Positive Discipline is a method based on the philosophy of Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs. Through its implementation, people are taught to be responsible, respectful, active and resourceful members in their community. As such, this discipline relies on kids expressing themselves constantly.

All the books and workshops available on Positive Discipline consisting of teaching with non-punitive methods, providing parents, teachers and community leaders with the necessary tools that will permit students, both children and adults, to develop sufficient skills for their success in society. Tools that improve their vocabulary skills such as this webiste.

These methods are based on:

• Transmitting the message of care and respect, creating a sense of connection and belonging.
• Becoming both firm and caring.
• Identifying the beliefs behind particular behaviors. Effective discipline understands the reasons behind a child’s behavior, and works on changing those beliefs, instead of just working on the behavior of a child.
• Taking each mistake as a beautiful learning opportunity.
• Allowing children to understand the consequences of their decisions (through asking questions) instead of imposing them the consequences as a way of punishment.
• Focusing on the solutions: involving the child in problem solving.
• Teaching them interpersonal skills: Self-discipline, self-control, self-evaluation, cooperation, assertive communication and empathy towards others.
• Inviting children to perceive themselves as capable beings with a purpose in life. Encourage their personal power and autonomy.
• Encourage intrinsic motivation.

All the tools used in Positive Discipline, may be developed in classrooms, workshops and explained on books, and permit to fulfill the criteria mentioned by Jane Nelsen, for this discipline to become effective:

1. Helping children have a sense of connection (sense and belonging).
2. Being respectful and motivational (by being both kind and firm).
3. These tools are effective in the long run. (By considering what the child is thinking, feeling, learning and saying regarding him/herself, his/her world, and what do to in life when the child grows up, how to survive and thrive).
4. Teaching important social and life skills. (Respect, empathy for others, solve problems, cooperation, as well as, skills on how to contribute in the household, school and community).
5. Inviting children to discover their abilities. (Motives the constructive use of personal power and autonomy).

The pedagogical program includes workshops on how to handle emotions, have self-control, self-motivation and empathy.

Techniques on acknowledging emotions that will involve parents in the process of learning and understanding.

Workshops on Positive Discipline Techniques.

Coming up with didactic (teaching) material for the development and control of emotions.

CONCLUSIONS

We expect that through the implementation of this proposal, both teachers and children will improve their emotional skills, have control over conflicts occurring in classrooms, enjoy a collaborative learning process, and make use of assertive communication, among other things.

This will help handle aggressive behaviors on children, and reach agreements for them to reduce their lack of discipline, through Positive Discipline.

Improve self-esteem and self-control in teachers. Guiding and showing new ways of handling a group and help reduce aggressive tendencies in children.

Improve the academic performance of students, and their interpersonal relations within the classroom setting.

Reduce aggressive tendencies in teachers, and instead allow them to have caring and positive reinforcement tendencies.

You neglect spelling and grammar

Although it may not be a language exam, any teacher or board expects students – or whoever is sitting the exam – to be able to at least write a legible response. Basic spelling errors, the lack of agreement between the subject and the verb, the use of neologisms or invented words, or of excessively colloquial terms, all these have consequences on the image of the student – future professional – and, automatically, on his grades.

You don’t check your work

Indeed, time allotted for written exams is sometimes too short. However, it’s always advisable to save the last five minutes for a quick revision of your answers. A careful reading will help you avoid foolish mistakes, such as writing a name instead of another, obvious grammar errors, misspelled numbers (like, for instance, Law 13868 instead of Law 13688), mistakes that occur when you write hurriedly. It is always useful to make a final check, carefully reading your work before handing it over. In order to do this, you need to assess and organize your time very well.

Common mistakes

Here you will find some of the most common mistakes that can make you fail an exam, as well as methods to avoid them. Failing an exam is not pleasant, but sooner or later, it can happen to anyone. Many times, our results are unsatisfactory because we fail to prepare for the exam in advance, because, although we have read all the given materials, we didn’t study as deeply as we should have, or because the teacher’s guidelines were not clear enough. However, in other cases, the grades we receive are not as high as we would expect due to avoidable mistakes, which anyone can fix by the date of the next exam. Let’s see what are these errors that occur relatively often during written exams.

You don’t pay enough attention to the requirements

Many students throw a quick glimpse to each question, then start answering them without making sure first that they understood everything correctly. For example, whether the question asks you to give a definition or a description. These misunderstandings can have repercussions on your grade. Therefore, after you are given the questions of your exam, make sure you read them at least twice, and one more time when you check your work, before handing it over.

