How to Stop Fighting in School and at Home with These 7 Tools

...When your child is disciplined at school for getting into a fight, I think the absolute best thing you can do is first find out from the school exactly what happened.....

James discusses exactly what to do when your children get in trouble for fighting at school or at home—and the right kinds of consequences to give them so they learn to use appropriate behavior instead of lashing out when they feel like hitting someone the next time. Read on to find out the steps you can take toward resolving the problem of fighting at school, plus get advice on how to handle fights that break out between siblings at home!
When your children use fighting or other negative physical behavior as their main coping skills, you’ll find that it usually doesn’t stop at home—they will use it at school, in the neighborhood, on the ball field or at the mall. If your son uses physical fighting, for example, or your daughter uses verbal abuse in place of the problem-solving skills they need to learn in order to function successfully as adults—skills like communication, negotiation and compromise—make no mistake, you need to address this problem immediately. If you don’t, understand that it’s as if your children will be entering the world with a couple of hammers to handle their problems, when what they really need is a wide range of sophisticated tools in order to be successful.

How to Handle Fighting at School and at Home: 7 Tools You Can Use Today

When your child is disciplined at school for getting into a fight, I think the absolute best thing you can do is first find out from the school exactly what happened. That way, you’ll have a framework for your eventual discussion with your child.

In my opinion, the most effective way to handle news about fighting at school is to do the following:

* 1. Give Your Child Time to Transition:
When your child gets home, give him ten minutes to reorient to the house. Let him have his snack or listen to some music. Don’t challenge him immediately, because transition is difficult for people of all ages, and it is not a time to deal with any issues at all. For instance, if a child acts out at the mall, or there’s a problem with the next door neighbors, when you get him back in the house, give him ten minutes before you talk with him. The time to talk about any episode is not right when he gets home. It’s hard for people to process emotions during transitions. Rather, the time to talk about it is ten minutes later, after your child has calmed down.
* 2. Be Direct and Don’t Trap Him:
When you talk, try to avoid blaming, tricking or trapping your child. Instead, be very direct and straightforward; put the facts out there. “I spoke to the school today and they were concerned. Would you like to tell me what happened?” Don’t try to trap your child by saying things like, “Did anything happen at school today that you want to talk about?” Over time, trick or “trap” questions will increase your child's anxiety and make him not trust you, because he will never know what you're going to confront him with.
* 3. Listen to What He Has to Say—Even If He’s Wrong:
Let your child tell you the whole story first, if he's willing to talk. Don't cut him off halfway through by saying, “Well, that's not what they said.” If you do that, you're never going to hear his side of the story. By the way, your child’s account may not be accurate or honest, and his perceptions may not be valid. But the bottom line is that if you hear the whole story, at least then you've got something comprehensive to work with.

If you stop your child when he sounds like he's not telling the truth, you may miss the point that shines light on the fact that it's a matter of different perceptions. Often, a child’s perceptions aren't the same as an adult’s—and you won't learn that unless you hear the whole story. By the way, these misperceptions will need to be corrected. So encourage your child to talk.
* 4. Use Active Listening Methods:
When you say, “The school called me today about a fight. Can you tell me what happened?” your child may tell you something, or he may not. If he decides to talk, let him tell you as much as he can. Always use statements such as, “Uh huh.”“Tell me more.” “I see.” and “What happened next?” Those are active listening methods that get kids to talk more and be comfortable. Don't forget, our goal is not to intimidate or punish. Our goal is to investigate and learn information. On the other hand, if he refuses to talk about what happened, I recommend that he not be allowed to play, watch TV, use electronics, or do anything else until he’s ready to talk.

