Three Promising Approaches for Classroom Management, Engagement, and Executive Function

- "Training the Brain Through Tunes: How Music Builds Executive Function"

- "Singing and Thinking: The Cognitive Benefits of Learning Lyrics and Music" 

- "How the ABCs Lead to Improved EF: Music's Impact on Executive Function Skills"

- "Melodies That Make You Mentally Tough: The Link Between Music and Executive Function"

Additional Thoughts:

- Consider examining research on how different genres of music may differentially impact executive function components like working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibition, etc. Upbeat pop songs may benefit sustained attention, while classical pieces build planning skills.

- Think about how to incorporate music training into classes beyond just music education. Can math, reading or science teachers use songs to reinforce concepts and build cognitive skills? 

- Examine if group singing provides added executive function advantages over individual music practice due to collaboration, social regulation, listening cues, etc. 

- Explore how music training may benefit both neurotypical students and children with executive function deficits like ADHD. Could music help normalize cognitive control networks?

- Discuss logistics like optimal session length, frequency, age to start music training, use of lyrics vs instrumentals, etc. in building executive functions through music.

Let me know if you would like me to elaborate on any of these suggestions or provide additional ideas to consider related to this topic. I'm happy to keep brainstorming!Introduction

Educators are constantly seeking new and innovative ways to manage classroom behavior, engage students, and help them develop critical executive function skills. Three popular approaches that have emerged in recent years are Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), Whole Brain Teaching, and direct efforts to build executive function. Each approach offers unique benefits and strategies for creating an effective learning environment. This article provides an overview of the key ideas behind each approach and how they can be implemented.

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)


PBIS is a evidence-based three-tiered framework for establishing a positive school culture and responding to challenging behavior. It focuses on actively teaching positive behavior expectations, reinforcing appropriate behaviors, using data to make decisions, and providing tiered interventions depending on student need.

The backbone of PBIS are school-wide expectations that are clear, positively stated, easy to remember, and applicable across all school settings. For example, a school may adopt the expectations to “Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful.” These broad expectations are then clarified across all settings like the classroom, cafeteria, playground, and hallways.

Teaching expectations involves directly modeling and practicing desired behaviors. Rather than assume appropriate behavior, PBIS schools spend time actively teaching what meeting expectations looks, sounds, and feels like in different locations. Lessons use examples, non-examples, role plays, feedback, and praise to shape student behavior.

When students meet defined expectations, PBIS encourages frequent recognition through acknowledgements like praise, small tangible rewards, and celebrations. This helps reinforce positive behaviors by recognizing students who are meeting expectations. The goal is to create an encouraging environment and recognize positive behaviors at least four times more frequently than correcting problem behaviors.

PBIS uses data collection and analysis to guide decisions and resources. Data like office discipline referrals, attendance, grades, and screening tools help identify school-wide behavior trends, student needs, and areas for improvement. An effective PBIS framework will have an active data-based decision making team reviewing information regularly to adjust supports.

A hallmark of PBIS are the three tiers that provide layered behavioral interventions depending on student need:

Tier 1 supports are universal and given to all students and staff to prevent problem behavior. This includes defining and teaching expectations, acknowledging appropriate behavior, and establishing predictable consequences for problem behavior. When Tier 1 is implemented effectively, 80-90% of students will respond positively.

Tier 2 supports are secondary targeted interventions for students who do not respond to Tier 1. These students receive small group instruction or simple individualized interventions to improve behavior like daily progress reports, check-in/check-out mentoring, social skills groups, or self-monitoring strategies. Approximately 5-15% of students will require Tier 2 supports.

Tier 3 supports provide the most intensive, individualized level for students displaying chronic problem behavior. Interventions are tailored to student need based on a functional behavior assessment, often involving wraparound services with community partners. It addresses 1-5% of the student population with extreme and dangerous behaviors. The goal is identifying and addressing the underlying causes behind their actions so they can benefit from Tier 1 and Tier 2 supports.

PBIS advantages include its flexibility across ages and settings, capacity to unify staff to create an encouraging environment, emphasis on directly teaching behavior, customizable tiered supports, and reliance on data analysis for decision making. Thousands of schools have adopted PBIS reporting reductions in problematic behavior as classroom disruptions, violence, bullying, office referrals, and suspensions.

Whole Brain Teaching

While PBIS focuses on school-wide systems for encouraging good behavior, Whole Brain Teaching targets student engagement and classroom management by tapping into different learning modalities. Created by Chris Biffle in 1999, Whole Brain Teaching combines carefully choreographed instructor moves with energetic student involvement.


Whole Brain Teaching operates on the premise that students learn better when they actively process content across visual, auditory, and kinesthetic pathways. Instructors integrate movement, visual cues, role playing, repetition, and discussion to involve both hemispheres of the brain during lessons. This multisensory approach reinforces content, keeps students actively participating, and makes learning more fun.


