There’s a Plan for That
Planning isn’t just buying a planner and putting most, or even all your assignments in it. Academic planning must consider the assignments (the what,) the place you work best (the where,) and the available time that you have to complete the work (the when.) Without considering the what, where, and when of planning many students, particularly those with inattention or executive dysfunction, are not successful. Unfortunately, when we look at grades, we assume low grades are a result of not understanding the material. Parents often see poor grades and hire tutors when what is actually needed is developing planning strategies that allow work to be completed well and on time.
“Where” and “on time” are concepts that the majority of adults can naturally include in planning, but children with developing executive functions don’t necessarily consider these elements. Children, teens, and young adults are not willfully setting themselves up for failure, their brains just don’t consider time and place as essential components of planning.
Complete planning takes some effort for the novice but when students are willing to embrace it, it not only teaches time and material organization, but also offers a roadmap to reduced home fights and frustration. Ultimately, planning decreases work time while increasing efficiency and grades. This occurs with a few changes that are simple to incorporate but not easy to stick with because students don’t want to take the upfront time to see how this can radically change their homework organization and production.
The first change is in how assignments are written into a planner. Short term assignments (given today for the next class) can be entered as they are posted on the board or online homework portal. They will look something like read pages 6-9 and answer questions 1-4 or do all even math problems, pages 47-52. It’s the typical entries that everyone makes. Long term assignments should be treated differently in a planner, but this logic is not taught in most classrooms. For longer assignments, you don’t just write test on Thursday if it’s Monday and then put study, study, for entries on Tuesday and Wednesday. Instead, you indicate that there is a test on Thursday and then decide what specific areas of the study will be completed for each night before the test while also realizing that some time has to be given to a complete review on Wednesday night. Instead of Study for Monday night, you might enter, “make flashcards for all vocabulary, dates, and practice them while walking; then, be tested by my mother.” Tuesday might be something like, “understand how the battles advanced Rome’s power,” and Wednesday could be, “consider how geography and transportation impacted the results and final review for tomorrow.” Papers and projects will also be chunked or broken down into equal parts in a planner.
Once the assignments are listed as meaningful activities, students should estimate how much time they think the work will take and plug the work into times when they are free. This is essential because may students have full afternoon and evening schedules with their out-of-school activities. Families must make sure that there is time for homework or scale back on activities and then students must understand where they have time to work and not fritter that time away on electronics. Planning for appropriate time must include docking a phone away from where students are working if they cannot control their phone use. It should always occur away from gaming devices. Parents can control settings on computers to block a child’s distractions.
The final piece to complete planning is determining the right place for a student to work. Many children work in their bedrooms, but if they are easily distracted by their room or if they work on their bed, the bedroom is not the right place for them to do homework. Most elementary, many high school and some college students cannot control their electronics use. When that is the case, students should be working in a public area and not have their phone on the surface where they are working. Brain research shows that electronics distractions may occur in seconds but take minutes away from work as the student refocuses. Students are adding minutes, maybe hours, to their work time when they are multitasking with electronic use that isn’t necessary for the assignment.
Some of the most recent research on students working in their rooms is much more disturbing than what was previously known. New research is correlating working with computers on beds to a significant increase in sleep disorders. These studies indicate that brains imprint that the bed is a place to do work and when students try to go to sleep, their brains don’t relax and allow deep sleep. These studies prove that families must make sure that students are working away from their beds and if they can’t commit to that when alone in their rooms, they have to be moved to a public area to complete their homework.
Ultimately, planning is a formulaic three-part structure that becomes routine. It doesn’t take a significant amount of time once it is natural to the student, but most students resist in the beginning. Proving its value is essential for students to understand its worth. Parents should involve themselves in creating a planning system and guaranteeing that it is completed each day. Once students see the results of a few assessments and have developed their afternoon planning routine, parents can let their children take over and check in less often. Given that we want our children to develop learned independence, helping them become effective and efficient planners will give them a roadmap to success.