“How do you manage to fit in all of your curriculums every single day and organize tasks, worksheets and materials?!” *cue relief music, so glad I was not alone on this one!
Make a list!
One of my personal pet peeves is assembling a great product or adapted book and becoming so busy that I forget to use it! So first, make a list of all of the products/curriculums you own that you would LIKE to implement.
Language Arts:
- Leveled Language Arts Curriculum
- Individual IEP goals/discrete trials/fluency
- Modified reading standards
Math:
- Leveled Math Curriculum
- Inclusion work
- Individual IEP goals/discrete trials/fluency
Science
- Leveled Science Curriculum (use within inclusion time)
Social Studies
- Leveled Social Studies Curriculum (use within inclusion time)
Additional:
- Leveled Daily work
- Interactive Notebooks & Adapted Books
- File Folders
- Vizzle Tech time
- Functional life skills
- Cooking
- Fine Motor
Create a schedule table!
Create a table with the available academic times in your classroom and see where you can start plugging in those products you listed. You can become more specific later on with identifying which students. I simplified my groups into “bigs and littles” since my room ranged from kindergarten to second grade.
Reading ran in the mornings and math in the afternoons. While I taught modified standards, my amazing assistant ran the leveled programs. Each student had their own student binders (see THIS POST) so all the assistant had to do was pull work each day from their tabs. While she worked with one to two students, the other two worked through independent time! We did the same rotation in the afternoons but instead it was with math!
If you have odd chunks of time or kiddos going in and out of therapy services, you can fill those spots with meaningful skill work (ie: file folders, technology time). There was a time last year where I was by myself with 8 students for 30 minutes. There was no way I could individually service them all at one time so that is when some worked on Vizzle interactive ipads and some were working through file folders and hands on activities. I could easily go around and monitor and help where I was needed!
Organizing it all!
Disclaimer: If you are a super Pinterest-ry teacher who must have everything cute and perfect you may want to look away now! While I dream of being that way one day, functionality has been ruling my world at this point! Here are some ways I organize my adapted books and store independent, individual student leveled programs, and seasonal items (in a nut shell).
Mastered leveled curriculums and additional worksheets are in a binder ready to be pulled and used to fill independent work boxes at any moment! You could even make individual independent work binders for students working at that level. Teach your students to find their binder and complete a page!
*Last tip! Make everything very accessible. Having adapted books and file folders available eliminates a lot of problem behaviors. Each of my work with teacher tables has access to “extra” meaningful materials that can be grabbed at any time for early finishers. I also love that when a substitute comes in, they have access to these materials should a worksheet not be engaging enough or again, for early finishers. Maybe we really can do it all!
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6 Responses
Great organization ideas! Love the simplicity of clear seasonal tubs.
Thank you! All for simplicity! 🙂 Gina
Thank you. I really enjoy learning how other teachers store & organize their materials. Simple & functional is the way to go!! And…glad I’m not the only one who forgets about super-fun-themed adapted books!!
Me too! Losing pieces and not using something is so frustrating! 🙂 Thanks for reading! Gina 🙂
I think I need to split my bigs and littles. I’d like to know more on how you did this
Hi Krisa!
Great question! When I had my comprehensive classroom it ranged from Kindergarten age to second with 8 kids total. I grouped my kiddos based on skill level which left me with 3-4 students close enough in skill to make a group and the other half in another. Between the Autism Helper leveled curriculums, independent work, and grade level standard styled lessons, my assistant and I were able to hit so many skills. There is a sample schedule on the post that shows how all groups would get everything! So take a look at the skill and chronological grade level of your students and group them that way. I hope this answers your question! Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you need more detail 🙂 Thanks for reading!
Gina 🙂