The Importance of Classroom Checklist

What is classroom checklist?

Classroom checklist is a checking tool that outline specific criteria for educators and students to use in determining things or objects that they need to remember to keep and bring back home safely. Checklists can be used with students from kindergarten to primary school level in any school settings (e.g: kindergarten, typical schools, and special education centers). This checklist provides a method for systematically organize information to take care on a student or group of students’ personal belongings.

In general, this checklist is made up of a series of statements that correspond to specific criteria. The response to each statement is either "Tick" or "Cross" or "Done" or "Not Done." Checklists can be used by a single student, a group of students, or an entire class. They could be "single use" or intended for multiple uses.

The purpose of checklist

• A way to keep students stay organized.

• Help students to develop metacognitive awareness of their intellectual processes.

• Help to reduce or avoid things that easily lost with certain students

• An easy method to alert and remind each other’s on their personal belongings in the class.

The simple act of creating and using a checklist may bring a level of order into a student's life that was previously missing or lost. Executive functions, which are the various cognitive processes that students use to control their own memory, may be a weakness for students with learning disabilities and ADHD, so providing them with strategies to overcome these weaknesses is vital.

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HOW TO CREATE CHECKLIST

STEP BY STEP:

Initial stage

During the initial stage, we will need to focus on three major steps to make sure the children identify and recognize the real-life object:

1. Show the flashcards

• Ensure the student visually recognize the picture of the object.

2. Identify the correct real-life object on the table.

• This step will allow us to know the good verbal labelling skills by the student.

3. Match it.

• At this step, the student will show his or her ability to match the picture card to its real-object and prove their understanding on the recognition of the real-life object.

Progressing stage

In the progressing stage, there will be steps to create opportunity for children to look for the object that they need to remember at home/school:

1. Find the object within close range (in the bag).

• This step will help to improve the student’s focus to look at a specific area to find for the objects that they need.

2. Match the flashcards with objects

• This is to ensure the student understands and able to match the visual cues with the real-objects found in the bag.

Action stage

1. List out the most common items

• Things that need the students to remember and look for it.

2. Ensure that labels and indicators are clear, specific, and easy.

• Labels helps them to practice identifying words and spelling.

• Picture of the items acts as a visual cue to allow students to understand better of what are the items in the list.

3. Encourage students to read and tick the checklist items accordingly.

• Promotes students’ ability to identify and read the items, check and look for the items as well as tick once done.

4. Make it a routine!

• Ensure that checklists are dated daily in order to make it as a routine among the students and improve their metacognition awareness.

Through this activity, children also learn to:

1. Search items that belong to them

2. Recognize and naming the items

3. Quantity counting

4. Taking care of belongings

5. Be responsible

6. Requesting for help to spell

This checklist can be implemented in different settings like home, school, and social settings (grocery shopping, picnic, swimming). Creating checklist which targeting different area of learning can improve their cognitive development in thinking and problem solving. The whole process and journey of creating to applying the checklist leads the children to be independent in the future, to take care of their belongings and planning ahead what is needed in a checklist.

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Sample of classroom checklist

Download this template: