The Working Clock is an Executive Functioning strategy that was created by Sarah Ward and Kristin Jacobsen. It allows students to visually see the passage of time, and feel how much time they have throughout the day.

Once engaged in tasks, students must demonstrate the critical skill of the executive system: the ability to self-monitor.  They must be able to fluidly transition from one mental mindset to another and to be able to stop doing one activity and then move on to and start new tasks.  At the same time, a student must also be able to pace themselves by speeding up or slowing down within a given time frame to meet expected goals.  Students must use self-control and self-mediated talk to persist through tasks even if the tasks are difficult, boring or non-preferred. With repeated experiences, students use their executive skills to create episodic memories, or hindsight, so they have more automatic processes for knowing "how to study" or “how to socially act in certain situations” or “what to expect in novel circumstances.”  We teach children a specific evaluation strategy that helps them develop hindsight and foresight.  As adolescence comes to a close, the critical skill of cognitive flexibility becomes relatively mature.  This enables the child to fluidly shift between changing task demands and to carrying out multiple complex goals to meet expected outcomes. Every student is unique therefore a tailored therapy plan to remediate specific executive function difficulties is necessary.  This plan begins with the evaluation process.  

Chunk your Workshop time: 

1. Mini Lesson

2. Independent Work

3. Transition/Regroup

4. Wrap Up/Share

This teacher uses her arrow magnets to remind students of their halfway mark. This is a great time for a Mid-Worshop Interruption, a time where students can reflect on their work, see if they need to pick up their pace, or if they have more time to review the work that they've completed.

The Working Clock is different from your Wall Clock. Your Wall Clock stays on the wall, and you do not shade it in. It is there to reference throughout the day to tell the time.

The Working Clock is hung at eye level for students near, or on, the whiteboard. It is shaded in different colors, and colors are color coded on the whiteboard for different tasks during the hour. You can keep the colors the same everyday so that students understand what is expected from them as a daily routine. 

The teacher shades in the clock with the students, and explicitly shares with them the expected behaviors for each chunk of time. 

You can use magnets to show midpoints (halfway marks) so that students know if they need to pick up their pace, or if they are right on track.

Shade in parts of the hour where students are expected to switch tasks, change roles, complete tasks, etc. 

Remind students to check their Working Clock throughout the hour.