Color Coding Folders Helps Teachers Organize

To organize over a hundred student folders and papers in at least some manner, teachers might consider color coding by class period. What I did was to darken a section of a file folder on the right upper corner of file folder with a particular color to represent the class period of the day. Each student was given a file folder to hold their daily work. These folders were placed in one file box on a narrow, but long table near the entrance door of the classroom.

Note: Today many teachers are working a seven period day, so you may need a set of folders for this additional group and a set of folders for "homeroom" might also be helpful.

I made all these folders in advance and had six such sets of folders, one for each period of the day. The color selection had to be sufficient that you would immediately know which box the folder would belong to without thinking. I also made several extra folders for each box, but these would be placed at the back of the box or even under the box. These folders would be used as needed for new students or in cases where a student may change from one class period to another. Enough extra markers were available to mark many more folders, papers, handouts etc. with the same color as needed.

When I would pass out a set of worksheets to the class, these papers would also be marked in the upper right corner with the color that was associated with that class period. One master folder that was labeled "Handouts" was also color coded. In this folder I would place the handouts for the day, pre-color coded if possible. Another folder was labeled "Collected Work" with similar color coding.

When students entered the class they were taught to get their folder from the proper color coded box, one of the handouts for the day and go to their seat and start working. This first handout was typically what we would call "bell work" which was an initial worksheet designed to keep them a bit occupied while you completed the roll call and some housekeeping that may need to be accomplished. You could easily go to the box at the sound of the bell and get the remaining folders which should be only the students that are either late or absent that day. You would call out those students names and naturally there were times you would have a student that had forgotten to pick up their folder. If a student came in late you would have proof positive they were late, because they would have to get their folder from you.

If they had to go to the rest room during class or to the office, you would ask them to bring their folder to your desk while they were out of the room. I actually had a spot on my desk labeled "Out of the Classroom" and what this did was to remind me that the student was out of the room. This would tend to help me keep better track of students and the length of time they were out of the room. I could also make a note in the folder if I thought it was necessary. Sometimes students may be out of the room the rest of the period and I would make a note about this and ask them about it the next class meeting. Sometimes the office may really have kept them literally the whole period.

If a paper were to get out of place, you could identify the period of the day to which it belonged quite quickly. When you graded papers, it would be possible to get them organized much more quickly. It is important to note however, that this did require a lot of folders, but it was really helpful. Students really liked the process also, they really liked being able to establish a routine. In fact the routine got to be so well established, that even substitutes were amazed by the process.

At times, I would have students help color code the papers, this would especially true for the classes after the first period of the day. It was easier to color code the first set of papers and then have a first period student help color code the second period, etc, through the day. I even had the students color code the textbook covers. They could have different covers but needed to be able to color code the corner. This made it possible to get a textbook quickly to the right class period and student if they happened to leave it in class.

For some teachers, such excessive organization may seem inappropriate, but I found it seemed to give many students a confidence and solid expectations. They seemed to increase their own organization through the process and loved the feeling of independence as they entered the classroom. Think about this or similar organizational concepts.