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Organizing notebooks:
1) I teach middle school, and it's just scary how much of success at this level is linked to organizational abilities and work habits, not intelligence. I've got crazy-smart kids who do terribly because they do the homework and can't find it, or (more likely) never did the homework because they don't have some consistent way of writing it down, or couldn't do it correctly because they didn't have the notes, or, or, or...All organization. I don't believe in notebook grades, but that does put me in a bit of a bind...
2) Joan Sedita's book on study skills is the bible. I don't remember if it touches directly on organization, but it does a great job identifying and breaking down study skills things that students may be having trouble with, and its general approach is illuminating.
3) As a basic template for organizing notebooks, you can seldom go wrong with this:
Get a three-ring binder with as much looseleaf paper as will fit. (Notebooks where you tear out paper are the devil; paper, once torn out, cannot be put back in any helpful way.) If at all possible, get one which doesn't have folders in the front or back, because then all the paper will end up *in* the folders, getting dogeared and disorganized.
Make four sections: notes; homework; tests and quizzes; handouts. Or maybe five: blank paper.
Everything in those sections is to be chronological. It doesn't matter if the most recent is first or last, as long as it's consistent. This gives you an easy organizing principle: whatever you are working on should be placed directly after the last page with writing on it (or as the very first page of the section, depending on whether you prefer chronological or reverse). Actually, having all the blank paper segregated in a blank paper section will probably benefit the very disorganized (who tend to have random quantities of blank paper interrupting stuff).
Also:
HAVE A HOLE PUNCH which lives in the binder. (You can get little thin three-ring punches which have holes so they can live in three-ring binders.) If the teacher gives you anything unpunched (which I think is unacceptable but no one made me god), hole-punch it immediately so you can put it in the appropriate section.
The virtue of the notes/homework/tests and quizzes/handout layout is that pretty much every paper you will ever get in class goes in one of those, and it's generally obvious which. There are a couple of odd cases like syllabi, but they are rare.
As long as we're on the topic of notebooks, rereading your notes within a day of taking them is also a great habit to be in -- it's spooky how much that aids retention (and especially the retention gained/time spent ratio).
THANK YOU, Andromeda!!!!!!!
(And tell us more!!)
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12 comments:
I am so glad you got this upfront. This is the way it's done! Another teacher I'd like to clone.
Thanks so much for this, Andromeda! You indeed are clone-worthy!
We've been working on this subject with our 6th-grader's school, which apparently believes that middle schoolers magically develop organizational skills through osmosis instead of through any explicit instruction from the teacher.
Over the holiday break, I bought the book The Organized Student, by Donna Goldberg. It focuses on helping kids get organized with their paperwork, backpacks, and lockers, and encourages parents to get kids involved in setting up a system. (At 250 pages, there's significant overkill, but it's worth the $11.50.)
The best piece of advice: chuck the small assignment notebook in favor of a teacher's planning notebook (the kind we use for weekly lesson planning). Its larger format allows students to write down assignments for each subject in a dedicated space each week -- instead of just lumping assignments for all subjects together under "Tuesday," for example. That, along with copious explicit instruction on how (and when)to write stuff down and file papers away has helped tremendously.
Anyway, thanks again.
Cheryl vT
Goldberg's book is excellent. It was a HUGE help to us.
I also tremendously like How to Double Your Child's Grades in School by Schwartz.
We have found a plastic expandable file folder works well for our 6th grader, along with a large planner-type assignment notebook. There is a pocket for each subject and the kids were given assistance on how to set it up and use it at the beginning of the year. This folder goes to all classes and home every night. Luckily it has not been lost yet! The teacher keeps a separate "Friday folder" which she sends home on Fridays with papers she has reviewed and which can be thrown away. There is also assistance on what to write in the assignment notebook. Of course, Megan's "team" is the "inclusion" one with SPED kids (such as Megan) and lots of assistance. I don't think the other teams use the same system.
What Kathy said,
The plastic pocket binder has kept my kid together since the 4th grade.
The Organized Student has some great ideas. I wish every middle school teacher would read it.
One idea I used was the table top file, but they can be hard to find. They look like the portable ones, but smaller with no lid. They sit right on the desk.
Susan
I'm going to figure out how to use this system for myself.
Chris has done OK -- not brilliantly, but OK -- with the Globe-Weis Fabric Poly files (at Staples). They're relatively inexpensive & quite sturdy. He's managed to make it through whole school years with only 2, and he could have gotten away with just 1.
The reason for this is that even when these things are pretty much in tatters they don't produce binder explosions. They still keep papers in place.
NOTE: the middle school doesn't allow students to carry backpacks in the halls so the kids have lots of binder explosions. I was told this directly by an aide in the school.
