Growing Executive Function: Empowering Secondary Students With Skills for Lifelong Success

by Sarah Kesty

Author and educator Sarah Kesty offers educators practical tools to teach executive function skills—such as planning, time management, and organization—through classroom strategies, structured lessons, and academic coaching. By integrating these skills into daily routines, teachers can reduce classroom frustration while empowering students to develop self-awareness, responsibility, independence, and ownership of their learning behaviors through practical strategies and reflective exercises.




Grades 6–12 teachers can use this book

Understand integral facets of executive function and its impacts on student learning
Master effective lesson plan structure to instill core executive function skills
Engage in academic coaching conversations to build students’ skills and self-awareness
Adopt strategies to encourage executive function for students with diverse learning needs
Develop support systems for students struggling with executive function development



Introduction

Chapter 1: Starting With Executive Function 101

Chapter 2: Creating the Executive Function–Empowered Classroom

Chapter 3: Teaching Executive Function Skills

Chapter 4: Understanding Executive Function Coaching

Chapter 5: Exploring Executive Function Deficits

Chapter 6: Planning Executive Function Supports

Epilogue

Appendix

References and Resources

Index

430 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 12, 2025