Support self management and independence
Suggestion for implementing the strategy ‘Enable access and participation in learning’
On this page:
On this page:
Current page section: Support self management and independence
Go to top of current page: Support self management and independence
Go to top of current page: Support self management and independence
Go to top of current page: Support self management and independence
Teach how to use supports and options effectively
Teach how to use supports and options effectively
Provide students with the tools, options, and supports they need to develop self management skills.
Ensure all students know what’s available and how to use resources effectively.
Explore more ideas to support self-management in the UDL guide.
- Task instructions that they refer back to at any time.
- Visual breakdown of the steps needed to complete a task.
- Agreed signal for getting support from the teacher.
- Access to workspace options that support attention, concentration, and collaboration.
- Access to a quiet space to calm down, pause, or recharge.
- Access to learning tools that support planning and thinking (for example, graphic organisers).
- Access to spare pens, pencils, paper.
- Access to power outlets to charge devices.
- Access to curated toolbox of online tools including links to text-to-speech tools, glossaries, graphic organisers, essay sentence starters.
Offer different learning spaces
Offer different learning spaces
Steve Collis describes organising physical and virtual caves, watering holes, and campfires.
Students can then make considered choices to match their preferences and needs.
Use visuals
Use visuals
Visuals can reduce student frustration and support independence.
They are a simple alternative to repeating yourself all day.
They also help students to see what you mean.
Reduce stress at circle or listening time
Reduce stress at circle or listening time
Teachers need to consider the amount of time, and why, they are expecting students to sit still, be quiet, and listen.
This does not come easily for many children, including older students, and can trigger behaviour that interrupts learning.
Consider making available:
- an inflatable cushion that allows students to wiggle a bit while remaining seated on a chair or the floor
- hand fidgets that keep hands busy and out of trouble
- a time timer which can help students “keep it together” by giving them a visual cue about how much longer they are expected to be quiet or focus on a given task
- a weighted lap pad or weighted vest or blanket to provide calming sensory input as well as a physical cue to stay in place.
Self-assessment
Self-assessment
Are these strategies emerging, partly in place, or established in your practice?
Illustrate your response with examples from your own teaching
- 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.
- Offer stickies to remind students of tasks or what to do next.
- Teach mnemonics to prompt memory and the retrieval of important concepts or approaches they can use.
- Model and make available graphic organisers and flowcharts to support planning and thinking in all curriculum areas.
- Break tasks and lengthy assignments into small manageable parts. Schedule workflow using tools such as Trello to organise what needs to be done and when.
- Provide options so that students can submit work online.
Useful resources
Useful resources
Timeline tools
Summary of tools to create timelines using web and mobile devices.
Publisher: Educational Technology and Mobile Learning
Visual task schedule
A UDL-aligned collection of visual class and individual visual schedules. Use as a reference to create your own.
Publisher: Goalbook
Avoiding sensory overload at school
Read time: 11 min
This chapter from the book, Raising a Sensory Smart Child, by Lindsay Biel and Nancy Peske offers practical suggestions to reduce sensory overload in the classroom.
Publisher: sensorysmarts.com
Next steps
More suggestions for implementing the strategy “Enable access and participation in learning”:
-
Current page Support self management and independence
Return to the guide “Behaviour and learning”
How to use this site
Guide to Index of the guide: Behaviour and learning
Understand:
- Understanding behaviour
-
Understanding how to respond to problem behaviourShow suggestions for Understanding how to respond to problem behaviour
Strategies for action:
-
Foster positive relationships and partnershipsShow suggestions for Foster positive relationships and partnerships
-
Collaboratively develop a safe and caring culture and climateShow suggestions for Collaboratively develop a safe and caring culture and climate
-
Supporting language and communication skillsShow suggestions for Supporting language and communication skills
-
Support emotional wellbeing and positive mental healthShow suggestions for Support emotional wellbeing and positive mental health
- Anticipate, monitor, and plan for responding to child stress
- Strengthen student identity
- Teach stress management, anxiety and coping skills
- Offer relaxation options and downtime activities
- Teach how to recognise emotions and options for expressing feelings
- Providing support following traumatic experiences
-
Enable access and participation in learningShow suggestions for Enable access and participation in learning
- Recognise and remove barriers to learning
- Activate student agency and ownership
- Support self management and independence
- Develop problem solving skills and asking for help
- Cooperative and collaborative approaches
-
Respond safely to challenging situationsShow suggestions for Respond safely to challenging situations