Where to Start: Using Generative AI to Fix the Blank Stare and Build Executive Functioning Skills

Every teacher, serving every grade and ability level, has received the “Blank Stare” from students struggling to develop executive functioning skills. Limited ability to prepare for and complete assignments inhibits student demonstrations of their true strengths, which may result in compounding difficulties including low grades, high stress, and mis-identification. While practitioners offer a myriad of executive functioning strategies and tools, students have historically struggled to sustain motivation and engagement for ongoing use. Although cutting-edge technology, such as AI, may boost that motivation, students and practitioners need help determining which of these actual tools will be most effective in building skills such as assignment organization, assessment preparation, and time management. This station will share outcomes including assessment grades, assignment completion, stress levels, and probability of continued use when high school students employ specially designed generative AI prompts designed to build executive skills.