Mundane obstacles to success (and their solutions)
Sad but true: A gifted kid I know managed to completely skip a page of an assessment that would determine whether she would qualify for gifted services at her public school.
“Well,” said her grandmother with a sigh, “If she missed that kind of thing, maybe she’s not gifted.”
Actually, though, that’s exactly the kind of mistake a gifted kid is likely to make. Bill Bryson, in his wonderful A Short History of Nearly Everything, recounts how gifted kid Isaac Newton, “upon swinging his feet out of bed in the morning…would reportedly sometimes sit for hours, immobilized by the sudden rush of thoughts to his head.” A classic Gary Larson cartoon likewise pokes fun at the stereotype of the gifted kid who struggles with the basics.
Lots of middle schoolers (and their adult counterparts) have difficulty with executive functioning, which are all those skills of self-management and organization that aren’t usually directly taught in school. Some of these issues can be significant, but there are lots of times when all we need in order to to succeed is a well-timed tweak to our process. Here are some examples:
Change your scenery. Having trouble focusing? Find a different seat (or turn your chair to the other side of the table). It’s like a whole new start!
Copy the problem or question. This seems obvious to people who find typing and writing easy, but some of us try to get away with writing as little as possible. But if we don’t copy the problem down, we may miss something important about it. Also, it means that our work is taking place on a different page from the one where the required information is, which can lead to mistakes and confusion. Step one is to transfer the problem or question to the page in front of you.
Right-handed? Keep your notes on the right. This one comes up all the time! I see right-handed students working with their laptop on their right and their notes on their left, which means their arm is going all the way across their body and they have to turn to the left in order to write. Let’s put the laptop on the left and the notes on the right (and vice versa for lefties).
Other ergonomic issues come up when students put their laptops in their actual lap instead of on the desk. It gets tiring!
Use a laptop, not an iPad. When I’m traveling, I can use my iPad to get my work done. It takes longer, but it fits better on the tray on the airplane and is easier to carry on my back. But it’s definitely a compromise — it’s much harder to switch between apps, harder to type on (even with the keyboard) and keyboard shortcuts don’t work. The smaller screen slows me down, too. If I want to try to get my work done as quickly as possible, I’ll use an actual computer. Students should be given the same opportunity.
Read the directions. Then read them again. And again. Many students don’t realize that to solve a problem, you might need to read it twenty-five times or more. Experienced students do this automatically — but not everyone does.
Draw a diagram. Take notes and think on the paper. Sketch out possibilities. Don’t try to keep it all in your head.
Take all the space you need. So many students are so hellbent on “saving paper” that they will scrunch all of their work into tiny boxes, particularly in math. But we’re not wasting paper — we’re using it. Write out each step of the problem on a new line — and for goodness sake, don’t try to squeeze the numerator and denominator of a fraction onto the same line!
Label everything. Before you write whatever you’re going to write on a piece of paper, label it with your name, the date, and what it is (“Chapter 4 Bio Notes” or whatever). Do this EVERY TIME — don’t think about whether you need to or not. Just build the habit.
None of these tweaks are going to turn someone into an organized person overnight. That’s not what they’re for. But some of them are simple enough to implement in the long-term and improve results accordingly.
The bigger picture is that parents and teachers can always be on the lookout for these kinds of obstacles. Kids miss a lot of things that we take for granted. If we make a game out of recognizing this phenomenon and offering solutions without judgment, we can be helpful in all kinds of unexpected but enduring ways. That builds a sense of trust trust that can help us eventually tackle the bigger things together.