For us to help each student succeed, each of us needs to use accommodations for students with ADHD. While 11% of students are diagnosed with ADHD, each student possesses different strengths and weaknesses; so there’s no such thing as a typical ADHD student. This week’s blog will focus on social skills.
Students with ADHD experience difficulty making and sustaining friendships. Their impulsivity or hyperness may turn-off peers. They may have trouble picking up on social cues, and they may have trouble controlling emotions. Now imagine yourself as a sophomore with ADHD who has had trouble developing social skills. Learning, whether academic or “real-life” is a social activity, and for most students, friends are the primary reason to come to school. Again, take a second to put yourself in this student’s shoes.
So what can we, as educators, do to ensure the success of ADHD students both academically and socially?
- Use cooperative learning activities with clearly assigned roles for each student. Flexible and purposeful grouping of students is essential as placing students with ADHD with other students who struggle socially or executive functioning struggles will not yield success.
- Strategically partner students for activities like Think-Pair-Share, Shared Verbal Fluency, Rally Robin, Timed Pair Share, etc.
- When possible, have ADHD students share or teach peers when they are successful.
- Provide structure and supervision. ADHD students benefit from pre-conferencing (explain expectations and provide positive feedback at the beginning of class/prior to an activity).
- Because ADHD students may ramble or say inappropriate things, they benefit from structured conversations or the ability to practice what they are going to say before speaking to the entire class.
- Focus on the big things. ADHD students often struggle to remain on-task and well-behaved for 85 minutes. They know the rules but have trouble executing and internalizing.
- Create processes to slow ADHD students down. This may be writing or verbalizing a plan of action for an assignment or creating a to-do list for a larger assignment. Use of wait time in questioning is an important strategy as well.
- Allow ADHD students time to practice social skills.
- Create a signal/cue to help ADHD students improve their social skills.
Useful Links:
Friday Activity Calendar (Mentorship/Portfolio/Club Day) : March 3 is Mentorship (Tolerance and Pep Rally Survey on MoHS webpage)
Portfolio Assistance If you have a student who needs assistance setting up his/her portfolio, click here
Technology / Website Permission Request Form http://go.shr.lc/1HovEA6 Please use this form to request use of a website that requires student log-in if the site is not already on the approved list. DART approved list
Morning Announcement Stream: http://streaming.k12albemarle.org/ACPS/links.htm Please be sure to have announcements cued and ready to go at 8:55 every morning.
Announcement Request: http://tinyurl.com/requestannouncement
Calendar and Memo Items
A-B-A-B-A
Help Save The Next Girl: 9th and 10th grades, Feb 28; 11th and 12th grades, March 1 Here’s the schedule
March 6-10: Writing SOL for Re-testers and Transfers
March 9: Parent-Teacher Conferences
March 21 & 22: All 10th graders will take Writing SOL tests
March 28: Middle School/Rising 9th Grader Visit; No Mustang Morning
March 30: End 3rd Quarter
April 21: Spring Pep Rally
Project-Based Learning: The What, Why, and How! -April 3
Virginia Association for the Gifted is excited to offer an introduction to Project-Based Learning: The What, Why, and How at the Lynchburg City Schools' Information Technology Center. Participants will explore delivery models by engaging in the creative process of developing their own project step by step with collaborative support from instructors and peers. All participants will receive resources for building future units along with a collection of previously developed ideas. Deadline for registration is March 29 and the event is April 3.
Birthdays
March 1: Mark Knight (custodian)
March 3: Chris Stanek
Worth Your Time
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