Developed to provide reflective activities for students who have violated a school or classroom rule.
Discipline Learning Packets are designed to provide constructive, positive learning experiences for students who have violated a school behavior standard.
Although the primary purpose of the Advantage Press programs is to serve as the consequence for an unacceptable behavior, we have de-emphasized the punitive aspect and stressed the positive learning experience that comes from understanding and reflecting on one’s actions. We want the student to think about WHY it is wrong to talk back to the teacher or to be pushed by a bully, and to understand how others feel when they have been subjected to disrespect or intimidation.
By emphasizing the feelings and rights of others, we may lead students to a more empathetic and social understanding of the effects of their actions and how this behavior impacts their school community.
Causes, consequences, prevention, and goal setting are topics the student will consider while completing a discipline packet. Each lesson contains several vignettes or stories about other students who have made similar mistakes. By reading about how others made bad decisions, the student is able to look at the misbehavior from an “outsider’s” perspective; making it even more clear to the offender the faulty thought process behind such unacceptable actions.
Each packet ends with a “Doing it Right,” or similar section, in which positive alternatives to each mistake, i.e., talking through a problem rather than trying to solve it by arguing or fighting, are presented. Finally, the Advantage Press approach stresses the setting of individual goals to facilitate behavior improvement. We ask each student to write personal goals that point to an alternative action rather than the one originally taken. Thus, prompting students to refocus their actions and move from “past mistakes” to “future actions.”
Yelling or threatening a rule violator often results in little if any improvement, yet this is still an approach used by many educators today. It isn’t possible to punish a student into compliance, but he or she can be taught how to be compliant. Discipline Learning Packets bring educators and rule offenders together in an instructional manner that can result in meaningful improvement.
Our discipline curriculum gives a sense of fairness, consistency and clarity to any school or classroom discipline program. The end result can be an improved school or classroom climate and learning opportunities for all.
Enhance your physical education curriculum, assess learning and justify grades
Physical Education Sports and Activities Packets provide an array of teaching and learning opportunities. These packets focus on many of the sports and activities offered in typical junior and senior high schools throughout the United States and Canada.
Each packet includes several key components: history of the game, rules of the game, skills and techniques required, how the sport or activity is played, current happenings, optional common core questions/activities, questions and puzzles and teacher answers. These 30-40 minute lessons provide students with a good overview of a sport or activity and help them become familiar with basic concepts.
Advantage Press programs are written in a clear and concise manner, resulting in a quick but complete grasp of a sport or activity. Teachers use our packets to introduce a lesson, assess learning, justify grades, provide a lesson to a non-participant and give as extra-credit.
Physical Education Sports and Activities Packets not only instruct but also inspire. As students learn more about a sport or activity, their interest as well as their desire to participate are likely to increase. Advantage Press lessons also provide internet resources for additional learning opportunities. Related materials, such as the Sports Champions series, can motivate students to investigate a sport further by reading about the champions (“greats”) in twelve major sports—from their athletic beginnings to their greatest professional successes and personal challenges.
Our packets are versatile; they can be utilized for an entire class or just one student. They can help teach a complete lesson or simply provide an independent assignment, all at the same time assisting in student assessment and grade assignment.
Some students are visual learners, some auditory and others learn best by doing. Advantage Press programs don’t purport to take the place of active physical education participation, but they can be the next best thing, especially for those students who are for some reason or another unable to participate.