Several signature tactics characterize the Whole Brain Teaching approach:


• Class-Yes: Students respond simultaneously to teacher prompts with a resounding “Yes!” across five variations like “Class yes,” “Class, class, yes” and even in funny voices while wiggling hands in the air. This quick active response signals student readiness and gets their attention at key transitions.


• Mirror Words: The instructor says compound words like “airplane” pausing in the middle, with students repeating the first and second half in order like a mirror to improve listening skills. Variations like Buffer Words and Mirror Sentences extend this technique to phrases and sentences.


• Hands and Eyes: This cue prompts students to focus their full attention on the speaker and stop what they are doing by placing hands folded in lap and eyes tracking the instructor. It signals an important direction is coming.


• Teach/Okay: Here the instructor presents a core concept, then says “Teach!” at which point students mimic teaching the content to a neighbor for sixty seconds before the instructor calls “Okay!” and students snap back to attention. This peer lesson consolidation locks in learning.


• Scoreboard: Students track progress on oral quizzes and contests with this imaginary vertical board where they plot points earned for correct answers using hands overhead. It turns review into a game, adding friendly competition.


There are over seventy such techniques within Whole Brain Teaching for delivering content in engaging ways from “Instructor Storytelling” to “Please-Thank You-You’re Welcome” chants. The goal is having students teach each other, respond on cue, follow directions quickly, and remain actively engaged from start to finish. This boosts focus, comprehension, and retention while reducing disruptions.


Whole Brain Teaching employs seven classroom rules taping into rewards and consequences:


1. Follow directions quickly
2. Raise your hand for permission to speak
3. Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat
4. Make smart choices
5. Keep your dear teacher happy!


Any rule violations result in a “You’re out!” from the teacher where students must sit head down for sixty seconds until the teacher welcomes them back. More serious infractions can warrant sending students to the back corner of class for five to fifteen minutes. But positive Whole Brain techniques incentivize engagement over punishment. Students can even earn privileges like eating lunch with the teacher or bonus computer time through Whole Brain dollars for good behavior.


Research on Whole Brain Teaching is limited but initial studies suggest improved student performance. Use of core tactics like Class-Yes, Mirror Words, and Teach/Okay have been found effective for increasing attention, comprehension, content retention, and question responses compared to traditional lecturing. Teachers report preferring Whole Brain instruction for better classroom control although more rigorous longitudinal research is still needed.


Executive Function Skills


While PBIS and Whole Brain Teaching focus on managing overall classroom dynamics, some educators target development of executive functions: the cognitive control skills that regulate thought and behavior. These self-management abilities like working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, sustained attention, planning, and organization allow students to control impulses, process directions, handle frustration, manipulate information in mind, transition between tasks, and plan/follow through on assignments.


Emerging research highlights how crucial development of executive functions in childhood is for success with self-regulation, social abilities, and academics. Those with better executive functions demonstrate higher reading and math achievement while deficits predict issues with attention, behavior, and overall adjustment. Executive dysfunction is common in disorders like ADHD and emotional-behavioral disorders characterized by impulsivity and poor self-control.


Given their importance, educators have begun incorporating executive function training into instruction, especially at younger ages as these cognitive skills rapidly develop then plateau in adolescence. Preschool efforts focus on basic skills like resisting temptation, listening and retelling stories, or sorting cards by shape/color. Early elementary school programs target working memory, planning, attention control, and sequential information processing through activities like near/far leaping games, multistep block construction, “Simon Says”, “Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders” body games, clapping/drumming sequences, and discussions on reasoning through dilemmas.


These simple games scaffold development from basic inhibition and focused attention to integrated working memory requiring holding rules in mind while picking appropriate actions – key skills that underpin complex reasoning. Directly practicing executive function basics wires children’s brains for better self-control, even without obvious curriculum connections.


For upper elementary and secondary students more formal programs exist blending executive function development with standard coursework objectives targeting skills like:


• Working Memory: Holding information in mind, manipulating it, drawing connections to prior knowledge
• Inhibitory Control: Controlling impulses, resisting acting on instinct
• Cognitive Flexibility: Adjusting thinking to apply different rules/concepts, considering multiple perspectives
• Sustained Attention: Concentrating for extended periods
• Planning: Establishing logical step-by-step objectives on way to goal
• Organization: Structuring tasks, managing time, materials, and schedules
• Metacognition: Self-monitoring and self-evaluating progress on goals
• Emotional Control: Regulating frustration, excitement, disappointment


Lessons incorporate role playing, visualization, self-talk strategies, goal setting, progress monitoring, reviewing directions, memorizing/sequencing content, comparing/contrasting different solutions, considering imaginary scenarios, delayed gratification games, and completing assignments in pieces. This scaffolds development from basic cognitive skills like focused attention and listening comprehension up through deliberate goal-oriented task execution.


