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There is an optimal rate for
accomplishing most tasks. A competent student is often a
well-paced student, performing at a rate appropriate to
the task and available time. Taking the appropriate amount
of time for a task is largely dependent upon both a
student’s temporal-sequential skills and his/her
attentional abilities. Temporal-sequential skills help us
interpret, retain, or create information that is in serial
order. These skills are related to a student’s ability to
appreciate time in general and estimate time
appropriately.
Tempo control (a facet of attention) helps students
regulate the allocation of time to the task at hand, and
predict the time required for an upcoming task. Tempo
control also instills a sense of “step-wisdom”, the
knowledge that it is more effective to undertake
activities in a series of steps, rather than all at once.
Tempo control allows a student to match his/her pacing to
the demands of a given task, e.g., to take the right
amount of time to finish an essay test, to do a homework
assignment thoroughly yet efficiently, etc.
Here are some strategies to help
students become better able to take the appropriate amount
of time on assignments and activities.
Developing Concepts of Time
- Help students understand the
relationship between how long they should maintain
focus, and how much time will be required to do a task
well. For example, teach students to analyze a task or
assignment in advance, and to estimate the time needed
to complete it. You may need to demonstrate how to do
this type of time estimation, and how to budget time
accordingly.
- Promote the evenly balanced use of
effort and pacing, e.g., not working too franticly or
too slowly during a test or assignment.
- Have students develop time lines for
historical and narrative events to improve their
appreciation of temporal sequence, or the passing of
events through time.
- Encourage students to keep a diary,
which may make the sequence of events in time or the
passage of time more meaningful.
Managing Time
- To improve time management skills,
have students make up a study schedule for a day, the
week, etc.
- Require students to plan for a
designated number of minutes, work for a designated
number of minutes, review for a designated number of
minutes, etc.
- Encourage students to make outlines
for written reports and oral presentations to help with
the pacing and organization of their ideas.
- Do not allow students to perseverate
on tasks for longer than is necessary. For example,
suggest spending only two minutes on each problem,
brainstorming as a short separate exercise before
writing, etc.
- Stress the real-life benefits of
both estimating before doing, and reasoning after doing
(e.g., thinking about the answers to math problems, the
results of a science experiment, etc.). Discourage the
preoccupation students may have with just getting the
answer.
- Eliminate student incentives for
frenzied pacing, or rushing through work. Remove
positive reinforcement for being the first to finish a
task.
- Allow students to use calculators,
word processors, dictating machines, etc. to increase
their rate of production during assignments.
- Teach students how to use textbooks
efficiently, e.g., how to use the table of contents and
the index, to skim the chapter for key words, dates and
names, to look at pictures for clues to meaning, to read
the questions at the end of a chapter before reading the
chapter, etc.
Breaking Activities Into Steps
(Staging)
- Encourage students to use staging,
i.e., to break a complex task into smaller, shorter, or
less complex “mini-tasks.” For example, provide students
with a template such as a blank timeline, flow chart, or
task web to use to analyze a task and break it into
stages. Show how pre-planning long or complex tasks into
stages can be beneficial.
- Encourage students to take
intermittent breaks when working on long assignments,
undertaking many tasks, or working for an extended
period of time, e.g., a sustained period of listening,
taking notes, or silent reading. Make work more
manageable by having students solve a certain number of
problems, write a certain number of words or sentences,
or read a certain number of paragraphs at a time.
- Reinforce the staging process by
rewarding students with quick breaks when mini-tasks are
completed.
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