Students and I work together to identify systems and habits that already work for them and develop new ones. One main goal of mine is to guide students toward strengthening their metacognition (essentially self-awareness about the ways they think and learn best) so that they can 1) reduce stress, 2) make life easier, and 3) get things done–not just the things they have to do but also the things they want to do.
The idea of executive functioning coaching frequently conjures up the image of a tutor lugging around a giant accordion folder with color-coded post-it notes. While I encourage my students to draw on the external resources available to them–calendars, pencil bags, binders, Siri reminders, and yes, accordion folders and post-it notes–it is of utmost importance to me to shine a light on the internal tools that students already have and that they can strengthen and rely on in school and beyond.
Students who work with me can expect to work through the following components of my EF program:
Debriefing, planning, and previewing: time awareness is the often forgotten prerequisite to time management. Moreover, many students get stuck in patterns of unhelpful organizational habits and lack the intentional guided space to reflect on those habits. With that in mind, I carve out time in each session during which students debrief the past few days, outlining what they’d give themselves credit for and what they’d do differently in the future. Armed with those reflections, we plan the next few days and “preview” them together to gauge how the plan we’ve come up with might or might not work out and make adjustments accordingly. By adopting a routine of looking to the past to prepare for the future, students strengthen both their time awareness and self-awareness.
Setting goals and making them SMART: many students who struggle with task-initiation do so either because they have not articulated a concrete goal, or they have difficulty creating the staircase of smaller steps that will to get them to the top of the proverbial tower. Employing the framework of SMART (specific, measurable, adjustable, realistic, time-based) goals, I encourage students to envision and articulate where they’d like to see themselves and how they might realistically get there.
Unconditional support and non-judgment: students and I take on the roles of researchers, objectively observing their organizational habits and collecting data on the results of those habits. As we work together to develop systems that students agree to try out, things will inevitably slip through the cracks! My philosophy is that it is important for the development of their independence to occasionally (or frequently) stumble along the way. In the same way that I want to preview and plan with them–not at nor for them–in the wake of inevitable miscalculations, I want students to know that I will respond with support and encouragement and debrief with them (also not at them nor for them).
Udelson Tutoring 