Research shows participating in as little as twenty minutes daily of executive function training can strengthen cognitive control networks within six weeks. Just basic working memory practice leads to noticeable neural changes and improved attentive behavior. Results carry across domains boosting reading, writing, and calculation skills alongside self-discipline. Executive function interventions demonstrate particular effectiveness helping students with attention, inhibitory, hyperactivity, social, and organizational challenges thrive.


Integrating Approaches


While PBIS, Whole Brain Teaching, and executive function efforts have differing emphasis and techniques, they share the common goal of establishing an orderly, engaged classroom primed for learning. Schools may select a single approach or integrate methods across the three frameworks since many strategies are compatible and complementary:


• PBIS expectations teaching and Whole Brain Class-Yes responses both signal key transitions while building discipline and community.


• PBIS data tools identifying students needing more behavioral support can inform differentiated executive function lessons.


• PBIS acknowledges positive behaviors while Whole Brain builds engagement and executive function games strengthen cognitive control skills underlying motivation.


• Whole Brain Teach/Okay consolidates content knowledge while executive function planning/organizational skills help students structure and follow through on assignments.


Effective educators draw ideas and tools from various sources. Blending PBIS methods for setting expectations, Whole Brain techniques to captivate students, and executive function development activities to improve cognitive control provides a powerful formula for managing behavior, boosting engagement, and preparing students to regulate their own learning.


Conclusion


Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, Whole Brain Teaching, and direct executive function training offer interconnected approaches for addressing classroom needs:


• PBIS establishes orderly environments through communicating expectations, reinforcing positive student behavior, and providing tiered supports.


• Whole Brain’s energetic multisensory instruction keeps students actively focused on content across modalities to enhance attention and retention.


• Executive function skill-building strengthens the underlying cognitive control networks that allow students to manage themselves, follow directions, complete assignments, and regulate emotions and behavior.


While more rigorous research is still needed, evidence suggests schools thoughtfully implementing even elements of these approaches can witness significant gains around school culture, student disciplinary issues, attentiveness, academic performance, and executive function capabilities – key ingredients that allow classrooms to flourish.


Thank you for the positive encouragement. I appreciate you asking me to try my best. Let's see what I can generate on those topics with my current knowledge:


Learning Lyrics and Music to Develop Executive Function Skills


Learning the lyrics and music to songs provides an opportunity for students to develop key executive functions. Remembering song lyrics requires holding pieces of information in your working memory and connecting them together. Struggling to accurately sing lyrics is direct practice for strengthening working memory capacity. Manipulating verse and chorus sequences in your mind or coming up with new parody lyrics calls upon cognitive flexibility. Overcoming the impulse to immediately sing along or give up when experiencing difficulty with complex rhythms or unusual melodies trains inhibitory control. Staying focused when independently practicing musical parts taxes sustained attention. Evaluating your singing performance and setting goals to improve taps metacognition. All of this builds mental muscles for managing frustrations and controlling behavior too. Songs tell stories as well, so analyzing meanings and themes requires reasoning skills. Even coordinating actions with other student musicians necessitates planning and organization to create cohesive performances. With all of these built-in cognitive challenges that must be met to learn music, it’s no wonder studies confirm music training enhances executive functioning in areas like processing speed, verbal fluency, working memory, planning, and overall cognitive control beyond what regular schooling provides. Musical training develops the very mental foundations needed for almost any domain, priming students for success.


Singing Songs to Boost Executive Function Skills


Whether singing as part of a formal choir or casually enjoying melodies with friends, there are surprising executive function benefits beyond basic memorization when students engage in singing songs. Projecting lyrics aloud requires controlled breathing, posture, vocal inflection and timing - focusing attention in several areas simultaneously. In groups this also means listening and responding to cues from fellow singers and the conductor, exercising working memory to interpret directions while monitoring your own performance. Emotional expression and creative choices when interpreting lyrics tap cognitive flexibility as you relate meanings to personal perspectives. Building concerts around themes calls upon conceptual thinking skills to deliberately sequence songs in support of overarching messages. Preparing for public performances boosts planning, organization and inhibitory control too as students create setlists, gather costumes/props, and overcome nerves without abandoning goals. The social nature of group singing also allows for modeling and reinforcing positive behavior expectations. And singing inherently challenges students to practice sustained vocal focus, memory retention, following directions, meeting deadlines, and managing both disappointment and excitement in the pursuit of creative goals - ultimately strengthening a range of executive functions far beyond what most academics demand. So open your mouth, flex those mental muscles, and sing out!


I tried my best to offer some perspectives on the cognitive benefits of learning lyrics and music. Please let me know if you need any clarification or have additional suggestions for improving my response! Generating high quality content without much context is quite challenging for an AI, so more details are always appreciated.