marking the sheet accord-ingly.
Steve appears to grasp the procedures, so he is ready to try them himself.
By far the easiest way to implement self-monitoring of attention in the classroom is to use a “beep” tape. A beep tape is simply a tape on which you have recorded some type of auditory cue (e.g., a beep, chime, click, or an oral reminder to self-assess). Research suggests that the cues should be random, with intervals of from 10 to 90 seconds between them (Reid, 1996). It’s important for the cues to be random.
If cues are at regular intervals students will quickly sense the rhythm and will know when they will be asked to self-assess. Making a beep tape is simple:
1. Find a source of random numbers. One good source is your old statistics books (which often have tables of random numbers in the back). Another source that everyone has is simply a phone book. We’ll use the phone book example here, but the random numbers table works the same way.
2. Pick a page in the phone book randomly. Then randomly pick a starting point (e.g., halfway down the middle column).
3. Ignore the first three digits in the number. Break the last four digits into pairs of two-digit numbers (e.g., the number 2466 would be broken into 24 and 66).
Ignore number pairs that are less that 10 or greater than 90. Write down each number separately.
4. Using a calculator, enter the numbers and sum them. You need to sum the numbers to make sure that the tape will be long enough. For example, to make a 30-minute beep tape, you need to sum to around 1,800.
5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until you have sufficient numbers.
6. Find a suitable cue. Anything that will be easily audible will work. Teachers have used buzzers, beeps, chimes (from a toy xylophone), or other sources.
7. Find a quiet room. Lay out your list of numbers where it’s easy to see. These numbers are the intervals between beeps (e.g., 44, 19, 84). Use a watch or a clock with sweep second hand to time intervals. Start the tape. Wait the appropriate time (e.g., in the example above, 44 seconds), then record the cue.
Repeat until you’ve made the entire tape. Don’t worry if your timing isn’t exact.
A few seconds either way are not critical.
FIGURE 6.1. Making a “beep” tape.
From Robert Reid and Torri Ortiz Lienemann (2006). Copyright by The Guilford Press. Permission to photocopy this figure is granted to purchasers of this book for personal use only (see copyright page for details).