HowToStudy.com

HowToStudy.com offers excellent advice in a one or two page format on the following topics: preparing to study, taking notes in class, learning styles, a strategy for reading textbooks, a strategy for reading novels, good listening in class, solving math word problems, using reference sources, spelling long words, essay tests, test anxiety, using abbreviations, study groups, a strategy for taking tests, reading comprehension, remembering information, building vocabulary, writing a research paper, making an oral presentation, managing time, word identification strategy, writing techniques, flexible reading, common prefixes, multiple-choice tests, similes, and procrastination.

Behavior Interventions

Go To Behavior Interventions for a three-tiered model of behavioral support that offers alternatives to suspension/behavior interventions. Click on Universal (school-wide), Targeted (small groups or students at-risk for chronic behavior issues, and Intensive (chronic behavioral issues/wraparound). The web sites in each of the three areas present a comprehensive list of resources.

You Can Handle Misbehaviors

You Can Handle Misbehaviors

In this thorough guide learn how to handle over 117 misbehaviors at school and at home. You Can Handle Them All labels behaviors, not children, with convenient terms such as the Apple Polisher, the Gossip, the Spoiled Darling, the Con Artist and others. Each behavior is described with specific attitudes and actions of this student at school and/or at school; how the behavior affects teachers, classmates, and parents in the school learning environment and at home; appropriate action to identify causes of the misbehavior, pinpoint student needs he/she reveals, employ specific methods, procedures, and techniques at school and at home to get student to modify or change his/her behavior; identify mistakes or misjudgments and errors in managing the student which may perpetuate or intensify the problem.

Effective Use of Time-Out

Effective Use of Time-Out

The Kentucky Department of Education addresses concerns over the proper use of time-out for students Effective Use of Time-Out (2000). Time-out denies student access to teacher and peer attention and joining ongoing activities because of undesirable behavior. The purpose is to reduce future occurrences of such behavior and may be implemented on three levels: contingent observation where the student remains in a group but does not participate or receive reinforcement; exclusionary where the student is denied reinforcement by being removed from an ongoing activity; and seclusionary where the student is removed from the instructional setting as a means to deny access to reinforcement. The report continues with comprehensive guidelines and check lists for effective use of time-out such as: obtain parent/guardian permission to use time-out; only use time-out as one part of an array of behavior interventions; do not engage in power struggles with students; avoid excessive use of time-out; never lock a student in a closed setting and maintain a view of the student at all times; maintain thorough written records; assess when time-out is not working.

School Suspension: Effects and Alternatives

School Suspension Effects and Alternatives

An Advocates for Children and Youth brief (April 2006), School Suspension: Effects and Alternatives, on the increasing suspension rate in Maryland’s public schools raises many concerns. To name a few are juvenile justice, health and safety, and an increasing financial drain on administrative and instructional time. The 14 page summary explores effective alternatives to suspension by addressing the underlying causes of disruptive behavior.

Effective In-School Suspension Programs

Mary Hrabak and Doris Settles in Effective In-School Suspension Programs argue that successful ISS programs reduce rule infractions, encourage poor students to work harder, and help ISS students learn problem solving and conflict resolution skills. Keep the student-teacher ratio low, employ tutors, require teachers to send current assignments each day, provide counseling on behavior identification and replacement, and keep files to track student behavior and follow up with teachers. Be constructive not punitive. The first step is to help the student to understand why s/he is suspended. Worksheets are provided at the end of the this article to help with this task. A workshop/portfolio approach (teacher and student write together) using prompts and a checklist of writing strategies to create an essay about the suspension event is suggested to help the student reflect on choices and behaviors.

Questions and Guidelines for In School Suspension Programs

Look at the following areas when you examine your in school suspension (ISS) program.

What are the school experiences of your ISS students? What patterns occur?

Compare their age to their grade. Overage students are more likely to be suspended.

How many ISS students are in low tracks?

From whose classes are these students being suspended? In some schools 80% come from 20% of the teachers.

Look for racial/ethnic backgrounds. Be aware of the "push out" phenomenon.

Here are some guidelines reported by Anne Wheelock of Boston from an out of print book, "Everybody's Business" by Joan First and Hayes Mizell.

First and Mizell suggested that any in-school suspension program have:

=A clear statement of purpose;

=Written procedures developed with teachers, students and parents clearly
stating how student are referred and assigned to in-school suspension;

=Designation of an administrator responsible for determining if assignment
is appropriate and who has the authority and resources to pursue other
actions if referral is not;

=Provision of an academic component so that students keep up with their class;

=Requirements that teachers continue to provide daily resources and materials
to referred students;

=Provision of a counseling component to help referred students;

=Provisions for notifying and engaging parents;

=Procedures for monitoring and follow-up of individual student progress;

=Provisions for collecting information that summarizes the numbers of students
assigned to in-school suspension for each quarter by race and referring
teacher -- and regular reporting of this information to the school community.

From In Case You Missed It.