Why should I do it:
- Provides students with predictability decreasing anxiety, frustration, and worry
- Provides a regular schedule and point by point map to follow
- Helps with oppositional and defiant students
- Increases work production, compliance, and engagement
- Improves academic performance
- Improves focus and attention
- Teacher students how to manage time and resources
- Improves organization
When should I do it:
- When a student gets off task easily, is easily frustrated, or is anxious about the school day
- When a student is oppositional and defiant
- When a student is disorganized, scattered, etc
- With struggling students
- With students that never know what is next, what time and subject it is, etc
- When a student has poor attention and focus
- When students have low motivation, poor effort, and low participation
- When students present with behavioral challenges
How do I do it:
- You can write your schedule on the board daily, crossing off events as they occur
- You can provide the student with an individual schedule on their desk daily, having them cross off events as they occur
- The schedule can include pictures as well as words
- You can also add a timer for each topic, providing student with a time frame for each subject
- A class schedule can be posted with words and pictures
- A routine wheel can be utilized whereby the days routine is represented on pie sections of the wheel, and a spinning arm in the center is turned to point to the current event or task in the routine
- Engage students in keeping track of where they and the class are in the daily routine
- Ask students what is next in the routine and remind them when a period is ending soon
- Colors, shapes, and other similar things can be used to symbolize the various parts of the routine, for example, yellow card is reading period, red card is history period, etc
Resources & Support for technique: