It is a natural (and common) reflex to start the school year with the hopes and dreams that the struggles of last year are a thing of the past. This perspective tends to spawn a sense of anxious avoidance. We have a desire to avoid the challenges of last year.
Success begins to hang on the possibility that the struggle won't surface again. It is a set up for failure, heart break, and a boat load of frustration.
Frustration comes when reality doesn't meet expectations. Frustration is a warning that something is off target with our expectations.
What if we expect the challenges, and plan for them? We could adjust our expectations to a more knowing place, with the Semester Lifecycle as our guide.
Struggling Students Experience School Differently
This is the summary of a pattern that I recognized long ago, with my clients. All of my clients seem to fall into the same general theme of struggle. I recognized a common pattern of struggle no matter the age, grade, school, or home situation.
The one thing my clients did have in common was executive function deficits. I began to track this observed ebb and flow of trials and triumphs, even building a sequence strategies to address the challenges before they occurred. Semester after semester, client after client, I as able to predict and plan for the challenge before they surfaced.
I built an executive function coaching program with carefully timed strategies to address inevitable challenges before they surfaced. My client's felt seen, understood and even empowered to take on their challenges, because we were no long avoiding them. We were embracing them.
The Semester Lifecycle is all about embracing the challenge. We use it to predict and plan for the natural highs and lows of a struggling student's semester.
The Three Phases
Struggling students follow a high - low - high pattern. The newness and excitement of a fresh start stimulates their brain, carrying them through the Strong Start phase of the semester. As the newness fades, students enter the Mid-Semester Slump phase. Followed by the last minute crisis like adrenaline fueled rush to raise the grades, kick that brain back into high function, leading to the strong End of Semester Push phase.
Interestingly, this pattern is counter intuitive to most of us, as the wide majority of students tend to have the inverse pattern. Starting slow, gaining their stride and highest level of function at the mid-semester point. The typical low-high-low patterns leads us to believe that the early semester functionis a sign of sustained progress, when it is indeed not.
Phase 1: Strong Start
Struggling students thrive within adventure, the new and novel of discovering answers to their many (many) curiosities. "What will it be like? Who will be with me? What will we do? I am going to be so awesome at it this time!"
Our struggling students can't envision the rest of the semester. They aren't focused on how challenging it will be. Our students are energized, full of sincere promises, intention, and focus. They are activated, the brain is stimulated, the executive functions are working at the highest level they will be this semester. Enjoy and celebrate it, while it's present.
In my experience the Strong Start phase tends to last two to four weeks. Followed by a gradual backslide, typically starting with a failure of memory, and increased frequency of academic mistakes.
We support our struggling students by getting strategic with supplies, workspaces, and establishing our catch and track routines. All which prep us for the inevitable struggles to come.
Phase 2: Mid-Semester Slump
The newness has faded and that fresh start feeling is going away. The sense of discovery and curiosity have transitioned into routine and predictabilities. The stimulating effects of the new semester are no longer activating our struggling student's minds. The struggle has begun.
We are back to those familiar executive function issues. Everyone else, once nervous and fumbling, seem to thrive in the predictability of routine and hard work. Predictability and sameness has the opposite effect on our students.
The important tasks that they should be prioritizing, while valuable, are no longer stimulating. Each day brings more mistakes, less focus, and slower productivity. Our struggling students are more forgetful, making silly mistakes, their mood dips, and it takes much more time to get started and get finished with simple tasks. Often, the sleep and appetite changes too. The grade report issues begin to add up, and our student's self-esteem takes a hit. It's a feeling that leaves them wonder, "why am I even trying?"
We support our struggling students by maintaining focus on priorities, health, and getting them extra support if needed.
Phase 3: End of Semester Push
Don't lose hope. There will be signs of life as they begin grasping the finish line coming near. It is like seeing a bird in the ocean. A sign that land is near.
Land ho! They begin to feel the end of the semester coming near, and this spark turns into an all hands on deck. They do things like completing three weeks of missing assignments in one weekend. The grades bounce from hopeless to impressive. They ignite into an end of semester push.
Dread less and strategize more. No school semester is without challenges. If there are no challenges, there is limited growth, and nobody wants that. Especially for our struggling students. Let's adjust our expectations so that we can predict and plan for a better semester.
Enjoy this free download:
A quick reference guide to The Semester Lifecycle