You care about the orderly and neat aspect of your work

The exam paper is not like the paper you take notes on. It is a document that is going to be read and examined by a teacher or a committee. Thus, it makes a bad impression if you hand it full of corrections, with margins written all over, carelessly torn edges or illegible handwriting. It is true that you get your grade on what you say, not on how you present your ideas, but a poor handwriting can mislead the teacher, who can mistake a correct answer for a wrong one. What’s more, some teachers even grade the aspect of the paper.

Before the exam, take into account the following recommendations: concentrated and attentive reading, intense study, organized materials and writing practice are bound to calm your nerves. First of all, thorough study is essential in order to have all the necessary knowledge well-set in mind – not only a basic idea about each topic discussed in class – when the time of the exam comes.

Don’t learn mechanically, but rather reflectively. Secondly, if you are allowed to use materials – if, for example, you can consult your book, or the teacher allows you to use tables or summaries – prepare them carefully. Pay attention to keywords, underline, highlight the main ideas and distinguish them from the secondary ones. Finally, if the exam questions require elaborate answers, exercise some answers of this kind at home, to practice writing before the moment of examination.

During the exam, it is paramount to organize your time well. For example, if you have two hours to answer eight questions, don’t spend more than 15 minutes for each question, otherwise you won’t have time to answer all of them. Start by solving the questions that you find easiest, don’t waste time going over and over again over a subject you don’t master.

There are certain mistakes that are frequently made during written exams, and that can affect the final grades for the worse. Fortunately, once we become aware of them, we can prevent doing them.

The written exam has the advantage that, although it has a fixed time for giving the answers, we are able to organize the way we present our ideas, revise, correct, delete, and, if necessary, throw the exam paper to the bin and start all over again. Sometimes, students are allowed to use a material of reference during the written exam – tables, summaries, etc. – which makes the students feel more confident and secure.

However, there are also some disadvantages: spelling and writing skills matter, and if these are not our strongest points, these can lead to a poor performance. What’s more, the student is alone with the exam paper, sometimes without the possibility to ask the teacher a question, in case one of the requirements is vague. Finally, the time allotted for the exam is often too little for some students, and feel that they should write with four hands in order to get to answer all the questions; consequently, they leave some of the answers incomplete, which also results in a poor grade in the end.

Written exams have advantages, as well as disadvantages. However, if you use certain techniques before and during the exam, you’ll find it easier to pass them successfully.

Here you have some advice to help you face a written test.

There are different types of exams, and each one has advantages and disadvantages. Some students prefer to sit written exams, while others are more inclined towards spoken examinations. However, we are not always allowed to choose, and, over time, we are bound to face both types of tests. Here, you will find some recommendations that will be helpful when the time comes for you to prepare a written exam.

APA reference generator is an electronic tool that offers assistance when it comes to formatting your APA reference page and in structuring your APA citation in proper and accurate format. APA reference generator is designed to help researchers, students and anyone who needs it in citing utilized sources and references during writing process. The good thing about this online tool is that it automatically generates your APA citation by following all the standards mandated by the American Psychological Association (APA) for citing your references in writing academic papers.

APA citations are brief notes provided in alphabetical order and it appears at the end of your research paper, report paper, thesis or any kind of academic paper, otherwise known as the APA reference page. It is not easy to do APA citations especially if it is your first time to do it. A need for you to consult thick confusing APA manuals just to learn how to do proper APA format should be done in order for you to accomplish such task. But nowadays, through the use of APA reference generator or any kind of citation generator makes the life of student or researcher a lot easier. They just have to know the required elements of a source and enter it in the required tools then voila! APA citations are automatically generated.

The main purpose of APA reference generator is to appropriately acknowledge the sources of perceptions, ideas, and quoted passages that you have utilized in writing your academic or scholarly document. A complete APA citation usually includes author, the title of the article, the publisher, the date of publication and any other essential information or data.

It is very vital that you cite all your references in the APA reference page through the use of APA reference generator in order to validate the claims, facts and data stated in your academic paper. Quoting other writer’s words or thoughts without proper acknowledgement or citation of their work can lead to plagiarism accusations which has serious consequences. This is the reason why it is imperative to do APA citations manually or through the utilization of APA reference generator or citation generator. This helps you in grounding your data and ideas into context.

Here is a video to help you understand the topic a bit further:

However, in most instances, if you have a long list of references, you might find it a little bit challenging to cite all of your sources in the APA citation style. Furthermore, standards for citing various print and electronic sources vary, thus checking on style manuals for each individual entry can be a time consuming work. APA reference generator is helpful when it comes to these cases for it automatically translates and formats the information you provide into the APA citation style to suit APA reference page. It only requires the student or researcher to provide the necessary data or citation elements, and then the APA reference generator will do the rest of the work, saving you amounts of effort and time.

Almost APA reference generator or citation generator that you can find online are free to use. And aside from the mere fact that it is very easy tool to use, it also ensures proper and accurate formatting for APA citation.