When you are talking with your child, if he gets stuck for a minute, repeat back what you’ve heard him saying in this manner: “So what I hear you saying is, Jared came and kicked you today for no reason, so you hit him. Is that right?” Get it straight so that you're both on the same page. When your child is done, ask, “Did the school punish you?” and then ask how. Let him tell you what the school did and then say, “OK, when I spoke to the school, this is what they told me.” First, start with the points your child and the school agreed on. “They did say you and Jared were having an argument and that it was almost lunch time.” Or “They did say that Michael was being rude to you in the cafeteria and that he was teasing you about the shirt you wore today.”
* 5. Avoid Using the Word “But”:
Here’s an important rule of thumb—when disagreeing with your child or wanting to point out something to him, avoid using the word “but”—use a word like “and” instead. Understand that the word “but” cuts down on communication, because it really means, “Now I'm going to tell you where you were wrong,” This simply sets up a kid’s defenses. For example, if you say, “You did a nice job cleaning your room today, but…” he knows something negative is coming. “But it still smells in there.” That’s not as helpful as saying, “You did a nice job cleaning your room, and now I’d like you to spray it with room deodorizer.” You’ll get the same result, but you’re doing it in a more affirmative, pleasant way.

So you can say, “I heard about what Michael said to you…and the teacher also said that he heard Michael say insulting things about your shirt. And then the teacher told you to go to the lunch counter, and said that he would take care of Michael for you. Instead, you chose to curse at Michael and started walking toward him in a threatening way. What were you trying to accomplish when you cursed at Michael and walked in his direction?” Keep probing, trying to find out what he wanted to accomplish. Most importantly, you want your child to make an admission about what happened so he can learn from it.

One of the things you want to do if you can is point out the exact moment when your child’s problem-solving skills stopped working, because that’s the point where the learning can take place. If your son says, “I started walking toward Michael because he was being mean to me,” you can respond, “You know, you were right that he was being mean and you were right to get angry, but if the teacher says he’s going to take care of it, you have to stop or you’ll get into trouble. If somebody insulted my clothes or called me names, I wouldn’t like it either. So I understand.”
* 6. When Talking with the School about Consequences:
Find out what the school’s usual consequences are for fighting when you talk with them. If they ask you, “What do you think we should do?” I think you should say, “Well, what are the standard consequences for this behavior? Is there any reason why you shouldn’t follow them? I think you should follow your policy.”

Let me be clear here: anything that your child does that is physically aggressive, physically abusive, or verbally abusive should be followed up at home with a discussion and possible consequence. (Any functional problem—running in the hall, chewing gum, throwing something—should be handled by the school. It’s their job to manage routine behavior.)

The reason you have to challenge the more disruptive behaviors at home is because home is the place where you have the time to teach him about alternatives. If it’s the first time, help him figure out where his coping skills broke down, and then work with him on coming up with some appropriate ones. On the other hand, if this is the second time this has happened at school, not only should you talk about where his skills broke down, but there should be a consequence to keep him accountable. That consequence could include any task that you think would be helpful to his learning about the situation for the amount of time it takes him to complete it. So grounding him for six hours is not helpful, but having him write ten things he could do differently next time is helpful.

If your child is suspended from school, I recommend that he loses all his privileges and electronics until he’s off suspension. That timeline is easy; the school has already set it for you. Remember, if your child is suspended to home, then you put the keyboard, the cable box, the iPod and the cell phone in the back of your car when you go to work.
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* And here's how I recommend that parents deal with siblings fighting at home:
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* 7. How to Handle Fighting at Home:
Fighting at home differs from fighting in school for a parent because if you weren't there when the fight started, the reality is, there's no way to tell who's telling the truth—or if in fact there is a truth. Remember, if two kids with distorted perceptions get into a physical fight, there may not be a truth; there might just be their distorted perceptions compounded by the absence of communication and problem-solving skills. Either way, if you weren’t there to see the fight start, the best way to deal with it is to give both kids the same consequence and learning lesson. To begin with, meet with each child briefly to get their perceptions. Then give each kid the same consequence and learning lesson, no matter who you think was responsible for starting it. So that might be, “You will both go to your rooms until you write three paragraphs (depending upon how old your child is) on what you're going to do differently next time.” Or “Each of you has to go and write an apology to your brother. Until it’s done, you both stay in your rooms.” If your kids share a room, then send one to the kitchen. Separating them is important because not only will it stop the fight, it will help your kids calm down.

