First Post

Prompt: After talking with your small group, and with your appointment partners, what are you thinking now about your inquiry (this can be about your routine data source, your focal student conversation, next steps, or something else that is on your mind about your inquiry).

Rationale:

Task initiation as a “clash point” (Ginny)

My students possess knowledge – but, because of their affect, teachers affect, their self image as learners, their neurodevelopmental profiles, or their social identity/demands beginning a task – starting, initiating work is often an intersection of non-action or negative corrective action or punishment. 

My students escalate conflicts when asked to do simple things sometimes. Or other times they melt down in angry outbursts. Or they sit quietly... in the corner... without starting any work either. 

Part of my job is to support students in all their courses - including their mainstream classes where the task demands are significantly more challenging  If I can support my co-teachers with strategies to help students begin to engage then my hope is that they will complete more work, build their sense of can-do confidence, and ultimately acquire the skills necessary for independent adult living.  

This work will be done:

In My Own Classroom

With our School's Special Educators 

With a few focal General Education Teachers

...because we need to use every minute of class strategically - we ain't got time to waste on power struggles or avoidance!

Domain: Promoting Executive Function Skills

Sub-Domain: Task Initiation - Specific Strategies

First Semester

Job Talk

Future Sketching

Second Semester

Declarative Language

Red-Yellow-Green/ ready-set-go

Action Items:

1. Add descriptors to the 1-5 strength/challenge scale on the executive functioning inventory
2. Get clarity on Declarative Language
3. Pre-coded observation forms; maybe 2 types (deductive coded and inductive AH teacher-student form)
4. Pre-coded observation forms for: job talk, future sketching, declarative language, instances of student conflicts (and who), instances of corrective prompts (and who)
5. Teacher evaluation asking: have these techniques helped? How? Examples? Fails?
6. Schedule of implementation (my room w/ Ms. T, with SPED team, with gen ed)
7. A teacher interview form would be cool. Plus having them complete the student conference form independently (3x/year?)   

Thinking Items:

Breaking apart task initiation

How can I / will I support when students initiate, and then stop?

Good Questions:

Is focusing on this the affect or is this a way to avoid affect?

This is good because task initiation happens every day.

Can teachers observe each other?