I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Responsibility

Essential Question:

How can being organized foster academic and personal achievement?

Bridge:

Representations of Organization

Content:

Study Skills: Personal Organization

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: The student will experience the need for organization.

Activity: Dig! Ask the students to bring all of their school materials to class without telling them what they need them for. Once they are ready, commence with the following search. Explain that they have been asked to have certain materials with them at all times. In the following activity, materials will be named and every student who can come up with the item will earn a point. Points will be recorded and tallied at the end, with the student receiving the most points winning the game. Suggested items: pencil, pen, eraser, blank lined paper, a math book, Language Arts homework from last night, notes from Social Studies on . . ., Language Arts journal, compass, colored pencils, Colonial America packet, etc. Talley the points to determine the winner.

Assessment: Student understanding of the importance for organization is measured in the following discussion.

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: The student will experience and analyze the need for organization.

Activity: Dig! Discuss the activity. Ask students to propose the purpose of the activity. Why do you think we did this? Why is it important to be able to find your things? What happens in 'real life' when you can't find them? What happens if this is repeated over and over again? Can you think of a time in which this presented a problem for you? What do you call it when there is a place for everything and everything is in its place?

Assessment: The students show their understanding of the experience by writing an answer to the following question: WHY organize?

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: The student will access his/her own understanding and application of organizational skills at school.

Activity: Am I Organized or Am I Not? Hand out drawing paper and ask the students to think about their lockers. Do they presently have a plan for organizing their materials? Ask them to draw their locker, locating all of the items mentioned in the 'Dig!' activity. Once complete, discuss their drawings. Did you really have a place for everything? Are there things you aren't sure where to look for? Do you think you once had a plan, but just haven't stuck to it? Can you describe your plan?

Assessment: Student answers to the discussion along with their locker layouts provide a means to evaluate their self-assessment of organizational skills.

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: The student will be able to define and name critical attributes of organization.

Activity: An Inductive Look at Organization. Together discuss organization and what it means. 1) Students write definitions. 2) Share. List critical attributes. 3) Write a final definition. 4) Teacher generates examples, nonexamples. Check student understanding. 5) Students write examples, nonexamples and check each other.

Assessment: Correct identification of critical attributes; self generated examples provide measure of mastery.

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: The student will be able to identify and solve given organizational problems.

Activity: Activity Sheets. Students work through and discuss the problems of fictitious students in the sheets: What's Missing? What Needs to be Done?

Assessment: Responses to the activity sheets provide a measure of student mastery of the above objective. What's Missing? In each of the following situations, a student is having difficulty with his/her school work because something is missing. Read each situation carefully and try to identify the missing thing. For each missing item, explain how better organization would prevent its loss. 1. Susan carefully wrote down her science assignment on a piece of notebook paper, folded it and stuck it in the front of her science book. She was supposed to make a list of at least five different types of adaptations which animals make to their environments and give the reasons for these changes. When she started to reach for her science homework assignment, Susan realized that she hadn't brought her book home because she didn't need it in order to complete her work. What is Susan missing and why? What could be done? 2. Juan grabbed his math book out of his locker as he ran to class. His friends had stopped him in the hall after the last class and had tried to tell him about the latest skateboards in the local bike shop. He was going to be late to class if he didn't hurry. When he reached for his math paper, Juan realized that he had his social studies notebook instead of his math notebook and the teacher wouldn't let him go to his locker. After class, he forgot to get his paper from his locker and turn it in. He kept forgetting and eventually he received a zero for the assignment. What had Juan failed to do? What should he have done? 3. Pam carefully completed her science insect collection, spending many hours carefully labeling and mounting her specimen. She was proud of her work and turned it in expecting to receive an 'A' for her collection. When it was returned, her heart fell. There on the front was a note from the teacher explaining that she had not included the class, phyla, and Latin names of the insects. Her grade was a 'C'. Where had Pam gone wrong? What could she have done? 4. Samantha tried to find her worksheet for language in the back of her notebook. She knew she had completed it last night when she worked on her homework. However, she still hadn't found it when the teacher collected the papers and she didn't have one to turn in. What had Samantha missed doing organizationally? What should she have done? 5. Gary usually kept all of his things in his bookbag. At the beginning of each class, he pawed through all of his possessions in order to find the book for that class. When he finally found the book, he still had to dig for his paper. By the end of the day, Gary was so tired of digging, he usually gave up. As a result, he frequently did not have a book to use during this fifth hour class and he didn't turn in any papers. Where did Gary go wrong? What could he do to solve his problems? What Needs to Be Done? In each of the following situations, a student needs to organize some part of his/her work or materials in order to better complete his/her work. Read each situation carefully and write down your suggestions for each student to help him/her become better organized. 1. Eric gathered all of his books together at the end of the day. Usually he stood in front of his locker for several minutes trying to remember his assignments for the night. Also he usually forgot to take at least one book home each night and so he failed to complete at least one assignment. What suggestions do you have to help Eric become better organized? 2. Tina picket up her book and opened it to the page which had been assigned for homework. She read the directions and carefully completed the assignment. When she was finished, she remembered she had to feed the dog. She left her books on her desk and got busy doing other things. In the morning she grabbed everything as she ran to catch the bus. When she got to school she realized that she had left her homework on her desk at home. What suggestions do you have to help Tina become better organized? 3. Latasha worked to complete all of her homework. When she was finished, she stacked it all up and put it in her science folder. The next day in math class, she reached for her math assignment only to find that it wasn't in her science folder. What suggestions do you have to help Latasha become better organized? 4. Henry shook his head in dismay. The teacher had listed four papers on the board which he was to turn in today. Henry had been given these papers two weeks ago and had finished the first two. He hadn't realized that all four would be turned in today. What suggestions do you have to help Henry become better organized? 5. Sally's mother told her that she had to go to bed in one more hour. Sally wasn't sure that she could finish her social studies project by then. She had bought the poster board this afternoon and had started on the project after dinner. What suggestions do you have for Sally?

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: The student will create organizational blueprints for a given problem.

Activity: Organize! The students, using the steps in the planning process, create directions for organizing a locker. Their posters contain:
Title
How to Organize a Locker
Materials Needed:
Steps to Follow:
Caution!
Once posters are done, students trade and use the plans to organize their lockers. The effectiveness of the plans are then discussed.

Assessment: The organizational plans shown on the posters provide a measure of student mastery.

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: The student will be able to apply organizational skills to a real life problem.

Activity: Organizational Blueprints. Together, students brainstorm things in their lives which need to be organized. These are then listed on the board. Possible answers include: locker, notebook, my room, CDs and CD stuff, baseball cards, clothes . . .. Students are then asked to select one area of their lives for which organizational plans can be developed. Once selected, students are to make organizational plans, or blueprints, for their related items. These plans are then to be turned into the type of poster designed for organizing a locker.

Assessment: Evaluation of the student's ability to apply these skills is based upon his/her final plans.

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: The student will be able to apply organizational skills to a real-life problem.

Activity: Organizational Blueprints. Students are given time to complete their plans. Once finished, plans are shared with the entire class.

Assessment: A measure of student mastery of organizational skills is made by evaluating their plans.

Assessment, Phase Five,Performance, Creative Use of Material Learned: