Quarterly Writing Tasks

There's one piece of writing per quarter that is completed independently by the student.  The teachers offer very little assistance except for the directions.  These writing pieces are very specific and each teacher uses the same materials & organizers to introduce the lesson.  

Keeping the materials organized and in a "user friendly" location is a must.  Also, a place to store the student samples needs to be easy to locate as well.  

In June, the teachers record the scoring data from the quarterly writing tasks in a computer program.  Then, the writing samples are inserted into each child's cumulative folder which will be forwarded to the next grade level.

I had to come up with a plan for storing these items.  My cupboards are packed!  And...I hate stacking papers vertically...never find anything that way!

So, filing crates seemed like a wise choice...for now!  I'm constantly trying to "improve" the organization.  It's a never ending process.

The crates are labeled with large stickers from Michael's Crafts so I know what I'm grabbing.  I load each tabbed hanging file folder with the lesson materials in the summer.  Then, I pull what I need upon teaching the lesson (I keep one master copy in the file to reproduce for next year).  

After the students have completed the writing task, their work goes back into the same hanging folder...in alphabetical order, of course!  The writing samples are easier to pull for the cumulative folders if they are in classroom student number order (by last name).

I like clear, plastic file boxes because they are easy to see through to view the contents.

The student writing samples fit nicely in the hanging file folders.