The second stage: writing from dictation

Writing from dictation is obviously more difficult than copying symbols, as there are many intervening factors, all of which are necessary for the achievement of a good result.

In later stages, from age 6, children are taught to write as dictated.

This time, there is no visual symbol any more, so the relation between sound and image becomes important. The child will only rely on a phonic symbol, and he needs to be able to distinguish what he hears (each individual sound), to transform the sounds into letters and reproduce them on the paper, placing them in the same order in which they were uttered.

It is essential for the child to have:

• A good auditory capacity, in order to hear and distinguish the sounds.
• Auditory memory, to remember what he heard and the order in which the sounds came out.
• Visual memory, to be able to recognize the graphical symbol of the letter associated with a particular sound.
• Adequate and satisfactory fine motility, to reproduce the symbols that have been drafted in mind.

From this moment on, comprehensive reading becomes a great help in encouraging writing. So far, the child has done well in school because he was not required to do more than to copy by hand or to associate sounds and letters when reading. However, now appears the ability to make mental representations and it usually coincides with the shift to primary school, at the age of 6. At this age, we start to see that children display fluid learning in both reading and writing, and that some of them start to get ahead of their peers.

The third stage: free or spontaneous writing

Finally, we must practice children’s ability to write spontaneously, which is considered free writing in that it doesn’t rely on auditory symbols or, at least, not on symbols that are external to the children themselves. In this case, the child writes what he represents mentally, what he imagines. This skill starts developing at the beginning of primary school, and becomes more and more complex with each passing year. As a result, children are then able to write essays, answer open-ended questions, or make projects.

If the ability to write down thoughts freely and fluently does not develop, all these activities we talked about will be more difficult. Then, the child will begin to be discouraged by the enormous effort he has to make to solve school tasks. This difficulty can thus lead to some delays in learning.

How to teach children to write. Stages in the learning of writing.

Children learn how to write gradually, starting from a stage of copying or reproduction. Later, the child can write what he is dictated. Finally, he learns to write spontaneously. To advance through all these stages, children need to master their calligraphic ability and develop attention and memory.

Teaching writing is not a simple task.

Children learn to write step by step. Generally, children start to approach written language during the final stage of early childhood education, around the age of 5.

In this stage, children learn to recognize their name and familiarize themselves with the written language through play. However, literacy doesn’t start until primary school, when the child is 6 years old. The process of learning to write consists of different stages: the stage of copying, writing from dictation and spontaneous writing.

The first stage, like its name indicates, involves hand-copying letters, numbers and so on. Later, learning gets more complex, as it becomes essential to transform what is heard (sounds) into writing (letters). Finally, this learning process ends when the child is able to write what he thinks or imagines.

It is important for parents to know each one of these stages, so that they can identify possible learning problems. At home, parents can exercise with children by reading a story together, asking questions about it, etc.

In this article about learning to write we will see what each stage consists in.

• 1st stage: reproducing symbols (copying)
• 2nd stage: writing from dictation
• 3rd stage: free or spontaneous writing.

The first stage: reproduction of models or copies

At the beginning, infant education (up to age 5) targets the acquirement of manual motor capacities by the means of reproducing symbols, or copying.

The basis includes vertical lines, horizontal lines, diagonal and curved ones, and so on. Complexity increases to the phase of copying more difficult symbols, such as letters, numbers, syllables and words.

In this stage, development of writing goes hand in hand with development of the expressive drawing ability, although we are trying to highlight the difference between the two.

Before starting to read, pave the way

Activities that children consider entertaining, or that are part of their daily routine, can play an essential role in stimulating their reading. A good example is the learning of poems and songs, so that the child gets acquainted with how words sound. Other examples include telling stories and reading tales, involving the child in activities related to books and arousing his/her curiosity. Another way of learning to read is to expand previously-learnt vocabulary, by explaining the meaning of certain words or pointing them out every time they appear in the text. Our point of interest is dictated by the child, we never put any pressure.

Learning to read

There are activities that focus on the child’s ability to memorize the letters and their corresponding sounds, and put them together to obtain syllables and simple words. A few examples of such activities are the following games:

Letter shape and sound: We can write some letters on pieces of cardboard, then hide them all over the room and require the children to find them. There are two versions. The first, the simple one, implies hiding a single letter and asking the little one to read it when he finds it. The other version involves hiding several letters and finding the one that the mother, father or teacher has named.

A very popular game among children implies writing a letter with the finger on a friend’s back and let him/her guess what letter was written.

Building syllables and simple words: Can be done since the children memorize the letters, until they are able to build syllable trains and blocks, so that they will eventually form words.

Once the basic abilities have been acquired, practice and a little persistence on our side shall do the rest. The road to the exciting world of reading and culture has only begun.