EF BASICS
These brain skills help us plan, begin, organize, remember, control ourselves, and reach goals.
Executive functioning
This skill means beginning a task without waiting for repeated reminders.
Task initiation
This brain chemical is involved in reward, motivation, attention, and expecting something interesting or enjoyable.
Dopamine
This means estimating how long something will take, giving it enough time, and finishing by the deadline.
Time management
This skill helps us pause before acting or speaking and choose what to do next.
Impulse control
Name this skill: breaking a big goal into steps and deciding what needs to happen first.
Planning
A student has all the materials for homework but keeps watching videos instead of opening the assignment. Which skill is probably stuck?
Task initiation
A short video gives an immediate reward, while a history project may not feel rewarding until next week. Which is likely to grab attention faster?
The short video
A student thinks homework will take 10 minutes, but it takes an hour. Which time-management skill needs practice?
Estimating time
This skill means managing emotions and choosing how to respond when frustrated, disappointed, or overwhelmed.
Emotional control
This skill helps you remember directions and hold information in your mind while completing a task.
Working memory
Breaking a large task into smaller steps can make this easier.
Getting started; task initiation
In this lesson, this means having trouble switching from one activity—or from doing nothing—to starting another activity.
Inertia
A student has a project due Friday. Name one planning tool that could help.
Possible answers: calendar, checklist, timeline, reminder, to-do list, backward plan, or daily work goal.
A student receives feedback and immediately shouts, "You hate me!" Which skill could help?
Emotional control; impulse control or self-monitoring may also fit if explained.
This skill helps you identify a problem, think of solutions, try one, and learn from the result.
Problem-solving
A student says, "I don't know where to begin." Name one strategy that could help.
Possible answers: find the first step, use a two-minute timer, gather materials, do the easiest part first, or ask for clarification.
This stress-response chemical can provide extra energy and alertness, but too much can make thinking and staying calm harder.
Adrenaline
Which is stronger: A, "I'll work on it sometime this week," or B, "Tuesday after dinner, I'll find three sources and write my first paragraph"?
Plan B, because it says when the work will happen and exactly what the student will do.
A friend changes the weekend plan at the last minute. Which skill helps you adjust instead of getting stuck on the original plan?
Flexibility
Name three executive-functioning skills that could be involved when someone forgets an assignment, gets overwhelmed, and gives up.
Possible answers: planning, organization, working memory, emotional control, task initiation, attention, flexibility, time management, or problem-solving.
Why may telling someone to "just do it" fail to solve a task-initiation problem?
The person may not know the first step, may feel overwhelmed, may be distracted, or may need the task broken into smaller steps.
A student is avoiding a difficult assignment: the phone offers instant rewards, starting feels hard, and reminders create stress. Name the three forces we discussed.
Dopamine, inertia, and adrenaline.
A project is due in five days. Give a quick five-step plan for completing it.
Answers should include smaller steps, time estimates, and deadlines or check-ins.
Put these in the most helpful order: act, pause, notice your feeling, choose a response.
Notice your feeling, pause, choose a response, act.