With younger kids, they can be sent to their room for a while to play on their own. And with older kids, let them listen to music in their rooms. The idea is that they should calm down and then write their essays. (With younger kids who can’t write yet, you might just have them tell you what they will do differently next time.) By the way, each child should be dealt with separately, regarding how they respond to the consequence. So if one child is resistant and defiant and the other is not, that's taken into consideration, in terms of how long they have to stay in their rooms or go without privileges.

Understand that your kids may have another fight an hour later, and they might have to go back in their rooms again and again. The important thing here is that when they write those apologies or alternative behaviors, the part of their mind that’s trying to solve problems and learn how to communicate better is beginning to work. Part of any learning experience is to get that area of the mind—the learning, problem-solving, communicating area of the mind—working. It's like exercising: as long as your body is doing push-ups, your muscles are going to get bigger. When you stop doing push-ups, those muscles don't get bigger anymore. And certainly, if you want to teach your child how to communicate and problem solve, you have to use those situations as much as you can. Think of it as practice for the future—you are helping your kids build muscles that will help them behave appropriately for the rest of their lives.

Whenever possible, build on past successes. What has the child done in this type of situation that worked for him in the past? You can ask, “Yesterday your brother was annoying to you, but you didn’t hit him then. What made today different? It seemed like you handled it great yesterday. What did you do then that you didn’t do today? What did you say to control yourself? How is this different?” Pointing out a previous success in a similar situation can provide insight and direction for the future, and that’s exactly what you want to give your child.

Education viewed as Form and Content

..Our educational doldrums are quickly understood when we note that our Education Establishment has an almost perfect track record dismissing content, while simultaneously making sure that whatever little remains is poorly taught...

(Summary: Education has two basic components: Content and Form. All the rest is tinsel and trivia. Indeed, it often seems that irrelevant debates keep us from focusing on the obvious formula for success: teach important stuff; teach it well.)

A poem, a movie, a book, anything creative, you can analyze in terms of its content and its form. What is said; and how it is said.

I recently had the thought that education can be analyzed the same way. We can examine WHAT is taught; and HOW it is taught. Doesn’t that cover everything?

Our educational doldrums are quickly understood when we note that our Education Establishment has an almost perfect track record dismissing content, while simultaneously making sure that whatever little remains is poorly taught. In summary: less content further diminished by bad form.

Then we instantly see a very simple truth. Do you wish to improve public schools? It’s easy. You simply reintroduce content. And you reintroduce serious teaching methods. It’s elementary, my dear Watson. Attend to form and content, and all will be healed.

All of this needs saying because so much of the education debate spins and gyrates around big confusing issues that are not central. We have a forest fire but people insist on discussing the lousy weather. That’s not a luxury we have at this time. We must concentrate on putting out the fire.

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First, let’s consider content. More than 100 years ago John Dewey scorned what he called “mere learning.” Ever since that time, elite educators have found one pretext after another for removing content from the schools. The kids don’t need this content; our kids can’t handle that content.

For years, Relevance was the favorite sophistry: content was dismissed because it wasn’t about a child’s own life. Then came Multiculturalism and content was dismissed because it was about a child’s life. When those excuses got tiresome, the educators turned to Self-Esteem, using the argument that academic demands made some children feel bad about themselves, and that must be avoided at all costs. Point, is, our educators are equal-opportunity sophists. When it comes to deleting content, there’s always a clever gimmick at hand.

The elder statesman with regard to content is E. D. Hirsch. He’s written a book called "Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know." Anybody who’s serious (for example, Bill Gates) about improving the schools could say: “Mr. Hirsch, could you please prepare a basic curriculum for us. We’ll call it the American Curriculum and it will be a starting point for all school systems. You’ve been writing about these things for so many years, I’m sure you can put something together from files on your computer.”

