Organizing binders

What my LD son has figured out on his own is that a file folder with multiple sections (each labeled for a class) works better than a binder. It’s kind of like a big plastic envelope and we got it at an office supply store. He keeps his loose papers in the folder and has a spiral notebook for his notes.

When he started middle school, the resource teacher told the kids there was one way to organize their binders, and spent the whole year making sure they did it his way. The kids really didn’t like it, and it seemed a waste of a lot of time when he could have been helping remediate their disabilities.

For notes home to parents, his school requires that each student keep an agenda (We pay $5.00 for it at the beginning of the year.) The students (all, not just kids in resource) are supposed to write their assignments in it, it has a page for their hall passes, and it has a place for notes home to parents. It’t just one thing to remember to bring home (as opposed to all their class notebooks), and it has worked really well.

My daughter is in 7th grade. Over the course of the year, we have tried many different ways to organize. Teachers recommended folder and notebook for each class, 3ring binder and note book; guidance recommended trapper keeper etc. We tried them all. However, what has worked best for her is a 5 subject notebook w/a sturdy plastic cover, including file pockets for each subject (one on each side). That way she doesnt have to remember what notebook she needs, sort where to put the papers, write the class notes in the right notebook etc.. All she has to do is keep track of the binder. She also has an agenda.We use one pocket for homework and the other for papers that she needs to save. As each unit is completed or regularly we clean out the pockets and file them in one of those plastic file folders with many pockets. That way if she “needs” something that she said she didn’t, we have it available.

Since she is not allowed to carry a backpack from class to class, having the right notebook and folder at the right time for the right class was impossible.
The trapper keeper wasnt bad. However, we found that she was “rushed”
switching classes that she was unable to keep the trapper keeper organized.
Also, she just used whatever notebook “attracted her attention” for the next class.

Hope this helps

I imagine that you are going to get different answers that work for different people.
My son wasn’t able to be organized until we changed from the accordian folder to the binder method very much like you described.
One point I wanted to make..was that all his teachers (4) punched the holes in the handouts all at once and ahead of time before passing them out. This made it very easy for all the children to experience success in organizational skills, which utimately made it easier for the teachers.
IN my humble opinion..once the children experience success and have experienced firsthand how much easier organization makes their lives…..only then can they appreciate it…which in turn will motivate them to punch the papers themselves someday.
Our school does the agenda thing too! A good point was that even into adulthood they will need to utilize agenda’s and it is a productive habit to get into.
MO

The teachers don’t have to punch the holes themselves, paper can be purchased by the school with the holes already punched. I don’t know how much extra it costs, but I think it is worth it.

The teachers don’t have to punch the holes themselves, paper can be purchased by the school with the holes already punched. I don’t know how much extra it costs, but I think it is worth it.

I and my daughter both, and in a slightly different way my mother, and various other relatives, have something-or-other that looks kind of like NLD. We are excellent students, excellent in languages and pretty darned good in math (I got a BA as a math major), but paper organization is, to put it mildly, our weakest point. As far as my daughter and me, give us a binder and in a few weeks it will explode with papers stuffed in it. Give us an agenda and we will forget where it is, or not write in it, or lose it. Give us a five-subject notebook and we will end up with seven subjects in no particular order.
We find various personal coping skills, and we learn to keep our heads organized if not our desks. We excavate the office now and then (mine’s overdue, if anyone wants a challenge…)
At age 51, I still have this problem and frequently write a note on my left hand; there’s a phone number there now. Better that than never doing the things I need and want to do.
We do try, and well-meaning efforts to help are often very frustrating; what little organization we can salvage gets lost in somebody else’s system. Help has to be all or nothing — either take this off my hands and really help me, or leave me alone and let me do what I can, but don’t rearrange the whole thing and then walk out and leave me holding the bag. Nasty comments and criticism also are counterproductive.
If you have a child who has this severe an organizational problem, help them to get things in order in their minds at least, avoid negativity which will just make them throw their hands (and papers) in the air and walk away, and help with *super-simple* coping skills: for example, there’s nothing wrong with having all your notes in one notebook, just make a habit of drawing a line or starting a new page for each new class and noting the date, and you can find everything because it’s all in the notebook; to avoid forgetting things on the way out in the morning, pile them on top of your shoes; post all phone numbers and addresses on the wall - it may get kind of thick, but you know they’re there. Better to cope with a super-simple system than to have a wonderful system and fail at it.

I had to laugh when reading this post. I too,and my whole family is organizationally challenged. I kind of feel organized in an unorganized way.
I have notes on my hand,all over my hand at work. At home,well hard to write one when I can’t find a pen.

I once worked for a principal whose system for remembering to take something home was to get out his car keys and place them on the floor beside his desk. Everything that had to go home was placed on top of the keys. The theory was he had to pick up the stuff in order to get at his keys. It worked!

