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How to Use Strengths on Difficult Tasks

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Social-Emotional Learning All Ages Strategy

How to Use Strengths on Difficult Tasks

All students, particularly those with large inconsistencies between skills

Teach It!

  1. Objective: Students will become aware of their strengths so they can learn to use them to support weaker skills.
  2. Instruction: a) Build confidence and ease in using strengths to solve problems. Read with your student the Mindprint primer that corresponds with his or her Mindprint strengths to find ways to apply their strong skills. b) Offer positive feedback on how the student has used a strength successfully and resulted in a good outcome. Help the student become aware of how he is using his strengths while he works. While solving a math problem, you might ask, "Why did you choose that strategy...?" "Why do you think it worked?" "Where else could you use that skill?" c) When ready, try a similar approach in an area where the child has difficulty. Choose a specific strategy to suggest to the student. Reflect back to, "Remember when we did the math problem. You tried it that way. Maybe we can do the same thing here..."

Why It Works (the Science Of Learning)!

With enough practice in areas where they already have confidence, children will eventually feel comfortable being open to new ideas and trying new approaches in areas that are difficult. Adults should expect to help students identify the best strategies based on their specific combination of strengths, needs, interests and personalities.