A Peek Inside My OG Binders

I will be the first to admit that I can be a little over the top when it comes to organization. I have found though, that putting in a little extra time and being organized makes life SO.MUCH.EASIER. Plus, if it's going to benefit my students... I'm all in! :)

In this post, I wanted to share the OG binders that my students use during their daily reading intervention lessons. I have used these for the last couple of years and have found them to be very helpful. I thought I'd take you on a little tour through the binder. Here you go...

The front cover of each binder has a CLOVER poster of the 6 syllable types. Each time we learn a new type, students highlight the name of the syllable.

In the very front of each binder is a supply bag. Inside, students have their own pencil, highlighter, gel pen, dry erase marker, gems (for sound boxes), syllable squares, and a plastic screen for practicing heart words. We don't use these things all the time, but they are ready to go if/when we need them!

After the supply bag is a plastic sleeve with handwriting lines and an image of a house. Last year when I worked with first graders, this was really helpful when working on letter formation. I still use these with my second graders to practice spelling words and working on those tricky b's and d's! The plastic sleeve makes it dry erase so we can use it over and over again.

Next up are the Elkonin boxes in a plastic sleeve. I call these "sound boxes" with my students and we use them ALL.THE.TIME! Students use their gems or other counters to push up the sounds and then they write the letters in the boxes underneath. Sometimes we use these sound boxes for the S.O.S. portion of the OG lesson and sometimes we use pencil and paper. I find that it's best to switch things up to keep my students engaged!

Next are the divided sections of the binder. I've found that numbering the tabs makes it so much easier for students to go where I want them to. Not all students have the same colors and saying "Flip to the third tab" for some reason is quite the challenge! But, if I tell them "Flip to the tab with the number 3", they get it. I have no idea why, but it helps!

Behind divider #1 are all of my students' completed word lists. They use these word lists to practice coding words and then take the word list (along with a decodable story) home each week to practice. When they bring it back, I hole punch the list and add it to their binders. This takes a little bit of time, but is totally worth it! The kids can practice their old word lists at any time, and I bind everything together for them at the end of the year to take home and practice during the summer. A little bit of time invested in this step really pays off at the end of the year :)

Behind divider #2 are lined pages for S.O.S. and dictation. I print multiple copies of this page so students can just turn to the next blank page. I've found that the houses are helpful with letter formation since many of them struggle with this.

Behind divider #3 are all of my students' decodable stories that they've brought home to read and then returned to school. If it is a book format, I keep them in a plastic sleeve with a Velcro dot so that the books don't fall out. Decodable stories that are on full sheets of paper are behind the plastic pocket. Again, it's so nice to have everything in one place so that students can reread their old stories for fluency practice. Last week, we had "Flashlight Friday!" and students took their binders, a finger flashlight, and a stuffed animal to a cozy spot in the room. They reread their decodable stories and word lists with the lights out in my room while I progress monitored each student (next to a small lamp so we could see...lol).

Behind divider #4, I keep blank pages of the heart word sheets from Really Great Reading. We don't use these often (it's hard to find the time!), but they are a really great way to dissect heart words and color code their regular and irregular phoneme-grapheme correspondences. You can download this sheet and many others for free on their website HERE (scroll to the bottom of the page to find the "Heart Word Magic Dissect a Word" activity).

I don't use the last tab for anything, but this would be a good spot to keep progress monitoring forms, other assessments, etc.

Each year, I reuse these binders, dividers, pencil pouches, manipulatives, etc. At the end of the year, I pull out all of the student sheets and use the binding machine to make a book for each child to practice over the summer. When the next year rolls around, the binders are already ready to go!

These binders DO require a little bit of extra time, but it is completely worth the effort! It reminds me of the quote "You reap what you sow." Putting the work in each week (adding student pages, etc.) will really pay off in more ways than one!