You may have heard the term ‘Executive Functioning Skills’ when referring to student’s academic growth, but do you really know what these skills are? Think of it as the way you manage the system of your brain. It is the overall skills we need in order to plan, set goals and accomplish everything in our daily life. When it comes to tutoring and teaching kids, executive functioning skills are a crucial part of the development in their overall academic success. Let’s talk about some of these skills and how they relate to learning:
1- Planning, Prioritizing and Organizing:
In the early stages of elementary school, you may not focus on these with your students. They are just beginning their educational journey and teachers often play this role in supporting these skills. However, as they begin to approach middle school, these three items become extremely important. Students need to begin to be more independent and know how to plan and organize their studies.
I get so many calls each semester regarding students that do not have subject specific struggles, rather, they have no idea how to organize themselves. This is unfortunately a very common issue. Students need to be taught these skills, practice them continually, and then be able to independently and effectively master them in order for them to fully develop as a learner.
2- Starting and Staying Focused on Tasks:
Students these days have various distractions that keep them from being able to start and stay on task. It seems that they all have access to some kind of technological device that they carry with them. While these devices can be a huge advantage to their learning, they can also be a very big distraction. Taking ownership of their studies and being able to recognize how to handle distractions is very important. Part of knowing that they are developing as a learner is seeing them start assignments without being prompted/reminded (a thousand times) that they have something they need to work on. Coinciding with starting tasks is being able or complete them in a timely manner. When students can begin showing growth in these two areas, you know they are developing these two important skills.
When I taught middle school, I made it a goal to teach my students the importance of executive functioning skills. I encouraged and the challenged their independence and encouraged them to practice these skills daily.
Today, I work with our tutors to ensure that these skills are being taught and practiced in each and every tutoring session. We want to help develop each student’s skill set to make sure they are ready for the tasks set before them. As a result of teaching these skills to our students, they will be a more confident, prepared, self motivated learner!
If you have a student that could use overall support in developing their executive functioning skills, contact us today! Now is the best time to get started in helping your learner reach their full potential.
Comentários