Expected vs Unexpected Behavior Sort Cards

About this resource

EVERYTHING INSIDE — 23 pages, 221 type-in fields

• A reference chart teaching two columns, Expected Behavior and Unexpected Behavior, with 3 concrete behaviors sorted under each
• A sort board with a one-question check ("Is it calm, quiet, and safe right here?"), two sort columns, and a quick-sorts table
• Two desk-size copies of the sort board on one sheet, for a folder or small group
• 6 cut-apart behavior cards, 2 inches square: Walking, Raise Hand, Standing (Expected) and Running, Cartwheel, Juggling (Unexpected)
• Every card and the chart twice: a full-color set and a black-and-white ink-saver set for the photocopier
• 12 blank behavior cards with a type-in line, for any real classroom behavior this starter set does not cover
• A how-to page: before the first sort, the three moves every time, choosing a column, when a sort surprises you, what the log marks mean
• A Sorting Practice Log (16 rows: date, behavior or situation, column sorted, how sorted, notes)
• A weekly roll-up (8 weeks) with a percent-sorted-independently graph
• A filled example — an invented student, one day on the log and three weeks on the roll-up, every percent re-counted from its own row
• A family page with a small take-home version of all six cards and a week of tracking
• A hand-off page so a paraprofessional or another classroom runs the same chart and board the same way
• A phrase bank: 22 lines in 6 groups (spoken lines for each sort, written starters for the log, the roll-up and the note home)
• A storage and binder label sheet
• Start Here, a contents page with page thumbnails, and a "what's next" back page

A two-column sort, not an abstract symbol chart: every behavior is a concrete, whole-body action a child names in one word — a person walking, a raised hand, a cartwheel — never a zipper-mouth face, a thumbs-down or an hourglass standing in for a category no one can name on sight. The chart teaches the two columns before the first sort; the board, the cards and the log turn "can this student tell an expected behavior from an unexpected one" into a line on a page a case manager can bring to a meeting.

The Six Starter Cards

Expected Behavior — Walking (a person walking), Raise Hand (a raised hand, palm forward), Standing (a person standing still)

Unexpected Behavior — Running (a person running), Cartwheel (a person doing a cartwheel), Juggling (a person juggling)

Every picture was chosen to be named in one word by a young child, cold, in color AND in the black-and-white ink-saver set. The card is labeled for the literal action a child sees (Walking, Cartwheel, Juggling), not for the judgment it stands for; the cards page's own reference table names which column each one goes in, the same "label the picture, not the concept" rule this collection uses everywhere. Walking and Raise Hand reuse the same pictures and words this collection already fixes for a calm pace and for asking (First-Then Board, Core Vocabulary Board, Conflict Resolution Steps Cards, and others), so a buyer who owns another single already knows what those two cards mean. These six are a starting point for a class discussion, not a closed or exhaustive list — 12 blank cards let a teacher add a real behavior their own classroom sees.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF: type into the log, the roll-up, the family page, the hand-off page and the blank cards, or print and use a pen. The chart and card pages print on cardstock or plain paper and cut along dashed lines. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT an editable online slideshow or word-processor document.

It is a way to sort a behavior into one of two columns using one plain question, and a place to record how independently that sorting happens. It is not a behavior plan, a discipline procedure, an eligibility tool, a therapy protocol, or a clinical finding, and it supplies no prompt hierarchy, fading schedule or mastery rule. It promises no outcome; which behaviors count as which column in a real classroom, and what happens after one is sorted, is your team's own plan. The goal line and the criterion field on the roll-up are blanks for your district's own wording and your team's own number. Every situation on the filled example describes a classmate's behavior being sorted for practice, never a real student's own conduct being tracked for a discipline record.

Who This Is For

Special education teachers and paraprofessionals teaching the expected/unexpected behavior discrimination skill to early, pre-reading or emerging-language students, case managers who need that work to show up as data, and the families who get the home page sent home.

More In The Collection

Part of the Visual Supports Collection alongside Size of the Problem Visual Sorting Board Editable, Conflict Resolution Steps Cards, and Manners and Polite Language Cue Cards; more picture-card sets are being added to the collection regularly, all on the same cards-plus-data shape.

Pictures (color pages): Noto Emoji by Google, Apache License 2.0. Pictures (ink-saver pages): Fluent Emoji, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, MIT License.