(Hirsch, by the way, provided us with an anecdote that tells you everything you can stand to know about the assault on content in this country’s schools. He was explaining his ideas at a school in California when one of the administrators questioned him about what a child should learn in the first grade. “I think they should know the names of the oceans,” he said. A perfect answer, I would think. But this silly educator objected: “I can’t imagine why our children would need to know that.” And there you have the whole dumb diorama. No matter what little scrap of information you might think a child should know, the people in charge of the schools would say, genuinely puzzled, “Why would a child need to know that?” And finally you’re reduced to saying, “Well, surely it’s all right to teach them their names...Isn’t it??”)

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Now let’s turn to Form or Structure. How do you arrange the parts and pieces of a sales pitch, a presentation, a symphony, a fireworks display, or a course?

Clearly, there must be optimal ways to present information to an audience. I call this the ergonomic dimension. That’s the Greek word for efficiency.

When the subject is instructional methods, the elder statesman there is Siegfried Engelmann, one of our great educators. He has made the brilliant point that if kids are not learning it’s not their fault and it’s probably not the teacher’s fault. It is the school’s fault or the system’s fault, because the school has adopted bad methods.

Typically, public schools embrace an array of foolish methods, such as Constructivism, Cooperative Learning, Discovery Method, etc. What they all have in common is they don’t work as promised. Engelmann points out the obvious: if kids aren’t learning, keep firing administrators until you find people with enough sense to use methods that do work. Meanwhile, don’t abuse the kids and don’t send notes to the parents abusing them. The real problem is that the school has not chosen well-designed instructional materials.

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QED: If we combine what Hirsch has been teaching for 40 years and what Engelmann has been teaching for 40 years, presto, there is our answer: proper Content married to proper Form.

Not to mention, I trust any sentence from these two guys before I’d believe any book coming out of Teachers College. The Education Establishment seems to be staffed by hacks recycling the same old bad ideas. It’s not reasonable to expect that they would now say anything useful. So let’s do what Hirsch and Engelmann suggest.

By the way, if you put the content back in, and you organize it in an intelligent way, what will you end up with? Would it be something exotic, something from the remote future? No, it will be exactly what all good schools through the ages have done, and what the real-world schools do now. I’m thinking about driving school, bartender school, flying school, cooking school, any school that is actually trying to teach a body of information to its students. Which is precisely the part that our public schools seem determined to ignore.

The Education Establishment used to brag about doing a bad job with this bizarre claim: “We don’t teach history. We teach children.” That was the problem. The common name for this approach is dumbing-down.


From :http://www.edarticle.com By: BruceDPrice

Drug Addiction Studies in High Schools

....To fully understand why high schools need drug prevention curriculum is to understand the reasons why teenagers are using drugs. Peer pressure is one reason why a young adult who probably would never try drugs does. ...

The ultimate goal of parenting is to raise your child to live a successful and healthy love filled life. Our parents are here to protect us from the harm of others and the harm of ourselves. However, protecting our children too much can have a very negative impact on our lives especially when it comes to drug abuse. A lot of parents are against drug education because they want to believe that drugs will never be an issue in their child’s life. If we don’t expose our children to the unfavorable consequences of drug abuse, the more naïve our society becomes.

Have you ever been affected by someone who was addicted to drugs? Maybe you have even found yourself to be addicted at one time, or maybe you are addicted right at this moment to a substance that you just can’t kick. Sometimes the world puts us between a rock and a hard spot and leaves us feeling hopeless with no one to turn to. The effects of drug abuse should be brought to the attention of teenagers on a regular basis. Do you remember in grade school the little drug abuse resistance and education spill we got from a local law enforcement official? This is not enough education to guide us all the way through high school. Roger Tompson, in the periodical Teen Drug Addiction, conveys that teenage drug addictions run in long chains, so the teenage years are the best time to either break or stop the chain from happening. The only way for America to fight off drug addiction is to make it mandatory for all high school students to continually take drug abuse classes each year.

