Lesson 2

Co-Establishing, Modeling, and Teaching Clear Behavioral Expectations

Recommendation 1 focuses on creating behavior expectations that students understand, can demonstrate, and can apply across classroom routines. This lesson examines how school psychologists can help teachers move from vague classroom rules to observable, teachable, and usable expectations.

Recommendation 1 Strong Evidence Consultation Behavior Expectations

Reading Assignment

Teacher-Delivered Behavioral Interventions in Grades K–5

Read Recommendation 1: Pages 8–16

Focus especially on Examples 1.1–1.5, the four implementation steps, potential obstacles, and the reflection questions at the end of the recommendation.

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Summary of the Recommendation

Expectations Should Describe What Students Can Actually Do

Broad values such as be respectful, be responsible, or make good choices can provide a useful organizing framework, but they do not automatically tell students what behavior is expected during a particular activity.

Recommendation 1 emphasizes translating those broad expectations into behaviors that can be observed, taught, practiced, modeled, and reinforced. Expectations should connect with schoolwide systems when those systems exist and should reflect the developmental, cultural, and contextual needs of the students who are expected to follow them.

Observable Another person should be able to see or hear whether the behavior occurred.

Positively Stated Describe the behavior students should perform rather than only describing what they should stop doing.

Contextual The meaning of an expectation should be clear for the particular routine, location, or instructional activity.

Understandable Language should match students' developmental and communication needs.

Culturally Responsive Expectations should be developed with awareness of students' and families' experiences, norms, values, and perspectives.

Teachable Students should receive modeling, practice, feedback, and opportunities to demonstrate the expectation.

The Four Implementation Steps

What the Guide Recommends

Start with schoolwide expectations when available.
Classroom expectations should connect logically with the broader behavioral language students encounter elsewhere in the school.

Co-establish and post classroom expectations.
Students, caregivers, educators, and other relevant school personnel can contribute perspectives about what successful classroom behavior looks like.

Explicitly teach the expectations.
Posting a rule is not the same as teaching it. Teachers should model, practice, acknowledge, and provide feedback on expected behavior.

Revisit expectations when students are not meeting them.
A pattern of difficulty should trigger questions about instruction, clarity, context, cultural relevance, and implementation—not simply the assumption that students are choosing not to comply.

Why This Matters for School Psychologists

Many “Behavior Problems” Begin With an Instructional Question

When a consultation begins with a statement such as “He doesn't follow expectations”, the psychologist should first determine whether the expectations are sufficiently clear to evaluate. Before attributing behavior to motivation, disability, defiance, or skill deficits, ask what the student has actually been taught to do in that context.

Operationalize the Expectation Help teachers identify what an expectation such as “respectful” or “ready to learn” actually looks like during a specific routine.

Separate Teaching From Telling Ask whether students have received modeling, guided practice, feedback, and opportunities to rehearse the behavior.

Look for Contextual Patterns If behavior occurs primarily in one activity or location, examine how the expectation is defined and supported in that setting.

Use Data Before Escalating Patterns in discipline, classroom observation, or routine-specific data may identify where expectations need to be clarified or retaught.

Consultation question: Before asking, “Why won't this student follow the rule?” consider asking, “What exactly is the expected behavior, how was it taught, and how would we know whether the student is doing it?”

Interactive Activity 1

Which Expectation Is More Teachable?

Choose the statement that gives the student clearer information about what to do.

Situation 1: Independent Work

Situation 2: Whole-Group Discussion

Situation 3: Transitioning to Small Groups

Situation 4: Asking for Help

Interactive Activity 2

Build a Classroom Expectation Matrix

Match the broad schoolwide expectation with a specific behavior for each classroom routine.

The school's three broad expectations are Respect Yourself, Respect Others, and Respect the Environment. You are helping a teacher make those expectations concrete during independent work.

Expectation	Independent Work Behavior
Respect Yourself
Respect Others
Respect the Environment

Interactive Activity 3

When Expectations Aren't Working

Work through a consultation in which a teacher reports that students are not following expectations.

Decision 1 of 3

A fifth-grade teacher says, “They know the rules. They're just choosing not to follow them after lunch.”

What is the best first consultation question?

You learn that “be responsible” is posted on the wall, but students have not practiced what responsibility looks like when returning from lunch.

What would you recommend next?

Two weeks later, the transition has improved overall, but problems remain on Mondays and on days when lunch ends late.

What is the strongest consultation response?

Interactive Activity 4

Turn Vague Expectations Into Observable Behavior

Apply the concepts from this lesson to a classroom consultation case. Your response will receive individualized AI feedback.

Please log in to complete this activity.

Lesson Summary

Key Takeaways for School Psychologists

Broad school values need to be translated into observable behaviors for specific classroom routines.
Expectations are stronger when students and caregivers have opportunities to contribute to how successful behavior is defined.
Posting expectations is not sufficient; they must be explicitly modeled, taught, practiced, acknowledged, and revisited.
When expectations are not being met, examine instruction, clarity, context, cultural relevance, and implementation before assuming a student simply refuses to comply.
School psychologists can help teachers use behavioral data to determine where expectations need to be retaught, clarified, or adjusted.

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