Supporting Students Who Need More Help

ven in classrooms that are EF smart, some students have trouble managing school demands. These students need more targeted help to manage the daily workload and to develop the routines and habits they need to become independent learners. The targeted strategies outlined and described in this chapter have been used successfully in classroom settings and learning resource centers, as well as in individual student sessions. Although there is only limited research on specific interventions for students with weak executive skills, we have integrated what is available, in keeping with our support for evidence-based practice. Incorporate your knowledge of each specific student and your own classroom to modify these as needed. How do you know which behaviors to target? In most cases, you know from your own classroom observations as well as conversations with the student where a student is tripping up. Combine this information with that of other teachers and that gleaned from a conversation with the parents, and you generally have your targets! If you are unclear about the specific nature of the problem, then you can consider requesting that a qualified staff person in your school administer a questionnaire that assesses behaviors associated with executive functioning. There are many

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Boosting Executive Skills in the Classroom

such scales that are commercially available, but we prefer the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions (BRIEF) to help guide these decisions.1 When you have questions about whether or not there are co-occurring conditions that need attention, a referral for more comprehensive evaluation may be needed. In Table 4.1, you will find a list of specific interventions for specific EF targets. The column headings are based on the core executive functions as described by Gioia and his colleagues (see Chapter One). We devote the remainder of the chapter to in-depth descriptions of each of these interventions and comments about their use.

PLANNERS
Recommended levels: unless otherwise noted, grade 2 through adult (or whenever homework, tests, or long-term projects begin in your school) As basic as it may seem, we want to state here that the first step in using a planner is writing the students name in bold letters on the front or back . . . just in case he loses it. The second most important step is for students to bring their planner to every class and for each teacher to give three to five precious minutes at the end of class for students to write down their assignments as illustrated in Figure 4.1. Many teachers currently post assignments online for their students, but this is not enoughmany students, and especially students with certain EF challenges, cant even get out of the building at the end of the day with the materials they need to do homework that night. We joke with some parents that their children should be required to show their planner as a ticket to get into the car at the end of the day. If they dont have it, their penalty is simply . . . to go get it. For those families who connect later in the evening after work, the reality is that when they walk through the door,

Table 4.1 Specic Interventions for Specic Targets

Working Memory Task Monitoring Task Initiation and Completion Emotional Control

Organization Planning and of Materials Organizing

Planners

Entries for every class, including None

Long-term projects, entered sideways

Long-term projects, workdays assigned

110 condence scale for tests

Thursday grade checks

Thursday notes to teachers

Sundays weekly preview with parents

(Continued )

Table 4.1 Specic Interventions for Specic Targets (Continued )

Working Memory

Organization Planning and of Materials Organizing

Task Monitoring

Task Initiation and Completion Emotional Control

Materials

Trapper Keeper with weekly checks

Locker organizers with weekly checks

Use Google Docs or email assignments to self as backup

TIGERS folder

Reading

Warm-up: Great Leaps

Warm-up: Reasoning and Reading

Literary web and Inspiration software

Organization Planning and of Materials Organizing

Working Memory

Task Monitoring

Task Initiation and Completion

Emotional Control

Highlighting $10 words: textbooks subtitles and paragraphs

Highlighting $10 words: novels and short stories with chapter summary bullets

Highlighting $10 words: assignment sheets

(Continued )

Table 4.1 Specic Interventions for Specic Targets (Continued )

Working Memory

Organization Planning and of Materials Organizing

Task Monitoring

Task Initiation and Completion Emotional Control

Writing

Warm-up: seven-minute writing samples

Organizing: Inspiration software

Checking your work: COPS

Checking your work: Learning Grammar Through Writing

Math

Warm-up: aplusmath. com; blank times table; triangular ash cards

Show all your work

Guided practice