Teaching Students Prioritization
Understanding how to prioritize tasks might not be intuitive for students., so we have listed some tips below on how to approach prioritization with your buddy. Students should understand that choosing to work on complex tasks when they have additional support might be more beneficial than working on easier tasks. We encourage you to focus on establishing a process on how to decide the order in which tasks will be completed taking into account deadlines, level of complexity, and their comfort level with the assignment.
Tips on how to teach students to prioritize tasks
1. Have them make a list of all their weekly tasks. This should be written somewhere where both of you can look at the list. Include deadlines!
Physical planner
Digital planner
Read our time management article to get more ideas
2. Discuss the level of difficulty for each task with your student.
Begin by discussing how many steps each assignment on the list will take. Below is an example:
1- 2 steps = a math worksheet or reading for 20 mins
3-5 steps= outlining and writing a 5 paragraph essay
6-10+ steps = creating a research paper or science project
3. Next, ask which tasks is the student is familiar with and can they complete any of these independently?
Circle or color code tasks that the student can complete independently, so they are easy to point out.
Phase II students shouldn’t have too many challenges completing assignments that take 1-2 steps independently.
Consider how some assignments might be a higher priority if the student traditionally has struggled with the subject matter.
4. Discuss which tasks seem unfamiliar to the student
Identify which tasks the student does not have experience doing or seem particularly challenging. Mark those tasks in a different color!
Ex. The student has never written a research paper before! It’s not due soon BUT they don’t even know where to begin!
Mention that extra support is useful when working on new projects, so this could be something you work on together.
5. Assign an approximate time for each task
Refer back to how many steps each assignment will take to estimate how long it will take to complete each assignment. For example: Each step counts for 30 min- 1 hour
1-2 steps: 30 min- 1 hour (worksheet)
3- 5 steps = 1.5 hours- 5 hours
6- 10+ steps = 6 hours+
If the student is unsure of how long a task will take, they should give themselves extra time.
6. Help the student rank which task they should tackle first and which one they should tackle last.
Have them consider number the steps and length of time.
Decide which one they would like your support in, if any.
Use these worksheets to help assign priority
7. Now that you have a plan, have students include self-care/relaxing time in between their tasks.
Remind students that breaks are also important!
