To my husband Jim, thank you for all your love, your belief in and work to bring executive function skill training to all students, and for being a source of strength to me as I have worked on this book.
To my children, Kent, thank you for believing in and supporting me and Kim, thank you for participating as a coach in Project Boost and contributing to this book. I would also like to thank their spouses, Laura and Jamie, for all your encouragement in the writing of this book. To my grandchildren, Sophie, Kendall, Brinkley, and Jay, thank you for your love and participation in Project Boost; you are the best grandchildren ever.
—Roberta Strosnider
To my husband Mike, thank you for your never ending love, support, encouragement, and active listening skills during the writing of this book. Your thoughtful, and sometimes humorous comments were a sure sign that you understood the importance of me seeing this project through to fruition.
To my loving children, Kristy, Kelly, Jeremy, and Alex, you are the best cheerleaders a mom could have. To Kristy and Kelly, thank you for your years of participation as coaches in Project Boost.
—Val Sharpe
To all of our P–12 and higher education students, thank you for the opportunity to have a small part in your education.
—Roberta Strosnider and Val Sharpe
Introduction
During our years of working with P–12 students as teachers ourselves and our experience as observers of teachers, we found that many students had problems in executive functioning (EF) and, therefore, did not respond to general methods of teaching. They seemed anxious at the start of a new school year, yet expressed hope that things would be different in the year to come. Unfortunately, these students continued to face the same difficulties year after year because the root of their difficulties was not identified, and they did not receive interventions that specifically targeted executive function skills. We decided to write this book based on those experiences and especially as a response to results we saw in students following Project Boost, as a week-long skills camp session for students ages five to sixteen prior to the start of school.
Project Boost was designed to build students’ self-confidence as they approached the new school year, and the focus was on teaching strategies that would boost their executive control. The idea was to give students a “jump start” or “boost” by introducing them to strategies that could make a difference in how they approached learning. The strategies for improving executive function skills were taught over a short period and were the focus of the week. During this period, we used the strategies and technology described in this book. Students learned basic home keys and a system for keyboarding. They each completed a short research project to practice the strategies they learned for conducting research using technology. We found that all students learned the strategies at a faster pace than we thought possible and left Project Boost with self-confidence in their new skills as they approached the upcoming school year.
The response from parents, teachers, and students was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and all students started the school with a “Success Plan” (see chapter 1 for more information) to be shared with their teacher(s). We followed up with students intermittently throughout the school year and found that, while many of them were continuing to use the strategies they had learned during the one-week camp, the carry-over was greatest when their parents and teachers reinforced the use of the strategies. In addition, we had the opportunity to work with some of the students weekly throughout multiple academic years. With these students, we were able not only to review the skills they had learned but also to connect the strategies to their academic program working with their parents and teachers. We quickly saw that the students who made the most progress were those who had follow-up throughout the academic year. Some students returned to the summer skills camp for multiple years and eventually became peer tutors for new students.
The takeaway from that experience and our many years as educators is that students do benefit from explicit teaching of executive function skills. In recent years, we have presented our strategies at various national and local conferences, and our feedback from teachers indicated a desire and need for more information and guidance.
We wrote this book to provide teachers and others with strategies for teaching and improving students’ executive function skills. The book applies to teaching students of all ages. The primary intended audience includes elementary, middle, and high school teachers, teacher educators, teacher candidates, executive function skills coaches, school counselors, school social workers, school psychologists, teacher assistants, tutors, and other related service personnel. A secondary audience is parents, who may want to reinforce the learning of the strategies.
Recognizing the daunting workloads of most teachers, every effort has been made to make the text as accessible and easy to use as possible. Chapter 1 provides a background and overview as well as tools to assist the reader in utilizing the strategies and activities described throughout the book. Subsequent chapters start with a discussion of the specific topic followed by strategies, checklists, and templates that are easily adapted to best suit the reader’s students and teaching environment. A companion website, http://resources.corwin.com/ExecutiveFunctioning, is available for downloading and reproducing strategy cards, forms, and templates (see chapter 1 for more information). The Reader Outcomes provided for each chapter will assist professionals in determining their knowledge of teaching executive function skills.
Strategies have been selected to help students find academic and behavioral success, and different types of strategies will be covered in this book. Strategies used exclusively by the teacher are referred to as teaching or instructional strategies. For example, a teacher may provide a graphic organizer as a teaching or instructional strategy, or he or she may seat a student with a short attention span in close proximity to the teacher away from distractions to help. We also provide multiple learning strategies for many executive functions that teachers can teach their students to help them learn skills like spelling new words, decoding words, or writing paragraphs. Other strategies described in this book include those for regulating behavior. Some of the strategies are designed to improve executive function skills while others are compensatory strategies as they are being used as part of the scaffolding process for instruction. We realize that not all strategies work for all students. In addition, we identify supportive technology for the student.
Throughout the book, the importance of assessment is emphasized. To that end, a sample self-assessment tool for students, teachers, and parents is included. A record-keeping component is also included to assist teachers and others in determining whether a given student’s use of the strategy, and ultimately executive skill functioning, has improved. There is also a blank data sheet for a group or whole class included at http://resources.corwin.com/ExecutiveFunctioning. Case studies are used as examples in each chapter to illustrate executive function strategy instruction and steps to follow when that instruction needs revision for a student. Case studies include elementary, middle, and high school students. A seventh chapter provides information regarding EF considerations when teaching students in early childhood and students who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
The information and checklists presented in this book are available as presented or as adapted according to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) considerations made for individual students. We are not neuropsychologists; we are educators with advanced education in special education. Between us, we have more than eighty years in the field. We have taught students with and without disabilities; students in private schools, public schools, general education settings, self-contained settings, and resource settings; and we have co-taught within inclusive settings. We have also taught students