HOW to help your child END of the school year with PEPR. SethPerler.com

Hey everybody, it’s Seth from SethPerler.com, and I’m here today to talk to you about PEPPER.

Parents and teachers, this is important because things can fall apart very quickly at the end of the school year.

If your child is struggling—and I see this most often with middle school and high school students, though it can happen with college students and occasionally elementary students too—I want to explain why things tend to unravel so fast.

What I’m going to explain today is the PEPPER pattern and how it affects students who struggle with executive function.

Here’s what often happens.

Students start the semester strong, whether it’s the fall semester or the spring semester.

Then, about six to eight weeks into the semester, they hit what I call the dip.

Suddenly, grades start to plummet and things begin falling apart.

Once the grades start dropping, students spend the rest of the semester swimming upstream, trying to dig themselves out of academic holes and get their grades back up.

Sometimes they get help. Sometimes they don’t.

Before they know it, the semester ends and it’s summer break—or winter break.

A student who appeared to be doing fine suddenly has several D’s and F’s. Maybe they have a couple of A’s mixed in, but parents are left wondering:

“What happened? How did my child fail?”

For many middle and high school students, this pattern is extremely common.

Why?

One of the main reasons is that students who tend to fall behind now have multiple layers of work piling up at the same time.

By April and May, they aren’t just doing their current assignments. They’re also trying to catch up on makeup work from earlier in the semester.

And on top of that, they have to deal with PEPPER.

PEPPER refers to four major long-term academic demands that often cluster together near the end of the school year.

Students who struggle with executive function are often not realistic about the amount of time and energy required to complete these assignments.

As a result, everything piles up at once.

Parents and teachers, I want you to be aware of these four long-term tasks and help students plan appropriately.

PEPPER stands for:

• Papers

• Exams

• Projects

• P—well, not another P, but Extensive Reading Assignments

These are all long-term assignments that frequently occur at the end of the school year.

For example, a teacher might say:

“We have an exam coming up in six weeks. Here’s your study guide.”

Or:

“You have three or four weeks to complete this paper.”

Or:

“We have a major project due at the end of the semester.”

Or:

“You need to complete this large reading assignment involving a novel, textbook, or long article.”

The challenge is that many students don’t accurately estimate the amount of time these assignments require.

What I recommend to families and students is intentional planning.

Students who are naturally good at school often know how to break projects into smaller pieces and work on them consistently.

The students I work with are usually different.

For them, I recommend planning large blocks of time.

Instead of expecting a student to work for 15 or 30 minutes a day, schedule two-, three-, or even four-hour work blocks.

Weekend blocks are especially helpful.

For example, you might schedule work time from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday and another large block on Sunday.

If you have the kind of relationship where you can sit with your child and help them work through papers, projects, studying, or reading assignments, that can be incredibly valuable.

Don’t assume that one conversation about the assignment means they’ll manage it independently.

These aren’t the students who naturally stay on top of long-term tasks.

They’re the students who come to you at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday night and say:

“Mom, Dad, I have a project due tomorrow.”

And you respond:

“What? When did you find out about this?”

And they say:

“About a month ago.”

Or they tell you they have a major exam tomorrow, and when you ask if they have a study guide, they say they don’t think so—only for you to discover later that they did have one the entire time.

The same thing happens with reading assignments.

Instead of reading the book, they watch YouTube summaries or look up study notes online.

Not only does this create stress and conflict, but it also causes them to miss important learning opportunities.

So again, I encourage you to help students plan ahead and use large blocks of time.

Another thing I strongly recommend is that parents email teachers.

Parents: Here’s What to Email

Send a message like this:

“Hi, I hope you’re having a great year. Thank you for everything you do for my child.

As we approach the end of the school year, I want to make sure we’re aware of everything coming up.

Are there any papers, exams, projects, or large reading assignments that my child should currently be working on?

If so, are there rubrics, schedules, requirements, study guides, or other resources available?

If these materials are online, where can I find them? If they’re not online, could I please receive a copy?”

Parents, I know the conversations you’ve had.

You’ve heard:

“Leave me alone.”

“I’ve got this.”

“Stop bugging me.”

“I’ll talk to my teacher tomorrow.”

“I promise I turned it in.”

“The teacher just hasn’t entered the grade yet.”

I’ve heard those conversations hundreds and hundreds of times.

What I don’t want is for you to be surprised at the end of the school year when grades collapse and your child suddenly has to attend summer school, retake classes, or deal with additional family tension.

That’s why I’m encouraging you to be proactive.

Ask about PEPPER.

Email the teachers.

Plan ahead.

Teachers: Here’s My Message for You

I work with a lot of students and a lot of teachers.

One thing I don’t understand is why some teachers make things unnecessarily complicated—for themselves, for students, and for families.

Teachers, if you have a paper, project, exam, or large reading assignment coming up, please create a document that is:

• Thorough

• Clear

• Easy to read

• Well organized

• Specific

• Available online

Use headings, bullet points, rubrics, timelines, and checklists.

Make expectations crystal clear.

If students are writing a paper, explain:

• Formatting requirements

• Length requirements

• Grading criteria

• Research expectations

• Deadlines

• Recommended work schedules

If students are preparing for an exam, provide a detailed study guide.

Tell them how much they should be studying and how to prepare effectively.

If students have a reading assignment, provide a reading schedule.

Explain how they should take notes and what they’ll be expected to do with the information afterward.

If there’s a project, provide a detailed rubric.

Make sure expectations are transparent.

Most importantly, make these resources easy to find and download.

Parents need access.

Students need access.

The students I work with often have executive function challenges and processing difficulties.

They simply cannot keep track of all the details being presented verbally.

Please reduce ambiguity.

Please reduce confusion.

Make expectations clear enough that students can actually meet them and receive the support they need from parents.

In my experience, maybe 25% of teachers do this really well.

Unfortunately, I spend a lot of time emailing teachers and trying to figure out what exactly is expected because the information isn’t clear.

The clearer you are, the better students can succeed.

So that’s my message about PEPPER.

I hope you found this helpful.

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I hope you have a fantastic day.

Take care.