Mr. Watkins was pleased with Archie’s progress, but thought it was important Archie corrected other types of mistakes on his assignments. He decided to focus on response generalization: He wanted Archie to also correct misspelled words and missed periods at the ends of sentences. 

Mr. Watkins operationally defined two objectives to determine generalization had occurred:

• Archie will submit written assignments with correctly spelled words (90% of words on 9/10 written assignments).
• Archie will submit written assignments with periods at the ends of sentences (90% of sentences on 9/10 written assignments).

Mr. Watkins was then ready to determine an instructional method and setting. He considered doing a large group lesson on correcting errors in assignments, but was concerned that a large group lesson would not provide Archie with adequate opportunities for practice. Additionally, he wanted to tailor his instruction to Archie’s unique needs, so he decided 1-1 instruction would be most effective. He also decided to use direct instruction to make his lessons explicit.

• Instructional Setting: 1-1
• Instructional Method: Direct instruction

• Generalization Tactic: Teach multiple examples
• Support Strategy: Visual supports, reinforcement

Mr. Watkins’ Lesson on “Making Corrections / Changes When Requested”

Creating a Visual Support and Multiple Examples

Prior to the lesson, Mr. Watkins reviewed Archie’s assignments. He made a list of commonly misspelled words and typed these words out for Archie. This sheet would be laminated and placed in Archie’s backpack, and serve as a visual support. Mr. Watkins then prepared multiple examples of brief written passages that included misspelled words and missing periods to use for instruction. He included Archie’s commonly misspelled words and words that were similar to the commonly misspelled words in these passages. These words had roots similar to or the same as words on Archie’s commonly misspelled words sheet (e.g., harass and harassed).

Utilizing Direct Instruction to Teach Multiple Examples

At the start of the 1-1 direct instruction lesson, Mr. Watkins had already written a brief passage on the whiteboard with several misspelled words and a missing period. Mr. Watkins gave Archie a copy of his commonly misspelled words as a visual support. 

To effectively teach multiple examples, Mr. Watkins first modeled going through the passage to correct misspelled words and add periods. He then erased the passage and wrote a new passage with misspelled words and missing periods. This time, Mr. Watkins and Archie went through the passage together. Finally, Mr. Watkins asked Archie to correct five short passages independently.

Reinforcing the Skill with Archie

After he had completed each passage, Mr. Watkins gave Archie corrective and reinforcing feedback. Archie also earned intermittent token reinforcement for the practice activity. 

At the end of the lesson, Mr. Watkins explained the token reinforcement system. He told Archie he would review his written work at the end of the day. If 90% of words were spelled correctly and 90% of periods were appropriately placed, he would earn a token. At the end of the week, he would be able to exchange his tokens for an item off of his reinforcement menu.