Lesson 1

Using the WWC Practice Guide in Your Classroom

Before examining the seven individual recommendations, this lesson focuses on how you can use theTeacher-Delivered Behavioral Interventions in Grades K–5practice guide to plan, try, and evaluate behavior supports in your own classroom.

Classroom Teachers K–5 Problem Solving Teacher-Delivered Support

Why This Guide Matters

A Teacher Resource Built for Your Classroom

Every teacher has moments when classroom behavior interferes with learning. Students may seem off-task, disruptive, unmotivated, impulsive, or difficult to redirect. The question quickly becomes:What should I try?

The What Works Clearinghouse practice guide provides seven low-intensity, teacher-delivered behavioral interventions for K–5 classrooms. These strategies can provide a useful starting point before assuming that every classroom concern requires an intensive individualized intervention.

Classroom connection:A strategy alone is not a plan. Effective classroom problem solving means defining the concern, choosing an appropriate level of support, planning how you will carry it out, and checking whether it actually produces meaningful change.

Scope

Know When to Use the Resource

A Good Starting PointClassroom concerns that may respond to relatively low-intensity changes in your own practice, such as participation, engagement, calling out, following routines, or responding to expectations.

Not a Complete SubstituteSevere, persistent, dangerous, or highly individualized behavior may require additional assessment, individualized intervention, and support from your school’s problem-solving team, school psychologist, or behavior specialist.

The guide should therefore be viewed as a decision-making resource rather than a rigid intervention cookbook. Student needs, classroom context, implementation feasibility, and professional judgment still matter.

Your Role

Turn the Recommendation Into a Classroom Plan

1. Define the Concern Translate broad descriptions such as “disruptive” into observable behaviors and relevant classroom situations.

2. Select the Level of Support Decide whether a low-intensity teacher-delivered strategy is a reasonable starting point.

3. Support ImplementationTranslate the recommendation into a practical procedure you can actually carry out during instruction.

4. Examine Response and FidelityDetermine both whether student behavior changed and whether you carried out the strategy as intended.

Using the Practice Guide

Don’t Stop at the Recommendation Title

Each section of the WWC guide contains information you can use in planning. When a recommendation appears relevant, read the full section, and share it with your grade-level team or support staff when helpful.

Recommendation

Identify the classroom practice most relevant to the concern.

Implementation

Review how the strategy is intended to be used in actual classrooms.

Examples & Tools

Use the guide’s examples, planning tools, forms, and classroom resources.

Evidence

Review the evidence rating and supporting research for the recommendation.

Follow-Up

Plan how implementation and student response will be monitored.

Open the WWC Practice Guide →

Interactive Activity 1

Classroom or Team?

Decide whether the WWC guide is a reasonable starting point for each situation, or whether it is time to involve your school team.

Case 1:Your third graders frequently call out during whole-group instruction. You want a classroom strategy you can begin using consistently this week.

Case 2: A student engages in severe aggression several times per week despite multiple classroom interventions. Staff are concerned about safety.

Case 3:Your second-grade class has difficulty beginning independent work without repeated prompting. You want a preventative classroom-level strategy.

Case 4:A student has received consistent classroom interventions for several months with little improvement. You need help understanding what is maintaining a persistent behavior.

Interactive Activity 2

Plan Your Next Step

Work through a classroom situation one decision at a time.

Decision 1 of 3

You teach fourth grade, and you find yourself thinking:

“I’ve tried praising Ethan, but it doesn’t work. He still barely participates during independent work.”

What should you do first?

When you think about it, you realize you occasionally say “good job” when you notice Ethan working, but you have not defined a target behavior and your praise is inconsistent.

What is the most useful next step?

You commit to using the strategy consistently for two weeks.

What should you plan before you start?

Interactive Activity 3

What Would You Ask Next?

Strong problem solving often begins with the right question. Identify what information you should gather before choosing a classroom strategy.

Scenario 1:
You notice, “Maya is constantly off-task during math.”

What is the most useful question to ask first?

Scenario 2:
You have been using precorrections before transitions, but one student’s transition behavior has not improved.

What information would be most useful next?

Scenario 3:
You want to try a classroom strategy, but you think, “I can’t realistically do something every two minutes while I’m teaching.”

What should you explore?

Scenario 4:
You have used a strategy for two weeks, and the student’s behavior seems somewhat better.

What should you focus on next?

Optional Applied Practice

Different Students, Different Problems

Apply the problem-solving principles from this lesson to a more complex classroom case. This activity is optional and does not affect lesson completion.

Please log in to complete this activity.

Across the Seven Recommendations

Keep These Principles in Mind

Student Context Matters Consider cultural, linguistic, social, and individual experiences when interpreting behavior.

Relationships Matter Classroom behavioral support occurs within relationships among students, educators, and caregivers.

Acceptability MattersA strategy must be workable for you and appropriate for the student and classroom.

Intensity Can Change Some students need more frequent or individualized support than others.

Support HelpsEvidence-based practices are easier to sustain with coaching and collegial support.

Data MatterReview both how consistently you used a strategy and how students responded.

Lesson Summary

Key Takeaways

The WWC guide focuses on low-intensity, teacher-delivered behavioral interventions for K–5 classrooms.
You can use the resource to plan, carry out, and follow up on classroom behavior supports.
The recommendations are a starting point for professional decision-making, not a substitute for individualized assessment when more intensive intervention is indicated.
Effective classroom problem solving includes attention to feasibility, consistency, and student response.

Back to Course

Next Lesson