Martha:  We have a question from Cheryl: “In your book near the end you share a vision for how TAGteach can be used at school. Can you please elaborate on the logistics of how to make that work in the ASD classroom?”

We have a lot of information on that. We have some are suggestions from our own experience with that, and others that have been submitted to the TAGteach listserve over the years. So here are some suggestions. Of course, this will depend on the level of the classroom, the age of the children, and their abilities.

So, for example, Suggestion #1: I would put up signs for each child in the classroom listing the current tag points that we are working on with each child. This would be in a classroom for younger children. So, for each child, what are the tag points? Are you working on eye contact, like Eyes On Teacher, or Eyes On Toy. Are you working on Quiet Mouth or Appropriate Vocalization? Are you working on Stacking Blocks? Whatever the top, I would say no more than two or three tag points are, would be listed on those signs. My idea is that as the child learns each skill you take that one off the list and put on a new one. This would be a sign that is constantly evolving, as the child learns new skills.

Joan mentioned that in a classroom she works with, there are group tag points. The students contribute by determining goals, tag points, and reinforcers. So if you have a more high-functioning group of students who are verbal and who can participate more actively, this would be another opportunity. The students could also do peer-tagging in social skills and academics. We’ve had examples of that over the years. Luca can contribute on that. And other teachers: we’ve got some information here from various participants.

From Richard McManus of the Fluency Factory in Massachusetts:  (Richard is an active participant in the Direct Instruction, Precision Teaching, and TAGteach discussion groups.) You and your assistant should make a tagulator for each child so they have a way to collect tags. You will also need to collect some back-up (reinforcers) for your tags. Good inexpensive stuff is going to be important, or, you can use time on chosen activities as a back-up, or even chances on stuff (although he’s not a fan of that). I would start with something easy, like Simon Says, have two or three children be the first ones. Ideally pick kids who are already fairly compliant so you are ensuring your own success. The tag point is: Only Do What Simon Says. The correct response gets a tag and the chance to push a bead on the tagulator. Once your first three students have demonstrated, see who else wants to play. As you get more kids involved, you can start to shift the tag points to the other activities. The you can tag for Sitting In The Right Spot, Lining Up, and social skills. You can set up tag points such as, the tag point is saying “May I have a toy please?” and responding, “Yes, of course,” and “Thank you.” This is a role play game for two children at a time, while the others sit and applaud while you tag. Later on you can tag when the behavior you taught shows up on a free basis without the role play. Meanwhile, switch children around in the role play quickly, so they all get to be in the “ask” and “asker” roles.

From Mary Cotter: I announce to the class that the entire class will earn points for appropriate behavior, up to five points during a forty minute class. That would be one point every eight minutes. I was always more generous and worked off an eight point per forty minute class ratio. I used plastic poker chips in a glass jar as my marker, no verbals. When the class was on task, the tag was the sound of the plastic chip being tossed into the jar. Students would remind each other to behave as they discovered they were earning points. The rewards were things that did not cost me any or much money or were curriculum things I could turn into a reward: Playing music during cooking, eating popcorn during written work, making ice cream. I organized the rewards so it would be earned every two weeks for a class that met every other day. I created a bulletin board to chart the progress of each class. Students could see how quickly their class earned rewards compared to the others: more peer pressure! It was amazing how students promoted good behavior among themselves. I felt empowered and happier because I was looking for good behavior and got it.

My next example is again in an urban middle school. I was training students during the summer to become peer mediators. My students were well-behaved, but since it was summer, the environment was more casual and they were not always on task. For this I used a clicker and stickers. Again, without verbal markers I simply started giving stickers to students who returned from breaks on time, raised their hand, or focused on the teacher. Kids became competitive and wanted to earn as many stickers as they could.

From Cathy Beyer: One fun activity with a tally counter is to find out how many YES clicks the class can earn in a given period, and chart it. As a group, can they beat a previous record? Tally counters work especially well with peer-tagging. I’ve also dropped marbles into a jar, which makes a loud noise and provide a visual assessment of progress. When the jar is full, the class gets something special like a bubble-blowing festival, or pizza, or some other desirable activity.”

Martha: So these are all great examples. We will include this information in a document that goes along with the recording. We have a lot of ideas here for using TAGteach in the classroom.

Joan Orr:  I’d like to mention something that I’ve done which was effective. That is using a tagulator with great big beads. I have the tagulator handy, then I give the whole class a tag point. An easy one is “Ask me a question,” so the tag point is Ask A Question. At first I explain that the question needs to be relevant to what we are talking about. So when they ask me a relevant question, I pull down a bead. When the whole tagulator is finished, everyone gets a skittle. This is with 16 and 17-year olds, and they like skittles too. This is a good way to make a good impression, show them how the tagulator works, and be reinforcing. This way, you are reinforcing behavior that you want to see continued, building relationships, and getting them to start talking to you. Sometimes teenagers are not inclined to talk.

Another thing that I do in this classroom if there is a kid having trouble with some physical skill, I take him aside and use a tagger with him individually. They are very happy with that and they doesn’t seem to  be any stigma attached to one kid being taught with the tagger, while everybody else is doing something else; they’re not jealous or feeling like they are left out. I have a video testimonial from one of these kids if you would like to see that.

Martha: Yes, let’s see that.

Video testimonial transcript:

Joan Orr:  How did you like using the tag, or the clicker? Did it help you learn?

Student: Yeah, I think we should do that more often. It’s a better way of saying that you did it right than actually saying that you did it wrong.

Joan: Why do you think that?

Student: I just think it’s better to do it like that because if you don’t click, the person you are training knows it’s wrong.

Martha: That was certainly a moving statement. There is an article on the Chaos to Calm blog  that was contributed to us, that addresses the use of group or class tag points. The title of this particular article is “Out with the rules, in with the tag points.” The desired behaviors for the class were posted on the wall. So, instead of “Don’t Talk,” the tag point was “Be Quiet” or “Raise Your Hand.” The kids got tag points for being quiet or raising their hands, and this put all the focus on the behaviors that were desired. It had a huge impact in that particular classroom.

Does anybody else have any comments or questions?

Joan: Luca had a couple of comments and questions.

Luca: One question was about how many students were in the classroom?

Joan: As far as I know, they are typical classes with twenty to twenty-five kids. The class that I was talking about has about fifteen to sixteen kids.

Luca: My classes are about 35, 36 kids. So I find it useful to use the signs for group tag points or for the students to choose which tag points to use for a period of time. Also, I’m listening to you and having so many ideas, so I will try something like this. Have a sign on the wall, one student chooses a tag point, and the companion who is next to him or her can mark the behavior; after five or six minutes they can switch. I can do my lesson and have a little quieter classroom. So thank you very much for the idea of using the signs.

Joan Orr: Another really great resource, and we will list our resources when we do the transcript for this webinar, is Dr. Julie S. Vargas’s book, Behavior Analysis for Effective Teaching. It has explanations of how to apply these principles in the classroom. It mentions TAGteach. Another great resource is the TAGteach Yahoo group.

Luca: I recommend that book for everyone involved in teaching. It is extremely useful. It’s a precious book!

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