5 Ways to Help ADHD and Special Education Students Organize and Manage Time

November 25th, 2009 By: Diane Trim in Articles, Teachers' Corner

As secondary school teachers, we often assume that students come to our class with organization skills. They know how to record assignments in their assignment notebooks. They plan their projects to meet a deadline. They understand the steps to take to accomplish a task without direction.

However, many students need extra support to organize their work, especially special education and ADHD students. They might understand your class’s content, but have trouble organizing their materials, allotting their time, and understanding what to do.

Teachers can assist these students, as well as the whole class, with organization and time management by building it into the class routine.

1. Post the plan. Your lesson plan should be on the board for students to see. Students who might not have focused when you said what textbook page has the assignment can look at your plan on the board. Each time you switch activities, show the class where you are on the day’s plan. Provide both visual and auditory cues for homework expectations.
2. Provide time for organization. Just as you’d give a student think time after a question, give students a few moments to write down the day’s assignment in their homework planners. Before introducing the expectations, ask students to pull out their homework planners and record the assignment on both the day you assigned it as well as on the due date – with a box around it to draw a student’s attention.

   When it’s time for the lesson’s closure, review the lesson’s main concept as well as the expectations for the next class (quizzes, assignments due).

3. Provide a checklist. Post your daily routines in the classroom. If you have a requirement for an assignment’s heading, post it on the wall and refer to it for assignments. When assigning projects, include a checklist for students to use when completing each task.
4. Chunk it up. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Students who have problems with organization and time management might see your two-week project like eating an elephant. Help them to parse the work out into smaller bits and assign checkpoints to each step along the way. It’s also a useful full-class activity for students to suggest how to break up the project and assign mini due dates.
5. Provide a rubric. When you assign any work, it’s good practice to let students know how they’ll be evaluated. If you have a standard rubric you use, post it in your classroom and refer to it when you give students an assignment. Talk about the criteria for each requirement and provide examples.

Those five tips will help your special education and ADHD students organize and manage their class work, but each tip is just good practice. Your regular education students will appreciate your efforts, too.

Tags: ADHD, closure, executive functions, organization, time management