Planning for Success

Whitefield fifth and sixth graders explore executive functioning

by Heather Karvis

hitefield Academy’s fifth and sixth grade model continues to grow and refine, seeking to honor Christ as we foster in our students a passion for learning, for others ahead of self, and for the living and active Jesus. These three passions of our mission statement serve as pillars for studentfocused commitments that help us operationalize our work as we seek to meet the unique needs of our fifth and sixth grade learners. One of the overarching commitments we make as a team is to build relationships with each child rooted in the love of Christ, recognizing and affirming every individual as an image bearer, created in the image of God. We firmly believe that the Lord’s purposeful design of each unique child presents us with an opportunity to pour into the hearts and minds of our students. While many see the middle school years as difficult and challenging, we welcome them as God-given gifts and opportunities.

One of the ways we seek to know the image bearers in our care is through understanding how they learn. Recent brain-based research shows us that children, between the ages of 10 and 16 experience intense synaptic pruning of their brains, second only to their toddler years. During this pruning process, the brain gets rid of the synapses that are no longer used in order to optimize efficiency and create bandwidth for newfound passions and interests. This research can also explain why our children often answer our inquiries with “I don’t know.” Sometimes they really do not know (despite our typical impatience with that response), as over 50 percent of their brains will be pruned in these middle school and teen years! This miracle of synaptic pruning is very much part of honoring the beauty of the Lord’s purposeful design of our students.

Pairing our firm belief of the children in our care as image bearers with our research-based knowledge of the dynamic adolescent brain, the fifth and sixth grade teams equip our students with skills necessary for supporting the pruning process and then strengthening those skills as they grow to allow for lifelong, positive impact. Daniel Siegel, author of Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain to adolescence as a beautiful and powerful waterfall. He writes, “You cannot stop a waterfall, but you can learn to direct its course and harness its power.” As our children move through the currents of adolescence, we believe that equipping them with executive functioning skills is crucial for harnessing their passions and guiding their learning.

Many people often ask what exactly is executive functioning? Executive functioning (EF) is defined as “the brain-based, cognitive processes that help us to regulate our behavior, make decisions, and set and achieve goals.” EF skills can include, but are not limited to, organization, task initiation, planning, time management, selfregulation, working memory, and metacognition. Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child likens executive functioning to an air traffic control system at a busy airport. In the brain, EF skills allow us to “be able to focus, hold, and work with information in mind, filter distractions, and switch develop. Continued research in this field shows us that intentional efforts to foster EF skills in our children directly correlates to their future success both personally and professionally.

With this research helping guide our work, one of our fifth and sixth grade model core commitments is to identify, design, integrate, and measure developmentally and sixth grade teams spent the 2021-22 school year researching, designing, and aligning an ageappropriate EF curriculum plan that we implemented this school year for our students. We are excited to share below the outcomes of our collaborative journey and efforts to build and scaffold this unique learning opportunity for Whitefield Academy’s fifth and sixth grade learners.

Identify

Eden Gulledge, Director of the Academic Enrichment Center (AEC) at Whitefield, spearheaded the discussion around executive functioning with her team of student success coaches, Allie Campbell, Michael Chasteen, and Glenda Pickett to research and determine the areas of executive functioning most needed for our students. This research consisted of collecting data from our fifth and sixth grade students, fifth and sixth grade faculty observations, brain-based research, educational data, and professional development conferences and workshops, including the Cliff Valley Institute.

Operating parallel to the AEC team’s research, Fifth Grade Chair Amelia Carmichael and Sixth Grade Chair Andrea Unsicker led their teams of teachers in identifying the changes and needs required for structures and a schedule that would maximize student learning in these areas of EF skills. This team also identified the need for faculty training in these areas to decentralize the teaching and learning. We desire for the integration of EF skills to be part of the fabric of our curriculums, classrooms, and daily rhythms, not just a check the box class that students receive without application, repetition, or consistency.

We also engaged the expertise and knowledge of our current fourth grade team and administrative members of the Lower School to help us identify the needs of our students in the transition from Lower School to Middle School. Strengthening this collaboration between the Lower School and Middle School teams has allowed for continual partnership in which we have shared the fifth and sixth grade EF plans with our Lower School team for review and refinement. At the same time, our Lower School teachers know the EF skills with which their students will soon engage; thus, they can intentionally prepare and introduce them to these important skills.

