Bright Idea - Assignment Cover Slips

I blogged about cover slips last summer, but a pin from that post has been sending so many people there, that I thought that I would expand on it and make it this month's Bright Idea.

When I was pretty much self-contained, I put my kids in numerical order and had them write their numbers on their papers. Eventually I would learn their numbers and would be easily able to figure out who had missing assignments once I put them in numerical order. I would put a sticky note on the key with the names of the students who didn't hand it in, noting who was gone or excused or whatever.

Since I moved to the middle school, I had three different classes to memorize and an associate often checked my papers. So three sets of class numbers didn't seem to make sense since it would take me forever to memorize three different rosters.

So I developed a checklist cover slip that had the list of students for each class. Here's how I did it.

UPDATE: Click the image above to download the template.

I printed out a bunch on red paper for my first period/seventh period students, yellow for third period, and blue for fifth period. You wouldn't need to color code, but it made it easy to find a particular class if I needed to double-check the grade that I entered. It was also handy for grouping assignments by class that were ready to enter into the computer.

For each assignment, I created a key and paper clipped it to the student assignments. I put a cover slip on top which noted the assignment name, due date, and points possible. This was helpful if I needed to refer to it when it wasn't attached to anything. At times I would also forget when I told students when it was due, or if I was only going to count it as a certain number of points. So it was handy to write down all of that information right away.

In the first column, I marked any student who was absent since I wouldn't necessarily remember that on the due date. As the assignments were turned in, the associate or I checked them off. We could quickly determine who hadn't turned it in yet, or if there was a no name, it helped to narrow down the possibilities. I also noted if someone handed something in late so I could code it correctly in the computer.

In the second column, the associate or I wrote the score after checking. I often just put a checkmark if they got full credit so I could just scan to see who didn't get full credit when I entered the assignment in the grading program. It was very quick and easy to enter since all of the information was right there and in order. I also kept the cover slip and handed back the papers before entering them if I wanted because all of the information I needed was on the slip. I kept a little basket for the entered cover slips and rubber banded them together and stashed them at the end of the quarter.

This cover slip also works well for anything that you need to collect - permission slips, picture money - or if you needed to write down t-shirt sizes, keep track of who has been the person of the day, tally the number of times students ask to go to the bathroom, or really anything that requires a class list.

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