To fully understand why high schools need drug prevention curriculum is to understand the reasons why teenagers are using drugs. Peer pressure is one reason why a young adult who probably would never try drugs does. Using drugs as a teenager is almost a ritual. Once you hit your teenage years, you are at high risk of being exposed to drugs. Peer pressure is a large contributor to experimenting with drugs. Especially for the teenagers that are desperately trying to fit in. Going to parties and experimenting with drugs could be the only way a teenager feels socially excepted. The classroom is the best place to learn that there is more to life than fitting in with a group that is sabotaging their own futures. There is a way to get down to the root of this evil problem in America. The kids need to be protected through education. Drug abuse prevention education would allow these children to understand that being peered pressured into doing drugs can lead to addiction.

Another large contributor to teenage drug addiction is the actual house environment kids grow up in. Children who grow up in homes with parents who are addicted to drugs are more susceptible to follow in their lead. According to MD and PhD Howard Markel, 13% of children under 18 who live in a household where a parent is using drugs will also become addicted (Medscape Today). These kids are using because it is heredity and part of their everyday environment. Parents who are substance abusers should be pushing for a mandatory drug education class throughout high school more than anyone else. They can stop the cycle of addiction through their children.

Peer pressure and environment are only two reasons why drugs can become a problem in a teenager’s life. Teenagers may use drugs for numerous reasons. For example, stress, boredom and curiosity are other examples of the reasons why teenagers do drugs. There are no definite reasons behind drug use for teens because every teenager is unique. For that reason, all angles of drug abuse should be covered in studies. The curriculum could give students other ways to fill the gap of stress, boredom and curiosity.

Most importantly, high school students need to be aware of the consequences of drug addiction. The NARCONON Drug education curriculum for high school students states, “For many youths, substance abuse precedes academic and health problems including lower grades, higher truancy, drop out decisions, delayed or damaged cognitive or emotional development, or a variety of other costly consequences”.(Lennox and Cecchini) These problems can be avoided with the right educational tools. For starters, we need high schools to recognize the desperate need to elaborate on severe consequences of drug addictions. As a teenager, it is a little difficult to look past the weekend. All you are concerned with is the moment and socializing with your friends. If not careful, teenagers can go down the wrong path of using. They start to slack off and their grades fall behind dramatically. After a while they could even be expelled from school. The sad part of this is that if the teenager is smart enough to grow out of the phase of drug using, the young adult is now set back in their studies. This can impact their life significantly. They will have to redo classes and make up for failing grades. Years of their life will be spent making up for their mistakes. This can be avoided if drug education is presented before they decide to let drugs set them back. High school kids need a repetitive message that drug abuse will set them back in time.

High school is the best time of child’s life to reinforce the consequences of drug abuse. High school students have more of an opportunity to use drugs because of the freedom granted. Most high schools allow the students to leave campus for lunch. Educating the students will give some relief to parents who are worried their child might be getting into trouble at lunch time. Also, in high school you are going to have more classmates than you did before in early grades, so there is a lot more exposure. A high school student’s addiction may actually cause teenagers to break the law because they will commit crimes in order to get to the drug. What this student needs to know is that the government will not grant student’s financial help if they have committed drug related offenses. This is very serious matter. Education is the key to success. Therefore, a student who made a mistake is high school may never accomplish educational goals because of lack of financial help.

It isn’t oblivious to the American society that addiction studies education is necessary for high schools. The Narconon drug abuse prevention curriculum for high school students was written in 2007 by Lennox and Cecchini. The creators of this program used scientific and drug abuse prevention literature to come up with a solution to prevent or delay drug abuse in high school age children.(Lennox and Cecchini). Currently the program consists of 8 sessions and is only used in southern California schools (Lennox and Cecchini). Researchers studied students who received the 8 sessions and a group of students who did not (Lennox and Cecchini). The education was proven to be effective in reducing the amount of future drug use (Lennox and Cecchini). The educated students also proved through surveys that they understood the harms of drug abuse significantly higher than the group who did not receive the 8 week session (Lennonz and Cecchni). There were some downfalls for this program. For instance, the program is only 8 sessions and is only available to a certain population. However, this is a start to getting addiction studies incorporated into the high school curriculum. Can you imagine the positive effect it would have on society if all schools in America received drug abuse prevention education on a continuous basis?

