School: Executive Function Skills Program Designed for Students At-Risk
Oxford Schools, Michigan
Nadya Chacon,
General Educator
Grade: 1
Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland
Jessica Gray,
Special Educator
Grades: K–2
Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland
Kimberly Hale,
General Educator
Grade: 3
Wake County Public Schools, North Carolina
Elisabeth Halici,
General Educator
Grades: Elementary and Middle
Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland
Meredith Julius,
MA
High School: Executive Function Skills Program Designed for Students At-Risk
Berkley Schools, Michigan; Formerly Oxford Schools, Michigan
Mychael Moe,
Special Educator
Grade: Ka’u High and Pahala Elementary School (KHPES), Ka’u High, and Pahala Elementary Hilo, Hawaii
Student B.
Grade: 8
Student J.
Grade: 6
Student K.
Grade: 9
Student S.
Grade: 10
Shannon Sullivan,
Special Educator
Grades: Middle School Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland
Batya Toso,
Special Educator
Grades: K, 4, 5
Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland
Jennifer Cossette Ventura,
General Educator
Grade: 1
Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland
Dedication
To my husband Jim, thank you for all your love, your belief in and work to bring executive function skill training to all students, and for being a source of strength to me as I have worked on this book.
To my children, Kent, thank you for believing in and supporting me and Kim, thank you for participating as a coach in Project Boost and contributing to this book. I would also like to thank their spouses, Laura and Jamie, for all your encouragement in the writing of this book. To my grandchildren, Sophie, Kendall, Brinkley, and Jay, thank you for your love and participation in Project Boost; you are the best grandchildren ever.
—Roberta Strosnider
To my husband Mike, thank you for your never ending love, support, encouragement, and active listening skills during the writing of this book. Your thoughtful, and sometimes humorous comments were a sure sign that you understood the importance of me seeing this project through to fruition.
To my loving children, Kristy, Kelly, Jeremy, and Alex, you are the best cheerleaders a mom could have. To Kristy and Kelly, thank you for your years of participation as coaches in Project Boost.
—Val Sharpe
To all of our P–12 and higher education students, thank you for the opportunity to have a small part in your education.
—Roberta Strosnider and Val Sharpe
Introduction
During our years of working with P–12 students as teachers ourselves and our experience as observers of teachers, we found that many students had problems in executive functioning (EF) and, therefore, did not respond to general methods of teaching. They seemed anxious at the start of a new school year, yet expressed hope that things would be different in the year to come. Unfortunately, these students continued to face the same difficulties year after year because the root of their difficulties was not identified, and they did not receive interventions that specifically targeted executive function skills. We decided to write this book based on those experiences and especially as a response to results we saw in students following Project Boost, as a week-long skills camp session for students ages five to sixteen prior to the start of school.
Project Boost was designed to build students’ self-confidence as they approached the new school year, and the focus was on teaching strategies that would boost their executive control. The idea was to give students a “jump start” or “boost” by introducing them to strategies that could make a difference in how they approached learning. The strategies for improving executive function skills were taught over a short period and were the focus of the week. During this period, we used the strategies and technology described in this book. Students learned basic home keys and a system for keyboarding. They each completed a short research project to practice the strategies they learned for conducting research using technology. We found that all students learned the strategies at a faster pace than we thought possible and left Project Boost with self-confidence in their new skills as they approached the upcoming school year.
The response from parents, teachers, and students was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and all students started the school with a “Success Plan” (see chapter 1 for more information) to be shared with their teacher(s). We followed up with students intermittently throughout the school year and found that, while many of them were continuing to use the strategies they had learned during the one-week camp, the carry-over was greatest when their parents and teachers reinforced the use of the strategies. In addition, we had the opportunity to work with some of the students weekly throughout multiple academic years. With these students, we were able not only to review the skills they had learned but also to connect the strategies to their academic program working with their parents and teachers. We quickly saw that the students who made the most progress were those who had follow-up throughout the academic year. Some students returned to the summer skills camp for multiple years and eventually became peer tutors for new students.
The takeaway from that experience and our many years as educators
