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Executive Functioning

TASK ANALYSIS:

The Simple Trick to Getting Your Work Done on Time 

 

One of the most important skills to completing a class assignment on time is understanding the steps involved and knowing about how long the task will take to complete. Students with a LBLD rarely have an intuitive sense of the break down of a task nor do they have a realistic idea of the time it will take to get it done – thus, assignments are often late or not completed at all.

 

Task Analysis is worth teaching students. It doesn’t take a great deal of instructional time but the payoff can be dramatic.

 

After giving an assignment, teachers can ask students to:

  • Predict what steps are involved in completing the assignment?
  • How will they tackle the work?
  • How long do they think it will take them? (You can even require students to write this down).
  • Compare student responses and then share your expectations.

For example, if students are assigned to read a chapter and be prepared to take a quiz on it the next day, they may not be aware that it requires:

  • Carefully reading the chapter
  • Underlining, highlighting or taking notes on the key ideas
  • Reviewing the key ideas prior to coming to class – very different than just quickly skimming over the chapter. Being prepared for the quiz will take much more time/effort than they may have allotted.

 

Using a task analysis chart, (http://www.ldonline.org/pdfs/Sample-Task-Analysis-Time-Estimation-Sheet.pdf) require students to estimate how long an assignment will take to complete and then record the actual time it took to complete. Have them calculate the time difference and discuss their findings in class the following day.

 

Do this for a week’s worth of assignments – students will become more aware of what’s involved in completing their work, and will be better able to anticipate, plan, and therefore get all of their work done on time.

 

Adapted from Teaching Time Management to Students with Learning Disabilities. Adapted from Study Skills: Research-Based Teaching Strategies. Prides Crossing, MA: Landmark School, 28-31.