Taking the “Dis” Out of Disorganized

1. Taking the “Dis”Out of Disorganized Presentation to Parents at St. John’s School By Julie Landis, Ph.D. & Karen Buchine, M.A. Teaching & Learning Center of Texas 713-666-0966

2. Tonight’s Goals • The role of Learning Styles • What is Executive Functioning? • What tasks should my middle school child be able to do? • How is my child doing ? Understanding standardized tests to monitor performance • What can I do to help my child be/stay organized? • Final thoughts

4. Learning Styles Consider your child’s strengths and preferred learning styles.

5. What are Learning Styles? • Information enters your brain three main ways: • Sight, Hearing and Touch • Your Learning Style Is The One you rely on most • Visual Learners learn by sight • Auditory Learners learn by hearing • Tactile Learners(kinesthetic) learn by touch

6. Prefer to see information such as pictures, diagrams, cartoons, demonstrations Picture words and concepts they hear as images Easily distracted in lecture with no visual aids Overwhelmed with intense visuals accompanied by lecture Benefit from using charts, maps, notes, and flash cards when studying Visual • Visual Learning Strategies • Reread notes to self • Make outlines • Use graphic organizers • Use models or pictures

7. Prefer to hear information spoken Can absorb a lecture with little effort May not need careful notes to learn. Often avoid eye contact in order to concentrate May read aloud to themselves Like background music when they study Auditory • Auditory Learning Strategies • Verbal rehearsal • - Rereading notes • - Have a question and answer • session with a peer or adult. • Read content or notes into a tape • recorder and play back.

8. Kinesthetic learners benefit from direct experiences. They prefer to participate in activities and performing skills such as writing and taking notes. Prefer touch as their primary mode for taking in information In traditional lecture situations, they should write out important facts Create study sheets connected to vivid examples Role-playing can help them learn and remember important ideas Kinesthetic • Kinesthetic Learning Strategies • Make and practice with flashcards • Role play or act • Create mock tests • Create games (matching, memory, board) • Rewrite notes • Use highlighters to mark important • vocabulary, terms, or phrases

9. Awareness of Learning Style – Strengths and Weaknesses will help you guide your middle schooler to learn more effectively. Hear It! See It! Touch It!

10. What is Executive Functioning? • Executive Functioning is the “conductor” of cognitive processes involved in learning • The Executive Functions serve a “Command and Control” function • A set of processes that have to do with managing oneself and one’s resources in order to achieve a goal • Neurologically-based skills involving mental control and self-regulation

11. The Teen Brain: A Work In Progress Major changes are still happening - mainly in the frontal lobes- or more specifically in the pre­frontal cortex The frontal lobes (in red here) support the executive functions: Decision making, Problem-solving Planning Inhibiting Social behavior Emotional control Working memory,

12. Definitions and Developmental Progression of Executive Skills (Dawson, P. and Guare, R., 2009) • Response Inhibition: The capacity to think before you act – this ability to resist the urge to say or do something allows us the time to evaluate a situation and how our behavior might impact it. • Working Memory: The ability to hold information in memory while performing complex tasks. Includes the ability to draw on past learning or experience to apply to the situation at hand or to project into the future. • Emotional Control: The ability to manage emotions in order to achieve goals, complete tasks, or control and direct behavior.

13. Executive Skills: Definitions • Sustained Attention: The capacity to maintain attention to a situation or task in spite of distractibility, fatigue, or boredom. • Task Initiation: The ability to begin projects without undue procrastination, in an efficient or timely fashion. • Planning/Prioritization: The ability to create a roadmap to reach a goal or to complete a task. It also involves being able to make decisions about what’s important to focus on and what’s not important. • Organization: The ability to create and maintain systems to keep track of information or materials.

14. Executive Skills: Definitions • Time Management: The capacity to estimate how much time one has, how to allocate it, and how to stay within time limits and deadlines. It also involves a sense that time is important. • Flexibility: The ability to revise plans in the face of obstacles, setbacks, new information or mistakes. It relates to an adaptability to changing conditions. • Goal-directed persistence: The capacity to have a goal, follow through to the completion of the goal, and not be put off by or distracted by competing interests. • Metacognition: The ability to stand back and take a birds-eye view of oneself in a situation. It is an ability to observe how you problem solve. It also includes self-monitoring and self-evaluative skills (e.g., asking yourself, “How am I doing? or How did I do?”).

