Plan for and facilitate transitions

1. Teachers should develop, teach, practice, prepare for and reinforce step-by-step procedures, with student and staff responsibilities for smooth transitions and activity shifts (e.g., entering & leaving class, movements in the class, changing subjects, going to the bathroom & auditorium, etc.)

2. Teachers should provide students with advance organizers to remind them about expected behavior before they enter situations in which displays of problem behaviors are likely.  For example, teachers may say; "Remember, before you go to first period collect all your materials, put your work on my desk and quietly line up," or "What are your responsibilities before you go to first period?"  Some students may also require picture, hand, or other nonlinguistic cues.

3. Utilizing "Before-Class-Starts" activities in the classroom to engage students in positive and productive activities (e.g. board work, hand outs).

4. Prepare strategies to address unavoidable interruptions:    

a.     Unexpected visitors - Teachers should ensure that when an unexpected visitor must talk to the teacher, the students have an activity to engage in and that teacher is positioned to monitor student behavior while talking to the visitor.

b.     New students – Teacher should appoint student helpers to acquaint new students with classroom rules and procedures while the teacher observes to ensure they understood the system.

c.     All interruptions – Teachers should not attend to interruptions until students are engaged in a specific activity.