Giving Disorganized Boys the Tools for Success

and if they don't pay attention to that fact, a lot of girls will slip through the cracks.

After two decades teaching, in my experience disorganized boys far outnumber disorganized girls. Still, if we look for signs of educational need, instead of generalizing based on gender, race, or class we tend to catch and correct more.

I was meeting with our "resource" special ed teacher the week before break. She spends a lot of time with my 6th graders, both boys and girls, working on organizational skills.

Disorganization is a common characteristic of ADD/ADHD. As a matter of fact, I'd go so far to say that it mirrors the mental confusion, as sufferers aren't able to keep their thought processes focused.

Many more kids in middle school struggle with organization than are ADD/ADHD, and more of them, but not all, are boys.

We were talking about how we would like primary grades to explicitly teach organizational skills. We're a K-8, so we can talk to those teachers. Many things that could be taught and reinforced from the beginning become much more difficult when you wait until age 11 or 12 to start. I think organizational skills are one of those things.

My kids, ALL of them, get regular "binder checks" as part of their grade. They are shown and helped the first day of school how to organize those binders, and get random checks once or twice a month to hold them accountable. For the 6th graders, It often takes a lower grade at the first report card to sink in that binder check points mean something. For the rest, they do a decent job keeping up. Those that CAN'T, those that can't find anything they put down 30 seconds ago, visit with the resource teacher to reorganize their stuff at least once a week. Some of them, when necessary, do so daily.

The 7th and 8th graders do much better, although without the random checks they tend to "backslide." Except for the extreme cases, who need regular assistance all the way through.

He got worse when he hit puberty--7th grade. Now he's in 9th grade. He is a very smart kid but just very unmotivated to do homework. When he applies himself, he shines. He had a horrible SS teacher in 6th grade who used a notebook system. Apparently she was very disorganized so depended on the kids to keep themselves organized and would enter grades in from their notebooks at the end of every quarter. The beginning of the week she would spend the whole class time with a list and telling the kids where to put what. She never even entered in their test grades until she got the notebook. It was a nightmare. He failed the class, she failed him.

He has very good teachers now. I don't get very involved now. He is 15. I give him support, pick up books at the library, offer help and give him reminders. I think he is a late bloomer and will most likely attend community college and then transfer to a 4 year school. I don't give him a very hard time. I didn't have to jump through so many hoops when I went to school and I think much of it is bullchips. In NY every student must take the Regents exams. That is so stupid. Not every student is suited for that, many have talents that Regents exams do not measure. I wonder what the percentage increase of homeschooling is since NCLB.

I know a lot of elementary teachers keep the students' work organized in various subject folders, but they keep it in the room. Making the kids repsonsible for organizing and bringing their items to school would be a good first step to teaching those skills.

typo edit

works specifically on organization with many students. She meets with them the first ten minutes of the day to check that they are prepared for class and the last 15 minutes of the day to check binders, etc., and help them stay organized.

Only those with the most extreme difficulties, of course, but there are plenty of those to go around. While there are generally MORE boys, girls aren't exempt.

Not.