Positive Student Behavior Assignment 3

Doug loves science and hands-on activities. He is interested in dinosaurs and robots, and enjoys using the computer to play games. Doug has shared that he likes putting together Lego sets and has brought several in to the classroom to share. Doug, however, is not performing well at school. His teacher and parents are concerned. He is failing grade-level requirements in reading and math, even though he has tested at grade level in these areas. Doug does have an identified learning disability and receives resource room assistance in written expression.

Doug gets easily frustrated when he has to copy and write assignments in any subject. He does have a computer available to use in the classroom as needed. His second grade teacher, Mr. McGrady, believes Doug is capable of doing the work required in class. Mr. McGrady has noted that Doug participates in class discussions and hands-on activities; however, he avoids and rarely starts assignments by himself. Mr. McGrady reports that while other students begin assignments, Doug can be found fiddling with “Lego gadgets” and drawing robots. Getting Doug started on most independent activities is like pulling teeth. Based on this information, Mr. McGrady has selected these goals for Doug to achieve within the next three months:

• Begin independent work assignments promptly.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.