High school children know exactly what the harms of drugs can do to their classmates because they are physically there to witness and experience the consequences. In an interview with Amanda Martinez, an 18 year old senior from Mckinleyville High in California, I asked her if she has ever seen drugs affect her fellow classmates. Amanda answered, “Yes definitely, it is kind of odd because it happens in trends. You will see a group of kids at the beginning of school, and then you see them less and less throughout the school year. Amanda continues, “You know the reason for their absences is because they care about drugs more than they do about school.” Mandating a drug addiction curriculum may be able to get through to these children before they become addicted. Once a person has decided that drugs are going to be the most important aspect of their life, it gets harder to stir them away. I also asked Amanda if she ever received any education on the harms of drug addiction. Amanda responded, “Ya, freshmen year in health class, we had a chapter.” However, she then started to explain to me about a 2 day program she was about to endure on the negative impacts of alcohol. The program is called every 15 minutes and is very intense. Selected teenagers have to pretend they drove drunk and died. The program gets very emotional because the kids have to write their own obituaries and place fake tombstones on school grounds (Martinez). Drugs and alcohol go hand in hand together and this is why there needs to be a program addressing drug addiction. Basically, drug abuse prevention is not being taught in high schools. The kids receive a very brief lecture and then are left to teach themselves. I asked Amanda what she remembered from her drug prevention studies in health class. Amanda simply responded by stating, “It was so long ago, but I think we watched a movie” (Martinez). If drug prevention classes were continual, the answer to this question would be vivid concepts and consequences of drug abuse. What are the real reasons behind the lack of existence of drug abuse prevention curriculum? Awareness is the key here in America. Let’s not pretend ignoring the issue of drug addictions will make it go away.

We want to think that our children are invisible to the scene of drugs. However, they are going to come across them no matter what we may think or want. If they can’t resist peer pressure or their abusive environment, then maybe they can come to understand that the effects of drugs can cause their brain to become dysfunctional. Besides the lapse of mental capacity, drugs can cause someone a life of struggle. Addicted teenagers are not only hurting themselves but are hurting the family and friends that surround them. The article Drug Addiction and Drug Abuse states, “Drug-related crime can disrupt neighborhoods due to violence among drug dealers, threats to residents, and the crimes of the addicts themselves (Encyclopedia). Individuals who are addicted to drugs will take any measure needed to obtain their drug of choice. It is very painful to watch someone you care about deeply destroying themselves. Drug abuse prevention curriculum will reduce the negative impact of drugs. Furthermore, we must remember that today’s teenagers will be tomorrow’s adults. The more teenagers’ that grow up knowing that drug addictions can be very brutal can ultimately pass down the message to their children. If educating teenagers can help save lives, then why not pursue it?


From :http://www.edarticle.com By: Trina Mathewson

Reflections on Teaching Social Studies to ESL students

.....Social studies offers more subjects that are of an abstract nature and if the lessons are content based then this involves students having to participate in discussions, writing, grammar syntax and other activities which creates and develops their critical thinking....

Many ESL students study social studies it’s a vital subject because it teaches them to appreciate the increasingly complex world around them as they grow up. But ESL social studies at times often takes second place to that of science, biology and other subjects. This is because social offers fewer opportunities for practical work apart from looking around a globe looking for their own country and places they would like to visit.

Social studies offers more subjects that are of an abstract nature and if the lessons are content based then this involves students having to participate in discussions, writing, grammar syntax and other activities which creates and develops their critical thinking. Students in southern Thailand studying colonialism, may have no previous knowledge of why there is such a British influence on certain African and other countries. But if one puts their mind to it there are some things you can do to enhance the lesson to make it more interesting.

To help them study better ask them to read up about the subject in their own language first. This schema idea makes it far more easier for them to understand it in English when its your turn to teach it. By having an understanding of the subject they get the general idea and when you are teaching it, they can develop a sense of anticipation that you can exploit by asking them to answer your questions from what they have read and this breeds excitement and gives the teacher an opportunity to praise them for making the effort to speak.

