Support students’ processing and organisational skills
Suggestion for implementing the strategy 'Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8'
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Support organisational skills
Support organisational skills
Suggestions for supporting students’ organisational and processing skills.
- Label key areas of the classroom and resources with visual and text labels.
- Use charts, visual calendars, colour-coded schedules, visible timers and visual cues to increase the predictability of regular activities, transitions between environments and activities, and changes in discussion topics.
- Make graphic organisers and flowcharts available to support breaking tasks into chunks, and thinking and planning in all curriculum areas.
- Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas and relationships using visuals, mind maps, 3D manipulatives, outlines, flowcharts and real objects.
- Give students multiple opportunities to engage with new ideas in a range of contexts.
- Pace content delivery. Give students time to process and integrate information from multiple sources - displays, interpreters, written instructions, the teacher.
Prevent fatigue
Prevent fatigue
Listening for long periods can be hard work.
Keep teacher talk from the front of the room to a minimum and support it with visual materials.
Read about tiredness in deaf children.
Support thinking and pattern recognition
Support thinking and pattern recognition
- Use visuals — graphics, photos, cartoons, pictures — to support text and talk when explaining anything.
- Offer 3D virtual and physical models and real objects to help students identify critical features.
- Use mind maps, flowcharts, and outlines to help students unpack big ideas and relationships.
- Give students multiple opportunities to engage with new ideas and concepts.
- Provide extra time for students to think and process before they need to respond in a discussion.
- Use mindmaps to brainstorm ideas.
- Support group and class discussions with visual annotations to prompt later recall of key ideas.
- Make thinking tools and approaches available across all curriculum areas.
Support independence with visuals
Support independence with visuals
Make step-by-step exemplars of common tasks.
Make these available to all students.
Useful resources
Useful resources
Time Timer (visual timer for visual people!)
For many students being able to see a visual representation of time passing can really support their time management. This video explains how time timer works.
Publisher: Time Timer
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 1-8”:
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Current page Support processing and organisation
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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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Key areas to supportShow suggestions for Key areas to support
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Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8
- Design inclusive learning
- Support participation and confidence
- Present information in different ways
- Support processing and organisation
- Provide options to create, learn and share
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Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13