Sending Home Student Work

Sending home graded and ungraded student work can become overwhelming quickly. Papers that can stay at home can easily get mixed up with papers that need to be returned to school, and it really is a mess.

Throughout this post, you’ll find Amazon Affiliate links. This means I receive a small commission if you purchase something through that link, at no extra cost to you, that helps keep my blog running and helps fund giveaways!

Easily organize and manage sending home graded and ungraded student work with a green graded work folder for each student.

What student work do I send home?

I send home all student work. Sometimes it’s graded, and sometimes it’s practice, and I just place a checkmark at the top to show that I’ve seen it.

However, this doesn’t include work done in notebooks.

When do I send home student work?

I only send home completed assignments and graded work once a week. ⁣

Every Wednesday, I pass out Green Graded Work Folders during pack-up. Students know (because we practice it and I remind them LOTS) to write the date.

Then, parents know to look for the Green Graded Work Folder, take out the papers, and sign the space next to the date.

Parents know anything in the folder is theirs to keep and doesn’t need to return to school.

Even though I call them “Green Graded Work Folders” anything that doesn’t need to come back to school goes in this folder.

Sending Home Student Work on Wednesdays

I picked Wednesdays kind of randomly, but also, kind of with purpose.

Wednesdays give me a little bit of time to grade work from the previous week without needing to spend my weekend grading all the things.

Plus, Wednesdays also give me time after papers are sent home to follow up with students on Thursday and Friday if necessary. I was worried that sending home folders on Fridays would mean they’d be lost to the weekend.

What happens if parents don’t sign?

If parents forget to sign the green graded work folder cover, it’s not really a huge deal. In this case, I highlight that week’s line, and send it home again the next week.

What happens if the papers come back?

If a student returns their graded work folder and there are still papers inside, I take them out, staple them together, hand them to the student, and tell them to give them to their parents. I remind them that these papers get to stay at home.

What about missing Green Graded Work Folders?

Every year, a few students lose their folders. Typically, I give students a new one and we keep it moving.

If I’ve given the same student a new folder more twice, I just staple or paperclip their papers togethers, and send them home on the same day I send home Green Graded Work Folders.