Developing Planning Skills in Middle School: Supporting Students Who Struggle to Manage Work and Meet Goals

Posted In Behaviors On April 29, 2025

When middle school students begin to struggle with large workloads, miss deadlines, or lose momentum on long-term assignments, teachers often see this as a motivational or behavioral issue. But these are often signs of a deeper challenge: executive functioning deficits in planning skills. Understanding the connection between executive function challenges and student behaviors is essential for improving student performance and empowering students to become more independent and confident learners.

Middle school is a critical time for developing planning skills as students face increasing academic demands and are expected to manage multiple classes, assignments, and deadlines. Without strong planning skills, students often appear overwhelmed, inconsistent, or disengaged. In reality, they may be lacking foundational skills, specifically in the area of planning.

If you’ve noticed these behaviors in your classroom, you’re not alone:

• A student struggles to manage a large amount of work
• A student struggles to follow through to finish on time
• A student has trouble meeting long-term goals

These are not just academic concerns; they are signals that a student may need explicit executive function instruction. Let’s look at how developing planning is the key to addressing these challenges—and how you can help.

Executive Function Explained: The Role of Planning

Planning is one of the core executive function skills students need to thrive in school. Executive functions refer to a set of mental processes that help people manage time, stay organized, and follow through on goals. Planning involves the ability to set a goal, break it into steps, sequence those steps, estimate how long each will take, and then follow through.

When students have not yet developed this skill, they may try to start a large project but get lost in the process, forget about it altogether, or give up when they hit roadblocks. Without instruction, feedback, and opportunities to practice their planning skills, learning stalls—and so does their academic progress.

Curious about how to define planning for students? Click here to read our blog post: What is Planning?

Developing Planning Skills

Teachers play a powerful role in developing planning by weaving executive function instruction into daily routines and assignments. Teaching students how to plan isn’t just about giving them planners—it’s about showing them how to think ahead, structure their work, and anticipate obstacles.

Here are a few executive function strategies that can support the development of planning in the classroom:

• Break It Down: Model how to break a large assignment into smaller, manageable tasks. Use checklists, timelines, or visual schedules.
• Time Estimation Practice: Ask students to guess how long a task will take, then track actual time. This builds awareness and improves their ability to schedule tasks.
• Backward Mapping: Teach students to start with the deadline and work backward to create a plan, helping them see how small steps build toward long-term goals.
• Think-Alouds and Modeling: When you introduce a project, model your own thinking process to demonstrate how you plan your approach.

These strategies are not just about behavior, they are about teaching thinking skills. When teachers consistently embed executive function lessons like these into their instruction, students start to internalize the strategies, leading to better outcomes and stronger habits.

Building Confidence and Supporting Student Needs

Developing planning skills also strengthens student confidence, especially for those who often feel like they are falling behind or constantly catching up. By teaching planning as a skill, rather than treating it as an expectation students should already meet, teachers can reduce student anxiety and increase student engagement.

Furthermore, supporting planning skills helps with student behavior management. When students understand how to approach tasks and manage their time, they are less likely to act out from frustration or avoidance. This also supports their social skills as they learn to navigate shared projects, timelines, and group responsibilities.

Addressing Executive Function Needs With a Systematic Approach

To provide effective support, it’s important to understand where each student is in their executive function development. Our platform offers tools that help you determine your students’ executive function needs, so you can tailor your approach based on individual behavior and skill levels.

• Click here to assess your students’ executive function needs
• Explore how our platform helps you evaluate behaviors to build a custom executive function curriculum

By using executive function tools and taking a systematic approach, you can begin solving executive function challenges before they become obstacles to learning. A consistent executive function intervention plan, aligned with your curriculum, gives students the opportunity to practice and apply planning skills across subjects and settings.

Empowering Students Through Executive Function Instruction

Ultimately, developing planning is about more than managing assignments. It’s about helping students become strategic thinkers who can set goals, make plans, and follow through. With the right executive function system in place, one that includes assessment, instruction, and support, you can help students build habits that will serve them throughout middle school and beyond.