Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Throw your middle school exec function tips at me

It is wonderful that your DD has a strong motivation to succeed and already uses checklists. IME you can exploit the combination to help her navigate this disorganized teachers classroom by putting a checklist in the front of her notebook/binder for that class with an expanding file (ours were made by "case it") with labeled sections for stuff to turn in, stuff required to be displayed (syllabus and class rules etc), stuff to take home, stuff to work on, etc for each class. These expanding files had 3 holes and would fit inside a notebook. If you put the checklist inside a sheet protector (or laminate it) she can see it and even mark on it and then you erase it with her that evening. Her checklist might include: turn in assignment, record board notes, record homework, pick up handouts…
The hope is that she'll form good habits and eventually (high school) not need the checklist, but it really could be used forever.

These expanding files worked really well until DD stopped using them because most of the work was online. Problem was not ALL the work was online.

Our DD never really mastered the planner in high school, but is giving it another try in college. (bought one of her own free will with kittens on it LOL)

I mentioned this on a different thread, asking for input: I was wondering if having a wristwatch with an alarm would help DS, if it cued him (maybe five minutes or so?) before the end of class to refer to a checklist.

DS initially refused the idea, but now thinks it would be helpful. There are watches that vibrate. We'll try this and see if it works as a cue.

I don't think he needs this in the more structured classes, but in the more free-form ones, perhaps it would help. Maybe that would be worth a try for your DD, since it sounds like she is on board but just struggling to remember how the class functions.

So yesterday, with your good suggestions, we put a clear page protector in her folder for this class with TO TURN IN in huge letters on it. I will still need to work with her on making sure the stuff goes IN there, and it won't help with the end-of-class assignment, but I feel like it's a start. I think the other thing we should do is make a to-do list/reminder list or some visible system with a way to write down HW for the class. DD suggested a dry-erase system of some kind. I am proud of her. She's trying!

Because...what I'm hearing is that this class is super low on cues and systems. The teacher does NOT ask for work to be handed in, there are no desks, the seating arrangement is chaotic (and it's easy for her to be missed) and, get this, they are not supposed to take out their planners during the class! So she is orally given assignments and expected to either remember them or write them down later or in, I guess, some other location (her folder?) This is a recipe for disaster. She needs a way to note it.

Re the watch--I actually really like this for DD, but she is very fashion-oriented and also extremely worried and embarrassed about the fact that she is in treatment for a mental health issue already. I don't think she would ever go for it, for fear of looking different, being asked what it is, etc. I think I AM about to bend and get her a smartphone, which is going to be tricky, but she has independence WRT going to/from school now and it's kind of a safety matter. I know she can't use it during school, but reminder apps etc are legion these days and I think I will look at those for nonschool structuring and reminders.

brilliantcp, can you show me what you mean by expanding file? I think I have a different definition of that term, based on how you are using it, but I'd like to know what you are speaking about in case it might work for us.

WT*?

I seriously think making contact with teacher ASAP is in your DD's best interest. I understand you have no formal ADHD dx but it's common knowledge any child with attention issues needs more than auditory reminders about these things.

Beyond that, it's just poor practice--no planners OR assignments written on board? Not that I'd mention *that* to the teacher, probably better to frame it as DD's needs. I don't know what identified mental health issue you're referencing, but you could very appropriately bring up this situation with the teacher (e.g. DD has anxiety, this is causing her distress).

We also implemented the smartphone this year (even though I was philosophically opposed), but in my DC's school, the students are allowed to look at it--just not during class time. This has been helpful for texting reminders to both DC and my (anxious) DD11 uses it to get moral support throughout the day.

I hear you on the watch--DD wouldn't like that, either, although she does wear a FitBit and you can set vibrating alarms on that, as well. She doesn't need that (of course--because life works that way here), but the FitBit is trendy and she likes it. I wouldn't consider a FitBit for forgetful-loses-everything DS, though.

DS uses a Trapper Keeper with an accordion file and that has helped immensely with not losing papers. Still--doesn't address the turn the work in piece.

(As an aside: I don't know why some teachers are so opposed to asking the class for their work, as part of the routine. DS' HS teachers do this, but not his MS teachers. Go figure. Psychologist mentioned yesterday that the gifted teachers probably just expect that the students' EF matches their GAI--a blistering miscalculation in our case).

I woud bet money there are many students who are flailing about in the class you mention. That is just not a good way to support the students' learning and developing organizational skills.

There may be assignments on the board, but she also gives them orally. I couldn't believe it either, about the planner! But they are separated from their "stuff" and only have their one folder at their seats during class. This teacher is very experienced, btw. I don't know what to think, really. It's always possible that I am missing pieces of the story.

The Fitbit is kind of a cool idea.

BTW, DD is also in a FT gifted/acclerated program. It has been our experience (she was in one for elementray as well) that these programs routinely assume that kids are high in EF as well as IQ. Why would one assume this??

Ignorance? My two youngest had a teacher with this attitude. In a conference one day, she told me bluntly that DD should have the executive function of a child two years older than she was if she was in a class with kids who were up to two years older.

I tried to explain that EF doesn't develop at the same time as cognitive ability in many children, and after I was done with what I was saying, she answered, "I still don't believe it. She should just be able to it."

I suspect that some teachers have an idea about what "giftedness" looks like, and the picture is of a compliant child who always hands homework in on time, always gets As, and never causes trouble or inconvenience. This woman certainly had that idea.

Most of my kids' teachers haven't had this attitude, but in the ones who did, it was entrenched.

ETA: can your daughter put a sticky Post-it on whatever she has at her desk and not the assignment down on that?

Here is a link to the "case it" expandable file.

http://www.amazon.com/Case--Locker-...ords=Case+It+ACC-21+5-TAB+Expanding+File

Note that this is a component of a larger system that I have not used (but looks like a backpack alternative). We just used these expandable files and put them in DD's back pack.

The video on the link shows the whole system.

Thanks! That is not something I was familiar with.