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Student Services » Work Completion: Independently at School

Work Completion: Independently at School

A student who struggles with independent work completion may...
 
  • struggle with the content
  • have difficulty with focus or attention
  • ask for help frequently
  • ask leading questions
  • be quick to stop working when things get challenging or help "moves away"
  • become frustrated easily
  • have incomplete work
  • rush through tasks
  • struggle with getting started
  • demonstrate poor follow-through
  • want to avoid errors or negative feedback
  • has trouble reading or understanding the directions
 
When supporting a student who does not work independently, some general strategies involve
 
  • be aware of what is developmentally appropriate in terms of time on task and executive function skills
  • provide support in the beginning of an assignment
  • frequent checkins with small steps to complete on their own
  • highlight/bold/underline and/or simplify directions for access
  • model your own planning and thinking aloud
  • evaluate your own assignments to group like items together, reducing the amount of shifting needed for students
  • use gradual release with similar problems rather than extending or challenge items
  • provided guided notes or graphic organizers with visual anchors in the text/task and on the work space
  • utilize universal access tools--speech to text, text to speech, etc.
  • use attention and pacing checks with the whole class
  • provide distinct time for each step in the task (i.e., think, write, revise or #'s 1-5, 6 -10, and 11-12) with cues and directions placed for each segment
 
 
Interventions may include
 
  • use classroom zones for the student to do different types of tasks
  • reduce language and responses--use non-verbals and cues; fade your proximity
  • have a strategy wall or strategy page that you provide for specific types of tasks (having taught and practiced the strategy with the student)
  • identify either number or amount of time for your goal with the student and work towards that (not both at once)
  • be clear about your own expectation--are you asking them to read quickly or read carefully?--adjust the passage or task accordingly
  • provide additional stems, topics, or tools
  • when writing, consider that there are multiple aspects to the task--have them dictate to determine if they can tell a beginning, middle, end; then have them copy to measure handwriting
  • work with students to develop their own learning plan to build the skill of independence (it is likely that working independently will be a life-long skill to serve them, more than a particular skill/assignment)
Literature Links
 
See literature links for related behaviors that apply to your student (i.e., Rushes, Follow-Through, etc.)
 
 
Teacher Readings
 
Guiding Students -- Edutopia
Guided Reading Management--Teaching Channel