DESTINATION COLLEGE: It’s Elementary!
Organizational Skills: The One-Binder System
Why should my child use only one binder?
The binder will help train students for an organized life as a middle schooler – no
lockers, no homeroom, and no desks to leave daily materials.
Students will learn organization and responsibility by maintaining the binder.
Students will have their needed materials.
Students can locate their homework assignments that need to be turned in.
Students entering any AVID middle school will be using this system.
Students’ parents can check their work regularly.
Communication between student, parent, and teacher is more convenient.
An informal survey of 6th grade teachers in Orange County found that, in teachers’
opinions, the number one skill students are lacking when entering middle school is
organization.
What will my child learn?
Instruction will focus on two areas:
Organization
Responsibility
Materials Needed:
2” White 3 ring binder with clear cover
3 Ring pencil pouch—no pencil boxes
1-package of 5 subject plastic dividers with pockets
2 packs of wide rule notebook paper
Windy Ridge School planner
The Order of the Binder
Pocket of the front cover parent information
Pencil Pouch
Goal sheet inside protective cover
Planner
Dividers
Reading
Language Arts
Social Studies
Math
Science
Frequently Asked Questions and Concerns
Q. Do the students have to take home their binders every day?
Yes.
At middle school, students will not have access to lockers and/or homerooms
where they can leave their materials at the end of the day.
By having the students take their binders home now, you are preparing them for
the expectations of responsibility at the middle school level.
The point of keeping a binder is to have everything you need in one place to do
everything that needs to be done.
By taking the binder home nightly, the expectation is that the students are
studying and reviewing what was learned that day at school, as well as preparing
themselves for tomorrow by reviewing their student planner.
Q. What happens when the student forgets or loses their binder?
This is the point of the one-binder system – to put the responsibility back onto the
student.
If a student forgets their binder at home or loses the binder, they now have no materials to
be a successful student for that day- and this should lead to a very poignant discussion
with them.
How can I help?
Asking to see your child’s binder so that you can check their work and see what they are
learning.
Do not organize or clean out the binder for your child- this should be their responsibility.