Building Executive Function

The Missing Link to Student Achievement

Nancy Sulla

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2024
• Edition: 0
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040183885
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Elementary Education

If students haven't developed the brain-based skills to focus, catch and correct errors, identify cause-and-effect relationships, and more, they can't make sense of lessons. Executive function is the missing link to student achievement. But how can you develop this in the classroom?

Bestselling author Nancy Sulla has the answers. She explains how building executive function requires a combination of activities, structures, and teacher facilitation strategies aimed at six increasingly complex life skills that should be the goal of any school: conscious control, engagement, collaboration, empowerment, efficacy, and leadership.

This updated new edition includes information on how and why to build executive function skills in the post-pandemic, AI world, as well as modifications for English language learners. There are also Efficacy Notebook sections throughout—spaces for you to pause and reflect as you're reading. In addition, there are examples across grade levels and templates for your own use. With these powerful tools, you will be inspired, armed, and ready to establish a clear framework for building executive function in all your students.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Support Material
• Meet the Author
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 The Power, Promise, and Pitfalls of Executive Function
• 2 Conscious Control as the First Step Toward Achievement
• 3 Moving from Compliance to Engagement
• 4 Mastering the Art of Collaboration
• 5 Embracing Empowerment
• 6 Developing Efficacy
• 7 Demonstrating Leadership
• 8 Building Executive Function Through Teacher Facilitation
• 9 Not a Course But a Culture
• Appendix A: 40 Key Executive Function Skills Categorized by Brain Science
• Appendix B: 40 Key Executive Function Skills Categorized by Life Skills
• Appendix C: Group Discussion Protocol #5
• Appendix D: Effective Discussions: Brainstorming Protocol
• Appendix E: Listen and Draw
• Appendix F: Great Student Rubric—Primary Level
• Appendix G: Great Student Rubric—Elementary
• Appendix H: Great Student Rubric—Secondary
• Appendix I: Using a Venn Diagram
• Appendix J: The Design Process Systems ThinkSheet
• Appendix K: The Design Process ThinkSheet
• Appendix L: IDE Corp’s Design Process