Parents,
I've mentioned this to a few parents when they asked about help with their 7th grader's organizational skills and they've reported back to me that it has worked awesomely. So, I thought I would share. Take it or leave it but if you've tried several things and they are still not working, then it's worth a try.
It's been my experience that when a 7th grader needs help in organizational skills, it's a daily kind of learning process. It also usually needs to be tied to something they really care about, such as their free time, phone, computer time, or whatever it might be. Also, if your 7th grader's backpack is a virtual tornadic pathway, ask to see their backpack and go through it regularly until they take care of business, which is school and all things connected to school. :) They hate this but it gets their attention. :)
Unfortunately students aren't born being organized and their adolescent brain doesn't lend itself to that kind of thinking either. They literally are not naturally wired to be organized and so if you have a 7th grader that is already organized, woo hoo!
If your 7th grader is quite organized, then you can stop reading right here. :) Give them a pat on the back. They deserve it! YAY for them!
I call this the Traffic Light Organization System. Purchase a red, yellow and green plastic pocket folder/divider. In the very FRONT of their one big binder, put the three of them in this order, Red on top, Yellow under that and then Green next.
On the RED one write with permanent marker: TURN THIS IN BEFORE I LEAVE CAMPUS TODAY! Papers that are due on that day of school go here. They would need to organize this folder the night before.
On the YELLOW one write with permanent marker: THIS DUE DATE IS THIS WEEK or something like that. This could maybe be for Long Term projects that have future due dates.
On the GREEN one write with permanent marker: COMPLETED AND READY TO TURN IN THIS WEEK. ( This could also be where students keep current graded and returned work as well.)
Then, the MMS AGENDA goes next. Most students choose to organize their binders in the order of their A day schedule of 1,3,5,7 periods and their B day schedule of 2,4,6,8 but whatever way works is what they need to do.
PLEASE, if you find that your 7th grader is simply stuffing papers into the front and back pockets of the binder, sit down with them and help them break that habit. This is a daily battle I fight with a good 60% of my 155 kids. When it's time to pack up to leave my class, I even say "I want to hear binder rings opening and closing as you place these papers on the rings of the binder." ARGGHH!!!
I hope this helps. If you have questions, feel free to shoot me an email. kagreen@austinisd.org