Recently I was teaching a 9th grade class about the scramble for Africa and why it has been so poor and underdeveloped. In-particular I was making references to the exploitation of its natural resources. I printed out a map of Africa and stapled candies around the edge of the map. I gave each candy a name. One was diamonds, one was gold, one was natural resources, one was slavery, one was wood and a few more just for effect. The students were grouped with each group representing a European country. With the map on a table in the centre of the room and the word ‘’GO’’ they had to scramble to the table and take as much of the natural resources as they wanted, of course the scramble was quite effective. It was a good way to teach them the word scramble and exploitation at the same time.

Of course the map was torn to shreds and the candies dispersed to ‘all parts of Europe’ which was entirely expected and made the point I was trying to teach, in that many European countries have exploited African resources for far too long and today Africa is still having to cope with the legacy of colonialism.

At times, the ESL teacher has to modify complex text to fit in with the students level of English, which is also an important part of teaching social science to ESL students. But its important that the teacher retains the interesting facts and the concepts contained within the story to keep the students interested. The other side of this is that it creates more lesson planning work for the teacher, as it may have to completely re-written in some cases. But when it’s done once it doesn’t have to get done again and after all its really worth the effort.

Teaching certain critical thinking skills like cause and effect can also be enhanced by using conceptual mind maps. On teaching the development of western culture recently, students loved drawing and coloring mind maps that showed the effects of certain inventions during the Industrial Revolution. Demonstrating that as one object was invented it created certain ‘’after effects’’, some good & some bad and the effects of certain things had wider reaching consequences for people and the environment.

Reading text can also be helpful if we teach them to underline or use a highlighter correctly. Many students underline too much, so it’s vital that students think before they underline and have a specific reason for doing so. Students highlight for different reasons it may be for information they already know already, but it’s sometimes better to teach students to underline the most important sentence or words in the paragraph usually these are new words or phrases because deciding what is the most important requires a higher level of processing. Highlighting is also good at looking for helping words in the text. Students could work together and compare highlights and talk about why they have highlighted each word or phrase. They could talk about to the class or a group discussion. This also helps to develop self questioning and learning from others.

From :http://www.edarticle.com By:Robert McBain

Right age to put your child to a boarding school

....Do you want to put your child in a boarding school so as to discipline your child? How old is your child? 4 years? 7 years? 10 years? Perhaps you or your spouse or both of you have determined that it would be best to put your child in boarding as your child is in need of discipline.....

Understanding is the key to determining the right age to put your child to a boarding school. There could be many factors that determine the right age to put your child to a boarding school.

Are you comfortable with what you are doing?

Let’s assume that you have reached the decision of putting your child in a boarding school. Also assume that your child is between 4 to 10 years of age. You go and leave your child in the boarding school and then you come back home. How is your child going to feel all alone without you for the first time? At such a young age? Can you picture the scene and the emotions at play over here? Perhaps when you reach home after having left your child, you may find yourself in tears and regretting your decision.

Is it a case of discipline?

Do you want to put your child in a boarding school so as to discipline your child? How old is your child? 4 years? 7 years? 10 years? Perhaps you or your spouse or both of you have determined that it would be best to put your child in boarding as your child is in need of discipline.
Maybe both of you feel that by doing so, this is going to benefit the kid. So are you sure you are sending your child away at the right age and for the right reason?

What is the right age to put your child to a boarding school?

The answer to this can really be very tricky. There are so many factors that come into play. One of the prime factors responsible for taking such a decision would be – You! You need to ask yourself – “Do I really want to do this? Is this the right age for my child for me to take such a decision?”
You also need to answer whether your child is at the age where he or she can take care of his or her own emotional needs without you. Whether your child can stay without the sense of security that he or she can get when being with you? Being hugged by you, being taken out by you, being near you…is your child the right age to be deprived of all this?

What is the right age?

Your child needs to be able to understand why he or she is being sent to boarding school. Your child needs to understand that he or she is not being shunned by you. Your child needs to understand that you are doing it for his or her own good.

When your child understands all this, this is the right age to put your child to a boarding school.


From :http://www.edarticle.com By: harid Oscar