Monthly Archives: May 2022

Image with increasing bar graph, piggy bank, and coins

Teaching Financial Literacy with EF Strategies: Part 3

Cognitive Flexibility, Goal Setting, Self-Monitoring/Self-Checking

This post is part of a series that highlights ways to teach financial literacy with executive function strategies. It’s never too early to teach your students financial literacy and EF strategies that can have a lasting impact(link opens in new tab/window) ↗. 

Goal Setting Continued

In the second post of this series, we covered tips for encouraging students to set goals for life beyond high school. Once students set their goals, it is important to self-monitor and self-check to track their progress over time. When it comes to long-term goals, we can’t just set and forget! 

Self-Monitoring and Self-Checking for Personal Finance

Because each financial situation depends on myriad factors, we can teach students to approach their personal finances flexibly. Employment, medical expenses, inflation, and interest rates are just a few examples that can affect one’s budget and spending.

With multiple financial factors to manage, self-checking and self-monitoring are keys to success. For example, students may need to complete financial forms or loan applications with a careful eye for details. Setting aside time to check their forms for accuracy can ensure a smooth process. Likewise, students can use self-monitoring strategies to assess how their actions and behavior are affecting their spending and aligning with their budget goals.

SMARTS Strategies for Self-Monitoring and Self-Checking

Self-monitoring and self-checking are two executive function areas that are often overlooked and not explicitly taught in school. In the SMARTS curriculum, these areas are clearly defined and modeled for students.

  • Self-monitoring is an ongoing process of noticing what one is doing.
  • Self-checking is the process of finding and correcting mistakes in one’s work.

By learning to monitor and check themselves, students can develop essential skills for successful goal-directed behavior. To learn more, visit our SMARTS videos on Self-Monitoring and Self-Checking.

  • Caitlin Vanderberg, M.Ed., SMARTS Associate

SMARTS Executive Function Curriculum: smarts-ef.org

Research Institute for Learning and Development: researchild.org

The Institute for Learning and Development: ildlex.org

Image comparing equality (same ladder for all people to reach tree) and equity (each person receives the ladder they need to reach the tree)

Promoting Equity through Executive Function

Equity, Executive Function, metacognition

How can executive function curricula help level the playing field in education? Our mission at ResearchILD is to empower ALL students to learn how to learn and to promote persistence and resilience through executive function strategies that build academic and life success. 

Executive function (EF) processes—goal setting, cognitive flexibility, organizing and prioritizing, memorizing, self-checking and monitoring—are critically important for learning and social behavior.

Research has shown that executive function mediates socioeconomic status (SES) disparities in school achievement; therefore, interventions targeting executive function could help to close the SES-related achievement gap. Executive function represents a powerful tool for developing equitable and anti-racist educational systems. 

From the earliest grades, academic tasks require the coordination and integration of numerous processes as well as the ability to think flexibly and self-check. Consider common academic tasks like reading for meaning, solving math problems, elaborating in writing, summarizing, note-taking, and studying. Each of these requires students to set goals, organize and prioritize information, shift perspectives, think and problem-solve flexibly, memorize, and self-monitor. These executive function processes impact the accuracy and efficiency of students’ performance in academic and social situations.

Executive function strategies are for all students. When EF strategies are systematically taught, new pathways are opened as students learn to successfully navigate novel situations in their classrooms, schools, and personal lives. You can read ResearchILD’s complete white paper on executive function and equity here. 

  • Caitlin Vanderberg, M.Ed., SMARTS Associate

SMARTS Executive Function Curriculum: smarts-ef.org

Research Institute for Learning and Development: researchild.org

The Institute for Learning and Development: ildlex.org

A clock next to piles of coins

Teaching Financial Literacy with EF Strategies, Part 2

Goal Setting, metacognition, Self Advocacy

This post is part of a series that highlights ways to teach financial literacy with executive function strategies. It’s never too early to teach your students financial literacy and EF strategies that can have a lasting impact (link opens in new tab/window)↗.

Goal Setting + Life Beyond High School

Teaching students to set goals and monitor their progress is an essential part of setting them up for long-term success. To help students set goals for college and careers, begin with exercises that promote self-understanding around their strengths, challenges, interests, hobbies, and more. Encourage students to define the what, why, and how of their goals, and provide opportunities for them to envision what their life might look like beyond middle and high school. 

After high school, students have many options such as four-year colleges, two-year colleges, and trade schools. These options can vary in terms of time and cost, so it is beneficial to help students consider the return on investment (ROI).

For students who are considering college, the Education Data Initiative offers research and resources to tackle the rising costs of higher education. They have several resources that can help students balance their long-term goals and the cost of higher education(link opens in new tab/window) ↗.

If students are unsure of their path, taking a semester or year off can help students gain experience, develop self-understanding, and find clarity about their path forward. 

Once students determine the outcomes they would like to achieve, encourage them to monitor their goals and consider obstacles that might arise. CANDO Goals Lesson from unit 2 of the SMARTS Curriculum is an excellent way to get students thinking about setting meaningful goals. 

Stay tuned for part 3 of our EF and Financial Literacy series. 

  • Caitlin Vanderberg, M.Ed., SMARTS Associate

SMARTS Executive Function Curriculum: smarts-ef.org

Research Institute for Learning and Development: researchild.org

The Institute for Learning and Development: ildlex.org

A clock, mug, and keyboard

Quick Tip: End-of-Year EF Lessons

Executive Function, Quick Tip, Recommendations

When is the best time to introduce or reinforce an executive function strategy? Any time — even at the end of the school year. Our SMARTS Curriculum Extensions require little preparation and are flexible enough to fit into what you’re already teaching. 

What Are Extensions?

SMARTS Curriculum extensions (found at the end of each SMARTS lesson plan) are easy and efficient ways to teach executive function strategies. SMARTS extensions allow you to weave bits of executive function instruction into existing content. Small but mighty, SMARTS extensions:

  • Stand on their own as quick mini-lessons or serve as a way to review and reinforce a strategy taught in the full lesson
  • Require little to no preparation
  • Offer various options to embed executive function strategies in natural moments within instruction and to extend the learning from a single lesson over time

SMARTS Secondary Extensions

SMARTS Secondary offers over 400 extensions, which are organized into six categories:

  1. Creating strategic learning communities
  2. Reflection/self-advocacy
  3. Test strategies
  4. Projects
  5. Math/science
  6. ELA/social science

These categories offer a way to easily align strategy instruction with your unique teaching setting and learning goals.

SMARTS Elementary Extensions

SMARTS Elementary features extensions for every lesson. You can also use our new lesson sorter to curate lessons by areas such as active reading, flexible thinking and problem solving, self-understanding, perspective-taking, and more.

Got Time? Run a Full Lesson

If your end-of-year schedule allows for full lessons, there are a number of strategies that students can use to set themselves up for summer success. Goal setting is an appropriate strategy to help students think about how they can make the most of their summer break. Purposeful highlighting is useful for test taking and summer reading. 

  • Caitlin Vanderberg, M.Ed., SMARTS Associate

SMARTS Executive Function Curriculum: smarts-ef.org

Research Institute for Learning and Development: researchild.org

The Institute for Learning and Development: ildlex.org