The Impact of Using Prompting

Step 1: Teacher Alinta’s students are attending a school assembly in the afternoon. At the beginning of the school year, Alinta explicitly taught her students how they were expected to behave during an assembly, but it has been a few months since they have had a chance to practice this.

Step 2: During morning meeting that day, Alinta tells her students, ‘We are going to an assembly this afternoon. Remember that we must sit calmly during an assembly, look at the speaker, and keep our voices off.’

Step 4: Most of Alinta’s class exhibited the desired behaviours during the assembly and didn’t require any more direction. The students who needed support were already placed near Alinta. There was minimal distraction for the rest of her class, the speaker and the other classes at the assembly.

Step 3: Alinta reminds her students of these behavioural expectations once again before they leave the room to go to the assembly. During the assembly, Alinta strategically seats her students. She places students who she knows will need extra prompting close to her.