The Good Behavior Game

Laurie Yogi
August 9, 2018
MTSS, procedural pcms, Tier I
No Comments

A valuable addition to any classroom’s Tier 1, The Good Behavior Game is used to increase time on task and rule-following behavior – not to mention the benefit of a fun and friendly competition to help students learn your content!

Read on to find out how to play and how to make it work for you in your classroom.

The Research

Barrish, Saunders, & Wolf first conducted a study in 1969, of an inter-dependent group contingency behavior management strategy for classrooms. In a nutshell, that means they wanted to see if they could capitalize on human nature by using social influence, teamwork, competition, and positive reinforcement to get results in the classroom.

There have been 20 independent replications across different grade levels, types of students, and settings, and findings show that when effectively used as part of a healthy Tier 1 intervention, the Good Behavior Game works!

GBG has been shown to be effective with:

Out of seat behaviors

Baseline: 82% Intervention: 9%

Talking out behaviors

Baseline: 96% Intervention: 19%

Engaged time

Baseline: 58% Intervention: 83%

How to play

Decide time and setting to implement
Identify and define appropriate and inappropriate behaviors
Identify rewards and preferred activities to serve as team reinforcer
Teach students the rules
Play the game

Getting started

When the Game is being played, the teacher instructs in the usual manner. He/she silently assigns (or subtracts) a point to that student’s team (e.g., as a tally mark on the board) and continues to teach.

Divide the class into 2-4 teams

Explain the rules of the game
- Teams earn points based on following/exhibiting behavioral expectations
- Teams lose points based on a problem behavior
  - Teacher simply shakes his/her head and erases a point and moves on
  - No discussion or verbal reprimands/input about the point loss

Explain the behavioral expectations
- - Pick 3 expectations, such as eye contact, sitting correctly, participation, note taking (or whatever you are looking for)
    - Demonstrate what the expectations look like
    - Have students model what the expectations look like (before the game starts).
When awarding points, simply nod and record. The point is to give continuous feedback (adding and subtracting points non-verbally) without disrupting the flow of instruction.

Reward/Incentive for winning the game
- Can tell students what the incentive will be prior to beginning the game or use the “mystery motivator” where the winning team gets to select a slip of paper that tells them which reward they have won (the Whirlygig app is great for this)
- Make the reward something students actually desire (e.g. 3 minutes free time with peers, extra recess minutes, first to clean up for lunch, late homework pass, pass for skipping a portion of a homework assignment – which you may or may not need them to do anyway, etc.)

Set a time limit: typically the time it takes to teach your lesson or complete a test review

Debrief when the game is over (don’t skip this step)
- Give positive feedback on the game and what specific behaviors were seen. Be encouraging! Remind the students that they can improve performance next time
- Discuss which behaviors “won it” for the team and how in the future team members can support each other

Variations

Vary time or subject matter: play same game over an extended amount of time over multiple days

Vary frequency of access to the payoff
- Allow students to “bank” their win (if they decide as a team) for a bigger payoff later (within a week or less)
- Surprise the class with a “win” for both/all teams due to their superior performance

Vary team composition
- More/fewer groups as needed
- Divide by tables: odd/even, etc. and run the game keeping scores by table groups (harder to manage for the teacher)

Vary rules
- Golf rules: leas number of problem behaviors wins)
- Basketball rules: most number of positive behaviors wins; maybe something extra special gets a “3” pointer
- Whenever a team reaches a set number of points they both win (variation of Basketball rules)
- Team with the least amount of points over multiple days wins (Golf version)

Vary incentives
- Monetary: prize box, food, school supplies, tickets, etc.
- Privileges: first to lunch, computer time, late homework pass, etc.
- Ask the kids!

Vary letting them know what the prize will be awarded for (i.e. the “mystery” aspect)
- Mystery behavior: only tell them 2-3 of the behaviors you’re looking for, but share that there is one mystery behavior you’ll be looking for that can earn them points, too… keeps them guessing
- Mystery time limit
- Mystery points: use a small white board or flip score card AND use a pad of paper that only the teacher sees. Only periodically update the score that they can see
- Mystery incentive: give options for different incentives but don’t let on which one they’ll get; place options under styrofoam cups and have the winning team choose, or have the losing team choose for the winning team