Teach Your Learners this Binder Organization System to Keep Everything At Their Fingertips

When learners are struggling in the classroom, we begin the formal and informal processes of identifying where the breakdown is happening. In my work with teachers, education leaders, and families, I encourage everyone to immediately begin looking for the simplest place you can help the learner start moving forward in the right direction today.

One common culprit you can immediately address is the loss of instructional time for an individual student due to the amount of time it takes to become ready and engaged in the new activity once the teacher signals it is time to start, stop, or move on to the next item. When observing this student transition from activity to activity, you can see that he/she is struggling to: a) put away the materials for the ending activity and/or b) find the needed materials for the new activity.

While the student is still in the process of moving toward the new activity, nearly everyone else in the classroom has already put away their materials that were just being used and actively engaged in the next activity. Often times as the student is struggling to make the transition, he/she may become a disruption to other students along the way.

You can calculate the length of time it takes to transition from one activity to the next by recording how long it takes from when you prompt everyone to stop the current activity to when they begin the new activity.

1. Start timer after you say: "Everyone please put away the ______________ and begin ______________. "

2. Stop timer once the student(s) have completed the steps you have requested and fully transitioned to what you have asked them to do next.

You'll note that the length of time across all students in your classroom will vary significantly, but for your struggling learner your goal to is equip them with the organizational, prompting, and reinforcement supports needed to help them be more efficient.

Though the number of different strategies we can use instructionally and behaviorally in this scenario are significant, here we will solely focus on setting the stage for success by teaching the student an effective binder organizational system. Having organized materials allows the student to know where to: a) find their classroom supplies; b) put completed/incomplete work; and c) access previous notes and prior instructional materials.

Here is one binder organization strategy you can teach your student to help them have everything they need to transition from one activity to the next or one classroom to the next efficiently.

Click here to access a .pdf with the essential components needed for the organization system discussed in the video.

Once your student is successful in keeping everything they need at their fingertips, you will find that they are more efficient in transitioning from one activity to the next. This allows you to remove one barrier to their success so that you can continue to press forward looking to unlock their greatest potential.