These dedicated teams synthesized their efforts and as a result of their incredibly thoughtful and thorough work, we identified the following three EF skills to serve as the foundation for our fifth and sixth grade students: time management, planning, and task initiation.

Design

The design phase of our EF curriculum work consisted of Gulledge and her team developing a program for every fifth grade student to engage in during the first 9-weeks of school. This program clearly defines the goals, tools, and activities associated with each weekly lesson. Examples of goals include, but not limited to, navigating the building and lunchroom, recording assignments in the planner, reading and understanding directions, reading a rubric, and organizing a locker. With each goal, our teachers share tools with the students to help them achieve the goals. For instance, our students use a “Viewing My Time” circle divided into quadrants in their planners to help them see the time a teacher anticipates they should need to complete an assignment in comparison with the time it actually takes the student to complete the assignment. Students also use tools like timers, personalized fifth and sixth grade planners, backwards planning worksheets, locker diagrams and instructions, and study skills sheets. Finally, the students actively engage in their learning by practicing skills like chunking, calendering, adjusting schedules to increase flexibility, role playing self-advocacy conversations with teachers, and teaching others. At the end of the 9-weeks, each student teaches a group of teachers and peers about a particular skill in which he/she exhibits competency, thus, empowering the student to own his/her learning.

Integrate

In order to integrate this 9-week course for fifth graders as well as embed these EF skills in every fifth and sixth grade classroom, we had to implement a structure that enhanced student learning in small groups, and we had to maximize teacher training. The intentionality behind these goals resulted in the fifth grade EF group sessions consisting of only five to seven students per teacher, and the fifth and sixth grade teachers participating in multiple EF training sessions with Gulledge and the AEC team. These teacher training sessions were titled “The Intentional Classroom.” The purpose of these sessions served to “equip the teachers to support students in the development of executive functioning skills in areas of time management, task initiation, and planning, while simultaneously broadening and increasing the skill development throughout the year.”

Teachers worked collaboratively to strengthen the student experience by developing structures, routines, and procedures that seek to consistently use the same vocabulary and rhythms to help students grasp and practice these important EF skills. Language such as “usable time,” “viewing my time circles,” “backwards planning,” “chunking,” and “calendaring” can be heard in every fifth and sixth grade classroom. Students learn binder systems, note-taking frameworks such as the Cornell note taking method and the outlining note taking method, a variety of study skills, and planning frameworks.

Measure

During the course of the 9-week curriculum in fifth grade, our teachers and AEC staff meet weekly to discuss the lessons and student learning. These weekly meetings allow the team purposeful time to reflect and refine. The fifth grade student presentations at the end of the 9-week curriculum allow the students to show us what they know. At the same time, we are developing tools that help us track the EF skillsets of our students throughout their middle school years. Finally, we are working in partnership with the Upper School administration to determine the appropriate scaffolding of EF skills as our eighth graders enter the ninth grade. We know that the Upper School will inherit a different kind of learner, equipped with EF skills to allow for an increased depth of learning and curiosity. The next few years of data collection and synthesis will prove pivotal in measuring the impact of this intentionally designed EF work in the fifth and sixth grade model.

Throughout this entire process, students have come to appreciate the intentional time to develop these executive functioning skills. They recognize the value of exploring the good, perfect, and pleasing plan that the Lord had in mind when He created the world and man. We serve a God of order, and His entire plan from the beginning was to bring redemption to mankind, as Jesus came to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). As we root the integration of EF skills in the Lord’s word, we have the privilege of watching our students transform from young learners into confident students.

Imago Dei

Whitefield Academy’s focus for the 2022-23 school year is Imago Dei. The translation of this Latin phrase is the “Image of God,” meaning that Whitefield’s prayer for the year is that students come to see that no matter who they are, they were created in the image of God. As students learn more about who God is, they will begin to understand more of what it means to be created in the image of God. The truths of this theme permeate every program across campus, and prayerfully, trickle into even the smallest of interactions between members of the community. From student retreats and chapel messages to parent programming and community events, the theme of the Imago Dei should flow through every touchpoint with students and parents.

During the summer, the Whitefield Christian Life team redesigned one of the former Lower School Mods to create the Christian Life Cottage. This new space functions as a host to nearly all Christian Life programming, in addition to various other events on campus. The space is broken into three rooms: a large gathering room, a meeting space, and a room designated specifically for the Upper School Student Worship Team. From Two or More and PACK Parenting to Chapel Breakouts home to programming that provides spiritual formation opportunities to the entire Whitefield campus.