BEHAVIOR PLAN

Dear Ms. Acres,

            David has been a continually enthusiastic presence in my Acting and Improv class. Whenever he is given an improvisational exercise, he never shies away from making a quick decision and committing to it. David’s work during our recent unit on performing emotions has been particularly insightful and shows that he is willing to interpret the performance of emotions in unconventional and unique ways. There are times, however, where this enthusiasm results in a loss of focus on the exercise at hand which affects both his and other students’ performances in class.

            During class warm-ups, I have to ask David to focus at least once a day. David will occasionally be sitting down, unengaged, while everyone is standing and ready to begin class. Sometimes he will initiate conversations with other students as class is beginning and will not join our warm-ups in that manner. There are even times when David is actually participating in warm-ups, but begins to devolve into physically fooling around. We were stretching our hamstrings in one class, a stretch in which it’s hard to keep one’s balance and, rather than following my directions on how to make the stretch easier, David began jumping around and knocking into other students.

            While most of the work we do in class is group work or individual work that all students can do at the same time, there are occasional exercises in which students perform alone and the remainder of the class must observe and take notes on their peers’ performances. In these instances, David frequently lies down and ceases to pay attention, or distracts both students performing and watching. This tendency to distract others and himself also causes some difficulties when he works with other students in groups. When students were asked to pantomime a fairy tale with a partner, as I kept checking on him and his partner, it appeared he was talking to members of other groups while his partner was trying to figure out what to do herself. I asked him to focus and pay mind to his partner twice, and both times I returned to find him either goofing off or not responding to his partner when she asked him what they should work on.

            As I mentioned before, David’s energy and enthusiasm is great for the class. When he led warm up one day, he successfully got everyone excited and energetic to be in class. I would love it, however, if David and I could figure out how to make Acting and Improv the most productive environment it can be for all students at all times. I would be grateful for any advice or support you have to offer on this matter, and would be more than happy to meet in person to discuss David’s behavior in more detail. You can reach me any time before 10pm at -----------------. Thank you very much, and I look forward to keeping in touch.

Sincerely,

T. Nick Malakhow