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The great thing about teaching work systems in the classroom is that you can extend them to so many other settings.  Once students know how to use a work system, transferring it to a job means you can set up tasks using the same system.  

The key in setting up work systems on the job is making sure you have taught all the of the elements of the system, which I’ll get to in future posts.  But for job applications, specifically, it is really important to make sure you are teaching the systems using a schedule.  Otherwise you are limited to bins or folders and can’t expand the independence as much.

Benefits of Independent Work Systems on the Job

1. Generalize independence to the job

The biggest benefit of using structured work systems on the job is that the students know how to work independently.  This is an obvious benefit…but it can’t be understated.  The door closer that most significantly affects our students is not being able to work without supervision.  Teaching our students to use the independent work system in class, means we can set up tasks on a worksite using the same setup.

 2. Assuring completion of jobs

If you have taught work systems correctly, on the job they will assure your students complete the jobs they are doing.  This is in addition to working independently.  Have you ever had a student who gets halfway through a task and walks away? Or he finishes half the task and takes it apart?  When we teach independent work systems, we want to make sure that we are teaching students to complete the whole task and leave the task completed.  You don’t want a student to unload a dishwasher and then put the dishes back in it.  

3. Link tasks together on a job site

Finally, if students have learned to complete work as part of a structured independent work system, you can link multiple tasks together in a series and know the whole series will be finished.  And if you have made sure to teach the schedule use with the system you may even be able to just move the student to a schedule of tasks instead of having someone else getting the materials together.

GET ALL THE VISUALS AND ORGANIZATIONAL TOOLS YOU NEED to start independent work in your classroom.

These kits include an e-book with directions on setting up independent work systems and using the materials included, data sheets for tracking progress, visuals for the special education work boxes and schedules, what’s next visuals, and mastery sheets to keep track of which students have mastered which task. 

Buy on Teachers Pay Teachers

Buy on Teachers Pay Teachers