Variation of the "Good Behavior Game"
Additional Suggestions and Considerations
- Alter the make-up of the teams every few weeks so that no one
team can dominate the "Best Team of the Week" award.
- Use this variation of the "Good Behavior Game" for class periods in
which disruptive behavior has been a problem. Begin with a few
class periods initially, and as the program meets with success, you
can gradually increase the number of periods through the entire
day.
- In order to avoid any potential concerns from parents or students
regarding the team concept, the rewards employed for the weekly
drawing should be events, objects, and activities that are not usually available to the students. In other words, do not take
something that they already have on a noncontingent basis and
begin using it as an incentive.
- Explain to the parents at a parent/teacher conference or meeting
at the beginning of this program that the team concept encourages
both cooperation and competition. Since most of the prizes (except
the weekly prize) can be earned by each team irrespective of the
other teams' performance, the game encourages cooperation
within the group. Team members do compete among themselves for the
weekly prize.
- If one child seems to inhibit a team from reaching the standard on
a consistent basis, implement the variation of the "Good Behavior
Game" with the other classmates and set up an individualized
program for that child. In that manner the team members will not
be consistently penalized for having the child who is frequently
disruptive in their group. This child may form his or her own team
and another strategy may be employed.
- If you wish to minimize the competitive aspect of having a weekly
winning team, you can also set up a weekly criterion for the teams
to meet to become eligible for the lottery pick. This allows every
team to be eligible to win the weekly prize as well, as long at that
team achieves the number of points needed. One team can be
selected randomly from the eligible teams for the "big prize" in
order to keep the cost of this program manageable. Random drawings would not give preference to any one eligible team, and all
teams would be motivated to try their best to achieve the behavioral standard.
- If this technique is successful, continue with the strategy. If not, try another strategy.
Provided in partnership with The Council for Exceptional Children.
