A teacher friend of mine in the ASD community shared an anecdote for me to share. Her son had trouble figuring out perimeter. He was counting the squares and didn’t want to count the corner squares twice. The solution? The squares were pieces of sod to fill in the inside while the outer sides of the squares were fence pieces. This shows how kids can get caught up on the smallest details that teachers overlook.
This can be addressed using task analysis which is a process of breaking a skill into small steps. This is common in special education but not as much in math. While math teachers can be effective in the process, there are often little steps that are overlooked or not addressed as much as necessary. Effective task analysis also allows for more effective scaffolding.
The photos above are examples of task analysis. The top photo taken at Burger King shows a sequence of photos showing how to pour a soft cream ice cream. The bottom is a task analysis break down of all the steps in solving a linear equation – ALOT of steps!
9 responses to “Task Analysis”
[…] scaffold this approach I use a task analysis approach and break the strategy into steps. First I use a handout focusing students on circling […]
[…] different numbers confused and teachers often overlook this challenge. This approach is part of a task analysis approach in which the math topic is broken into smaller, manageable parts for the student to […]
[…] broke down the task using a formal task analysis approach. This approach involves identify the different individual steps and to address these steps in […]
[…] each grade level standard (bottom photo below). The prerequisite skills can be identified using a task analysis approach as […]
[…] approach to doing this is through a task analysis. This is very similar to chunking. It is a method to cut up the math into bite-sized pieces just as […]
[…] obstacle in math for many students with special needs is carrying in addition problems. Below is a task analysis […]
[…] new teachers I use a formal task analysis approach to teach candidates how to cut up the math into bite-sized pieces. A task analysis for the problem […]
[…] focus on just the vertical axis and the student has to reflect one object at a time. This is a nice task analysis approach. The stamp creates the objects which makes it hands on and a little different from just mathy […]
[…] address this, we can take a task analysis approach in which we break down the act of shopping at a grocery store into a sequence of discrete steps or […]