Welcome to my Back to School with Speech Therapy series. Each day you’ll receive a few tips on how I survive that first week back as I plan for students. Today, I’m focusing on Back to School with Speech Therapy: Student Folders.
Student folders really help me stay organized. I use them to keep data, student information, student goals, and student work samples. I used to keep them in individual folders for each student (the 2-pocket file folder from Target), but a few years ago, I started using tabs in one huge 3-ring binder instead so I could keep them all together for easy access.
What’s Included in My Speech Folders:
Parent Student Information Sheet: I send this home for parents to fill out. It gives me their important information at my fingertips without me having to look it up, and gives me an insight into what the parents’ concerns are for their kids long before I meet them at an IEP meeting.
SLP Student Information Sheet: I fill this out on each of my students. I started doing this the year I went out for maternity leave, and it made the transition between therapists easier. It also helps me to establish a rapport with my students when I remember what they like and don’t like!
Speech/Language Mission Statement Sheet: I have all of my students fill this out during the first week of speech. For those who can’t write, I write it down for them and they sign their names. It is SO important for students to know WHY they are being pulled out of class each day. They need to take ownership of their speech goals and be able to explain to others what they are working on! This keeps us all accountable! Plus, administrators LOVE to see this (hint hint)!
Student Data Sheets: I keep one of these in the folders for each goal. We may not take data on every goal every day, but regardless, it helps students to take accountability of their progress and self-monitor. They LOVE to color in their data and see their graphs rise! Even my Pre-K and Kindergarten students do this with a little help!
Include Student Work Samples, Too:
In addition to these pages, I also keep student work products in their folders to pull out during parent conferences, IEP meetings, etc. It’s so great to give these samples to the students at the end of the year and see how far they’ve come!
Having everything together and easily accessible for each child makes my life much easier. Whether I keep them in separate folders or one big binder (I’ve done it both ways), these student folder sheets keep me organized and on track!
You can download these student folder sheets for FREE in my TPT Store! Click on the picture or the link below!
You can click the link below to find the next day of this Back to School with Speech Therapy series:
Back to School with Speech Therapy: Getting to Know Your Students
SLP Gone Wild says
Great post Whitney…you and I do things very similarly! I can't open any of your downloads though, they probably just aren't set to public viewing 🙂
Whitney Smith says
Jenn-Thanks so much for letting me know. I went back and changed my settings on all of my downloads so everyone can access them without problems. Thanks for reading!
Whitney 🙂
Marcie Waller says
I don't see how to download. Any suggestions?
Whitney Smith says
Hi Marcie, You click on the link on the name of each item: (Speech Folder Download) for instance. It will take you to google docs to download. If you are still having trouble, let me know, and I can email them to you.
Joan says
Love the idea of adding PRIZE at the end of page. I have the students get 10 stickers before I prize and I spend several minutes of therapy each session counting with them! This will help:)