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Develop Self-Monitoring Skills

Tags

Social-Emotional Learning All Ages Strategy

Skills

Self-regulation Organization Attention

Develop Self-Monitoring Skills

If your student regularly under or over-estimates the amount of time and effort required on longer tasks

How To Apply It!

  1. Provide students with ongoing support and positive reinforcement so they learn to successfully self-monitor to complete longer, more complex tasks.
  2. The ultimate objective is that before students head off for college they are able to independently review assignments, assess the amount of work required and pace themselves accordingly. Students develop these skills at widely varying rates and will need very different levels of support.
  3. During a long assignment, encourage students to periodically ask themselves: How am I doing? Am I moving at the right pace? What can I do better or differently? They should be able to assess and think, "25% complete," or "only 10 problems left."
  4. In some cases, adults can periodically check in with these questions while a student is doing homework. A teacher might ask the student the question during a test. External monitoring can catch problems early in a task and prevent melt-downs, incomplete assignments, and frustration.
  5. If students have ongoing difficulty finishing, consider helping them create a check-in list at periodic times before they dive in. Before a test, encourage students to check the time after they finish the first section to be sure they are giving themselves sufficient time for the full test. During math homework, have a student check how long the first problem took and see if they need to try something different for subsequent problems.
  6. Read more about self-monitoring.

Why It Works (the Science Of Learning)!

We know that the most successful adults in the workplace are those who are self-aware and make adjustments as they go. Self-monitoring in homework and other tasks is the student's version of this important skill. While some students take to self-monitoring as early as third grade, others need adult support through high school. While students might not always like hearing from their parents, they will begin to appreciate how reflection helps their progress and can gradually begin to take on this responsibility themselves.