Organizational Skill Building: Plan for Success 

In her best selling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo writes, “You can’t tidy if you’ve never learned how.” A glance at disheveled book bags, lockers, desks, and rooms in schools and homes around the nation might have parents and teachers nodding heads in agreement. University research confirms the importance of teaching organizational skills to children and its positive impact on student behavior, academic outcomes and even motivation.
 
A study conducted by researchers at Saint Xavier University involved teachers at three separate public schools, analyzing possible reasons behind low grades. Data collected from journals, surveys, and students' grades indicated that with an increase in organization, students lost fewer assignments and were better prepared for class when they had a sense of order. Yet another study researched at Loyola University in Chicago examined the potential relationship between organizational skills and self-motivation.  Both studies conclude that those who teach organization skills to students impart important lessons for school, as well as for life.
 
Organization is a skill that helps create order out of disorder. For students, being organized can create a sense of calm and control to prepare for learning and problem solving, and foster a growing sense of independence. More than just keeping one’s sock drawer in order, organization involves learning how to collect all of the necessary materials to complete a task. Organizational skills can include strategies for note taking, recording assignments and due dates, studying, and keeping track of school, family, and extra-curricular commitments.
 
 
ADDitude Magazine suggests these classroom strategies for helping students get organized:

• Make desk cleaning part of the daily classroom routine.
• Instruct students in ways to set up notebooks, binders or folders by subject or topic.
• Model classroom organization by having classroom systems in place for daily routines – providing three-hold punched handouts for easy placement in binders, color-coded folders for turning in homework assignments, collecting lunch money and permission slips, and so on. 
• Encourage the use of graphic organizers and outlines to refine note taking skills. 

SEL Connections:
Connect wtih Kids offers these SEL connections to help students build organizational skills at school and at home that can have a life-long impact.
 
Self-Awareness: How does it make you feel when your home, classroom or school supplies are in order? How do you feel when materials are a mess? Which situation offers you feelings of more comfort or control?  Why?

Self-Management: What seems to be happening in your life when your belongings are a mess? In what simple ways might you change your daily routine to keep everything in order? How might that impact your schoolwork? How might that impact your free time?
 
Social Awareness:  Who might be able to offer some assistance in getting your schoolwork or personal possessions in order? Do you have certain skills (note taking, for example) that might help someone else?  How might you seek help or offer help respectfully?

Relationship Skills: How might a lack of organization affect your friends, family or classmates? For example, are you often late? Are you often looking for materials? Does this hold up the schedule of others?

Responsible Decision-Making: What choices are you making that impact the amount of time you devote to schoolwork? How much time might be wasted by not being organized? What are different strategies or choices you might make?