The 6th graders suffer. They walk around the school carrying everything they own, and at some point their arms give way or they trip on something and the whole armload load flies out into the hall. Then the aide scrambles to help them get it all picked up and re-stacked in their arms so they can get to class on time.
I attended Site Committee meeting at which this was discussed.
When a parent gently raised the issue a veteran teacher told her firmly, "Sixth graders can go to their lockers during the school day. They choose not to."
And that was the end of that.
One idea I used was the table top file, but they can be hard to find. They look like the portable ones, but smaller with no lid. They sit right on the desk.
We used that last year & this year it's just sitting around stuffed with last year's materials.
I don't know why....I need to re-think.
C. is still not able to organize his work particularly well (and, of course, neither am I. Not when it comes to long-term projects.)
C. is tremendously responsible when it comes to completing daily homework assignments. He comes home, has a quick snack, then disappears into the basement to do his homework.
His downfall, and mine, is scheduling time for long-line assignments.
Such as, e.g., a chapter on Wildlife.
I helped my m.s. kid set up the binder w/dividers for each subject that the school wanted, scoured the office supply stores for poly binder file thingies that hold the req'd comp books in each binder, and purchased all the supplies (3 ring hole punch, colored markers, colored pencils, calculator, scissors etc etc) and zipper thingies to put them in the binder with the planner.
The problem I have with the whole system is that my kid is hauling a full backpack everyday but nothing that is stored in the binders is ever used in the classroom except for the pencil/paper, and occasionally a class worksheet that's going to be used again the next day, the planner, or one of the supplies. It's also fairly expensive. This system is great training for backpacking expeditions, but why not put some human factors thinking into it and simplify?
The system used in my day would work just as well: one binder, divided into subjects. Write your assignment and test date in your notes and put test date on the calendar hanging above your desk at home (or on your PC). If you have a study hall, read your notes for the current units if you're not doing h.w. Your homework goes right after the divider for the subject. When you get to the end of a unit, you transfer the material into your file or binder system at home. Review material periodically for mid-term and final exam purposes. Use that tiny locker shelf to keep your calc, markers etc. and just bring them to the class when needed.
This system is lightweight, easy, much cheaper, cuts down on locker change time, promotes studying, and allows children to have room in the locker for a winter coat (our m.s. lockers are 5" wide, contain app. 13 texts & binders as well as 2-3 composition books, backpack, gym supplies, elective class supplies, and lunch, so most kids don't wear a winter coat and consequently aren't allowed outside after they are finished eating lunch.)
works if life is about submitting
to silly rules handed down from on high.
& g-d knows: that's what school is *for*.
but i want no part of it myself;
do what thou wilt shall be
the whole of the law.
if they give you ruled paper,
write the other way. etc.
yours in the struggle.
v.
Even Jacob Abbott had something to say about organization in 1839. Navigate to page 111 or so, and find this:
Will you all now look into your desks, and see whether you
consider them in good order. Stop a moment however.
Let me tell you what good order is. All those things
which are alike, should be arranged together. Books
should be in one place, papers in another, and thus every
thing should be classified. Again, every thing should be
so placed, that it can be taken out without disturbing other
things. There is another principle also, which I will mention,
the various articles should have constant places,—
that is, they should not be changed from day to day. By
this means, you soon remember where every thing belongs,
and you can put away your things much more easily
every night, than if you had every night to arrange them
in a new way.
Clone Abbott, too, and bring him into this century!
He does sound like quite an organized man--you really would have to be, to teach classes of 50 students on all different grade levels.
Organization tips for the lazy--
Get some clamp binders! You don't have to punch holes, and it keeps your papers (up to 100) clamped together. I have a bunch of clear ones I bought at Staples, I like the clear, you can easily see what is inside. Office Depot has some clamp binders that look like they can hold more than 100, but I didn't see any clear ones.
You can also buy pre-punched printer paper if you like folders with hole punches and are too lazy to punch holes in things you print out.
Why don't they allow backpacks? Do they allow clear backpacks? They all need straps like children used to carry their books home with in the era of one-room Schoolhouses. I thought they might have something like that for sale online in a newer version, I found this, it looks OK, but not as nice as something you could sling over your shoulder. But, definitely better than nothing: http://www.fieldtexcases.com/strapping-and-belting2.html
There's probably something better out there if you look harder, or maybe you could combine some of their other straps with the book holder to make something you could carry easier.
I found the clamp binders because I was looking to get out of hole punching (plus, some of my papers had printing where the holes would be) or putting hundreds of pages into plastic protectors.
They are also useful for holding children's artwork. I sort out the artwork at the end of the year, pick the best, and put into 3 clamp binders--one for us, one for each set of Grandparents as a Christmas present. You can clamp together different sized papers easily. This year, I made 4, our daughter wanted one of her own, she liked looking at last year's so much, she wanted one that she could keep in her own room and look at whenever she wanted.
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