Which schools teach organization skills in lower and middle school?

[Anonymous]

Title says it all: which schools actually teach these skills to kids early on? Thinking of grades 3 and up. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Good question , but I thought much of that came from home.

[Anonymous]

I actually think the Catholic school my child attended for early elementary was good in that regard, and from what I understand the school's focus on organizational skills increases considerably heading into middle school (it was a prek-8 school). There has been a bit of criticism of Cathoilc schools on some threads, and I shared some of the concerns expressed. But I think most of the teachers at my dc's former school, and school leadership, took a very intentional approach to organizational skills, which are fundamental to future success.

[Anonymous]

Parenting

[Anonymous]

I thought they all do at this point? With that said, I know boys' schools focus on that (perhaps on the feeling that their students need the external focus).

[Anonymous]

Every good teacher/parent of young children does it, routinely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually think the Catholic school my child attended for early elementary was good in that regard, and from what I understand the school's focus on organizational skills increases considerably heading into middle school (it was a prek-8 school). There has been a bit of criticism of Cathoilc schools on some threads, and I shared some of the concerns expressed. But I think most of the teachers at my dc's former school, and school leadership, took a very intentional approach to organizational skills, which are fundamental to future success.

Ours too. No online place to check homework - kids write it in their organizers and bring home the proper books (transfer are surprised we have books!) The kids color code their notebook/workbook/textbook covers to keep things together. They carry materials from rooms to room in the middle/upper grades so they have to do some planning to line up what they need. There is a lot of structure to the day and projects and such are very methodical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Title says it all: which schools actually teach these skills to kids early on? Thinking of grades 3 and up. Thanks.

I don't know of a private that doesn't. Public schools do as well, though the private schools I'm aware of do more hands-on support and enforcement of it & continue it through school rather than have it be something started at the beginning of the year/in younger grades and assume children will continue with it. If you're looking for particular methods, you'd do best to talk to the privates you're specifically considering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Title says it all: which schools actually teach these skills to kids early on? Thinking of grades 3 and up. Thanks.

I don't know of a private that doesn't. Public schools do as well, though the private schools I'm aware of do more hands-on support and enforcement of it & continue it through school rather than have it be something started at the beginning of the year/in younger grades and assume children will continue with it. If you're looking for particular methods, you'd do best to talk to the privates you're specifically considering.

Thanks. Our private school doesn't do this in any systematic way. As PPs have said, these skills are very important and one would think private schools would not only emphasize them, but explain to parents how and why they do. Can you please be specific about the schools that do this?

[Anonymous]

Grace Episcopal taught our child the Cornell notetaking method in 4th or 5th grade. Grace taught kids to use planners, and our other kid in public school was also taught to use a planner, both starting maybe in third grade. If you're looking for how to use mnemonics and highlighters, though, I don't think you'll find a lot of this anywhere, in part because lots of schools, both public and private, don't let you mark up the textbooks so they can use them next year.

[Anonymous]

Landon teaches study skills in 6th grade

[Anonymous]

Not all schools teach organization and study skills; at some schools there seems to be a perception that the kids are smart and will figure it out themselves. Wrong. Even very bright and motivated kids often need help in these areas.

[Anonymous]

Holton seems to work very intentionally on organization and study skills in lower school. They do a lot of work with graphic organizers and seem to do a great deal of pre-writing planning work to sort of ease the girls into longer and more substantial writing assignments over time. They also have helped her a lot with non-academic organizational skills. She is very bright and has a tendency to live in her own head at times and then she loses her belongings all over the place. Her teacher last year did a really great job of giving her some strategies to reduce the scatterbrained stuff and she has made huge strides in that area.

[Anonymous]

Norwood does

[Anonymous]

GDS really seems to work on this in an organized way beginning in 3rd grade, with a further ramp-up in middle school, including utilizing uniform planners and making it very explicit what should be recorded about assignments, how to keep track of short-term versus long-term assignments, and applying all the organizational skills to increasingly large projects during each middle school year.