#Prioritizing tasks how to

Block out only a small amount of the content for students beginning to build note-taking skills.Create three different versions of this outline.Create an exemplary outline, or use inclusive student notes from previous years that clearly designate prioritized main topics and lesser subtopics.

Work with redacted notes:В This is a great scaffolding to guide students in prioritizing which information from lectures or texts they should be writing down and later reviewing.

After this ranking, ask them to think about and list the qualities that they used to prioritize the best.Д¤.

They put the ads in order of best, second best, and third best.

Students select three print advertisements that they think are good.

This helps them become conscious of the criteria by which they can prioritize relevance, validity, and quality throughout the curriculum and beyond.

Prioritize the вЂњbestвЂќ:В Show students the systems that they already use for prioritizing quality. Remind them that, with most art, the viewer is encouraged to relate and take away ideas that are personal and not necessarily those of the creator.ДЈ. Experience prioritizing without fear of being вЂњwrongвЂќ:В Show students a variety of photos, paintings, or video clips and invite their opinions about what they found to be the most important detail or big idea.

When you were successful on a test for which you studied, how did you decide which information was the most important to learn and study?Дў.

How do you select what to write down as you take class or textbook notes?.

Start by having them reflect on which of these they already do successfully, and have a class discussion for sharing strategies and making students aware of the skills they already possess. They use it when planning an essay, selecting which information to include in notes, or evaluating word problems in math for the relevant data. Recognize skills that they already have:В Prioritizing is essential for students in all subjects. In planning instruction, use the following guidelines to help students develop their awareness of what prioritizing is, and the practices that build their prioritizing power.ДЎ. Students should be explicitly taught and given opportunities to practice the executive function skill sets of prioritizing. Neuroplasticity, the process that rapidly prunes disused circuits and strengthens most-used circuits, means that when you give students ways to activate their executive functions, these highest control networksВ become stronger. During childrenвЂ™s school years, their brains become more streamlined and efficient. My focus is still on the early adolescent years (ages 10вЂ“12), but the strategies can be tweaked to help students of all ages become more competent at recognizing higher-priority information and self-directed in planning their time.ДЇirst, letвЂ™s review why teachers are critically positioned to provide studentsвЂ™В brains with guided experiences that activate neural networks of executive functions. This time, I look at helping them build prioritizing, time management, and goal-directed planning skills. In a previous post, вЂњ Brain Development and Adolescent Growth Spurts,вЂќ I suggested ways to build studentsвЂ™В organizational skills.

#Prioritizing tasks how to

It is also at work when students plan how to invest their time and effort.

Prioritizing is what takes place when the brain distinguishes main ideas from low-relevance details. The executive function of prioritizing guides two types of tasks.