Resources

Reflection Questions

The Reflection Questions document can be downloaded at any time and used in a variety of ways. You can view it before starting your work so that you know which questions will be asked in the videos and/or on the webpages. You can also access it at the end of your work so that you can see all your responses to the questions. This tool can be helpful for documenting your learning and referring to later or for sharing it with others in group discussions or as demonstration of your online progress.

Discussion Questions

The Discussion Questions provided below can supplement and extend your individual learning and be used by facilitators or coaches to prompt meaningful discussions.

1. You are a team member of a child with organizational difficulties and are talking to another member of the staff working with this student. The other staff member says, "That child is just lazy; why all the fuss about helping this student?" What is your response? 

   You may try sharing some of the following information with your coworker. Executive functioning includes neurologically based skills involving mental control and self-regulation. It is clear that impairments of executive functions, those brain processes that organize and activate what we generally think of as attention, are not the result of insufficient willpower. Neural-chemical impairments of the brain's executive functions cause some individuals who are good at paying attention to specific activities that interest them to have chronic impairment in focusing on many other tasks, despite their wish and intention to do otherwise. The neurotransmitter dopamine has been discovered to be low in some children. It is our job to help these kids. They may have given up not because they don't care but because no matter how hard they try they can't do it. This change in thinking may enable your team to deal with problematic behaviors that interfere with your students' school success.

   Here are some resources on the topic that may be helpful:

   Executive Function Problem or Just a Lazy Kid: Part I
   Executive Function ... What Is This Anyway?

2. With a group of peers, respond to the following questions: What techniques and tools do you use to organize yourself, time, materials and information? Given this information, how do you think this might apply to your students?

   Responses will vary, but may include answers to the following additional questions:

   • Are the tools and strategies used different among group members?
   • If there are differences in preferred methods and tools, why do you think those differences exist?
   • Are you willing to change your current preferred organizational strategies?
   • Does your student have preferred organizational strategies and tools?
   • Would your student be more successful with some strategies and tools than others?
   • How do you think a student might feel when organizational strategies are selected for him based on the teacher's preference that may not match the student's preferences?

3. What types of task challenges might the student exhibit in the classroom if she has difficulties with self-organization?

   Correct answers may include the following observable student behaviors:

   • Difficulty following established classroom and school rules
   • Unable to self regulate behavior
   • Easily distracted and unable to attend to lectures, directions, remaining on task, etc.
   • Unable to shift attention among classroom activities
   • Difficulty starting and completing activities/projects
   • Exaggerated emotional responses to challenging activities
   • Impulsive
   • Difficulty sustaining friendships
   • Quickly frustrated with tasks that are challenging 

4. What types of task challenges might the student exhibit in the classroom if he has difficulties with information management?

   Correct answers will vary but may include the following:

   • The student has trouble remembering the sequence of steps in a science experiment.
   • The student has difficulty identifying similar concepts, such as when asked to describe the differences and similarities of fruit vs. vegetables or childhood vs. adulthood.
   • The student has trouble putting notes together to form a coherent paragraph when working on a research paper.
   • The student has difficulty identifying pertinent information in a lengthy reading assignment.

Activities on this page are provided at both the introductory and advanced level and can be copied and used within existing professional development or university coursework.

Introductory Activities

1. Executive Function

   Read the article "Looking at Executive Function" by Rick Wormeli and discuss/write what you could do differently to help students with executive functioning issues.

2. Time Management

   Read the article "Teaching Time Management to Students With Learning Disabilities."  Discuss which of these strategies you teach to your students. If none of these strategies are being used currently, how could you implement some of them?

Advanced Activities

1. Environmental Observation Guide and Student Information Guide

   Choose a student you are working with who presents with decreased organizational skills and fill out the WATI Environmental Observation Guide and the WATI Student Information Guide. Describe what you found out about this student that you did not think about before.

2. Observation: Student Organization Skills

   Conduct an observation of several students of various ages (preschool, elementary, secondary) during play and during structured classroom activities. What do you notice about their organizational skills? Do they differ across age groups? Look more specifically at the various categories of organization skills: self, material, information, and time management. Within the same age group, do you see differences in the strategies students use to organize in each of the areas?