Organizing Student Work for Portfolios

Hi everyone!  I'm super excited to link up for another Bright Ideas Blog Hop!  I love getting new ideas that make teaching easier.

Since I teach special education students, I need to keep student work to show how students are or are not progressing.  I've tried different ways to organize all their work for their student portfolios.  For a long time, I used 3-ring binders.  But they're bulky and honestly sometimes I don't want the work 3-hole punched.

I finally found this super easy (why didn't I think of it before) system just using a simple crate from Target.

For each student, I use 4 cheap folders.  One has their name on it and includes personal information like copies of their IEPs, their last IEP progress report, their contact information, and other random papers.  I make a folder for each area that I'm keeping data.  For me, that is reading, writing, and math.

This makes keeping work super easy and makes filing for each student super fast.  Once a quarter is complete, I take all of the work our and put it in a folder labeled __ quarter.  What I also like about this system is that it's super easy to change out if you have students who move or come in.  Since only one folder has the student's name on it, I can either white out the name and reuse it or throw it out.

There you go!  It's not genius by any means but I wish I had thought of it a few years ago.

Next up, you'll want to hop on over to Amanda from Around the Kampfire's blog to see how she makes the most of anchor charts in her classroom.

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Communicating With Gen Ed Teachers (Let's All Be Informed)

I'm super excited to be linking up for the Bright Idea Blogger Hop!

This hop is going to be an awesome way for you find all kinds of bright ideas for you to use in your classroom!

As an intervention teacher, I've found that it can be super hard to find the time to meet and discuss students' progress with the gen ed teachers.  I wanted the gen ed teachers to be able to know what skills I was working on and the progress of their students at any time even though they may not be able to actually meet with me very easily.

I keep all of my data in a 3-ring binder for each group.

 I keep a sort of lesson plan that lets the teachers know what skills I was working on that day.  And it helps me keep track of which students attend intervention group.

For each student in my reading groups, I take a weekly fluency check and a cold read comprehension check.  I keep the original fluency and comprehension quiz in the binder.

In front of those, I keep a fluency graph.  I LOVE graphs.  They can really can give you that visual about a student's progress.  Although this student is reading below grade level, she's really improving on her fluency!

Graphs can also really let you see when students just aren't making progress like this student.  This is one that I'm super worried about.  Even though he's in my most intense, smallest group, he's just not coming along like I think he should be.  :(

I also keep this form at the front of the binder for each group.  This gives the teachers a quick snapshot of how everyone in the group is doing.

To keep track of their weekly comprehension check, I use this simple form.  As you can tell, comprehension can be really tough.

I also have a math group that I see daily.  On Fridays, I give them a quick quiz that covers several skills.  By looking at their data like this, I can quickly tell which skills I need to keep remediating and which skills they seem to get.  Here's a really good week!  Usually, most of my students miss the word problem.

So there you go!  It may seem daunting to keep data, but honestly, it's really quick.  Once you get the forms set up and your binders organized, it takes no time to add the new information.

Now you should definitely hop on over to Teachable Moments to find out all about how she used Dollar Stores finds in her classroom.  And can I just add that it's really unfair there is no Dollar Store in Hawaii!  You can find her post {here}.