What: When approaching any project, students often encounter two problems: not planning enough or planning inappropriately for the given situation. Regardless of time given to complete a project, too many students choose to begin the night before or create a plan that does not adequately match the task at hand. As students become more adept at planning, they become more effective at learning. Teachers can support their students by brainstorming ideas at the start of a project, assignment, or exam announcement.  

Directions:

When presenting students with a large project, have them,

• Break down project into manageable chunks

• Determine which skills need to be completed

• Organize information

• Analyze progress as they work through the project

Templates/Resources: 

• Instructional Steps and Template

Scaffolds: 

• Start with a clear picture of the final product: use a finished example, a checklist, or “I can” statements so students know what “done” looks like.

• Use the same planning structure in every class: keep one consistent backwards planning template so students practice the skill, not a new form. 

• Teach common task types: help students break work into familiar steps like read, take notes, research, draft, revise, practice, and submit.

• Break tasks into time chunks: plan work in 15–30 minute blocks or by class periods instead of vague steps.

• Model the thinking out loud: regularly show students how to think backward from the final product to the first step.

• Always provide a clear first step: give students a starting action so they don’t freeze at the beginning.

• Let students plan with a partner before working independently: use partner checks or quick teacher feedback on plans before students start the task.

• Use reflection to build independence: ask students to reflect on which steps worked, which took the longest, and what they would change next time.

• Gradually remove scaffolds: move from full templates to checklists, then to students creating their own plans.

What: Graphic organizers are a powerful tool for organizing information, using words and symbols to identify and clarify patterns and relationships. The decision about which type of organizer to use depends on the purpose of the learning task.

In almost all cases, graphic organizers are most powerful when they are generated by students. Also, make sure students understand that exemplars are intended to give them an idea of the pattern of the organizer, there are no hard and fast rules about the number of lines, boxes, circles, etc. on any map. They should include as many ideas as possible, not be limited by the organizer or map.

Thinking Maps can and should be used to reinforce specific thought-processes, regardless of content or task.

Task-oriented graphic organizers should be used when the task itself is part of understanding the content.

Directions:

1. Explain: teach students how to use the graphic organizer you’ve chosen for the activity. Explicitly explain the situations in which certain graphic organizers are used and why they are effective for use at those times. 

2. Practice: give students time to practice using various graphic organizers. While one student may find T-charts especially helpful, another student might prefer Venn diagrams.

3. Use: after exposing your students to several different types of graphic organizers and showing them the proper ways to use these organizers, you’ve given them a chance to find a new tool that they can use on their own for future projects.

Templates/Resources: 

• Organized by thinking type (signal words, sentence frames)

• Thinking Maps (Google Slides templates)

• Graphic Organizers (Google Slides templates)

Scaffolds: 

• Explicitly teach the purpose of the organizer: explain what thinking the organizer supports (compare, sequence, cause/effect, evidence, planning).

• Model how to complete it: fill out part of the organizer together and talk through your thinking.

• Provide a completed or partially completed example: show what a strong finished organizer looks like before students start.

• Limit the amount of information required: start with fewer boxes or sections so students focus on thinking, not filling space.

• Use sentence starters or prompts in each section: add guiding questions or sentence frames directly into the organizer.

• Color-code sections: use consistent colors for ideas, evidence, explanations, or steps.

• Chunk the organizer into steps: have students complete one section at a time instead of the entire organizer at once.

• Match the organizer to the task: use different organizers for different thinking (timeline, T-chart, flowchart, claim-evidence-reasoning).

• Connect organizers to the final product: show how each section transfers directly into writing, a presentation, or a solution. 

• Allow collaborative completion first: let students work with a partner or group before completing one independently.

• Offer a “minimum expectation” version: clearly state the least that needs to be filled in to be successful.

• Use verbal check-ins: ask students to explain what they wrote and why, not just what goes in the box.

• Reuse the same organizers across units: familiar formats help students focus on content rather than structure.

• Gradually remove supports: fade sentence starters, examples, and prompts over time.

• Reflect on usefulness: ask students which part helped them most and how the organizer supported their learning.

What: SMART goals are utilized by students to help them set goals, decide on specific steps that they will need to take to attain those goals, and use their time-management skills to achieve the goals in a timely manner. These goals can be implemented in any content area during any time of the school year.

Directions: Overview and instructional steps 

Templates/Resources: 

• Google Doc Template

Scaffolds: 

• To increase scaffolding, provide students with sentence stems for each section of the My SMART Goal handout. For instance, in the “M” column, the stem can be: “I will know that I have reached my goal when I can __________.” A stem for the “A” column can be: “First, I am going to __________, and then I am going to __________.”

What: To aid students with their comprehension of content, it is important for them to organize their thoughts and make judgments about the most appropriate note-taking methods. Note-taking is most beneficial when the student has control over setting the notes up in a way that will support deeper understanding. In this activity, students will consider a variety of texts and resources to determine the most appropriate way to organize notes based on the purpose or learning outcome of the task. Students will then justify the format that is most appropriate based on their purpose for the activity. 

Directions: Instructional Steps 

Templates/Resources: 

• Note organization ideas for 2 and 3-column notes, and annotation ideas for students interacting with their notes after taking them

• Digital Notetaking Templates

• Focused Note Templates (Google Slides)

Scaffolds: 

• Provide a note-taking template (Cornell, Two-Column, Concept Map)

• Offer sample higher-level questions for the left column

• Sentence stems for summaries (“The big idea is…” “This connects to…”)

• Highlighting or color-coding cues

• Model a full FNT cycle before students practice

What: Tracking assignment completion is one of the keys to ensuring that students are both completing and monitoring their work. The Assignment Log provides one method that students can use to review their class progress and track the necessity of keeping and organizing materials. This tool helps students assess what assignments are needed and when, while also encouraging them to reflect on when those assignments are no longer needed. 

Directions: Instructional Steps 

Scaffolds: 

• To increase scaffolding, prior to beginning this log, create a list of possible metaphors to represent how they organize and maintain their assignments. For instance, it could be a file cabinet or a black hole. After they finish the unit, have students come up with their own metaphor that wasn’t included on the original list.

• Teach the purpose of the tracker: explain that the tracker helps students know what to do, when to do it, and what to keep.

• Model how to fill it out using a real assignment: complete one tracker together and explain each column out loud.

• Pre-fill predictable information: provide assigned dates and due dates so students focus on decision-making, not copying.

• Use student-friendly language for each column: clarify what “grade received” means and when it should be filled in.

• Add guiding questions for studying
  Examples:
  “Is this graded?”
  “Does this show up on the exam?”
  “Is this a skill I will see again?”

• Teach a simple study decision rule. Example: “If it’s graded OR connected to a test, keep it.”

• Define “recycle” clearly: explain that recycling means the work is no longer needed, not that it wasn’t important.

• Provide a timeline for recycling. Example:
  “Keep until graded and reviewed” or “Keep until after the unit test.”

• Use icons or symbols
  Checkmark = study
  Clock = keep for now
  Recycle symbol = recycle later

• Chunk tracker use into routines: update tracker at the end of class or once per week instead of randomly.

• Build in teacher or partner checks. Have students compare trackers with a partner to catch missing information.

• Start with fewer columns. Introduce the tracker in stages before using the full version.

• Use reflection prompts:
  Ask: “What helped me decide what to keep or recycle?”

• Reuse the same tracker format across classes. Consistency helps students build independence.

• Gradually remove supports. Fade examples, prompts, and reminders as students improve.