Help Your Middle-Schoolers Boost Executive Function

“I don’t know.” This frequent middle school response to many questions often reflects the truth--they don’t know. Developing their executive functioning can help. Here’s how.

A recent post on NAESP’s site discusses strategies to boost executive function.  Executive functioning refers to brain-based skills essential for managing daily life, including planning, organization, self-regulation, attention control, adapting to change and ability to tolerate frustration.

Middle schoolers’ brains are primed for development of executive functioning skills. These strategies support their development:

1. Create schedules, set goals, and track progress using technology.
2. Avoid multi-step directions — keep it to one or two.
3. Ask students to repeat the direction that has been given.
4. Use visuals to reiterate and reinforce directions.
5. Move to areas of the room that you reference when providing direction.
6. Model. Model. Model. Make your own thinking visible and show students how you organize.
7. Focus on one skill per week or month.
8. Build time for organization into your class period. If you want students to record an assignment in their planner or online calendar/task tool, then create time and monitor that. If you want them to put a deadline on their calendar and then back map it, model that and walk them through it. Make time to clean out lockers and backpacks.
9. Directly teach how to organize notebooks, binders, folders, Google Drive/Classroom, etc. Revisit your instruction in this space often! 
10. Help students be better questioners. (see Danielson Model 3b and this quality synthesis of research and practice from KY DoE.)
11. Use literature to discuss executive functioning skills through character analysis.