I recently asked an eighth grader to rank the influence of four changes he made to  improve his focus on school.  The four changes included building meaningful relationships with friends, one-on-one tutoring at Sylvan, a cash incentive from his parents and working with a counselor on the emotional challenges of being a young teen.  He was not able to identify any one change as being more important that the others, so here is my take:

1.  The pressures of middle school and home life first led to the request for help from a counselor.  Since this pre-dated all the other changes, I will say that this was the most  important one.

2.  Building confidence in social-emotional learning allowed more meaningful relationships to be developed with his peers.  Those relationships helped to make school a desireable place to spend most days of the week.

3. Becoming more aware of the possibilities that lay ahead helped to reveal that he needed academic help.  The suggestion to seek that help came from the learner not his parents.  This change in focus could not have been first because it required a level of self awareness that was grounded in the work with a skilled counselor.

4.  The financial incentive was introduced last, and although it might have accounted for the final surge in focus, it was not the primary motivator.  This incentive had been offered in the past with no impact.

If you presented a young learner with a similar set of support mechanisms, how would you rank the importance of each?