I loved the comments from Victoria and Socks, This year has been an oganizational nightmare for my son. His organizational skills are horrible and then to add to it, he not only had to organize, he had to do it “their” way. Each different teacher required a special notebook and a different way to organize, plus an agenda, which the assignments were to be written in, which was one more thing to remember to bring home(which he hardly ever remembered).
It’s hard enough for him to remember what to take to each class, let alone take something different to each class. I just feel like we have some many other things to worry about, like learning to read.

What works for me is a “month in view” calendar that fits in a 3 ring binder— Day Runner makes a sturdy one with tabs for each month. No need to remember a separate agenda notebook. I put a clip at the top so that I can turn right to the month. Another helpful item is a 3-hole punch that fits in the binder (Wal-Mart sells ‘em). It can only handle 1-2 pages at a time, but lets kids file things once instead of stuffing it somewhere until they can punch it.

The year I taught in Catholic school, *every* student had a “Red Alert” folder where notes to parents went. Giving that folder a little extra emphasis made a difference even among the painfully disorganized.
Sometimes we’ve set up a well-organized “plugger” to periodically help another student go th rough those notebooks and sort and file. It takes just the right combination of personalities though, since so often organized people really can’t comprehend how others could let things get that way.

Another good idea is having color-coded notebooks for each subject. This way the Science teacher can look out and tell at a glance that once again Sue is trying to take Science notes in her Math notebook.

It is, absolutely a process, not a quick solution :-) Having periodic “spend 10 minutes tossing the trash from your notebook” sessions can help too.

I know you mean well, but you’re trying to teach Shakespeare to someone who can’t read “cat”. First you have to get the binder and dayrunner and put them together, then you have to remember to take them to class, then you have to find the right page and make notes on it, without dropping sixteen other items off your desk and out of your backpack, then you have to remember to take it home, and then you have to remember to look up the notes and what date it is to look them up on — you’re so far out of my league it’s funny.

I’m fifty-one years old, a sucdessful parent who never once lost my child, a successful teacher of small groups, a very successful private tutor, and have four and a half university degrees including one and a half in pure mathematics, and I still don’t know what month it is or where my telephone number file went. If one more person like you tells me how “easy” their calendar system is, they are likely to hear some language they won’t like.

We aren’t ever going to cure the disabilities that many students have so to develop compensating skills is the most effective method. What works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another. Trial and error discovery is by far the most effective/productive. What I like hearing the most is that you have taken responsibility for your organizational issues and haven’t held the system responsible for it. Thanks!

Teachers spend this kind of time in an effort to teach students to be organized. Whether it works for all is the luck of the draw but unless children try and organize their minds and materials they will be in severe trouble in future life. I’m glad the teachers are trying to teach organization and responsibility. I’m sure it is much more difficult for some students but then there are a lot of things that are really tough for me that are easy for some of my peers. That doesn’t stop me from trying it just means I have to work harder and hopefully smarter.

compensating, compensating compensating - that is the answer!

Victoria I can so relate. I asked the clerk what day it was when writing a check on my birthday. Duh!!

I have a cell phone, do I carry it all the time,no. If I remember it, it stays in my purse til the battery dies, then I recharge it and forget to take it with me. Would have been helpful the day I had a blowout on the highway, both kids in the car.

I have a list of to do’s on fridge along with a big calendar, it helps but ya know, I have a bad memory, I know it, I try to go easy on myself. My husband is finally understanding if a task(pay the cable bill, return a movie) isn’t written down it won’t get done. Period.

My biggest problem I have just figured out is there is a disconnect between a date that is really important and sticks in my mind and the dates around it. I knew my husband was flying on the 2nd of June back to the states but somehow on the 29th of May, I still made him a dr. appt for the 3rd. Go figure.

So, yeah, all the daytimers and agendas in the world only work as long as you are organized enough to remember to carry them, write in them and look in them, on a consistent basis. I figure I have muddled along for 39 yrs, it is inconvenient sometimes but hey, oh well.

Reading this thread I am left wondering if anyone has any insights into sequencing skills and how they relate to organizational skills. My son and I are both unorganized. I too laughed at the above messages. You know Einstein used to leave the house and forget his shoes.
I think I have trouble sequencing although I didn’t have trouble in school. I am not talking about math but just what should happen first then second.
I am interested in why people are disorganized. I think just telling them to shape up is a not going to do it.

Are there any other clues to underlying deficits that lead to the symptom called disorganization?

My question is when your child is LD can they have on their IEP that they will have different kinds of organizational methods and 6 different teachers can’t tell them 6 different ways to do it?

My daughter, LD, goes to general ed. She’s going into 4th grade next year. I dread middle school when she will have to be organized, with different notebooks, etc. for all the different classes. Anyone have success with this?