I was reminded of this today, as I am in a coaching cycle for an argument unit in an eighth grade room. Our eighth graders read the Serial Podcast (Here's the trailer from HBO) and then must cull all the evidence in order to write a paper that states their side of the Adnan Syed argument: did he kill Hae Min Lee, or not?
I had asked students to put away the article that we had read in their ELA folder. Majority of kids were doing exactly what I asked, but then there are a few others: one was folding it and putting it in their Reader's Notebook, and another was putting it in a folder, but that one little folder held EVERY DOCUMENT THEY HAD EVER BEEN GIVEN. These are both problems for me.
Kids typically don't lose papers or items for me because I make time at the end of every class to explicitly tell kids where to put everything. Today it was: put the article in your ELA folder. Pass the summaries you wrote to the person at the green position and they should bring those to me.
Since I have a few kids who do not have what they need, tomorrow I will bring extra folders to class and get them set up right (thanks to my amazing friends at HMS who provided everything I needed after a simple email request.)
I used to always get upset with kids when they didn't have the supplies the school list had asked for, but then I read what's below and now I stock up in the beginning of the year for kids who need things.
It's not worth it to me to fuss at kids who don't have what I expect. Who knows what else is happening in their lives? So, with the help of my colleagues, I give them what they need, and they all get organized. Tidiness is one of my non-negotiables.
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