Using Quotes to Build Executive Functioning Skills

Quotes can be a powerful tool to motivate and inspire students, but they can also be a strategy to work on executive functioning skills. Kids and teens have growing minds, which is all the more reason to target skills like planning, attention, self-control, organization, and flexibility. These skills are crucial for academic success and life beyond the classroom. While there are many different ways to build executive functioning skills, quotes are surprisingly a fantastic and fun way to target them with your learners.

Reasons to use quotes in the classroom

Quotes are motivational and inspirational. Many quotes are inherently encouraging, uplifting, and fun. This makes them engaging and high-interest for teens.
Reading and discussing quotes only takes a few minutes. In today’s busy classroom, it’s always important to maximize learning time. Discussing quotes only takes a few minutes and can lead to big impacts. They are worth the time.
Quotes can spark meaningful discussions. Students often learn best from other students. Discussing a powerful quote with teens can encourage them to discuss, debate, and share ideas. In turn, this also becomes a healthy relationship-building time as well.
Reading a quote can serve as a brain break. We all need breaks from time to time. Keep a list of your favorite quotes to discuss and use them as a mental refresher between tasks.
Many social-emotional and academic skills can be integrate into quotes. Whether you want your students to build their perseverance or planning abilities, there are several quotes for every skill you could think of.
You can integrate writing. Besides having healthy conversations, quotes are a great way to add reflective journal writing into your day.

How to use quotes in the classroom

Using quotes in the classroom should be simple and fun! Use the following steps to help you get started.

Select – Choose a quote of the day. Use your favorite quotes to target specific skills.
Read – Post the quote of the day on the board. Read together.
Discuss – Talk about the quote. Students can discuss the meaning of the quote in small groups or partners before coming back to share as a whole group. Some questions to discuss include: What does this quote mean to you? Why is it important? What skills is this quote targeting? How can you apply this to your life?
Write – Students can reflect on the quote by writing a personal response in their own journal or on a piece of paper.
Connect – Take the quote beyond the discussion. Throughout the day, keep coming back to the quote. Use opportunities to highlight how the quote connects to your own daily life.

Choosing the right quotes for executive functioning skills

It’s important to select your quotes strategically to build executive functioning skills. A good quote to discuss isn’t just a nice thought, but a statement that encourages teens to think deeply and connect the ideas to their own lives.

Come up with your own unique quotes or use this yearlong executive functioning quote of the day set – it has everything you need to target skills like planning, organization, self-control, attention, and more. I’ve also added an educator guide with guided questions and targeted skills to work on with each quotation. The goal is to integrate quotes in the easiest and best way possible for your classroom.

Of course, whether or not you need a full yearlong set of quotes, you can always get started with some engaging quotations right away. Below you will find some sample quotes for different executive functioning skills to help you get started. Read the quote and use the guided discussion questions with your learners to help set the stage for success.

Executive Functioning Skills

“Think of executive functioning skills like the roots to a tree. They are the foundation for everything else.”

What it means: Executive functioning skills are the set of mental processes that help us plan, organize, get started, manage our time, and work through challenges. These skills are literally in everything we do. They are the foundation for being able to start a chore, focus well during a conversation, or problem-solve through a difficulty. Understanding that these skills are “like the roots to a tree” can help learners embrace the idea of learning more about them.

Questions to consider: What are some activities you like doing? How do executive functioning skills help you with those activities? Why is it important to learn these skills?

"Think of executive functioning skills like the roots to a tree. They are the foundation for everything else."

Self-Control

“Using self-control is showing kindness to your future self.”

What it means: Self-control is our ability to stop and think before making a choice. Ultimately, with practice, self-control helps us learn to make the best choices for ourselves. In many ways, this is showing kindness to ourselves. For example, you might use self-control to organize your binder. Even if you don’t want to do that task in the moment, you know it will help you later on. That’s self-kindness!

Questions to consider: What does it means to show self-control? How is self-control a way you can show kindness to yourself? What is one way you can show kindness to yourself today?

"Using self-control is showing kindness to your future self."

Task Initiation

“The most important part of reaching any goal is the beginning. Just start.”

What it means: Task initiation is the ability to get started on a task (even if you don’t feel like it in the moment). Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. Once you get going, though, you can use that momentum to stick with it.

Questions to consider: Why is it tough to get started sometimes? What are some strategies you can use to get started on a task?

"The most important part of reaching any goal is the beginning. Just start."

Attention

“A calm mind is a more focused mind.”

What it means: Being calm helps us focus, think clearly, and do our absolute best work. This means that building our calming strategies can actually build our focus strategies too.

Questions to consider: Why do you think your mind can focus better when you feel calm (instead of upset or overwhelmed)? What are some strategies that help your mind relax and focus?

Perseverance

“Perseverance is isn’t always easy, but it’s simple. Just keep going.”

What it means: Perseverance is our ability to keep working on a goal, even if it’s challenging along the way. This isn’t always easy, but the idea is clear – you have to find ways to just keep going.

Questions to consider: What does it mean to persevere? What is a challenge you’ve persevered through? What strategies help you to keep going when you want to give up?

"Perseverance is isn't always easy, but it's simple. Just keep going."

Flexibility

“Every problem has a solution. Most have many.”

What it means: Flexibility is being able to think in different ways. We use flexibility to perspective-take, cope with new situations, and problem-solve through challenges. It’s important to remember that when we’re faced with a problem, we can use flexible thinking to brainstorm new solutions.

Questions to consider: What is a problem you’ve faced recently? What were some different ways you could have solved it? Why is it important to remember that there are many different ways to solve a problem?

"Every problem has a solution. Most have many."

Final thoughts

By intentionally adding and discussing quotes in your classroom, you can strategically integrate the executive functioning skills your students need the most. What quotes would you have on your list?