Support planning and thinking skills
Support ākonga to manage their time and attention in the classroom
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Support time management
Support time management
Use multiple approaches to support concentration
Use multiple approaches to support concentration
Provide options to support concentration and short-term memory.
- Monitor and moderate the classroom for visual and auditory distractions.
- Encourage students to adapt the environment to meet their needs by, for example, wearing headphones, moving to a quiet environment or taking a walk to support their thinking.
- Present information in a range of ways over an extended period of time to help students to retain information, build their understanding and stay focused.
- Discuss with students the effectiveness of the classroom and make modifications and remove barriers where needed.
- Use of visual prompts and cues to support understanding and access to learning materials.
- Make links to background knowledge or previous learning to increase connections.
- Schedule regular short breaks for physical movement.
Offer a range of approaches to support planning
Offer a range of approaches to support planning
Suggestions for supporting students’ planning and organising.
- Use charts, visual calendars, colour-coded schedules, visible timers and cues to increase the predictability of regular activities and transitions.
- Encourage students to use their mobile devices to schedule alerts and reminders for regular and novel events and task deadlines.
- Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas and relationships using visuals, mind maps, 3-D manipulatives, outlines, flow charts and real objects.
- Model and make available graphic organisers and flow charts to support planning and thinking in all curriculum areas.
- Break tasks and lengthy assignments into small manageable parts. Schedule workflow using Trello to organise what needs to be done and when.
- Provide options so that students can submit work online.
Support thinking in multiple ways
Support thinking in multiple ways
- Highlight patterns, critical features and relationships
- Use cultural and narrative frameworks to support retention and thinking
- Use visuals, 3D manipulatives, outlines, flowcharts, and real objects
- Use mind maps to brainstorm ideas and make connections
- Support group and class discussions with visual annotations to prompt later recall of key ideas
- Offer students a variety of graphic organisers and flowcharts to support thinking
- Give students multiple opportunities to engage with new ideas and concepts
- Provide extra time for students to think and process before responding.
Useful resources
Useful resources
Free graphic organiser templates
Free graphic organiser templates in pdf format.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Next steps
More suggestions for implementing the strategy “Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13”:
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How to use this site
Guide to Index of the guide: ADHD and learning
Understand:
Strategies for action:
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Identify needs and how to provide supportShow suggestions for Identify needs and how to provide support
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Support self-regulation and positive behaviourShow suggestions for Support self-regulation and positive behaviour
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Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8
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Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13
- Support participation and confidence
- Present information in different ways
- Support planning and thinking
- Provide options for learning and assessments
