home Classroom Clues Quick Hint: Collecting Papers

Quick Hint: Collecting Papers


A drawing of a skull with a striped background Consider collecting papers in alphabetical order.

Students line up and the first person in line collects all the papers. If a student forgot to put a name on the paper, the collector can gently remind the student.

A different person is assigned as the “paper manager” for each date in a month based on each student’s last name.

This makes it much easier to record grades.

Returning papers is simple. Students just line up and get their paper back from the “paper manager” assigned for that day.

It gives everyone an opportunity to move around the classroom. A few students in every class really benefit from moving briefly around the room. It can signal a transition to something new.

I assign a number to each student and that corresponds with their place in my class list and can be used to easily determine which day of the month that student is the “paper manager” whether it’s collecting or returning papers. If it’s the 20th, the student who is number 20 collects papers from students 20-32 and then from students 1-19. The “paper manager” stacks the papers in numerical order, clips them securely, and leaves them on my desk. Assigning a number means a different person is at the head of the line, it’s not always the first person in alphabetical order.

4 thoughts on “Quick Hint: Collecting Papers

  1. Such a helpful idea having a student putting class papers in alpha order. They love to do this…it saves me time…and everyone strengthens their alphabetizing skills too! Great help recording grades.

  2. My students have individual mailboxes. I think that collecting the papers in alphabetical order makes it easy to enter grades in my grading program AND it’s also an efficient way to hand back papers in our mailboxes.

  3. During a fire drill I have students line up in alphabetical order (facing away from the building) once they are out of the school. That way if a student is missing the person who would be in front of or behind that person quickly and quietly raises a hand to signal you someone is not in line. This gives each student a task, line up quickly and signal, during an important safety drill that can often degenerate into lots of distracted talking.

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