Organization and Progress

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Organization and Progress

  • April 3, 2024
  • Posted by: Caitlin McCallum
  • Category: Wow Story
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-An unconfident beginning for a couple of Middle School students-

As we all know from either our years in Middle School or teaching middle school, staying organized with a locker, books, and papers can be a challenge. Students with ADHD can have an especially difficult time with this many times. As we began the school year I realized that there were a couple of students on my caseload in Middle school who were already sounding defeated about being organized. It made my heart sad. I knew I had to give them some pep-talks and start soon with small steps to gain mastery of this and build up their confidence.

-Masking small steps of progress with Successive Approximations-

After collaborating with staff, parents, and administration, I created a modified planner sheet to put into their notebooks. I demonstrated how this was to be done by filing some sheets out together. The process had been too complex for them to translate from the Assignment Board to their papers. It was too many steps for them to complete. At first the students said they could not do this. But as I walked over with them to the Assignment Board after school one day they realized just how easy this was. I could sense the relief.

I then gave them the goal of completing two of these planner pages on their own. They were also to be sent home, which they had been struggling with. After they both got the hang of this, I awarded them with either a special pen or a lunch with the principal which we had set up ahead of time. I also gave one of the girls a special accordion notebook with tabs. She was excited to add more tabs as well and carried it everywhere she went with pride. She now could say that all of her things were in one place: her papers, key ring for Grammar terms and planner pages. I am increasing the goal to a higher number or planner sheets to be completed gradually so they can do this independently and confidently.

-Wow!-

Organization is a real struggle for some students. I can’t say that we are fully there yet…But we are on our way to gaining better Executive Functioning skills and feeling good about it.

~ written by Lynn Wierenga, LSEM Teacher at St. John Lutheran School in Champaign, IL