Edutopia blogger Heather Wolpert-Gawron describes how she uses checklists with students to develop their big-picture skills, know what to expect and what's expected of them and, most importantly, help them become more organized!
In Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury writes that the grandma's kitchen was warm, exciting, and full of "organized chaos." I like to think that my classroom environment is also like that. Well, at least it's a positive spin on the piles of books, the stacks of papers and the uneven bulletin boards that define my middle school classroom.
But when teaching study skills and organization, it's vital that I model a more perfect world. One of the ways that I help my students -- and myself -- to organize our assignments is to create checklists.