Chunking Tasks

What Is It?

The teacher breaks each assignment students will complete into smaller, easily completed tasks.

Why Use It?

Some students can become overwhelmed with large assignments that include multiple problems or projects that require multiple steps. When the assignment or project is chunked into smaller portions, it helps students avoid feeling overwhelmed and provides scaffolded steps for students to be able to complete the larger assignment one step at a time.

Instructional Steps:

The teacher should review the assignment they plan to have students complete and consider what steps need to be completed to fulfull the full assignment. Then, the teacher decides where to break down the task into steps (whether it is reading, writing, math, or other project tasks). For example, if students ultimately need to write a research paper, tasks might include choosing a topic, finding valid sources, taking research notes, planning a draft, drafting the essay, peer revision, final copy.