Organizing Tips That Teach Students Study Skills

Use a Color-Coded System With Elementary and Middle School Children

Jun 6, 2009

As students move into upper elementary and middle school, they must learn how to organize schoolwork to be successful. This color-coded system is simple and easy to use.

Students face increasingly heavy workloads in this age of standardized testing and rigorous NCLB requirements. Without an effective technique for organizing schoolwork, they may become overwhelmed. Parents and teachers can help students learn management strategies for staying on track with all assignments.

Having good classroom management strategies and organized systems for student paperwork makes a more effective learning environment. Students don’t waste time searching for lost papers or asking for extra copies. The time saved by having organized students gives more time on task for teaching and learning.

Organize Schoolwork and Homework with Color

Teachers can teach effective study skills by organizing the classroom with a color-coded system. In upper elementary and middle school, students are often in a self-contained classroom, but they still lose papers and assignments. Color-coding each subject helps students develop a filing system. Whether using tabbed notebooks or folders, each subject will have a different color.

Organized Folder System for Upper Elementary Students

In the upper elementary grades, between the ages of 9 and 12, students are first learning to be responsible for projects and assignments on their own. Having a designated folder for each subject is a first step toward developing organized classroom skills.

The Organized Homework Folder

The yellow homework folder should have helpful charts and notes that the students use in school. This way, they have the same support system at home that they use in class.Examples of notes on homework folders are:

With the folder, students can be taught that some items, such as letters and announcements to parents, and graded work, can remain at home. Other items, such as papers needing a parent signature, or work that needs to be completed should come back to school. A simple way to remember how to organize the folder is this:

Organized Notebook System for Middle School Students

In middle school, typically between the ages of 12-14, students can be taught how to organize a notebook with all their classroom and homework assignments in it. The same color-coded system works well in the notebook. Instead of using folders, the students use colored tab dividers.

The front of the notebook should have a class schedule, a calendar for project and assignment due dates, and one or two pages of helpful charts and study aids. The study aids should be laminated or placed in a clear plastic sleeve for durability.

The students should include a yellow homework folder in the notebook for communication between parents and school, and to hold any loose homework papers. Again, use the left and right pocket jingle to remember how to file papers in that folder.

Reinforce the System Daily

Teachers can reinforce these study habits on a daily basis by creating a folder or notebook system of their own that is the same as the student system. This is an excellent classroom management strategy, and by modeling use of the system every day in class, the students become accustomed to it. When the teacher pulls out a red folder, the students know to get their red folders out. Or when the teacher flips the to blue tab in his notebook, the students know to open to their Language Arts section.

By the end of a semester with this system, students will have developed an excellent study system and will have a simple way to stay organized, skills that will follow them through graduate school.

The copyright of the article Organizing Tips That Teach Students Study Skills in Classroom Management Tips is owned by Suzanne Pitner. Permission to republish Organizing Tips That Teach Students Study Skills in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.