19 Ways to Step Back Poster

This A3 '19 Ways to Step Back' poster acts as a fabulous reminder and prompts us in how to empower students through building self-confidence and independence for lifelong success!  
 
Adapted from 'Classroom Collaboration' wisdom Laurel J. Hudson (Ph.D. at Perkins School for the Blind), where she emphasises the significance of educators taking a step back to allow students to shine. By fostering self-confidence and independence, students can truly excel and achieve excellence. It's a journey of collaboration where educators play a supportive role, enabling students to navigate their educational paths with confidence. Let's celebrate the power of stepping back to let every student's unique abilities and strengths take centre stage! 
 
 
Poster reads:
Promoting Independence - 19 Ways to Step Back
 
It often feels right to give help to students with disabilities, but this may not be in their best interest. Use this list to help yourself to step back.
 
You’re stepping back so your students can step forward, build self-confidence & become independent. Keep this in mind.
Clock how long it actually takes for students to start zippers, pick up dropped papers, or find page numbers. What’s a few more seconds in the grander scheme?
Sit on your hands for a whole task while you practice giving verbal instead of touch cues. Hands off the hands! Or, provide touch or visual cues instead of verbal cues.
If you need touch cues, try hand-under-hand instead of hand-over-hand. This gives students much more choice.
Let your students make mistakes and attempt to problem solve. It’s part of the human experience!
Acknowledge your own needs. There’s a reason you chose the helping profession.
Sit further away. If you’ve been within arm’s reach, sit just within earshot. If you’ve been sitting just within earshot, sit across the room.
Pat yourself on the back every time you help by supporting and scaffolding, not thinking. Your job is to assist in skill acquisition, NOT do the thinking!
Even though helping can feel right, be aware that too much assistance is short-sighted. Sometimes less is more, less is better.
Catch yourself before you correct your students’ work. Don’t cover for them. This is about their skills… not yours.
Commit to no intervention for a whole activity. Take observations or data instead. Things might not fall apart as much as you had expected.
“What page are we on?” “What’s for lunch?” Have students ask their classmates instead of you, both during school and lunch breaks.
Assign student learning partners and human guides to reduce teacher intervention.
Teach students to decline assistance, “Thanks, but I’d like to try it by myself first.”
Whenever you add prompts, include a plan to phase them out.
Let others know that you need to step back so that your students can be more independent. Your withdrawal of support is intentional and purposeful.
Collaborate with other adults to break your habits of helping too much. Agree to remind each other to step back.
Try helping only when classroom teachers give you a signal. They may prefer to respond directly or to give students longer to work it out alone.
Post a sign: “Are there any other ways I could step back?”
 
Adapted from Classroom Collaboration, by Laurel J. Hudson, Ph.D. (Perkins School for the Blind)