Where do you have students put their unfinished work? I normally have them put it into a folder which I provide. They are supposed to keep these on their desks. Any ideas?
We have planners that all the students get at the first of the year. I have them slip it in their planner. They know that it is for homework. But that might not work for all grade levels.
It depends on the work. If it is something that we will continue to work on in class, I have my students put it in the subject folder. (I have folders for every subject). If it is work they should have finished, but are just taking a little longer on, we have them stay in at recess (study hall) until they are finished. In that case they put it in their study hall folder. They know that any unfinished work in the folder must be finished before they can play. If you would rather they take it home to finish, have them put it in a homework folder.
When I was a LTS for a 3rd grade class we used a folder for unfinished work. It was called their "Work In Progress" folder. I did not make them take it home for homework...this way in never got lost. If they finished other work early, their first job was to check their WIP folder and finish things in it. It was the first time I had used this idea, but I loved it.
I like the "Work in Progress" folder. I may try that this year. I have to talk to my team to see what they think. Great name though!
Our Unfinished Work folder is a slash pocket divider type folder. We stand them up in magazine racks on top of their bookcase cubbies (that holds glue, journals, etc). They have a green one for language arts, a blue one for math and a purple one for everything else. This way we can spend a language arts period catching up using the green folder and a math period catching up using a blue folder occasionally if the need arises. It's easy to identify. Because they are slash folders I can easily walk by and see who has a bunch of math papers that are unfinished or who has none.
My students keep all of their daily work in their "Smiley Folders" They are simple file folders that I put a big smiley face on. All completed and unfinished work goes in the folder. At the end of the day they return their folders to the Smiley Bucket. I look through the folders at night, take out completed work, leave in work that needs to be corrected or finished for the next day. What ever is not completed by the end of the week goes home on Friday. (I just have to be sure to look through the folders by Friday dismissal) I call them Smiley Folders because I want the students to have a smiley face knowing they completed all of their work. (or at least tried to)
I LIVE on slash pocket dividers. I use them for college and my son uses them for middle school. I use the different colors to divide subjects, etc. I hate punching holes. It's great for quick organization especially if you tend to color coordinate things. I hold paperwork stuff in them while I do my personal errands. I use them to quickly store handouts I collect. I separate parts of a presentation: Notes, Handouts and During Presentation Materials OR Beginning, Middle and END items. I love the color translucent ones or the clear ones but the ones I like best are the really sturdy ones, especially if you are giving them to students. YEP. I love my slash pocket folders.
Unfinished work seems to be my bane. At the end of last year, I hung on the wall a large pocket chart with enough space for students to put unfinished work. Each pocket has the student's number on it, so I can see at a glance (and so can all the students in the room!) who has something lurking in his unfinished work pocket. If I overlook something, another student is usually awfully good at pointing it out.
I do weekly inspections of their briefcases. It helps to see who needs to take it home to do with mom and dad over the weekend. That strategy usually helps because parents see what's going on.
Magnetic Clips I have my students put any unfinished work on magnetic clips that they keep on the side of their desks. It works great for me. Both the kids and I can see at a glance who has work they need to finish. We also keep weekly packets that we work in everyday on the clips. It takes the kids just a few seconds to find the work when needed and it helps me enforce my rule of no loose papers in their desks.
I usually collect all work at the end of a period. Anyone not done, gets their work put in the FINISHING WORK folder. They can work on it when they have the chance (which the savvy kids do) such as recess, at lunch or any time they are done with their other work. Everyone else has a FUN FRIDAY, and the kids who have work to finish must do it before they get to do centers. It is a system that really does work. This year my centers will all be fine motor related on Friday, like knitting, beading, weaving, using tools, pick up sticks and so forth.
My unfinished folder is red and its called the "red hot folder" bc its so hot waiting for someone to get busy and finish the work in it!
Big problem with the 4th grade... One of the problems that I found during my student teaching was all the work that was not finished in class was to be done for homework...but the next day I would ALWAYS have the same students that would say....I lost it, forgot it at home, just did not do it, (I wanted to poke my eyes out). My cooperating teacher's rule was that they did it at recess...but this always snowballs into an ugly battle. I want to learn what to do before I get my own class to avoid this problem. Thanks for any help! :thanks:
I don't send unfinished work home each day because the kids who have problems doing it at school ARE the ones who don't really do it at home. If after FUN FRIDAY they still have not finished the work, it goes home with the expectation that it comes back to school Monday. I would get it back 65% of the time. The nice thing about Fun Friday is that I can work with them if needed because in my group, 80% of the class always finished before Friday, either because they use their extra class time or they just didn't have anything to do.(Unfortunately, 3 boys ALWAYS had work to do on Friday, 3 kids almost NEVER had work to do and everyone else had maybe one 5 minute thing to finish or corrections to make. They also have plenty of time during the week to do it, as I said before. Sometimes they have two weeks depending on the assignment. I would say if something doesn't come back by monday THEN give it a zero. Otherwise you are constantly replacing work and keeping them in at recess and that puts too much work on YOU! You are also not making lots of copies with this situation. You just have to keep on top of collecting work, and making sure it's turned in. I will say, "if you completed XYZ, put it in the turn in box. If you are not done, please put XYZ in my hand." Then, I take it right to the folder! Also, I put work to correct in the folder as well!
I give kids RED folders which we call 'Catch Up' folders. I made a label that looks like the Heinze Ketchup Label and put on it Ketchup Folder...Get it?
I love this.. Thanks for the idea...I will put this in my notebook of great ideas. Coffee Crazy:thanks:
I did find a cute clipart for ketchup. I think I will call my WORK FINISHING folder the catch up folder next year. I will use the same system posted above, but instead have the catch up (ketchup) bottle on it. this year it had a frog on it, that said "Hop to It!" They liked that.
I used Google images, type in 'Heinz Ketchup label' in the search. I picked one, used copier at school to enlarge, cut and pasted 'Catch Up Folder' onto image....
My only complaint with catch up folders was this... Many students, even if they know they have to do it later, can only complete just so many things in a work period. I detest giving 5 items in a work period and having some of the students only being able to complete 2 each period and almost never more yet they have to EVERY SINGLE DAY put at least 3 things from that work period in the catch up folder. In my class it isn't differentiated well. So what happens is that they have a huge pile that piles up in spite of giving them a free period every single day to try to catch up. I would be unmotivated if I was the child.
Why would you give 5 items in a work period? My 'ketchup' folder has packets we're all getting back to (like a rock experiments pack or a space unit pack), monthly 'fun' packs (word searches, etc), and one or two items that a kid might not have finished in the time I gave- there really is PLENTY of time in my room to finish up whatever is not done (during snack, first thing in morning...) so not a lot piles up in the ketchup folders...
This is what I call mine and it's exactly how I use them with my students. It has worked very well with previous classes, but my class last year didn't use it as successfully. I'm hoping to fix that this year.
Thank you so much for the Ketchup idea.. I am definitely using this idea this year... (I hope it's o.k. )
