#167: Mini-Schedules: The Visual Support You're Probably Missing

About this episode

This episode explores the concept of mini-schedules as a visual support to help students understand the steps within activities.

Your visual schedule helps students understand the structure of the day. But what helps them understand what's happening inside each activity? In this episode, we explore mini-schedules, a visual support that breaks down the steps within an activity so students can see what they are doing right now, how much there is to do, and when the activity will end. Even when a daily visual schedule is working well, some moments of the day can still feel unpredictable or overwhelming. Mini-schedules provide clarity within those moments, helping reduce uncertainty and supporting participation. In This Episode, You'll Learn • The difference between a daily visual schedule and a mini-schedule • Why activities that feel open-ended can increase anxiety for some students • How mini-schedules help make the beginning, middle, and end of an activity visible • Which classroom activities benefit most from mini-schedules • How to visually track progress through an activity as each step is completed • The difference between first/then boards and compliance-based reward systems • How to use first/then as a simple visual sequence rather than a behavioral tool • When to expand beyond first/then into…

People in this episode

Host: Tara Phillips

Topics covered

• visual schedules
• mini-schedules
• classroom activities
• student participation
• anxiety reduction

Keywords

• visual support
• mini-schedules
• daily visual schedule
• classroom strategies
• student engagement

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