Today’s guest blogger, Kate, has been teaching in an ABA based autism classroom for 8 years- first in an ABA based residential school with students ages 8-16, and moving next to a public school where she now teaches in a kindergarten and first grade. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a therapy based on the science of learning and behavior.

Kate’s storage solutions for Made For Me Literacy helps special education teachers, homeschool moms, preschool teachers, and kindergarten teachers wanting to organize a special education classroom.  Her system meets the needs of her students using the curriculum as well as improves task box, file folder, anchor chart, and assessment storage in her classroom.

An Abundance of Materials

After downloading and printing Made For Me Literacy, I brought it from school to home and back several times.  How was I going to make sense of all of the resources and how would I possibly organize it? Finally, after lugging it around in my teacher bag for a week, I finally organized MFML in a way that keeps me prepped and all materials are within reach when I need them.

Here are some ways that I organize Made For Me Literacy for the upcoming month and for future years to come:

Before the month starts:

• Print and prep everything! Sometimes I can overestimate or underestimate my student’s abilities and need to change levels quickly. Having everything printed and prepped will ensure you have the appropriate levels for your students on hand. Easy art and anchor charts get copied on to colored paper and class copies are made for writing and cut & paste activities.
• Bind “teacher manuals” I bind two teacher manuals:

-Teacher Manual 1: “wh” and yes/no comprehension questions. My iPad is a little on the older side and dies frequently so having the questions printed ensures that I have the visual supports for my students.

-Teacher Manual 2: the easy art, writing, anchor charts, visual recipes, and cut and paste activities.

During the month:

• Vocabulary cards, story maps, teacher manual 1 (wh- & yes/no questions), and anchor charts:

These materials are used at the rug during story time and are stored in my teacher easel.  On the front of the easel, I keep the story map and book. In a side drawer, I keep vocabulary cards, teacher manual 1, and the other book for the month. Finally, the back of the easel holds the anchor charts. Once copied and cut, I glue on some of the anchor chart pieces (title and other pieces that students will not be putting on) and binder clip the rest of the pieces to the anchor chart. Having my anchor charts prepped for the whole month has been a big time saver.

• task boxes, file folders, and teacher manual 2

File folders and teacher manual 2 are kept in a Target dollar spot bin behind my teacher table.  Beside them, I store all the Made For Me Literacy task boxes and monthly task boxes.

• cut and pastes, writing, and easy art

All of the copies then go in to Target dollar spot bins and I pull what I need every day.

After the month ends

The task boxes get placed in Ziploc baggies and are then stored in an Iris Scrapbook Case.  Everything else gets placed in a 2.5 gallon Ziploc bag and gets stored in my monthly bins. (label from Teaching Special Thinkers) Find free MFML labels in our Facebook Group.

MFML has transformed my teaching and reading has become my favorite part of the day. I’ve enjoyed watching my students grow and succeed in all areas, thanks to MFML!