The Organizational Crisis
Students Lacking the Skills to Organize
By Dr. Edwin C. Weaver
www.we-develop-leaders.com
www.uniqueleaders.org
Johnny comes into class, he is a likeable boy, pays attention, but his grades are poor. The teacher asks for the homework from last night. Johnny rummages through his backpack and after a few minutes, pulls out a crumpled piece of paper or answers that he can not find the homework or worse, that he did not do it.
We look at the crumpled paper and decide that Johnny does not care about the subject. In the case of the missing homework, sometimes we do not believe that he did the homework. If Johnny said that he did not do it, we are really upset and believe that he is lazy. However, all of these assumptions may be wrong. We may have a more serious problem which will affect Johnny’s entire life.
Many children today suffer from the lack of study skills and organizational methods. To compound this problem, many teachers do not teach students how to be organized or to study; it is not part of the curriculum. We assume that the child should come to school with these abilities.
When you and I were children, one of our parents was usually in the house, normally Mom. Mom was always on our back; pick up your clothes, put that back where you found it, straighten your room, straighten your books, you have 15 minutes to finish your homework, you can’t go out until your room is clean, the yard better be cleaned before I get back, etc. Mom was teaching us how to organize things. However the children today do not have that benefit, the norm is that both parents work and the child is alone or with siblings.
Children need that quality time with the parents. They need to be instructed in what to do, how to do it and when to do it. The children need to be nurtured, especially if you want the children to develop good study skills and organizational methods (Israel and Bealieu, 2001).
Without guidance the child will become increasing disorganized, with the result of failing on tests and perhaps the year. This in turn affects the child’s self-esteem and adds a great deal of stress to the child’s life (Williamson, 1997), which starts a vicious cycle of failure and often the child quits school and enters the workforce.
Entering the workforce is no advantage. Due to the lack of skills and education the person is ill-prepared and can experience many difficulties in his/her life. If the employer does not see that the person has been taught the basic skills, the person will not be hired (Hanson, 1995). As educators, we need to step up and help these children before it is too late.
Remember, “children are not alike in their ability to be organized. Some children have better organizational skills than others” (Gallagher, 2003, para. 3). Therefore we can not judge all children the same. We must help them to see and experience an organized life style. We must explain to them what organization means and teach them how to organize their time, books, etc.
This is not an easy task! Even if the parents are helpful, the child has a multitude of choices before him/her everyday. Did you realize that the average child spend only a half an hour in ‘meaningful’ conversation with his/her parents each week. What does the child do with the other hours? Many of our students choose technology, of which television is one example. Television and other technologies do not require organization; in fact they discourage it (Gale, 2006).
At one time you had to plan what you wanted to watch. Today, with cable, VCRs, DVDs, etc, there is no need to plan. You watch what you want when you want to. Planning and organizing has been lost. This is not the only consequence of technology.
Student spends an average of 28 hours per week in front of either the TV or computer verses 5.6 hours for homework. The amount of time participating in interaction with others or participating in events which will foster and reinforce organizational habits, such as reading, writing, cleaning or conversing, is seriously hampered. This dedication to the TV or computer leads to lower academic achievement and poor study and organizational skills. The home and technology are not the only culprits; we as teacher have some blame.
Often, we believe that we are doing our jobs correctly when we announce the assignment dates and important facts in the class. We assume that the student is able to understand, record, organize and recall the information at a future time. Later, like with our example Johnny, the assignment does not appear or is it not as we asked. We are disappointed and do not understand what happen. We say the child is not trying or that they child does nothing in class. We tell the parents that the child has the mental and physical capacity to perform the task, but he/she does not want to work; however, poor organizational skills have prevented them from completing such a task (Bryan & Burstein, 2004). So what can we do?
Lack of organization covers all grade levels. There is no one particular magic grade where you can change the student. We must devise plans for all grades. Students need different skills at different levels, grades or ages. Providing models and guidance can help.
Teachers can provide a set-up for how the inside of a school desk should look, monitor work areas, and provide a clean-up time at the end of each class, day, or week (Ito, 1996). Keep a clean classroom. When students see that the area is clean and organized, they start to model what they see. It seems that all research suggests that teachers need to provide students with time to make sure that their personal space at school is organized (Bakunas & Holley, 2001). Yet, we need to go further.
We need to explain what organization is, means and how to be organized. Just having the models will help, but the student needs more guidance and direction. Explain how to organize time, items and choices. Teaching the students how to organize will increase the academic achievement and produce a better student. Research demonstrates that intervention will raise test and homework scores (Bryan & Burstein, 2004).
We have many tools at our disposal; require the students to use assignment books, encourage organization of desk and or lockers and binders. With the binders, make sure you help the student to understand how to divide and organize the binder.
Using a daily agenda or planner will help. Have the students keep track of important items, events, tests, assignments or times. Once they are keeping these in the planner, have the students set a priority to each item. Be sure that as they complete items, they also check them off and the teacher should check the student’s planners regularly (Bakunas & Holley, 2001).
Remember to provide positive feedback for the students. By providing a positive interaction with the student, the teacher will be boosting the student’s self-esteem, which will lead to higher morale, and in turn, higher achievement (Wigley, 2004) and that is what we, as teachers, are aiming for; high scores and motivated learners.
If the school permits, add a life skills class to the schedule. Give the students one hour per week to learn about study skills, organizational skills, active listening, note taking and other life skills. Students should be directly taught study skills, from planning to actual location of studying. Students should make a list of steps or procedures at the end of every day. Providing classes in these skills proves beneficial (Wigley, 2004).
This article is written primarily fro teacher in formal education. However, all that is equally applicable to non-formal settings, such as ESL classrooms. In fact, teachers in the ESL classes run into these problems more than teachers in formal education.
It may be wise and even profitable for language institutes to add classes in these life skills. They may want to require that student have the basic skills and if not the student must fist attend the training sessions.
References:
Bakunas, B., & Holley, W. (2001). Teaching organizational skills. Clearing House, 74 (3) 151-155.
Bryan, T., & Sullivan-Burstein, K. (2004). Improving homework completion and academic performance: Lessons from special education. Theory into Practice, 43 (3) 213-220.
Gale, T. (2006). Michael Ramsay and James Barton biography. Retrieved March 27, 2007 from http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ow-Sh/Ramsay-Michael-and- Barton-James.html.
Gallagher, R. (2003). Organizational skills for school success. The Parent Letter,1(3), Retrieved November 30, 2006, from http://www.aboutourkids.org.
Hanson, B. (1995). Getting to know you: Multi-year teaching. Educational Leadership, 53 (3).
Isreal, G.D., & Beaulieu, L.J. (2001). The influence of family and community social capital on educational achievement. Rural Sociology, 66 (1). 43-68.
Ito, C. (1996). I think I did it, but I can’t find it: Assisting students who lack organizational skills. Williamsburg, VA: Training and Technical Assistance Center at the College of William and Mary, Retrieved November 30, 2006, from http://www.wm.edu/ttac/articles/learning/orgskills.html.
Wigley, S.C. (2004).Assessment of morale in further education students studying for A-level examinations. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 28 (4), 423-434.
Williamson, R.D. (1997). Help me organize. Intervention in School and Clinic, 33 (1) 36-40.
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