Strategies for Recognizing Strengths and Affinities

	Pair Sam with a classmate who has strong writing skills for collaborative projects. For example, the team may write a report on oceanography or another scientific topic in which Sam has some expertise. Sam can provide the information while his partner transcribes the report.
	Encourage Sam to keep an Idea Journal. He could take notes while at the aquarium or zoo and write down interesting things he hears, sees, or talks about with other people. Sam could then use these ideas to write a report for the school newspaper or story for class.
	Sam's strong social abilities may be put to use in improving his writing by having him collaborate with others to create a play or a dramatic story that is then presented to the class, and by working with classmates on writing projects and peer editing activities.

LEROY

Leroy is constantly losing things. The first thing he asks in every class is, "Do you have a pencil I can borrow?" He knew he had one when he left for school, but somehow it disappeared. This seems to happen with most of the things he needs for school-even his homework!

Leroy loves baseball and can remember the players and their statistics from all of his favorite teams. He is a great mechanical problem solver and loves to take apart appliances to figure out how they work. Leroy also likes to create new inventions by combining pieces from different machines.

Leveraging Strengths and Affinities:

	Have Leroy use his great problem solving skills in the creation of an organizational system for the parts from the appliances he takes apart.
	Make use of Leroy 's excellent memory by helping him develop a 'personal stats record' for materials that he will need to consistently remember each day.
	Encourage Leroy to consider, perhaps even explore the comprehensive organizational agendas kept by professional athletes and their teams. Even those who play for a living need to be organized and have many deadlines and schedules.
	Provide an opportunity for Leroy to review organizational hardware and or software that he may use at home and/or at school to keep up with his work. Numerous electronic devices and software are designed explicitly for planning and organization and are becoming less expensive.
	Encourage Leroy to review the various web-based homework management services that exist. Many schools use these sites to provide students, parents, and teachers with a central location for school-based information. Even better, Leroy might be able to play a role in the development and design of such a system at his school.

ELISE

Elise panics during class discussions. When the teacher asks a question, Elise sits at her desk hoping she doesn't get called on. She has a hard time saying what she is thinking and wishes she could disappear when everyone is looking at her as she tries to get out what she's trying to say. 

Elise does very well in art class and has begun to take an interest in graphic design. Recently, she saw a graphic designer highlighted on a community news show and thought it looked pretty cool. Elise also loves to write and spends hours each week writing her thoughts and ideas in her journal. 

Leveraging Strengths and Affinities:

	Elise should use her love for writing in order to prepare her answers for class discussions ahead of time. Elise's teacher could give her a question that will be asked the next day and give Elise 24 hours to prepare how she would like to answer the question.
	Elise could also create posters, art projects, and engage in a variety of activities that would help her receive recognition for her strengths and affinities as an artist.
	Arrange a career mentoring situation in which Elise is matched with a professional graphic artist in the community.

JAKE

Jake has always had a hard time relating to his classmates. When other students were speaking, Jake would interrupt them and try to do funny things that no one but Jake found amusing. Jake still struggles to find the right thing to say and does not have any close friends. 

Jake loves to read and is an excellent reader. He also listens to a variety of music and has a great memory for trivia, though he struggles to talk to his peers about any of these things. When he does try to speak to them, Jake talks about television shows other students don't watch, books they haven't read, or activities they've never experienced. Jake is not bossy during these attempts at interaction. Rather, the topics he brings up just don't interest his peers, causing them to move away, and increasingly, to avoid him altogether. 

Leveraging Strengths and Affinities:

	Use Jake's excellent reading ability by helping him locate a book or two with topics on social skill building. Such an approach will allow Jake to investigate this area at his own pace without feeling embarrassed or overly self-conscious.
	Encourage Jake to take supported risks to seek out new relationships in more promising situations, for example, by exploiting his existing affinities (e.g., reading, trivia, and music).
	Jake may be much more successful establishing relationships with others who have similar interests, e.g., trivia, books/literature, music.
	Help create a positive role for Jake in the classroom. Arrange for structured situations in which he contributes to classroom activities through his special areas of knowledge.

NIKKI

Nikki has begun to dislike school. The only reason she wants to go is to see her friends and to play on the school basketball team. Nikki has always had a hard time with reading. While she can decode the words on the page, she does poorly on reading comprehension tests and has difficulty remembering what she has read. She used to read things over and over, but now she doesn't even try and she is feeling overwhelmed by the demands in school. 

Luckily Nikki is a great listener and has been able to get good enough grades to stay on the basketball team, though she is worried that this won't last much longer. Basketball is her love, and her skills are so promising that she dreams of playing professionally one day.

Leveraging Strengths and Affinities:

	Use Nikki's strengths and love of basketball as a motivating factor for reading. Encourage Nikki to read a subscription to a sports magazine and go on regular trips to the bookstore or library to browse novels about sports figures.
	Allow Nikki to use her great listening skills to use books on tape when possible for reading assignments. Nikki could make her own tapes by reading the text aloud and then listening to her own recording of the tape. As she listens to her recording, she could write down the key pieces of information from the text. After she has written down the key points, Nikki could reconstruct and paraphrase the text in her own words.
	Nikki should think about subjects she would really like to learn about or that interest her. Her whole class could work on making lists of things they would like to know more about-whether it is a place, occupation, or other content area. A teacher or parent could provide the students with lists of what they are interested in and all of the ways that they pursue that interest-things they read, do, or find on the Internet related to their affinity.
	Nikki should be encouraged to become an expert in an additional area of interest beyond basketball. This area could be the focus of her reading assignments, written reports, oral presentations, and other projects.