15. The Role of Biology and Experience • Executive Skills - critical to independent living • At birth, Executive Skills exist only as potential • The frontal lobes (Executive Skills) will require 18 to 20 years (sometimes longer) to develop fully • Childhood offers parents and teachers a critical opportunity to enhance the learning and development of Executive Skills in children, i.e., Lend them our ES – through our support and coaching

16. Typical Executive Function Tasks at the Middle School Level (Grades 6-8) • Chores around the house including daily responsibilities and occasional tasks • Emptying dishwasher • Taking trash out • Feed pets • Clean Room • Babysit • Use a system to organize homework- planner, notebook • Follow complex school schedule • Plan and carry out long term projects

17. Middle School EF tasks (cont.) • Plan time (after school activities, homework, family responsibilities) • Estimate how long it takes to complete tasks • Adjust schedule as needed • Inhibit rule breaking in the absence of visible authority

18. What Do Executive Skill Weaknesses Look Like in Students? • Gets overly upset about “little things” • Gets stuck on one topic or activity • Out of control more than peers • Low tolerance for frustration • Easily over stimulated and has trouble calming down • Overwhelmed by large assignments • Doesn’t notice impact of behavior on others • Acts without thinking • Interrupts others • Overreacts to small problems • Upset by changes in plans • Talks or plays too loudly • Resists change of routine • Acts wild or out of control • Can’t come up with more than one way to solve a problem • Doesn’t notice impact of behavior on others

19. What Do Executive Skill Weaknesses Look Like in Students? • Forgets homework/forgets to pass it in • Leaves long-term assignments until last minute • Can’t break down long-term assignments • Sloppy work • Messy notebooks - Can’t find things in backpack • Passive study methods (or doesn’t study) • Chooses “fun stuff” over homework • Slow to initiate tasks • Runs out of steam before finishing work • Doesn’t bother to write down assignment • Loses books, papers, notebooks • Forgets directions • Lack of time sense/urgency • Forgets to bring materials home • Keeps putting off homework

20. Principles to keep in mind when working on improving EF Skills • Use rather than fight your child’s innate drive for mastery and control • Create routines and schedules • Build in choices • Practice difficult tasks in small steps • Negotiate rather than automatically say “no.” • Teach deficient skills • Consider the child’s developmental level • Make changes in the environment, the task or the way you interact with your child

21. Principles to keep in mind when working on improving EF Skills • Modify tasks to match your child’s capacity to exert effort • Completing an “aversive homework assignment” • Plan homework by rating each assignment in terms of level of difficulty • Decide on order • Build in small breaks for those that have higher ratings or switch off between hard/easy tasks

22. Principles to keep in mind when working on improving EF Skills • Use incentives to support instruction • Praise, rewards • Provides an energizing effect on behavior • Motivates so that child will persist when they perceive the task as “aversive” such as homework • Provide just enough support so that the child will be successful • Keep support and supervision in place until child has mastered the task • Be alert for small signs of progress • Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better • Fade supports, supervision and incentives gradually

23. Evaluating Progress – ERB’s • What are standardized tests? • Designed to give a common measure of students' performance. • Because large numbers of students throughout the country take the same test, they give educators a common yardstick or “standard” of measure. • Educators use these standardized tests to tell how well school programs are succeeding and/or to obtain a picture of the skills and abilities of individual students. The ERB tests compare scores of students from: 1. National public schools 2. Suburban public schools 3. Independent schools

24. What is not measured? The ERB does not measure some of the most important things, such as effort, tenacity, emotional intelligence, and creativity. These qualities have been shown to be predictors of success at least as much as achievement in algebra or vocabulary. Many variables can affect a student’s performance on a test. (Unfamiliarity with test format, test anxiety, fatigue.) Therefore, test results are just one piece of information along with the other types of authentic and performance assessments used over the course of the school year.

25. What are the test categories? Skills and abilities tested: • Verbal Reasoning • Vocabulary • Reading Comprehension • Writing Mechanics • Quantitative Reasoning • Mathematics

26. What does percentile mean? This term refers to the percentage of students in the norm population whose scores fall at or below a given score. A percentile ranking of 79% using the independent school norms means that the student scored higher than 79% of the students at the same grade level at independent schools using the test. The percentile ranking is not the same as percent correct, which indicates the proportion of questions a students answered correctly.

27. What is a stanine? Stanine is created from the words “standard nines” and divides a normal distribution of scores (a bell curve) into nine parts. Stanines are units on an equal interval scale, which means that the same difference in achievement exists between any two successive stanines.

28. What is a stanine?

29. What represents significant change in stanines? • A 1 stanine score difference from year to year is not significant • A 2 stanine difference indicates a possible individual pattern of change

30. What are raw scores? Raw scores are the actual number of questions the student has answered correctly on the test or sub-test. How is a raw score helpful? Raw scores allow you to see the students’ actual performance.

31. What are scaled scores? For each test, the number of questions the student has answered correctly (raw score) has been converted to a standardized scale in order to make it possible to compare your students’ results with the results of students in the norm sample.

32. How are scaled scores helpful? • Allow us to compare test results over more than one year • Allows us to compare results from different forms of the same subtest • Scaled scores should go up each year.

