Developing Executive Functioning in the Classroom and Home
- 1. Executive Functioning in the classroom and your home Suzie Whalen, Mindy Huston, Susannah Vaughan, Caroline Varner and AnaMaria Guevara
- 2. Definition Executive Functioning refers to the functions in our brain and thought processes that help us: • Balance demands and desires, wants and needs, inner voice and external expectations • Regulate behavior • Set goals and meet them
- 3. Case Sample
- 4. Self regulation Organization & Integration of Information Use and store information for future use Higher Order Skills Analyze, Draw conclusions, Solve a problem, Predict an outcome, Reason, Evaluate
- 5. Concrete vs. Dynamic Intelligence Gifted Learners with Executive Functioning deficits have the ability to understand and remember academic content BUT… The deficits show up when they need to regulate their behavior to be able to understand and respond to the demands of the specific situation or verbalize/demonstrate what they have heard or learned
- 6. There’s a lot going on… Students struggling with Executive Functioning skills face compounded difficulties as life becomes more demanding on their ability to plan, sustain attention, organize information, regulate feelings and act on those feelings.
- 7. It is not an issue of MOTIVATION! • ‘Typical’ students – allowing them to get low grades motivates them to work hard • Gifted students - such natural consequences do not have a significant impact on their time management, sense of time, urgency and/or organization
- 8. More Memory Capacity, yikes!
- 9. What exactly are we talking about? Executive Functioning Skills • Response inhibition • Working memory • Emotional Control • Flexibility • Sustained attention • Task Inihibition • Metacognition • Planning and Prioritization • Organization • Time Management • Goal-directed persistence • Metacognition
- 10. How do I get started?
- 11. Neuroplasticity Research shows that as the brain grows, it prunes neural connections – anything not used is lost! Therefore… repeated exposure and practice of Executive Functioning skills is CRITICAL
- 12. What the teachers at Sage Vista do… To instill the development of Executive Functioning Skills • Communicate positively • Outline clear expectations for standards of behaviors • Define rules • Create a space where mistakes and failures can be made • Maintain predictable routines – Designate turns – Establish places for belongings • Provide frontal lobe support • Design the classroom environment to allow all this to happen
- 13. Scavenger hunt in Music room, Spanish room and Upper Level Classroom.
- 14. Welcome back… Executive Functioning built into the design of the classroom • Classroom design compliments and reflects how instruction happens in the classroom
- 17. Space changes with the learning objective: • Whole group learning • Collaborative learning • Centers • Focused attention Classroom Spaces
- 18. • Whole group learning • Collaborative learning
- 19. • Centers
- 22. Routines
- 23. We teach students to “READ THE ROOM”
- 24. We provide students with an ORIENTATION Do your students know what is expected? Can they do it independently?
- 25. We break it down into small steps GET READY – GO – STOP - Reflect
- 26. Benefits of incorporating Executive Functioning into the learning environment • For students: • Predictability • Flexibility • More energy can be focused on learning • For teachers: • Classroom management and organization • Meeting 21st century learning needs • More energy can be focused on teaching
- 27. We practice and practice = REWIRE YOU HARDWARE Simple Increase Complexity Build on Success Research also shows the whatever we repeatedly sense, feel, want, think is slowly sculpturing our neural structure
- 28. In Summary… Sage Vista Teachers develop executive functioning skills in our students by teaching our students : • to develop a "memory for the future“ ( read & learn about Attention Building Strategies) • to use self initiated organizational strategies to achieve their goals • to improve their awareness skills necessary to "read a room“ • to use their reasoning skills to "stop, think and create" an appropriate action plan and anticipate possible outcomes • to see and sense the passage of time, – accurately estimate how long tasks will take, – change or maintain their pace, – and carry out routines and tasks within allotted time frames • to help students adopt a mindful approach to homework and to develop personalized study habits