33. Individual Instructional Summary • Look for major discrepancies among the subtest categories • A two stanine gap may suggest the need to review for re-teaching and possible instructional or curricular change.

34. Caveats about all test results... • A “true” score is obtained by multiple measures administered over time • Most tests represent a one-time event • Results from a single testing event must be put in the context of teacher judgment and other assessments • Taken in isolation a score or set of scores may be affected by: • the nature of the task • the disposition of the student • the time or place of testing

36. AN ORGANIZED STUDENT REQUIRES STRUCTURE ROUTINE PREDICTABILITY

37. PLANNER Compare nightly to on-line info. Color-code (highlighters/pens) black-in class today blue-homework red-tests/quizzes Designate an area on the planner for list of materials needed each night. Add to the list at the end of each class period, so student only has only one place to check during final trip to locker. Record phone numbers of two classmates per class.

38. MONTHLY CALENDARS • For long-term projects • Essays • Research/term papers • Science/Social Studies projects • Speeches • separate task into parts • complete process 2-3 days before due date • if unsure, check with teacher as each section is completed

39. HOMEWORK PRIORITY LIST Nightly, before beginning homework, list all homework as follows: #1: Longest, most difficult/heinous assignment due tomorrow #2 through ?: List in decreasing order according to difficulty, length, aversion End of list: Work on long-term assignments per schedule

40. PRIORITY LIST, con’t • Help your child learn to estimate time needed for a given assignment: • Discuss and decide on amt. of time required per assignment and note on priority list. • Set timer as student begins. • Upon completion of assignment, note actual time needed. • After homework is completed, discuss estimates vs. real time, reasons for disparity, etc. • No racing allowed! • Important to keep record of study times for tests and review after test grades are received.

41. BINDERS As class procedures allow– • Pencil case • one large or two smaller 3-ring (a.m./p.m.) • double-sided pocket divider for each subject • regular dividers named per class need/teacher instruction Ex:English: notes, grammar, lit, writing, vocabulary, hw, tests/quizzes Science: notes, handouts, labs, hw, tests/quizzes

42. BINDERS, continued • During school day, put tonight’s homework, “unpunched” papers, and anything you don’t have time to put in the right place in the front of appropriate pockets. • Every night, before starting homework, empty pocket, put homework aside, punch papers, and put everything where it belongs. • Place completed homework into the appropriate pocket to turn in next day. • Use back pocket for ongoing work, study materials for upcoming test, etc.

43. STUDY-READING A TEXTBOOK CHAPTER Before reading the chapter • Read the chapter introduction. • Read the chapter summary (at the end). • Highlight all titles, subtitles, and headings throughout the section/lesson (green) Before reading each section • Write each vocabulary word on the front of an index card. • Prepare all section questions by turning each question into a statement, leaving room for the answer.

44. STUDY-READING A TEXTBOOK CHAPTER, (cont.) As you read each section of the chapter • Define each vocabulary word in your own words with “bullets” (no complete sentences). • Complete all section questions by filling in the answers. • Highlight the vocabulary and definitions (yellow), the information answering the section review questions, and other important information (green).

45. STUDY-READING A TEXTBOOK CHAPTER, (cont.) When you’ve completed the chapter, test yourself with the review material at the end. Add anything you missed to your index cards. Use the cards, section review questions, and highlighted textbook information to study for your chapter test. Be sure to include your class notes, class reviews, etc. Remember: Short, frequent study sessions over several days are much more effective than one long session the night before the test!

46. HOMEWORK SCHEDULE • Post near working space and on refrigerator (where all important things go). • Consider attention span. • Build in breaks (10 minutes or less). • Extraneous technology OUT. • May be different some days due to extracurricular activities…plan ahead. • Consider time of desired activity AFTER homework completed (reward, motivator). • More efficient use of school time = less homework i.e., STUDY SMARTER NOT HARDER!! • Always prepare backpack, lunchbox, clothing, etc., @ night.

48. AFTER THE TEST… • Make corrections. • Analyze mistakes. • kinds of questions missed (essay, T/F…) • information missed and where was it? (textbook, notes…). • Enough study time beforehand? (check back on priority list times) • Make study guides out of tests with highlighter (Always getting ready for finals).

49. More Sage Advice….. • In addition to homework priority list, keep another “post-it” next to work space. • List any extraneous thoughts that interrupt focus, (Mom, need to wash my gym clothes; $5.00 for class party, etc.). • Jot them down and keep working. • Allow student to “empty his/her mind” of random thoughts that interrupt work flow. • Review that day’s notes nightly. • Highlight after, not while reading. • Cramming intensifies test anxiety.

50. Final Thoughts • Talk about Learning Styles • Engage in discussions about Executive skills and strengths and weaknesses with your child • Work on strategies as early as possible • Use small steps, reinforce their efforts and gradually fade your coaching • Point them toward resources