Why you Should Color Code your Data Sheets

Color coding gives you a HUGE advantage in the classroom… it makes it easy for you to locate materials and not have to have identifiable information openly visible. I started color coding my visual schedule pieces in order to know where they were lost from to stay more organized, and organizing data sheets was next on my list. Here’s all about coloring data sheets, and why you should do it!

Before we start- if you need more information on data sheets- start here!

I love THESE data sheets because they are editable and black and white… which means they don’t use color ink and I can print them on any color- enter color coding. (grab them here)

Whether you make your own data sheets, they are district provided, or you buy editable ones on TPT this tip will be HUGE for you!

WHY YOU SHOULD COLOR CODE YOUR DATA SHEETS RIGHT NOW

1. Student information- I usually write student initials in the top right corner, but with color coding you don’t even have to do that. The people who take data in the room are the only people who know the students color and therefore can quickly identify who’s sheet is who’s… which brings me to number 2.
2. You are BUSY!- Yup, you are a special educator. YOU ARE BUSY. You are going in one million different directions, monitoring students, talking to support staff, and prepping students for what’s next… your mind moves quickly… sometimes too quickly. SO MANY TIMES I quickly grabbed a data sheet for inclusion only to realize I started tracking data on the wrong students sheet. This made for some messy data. With color coding, your brain adjusts quickly and you don’t have to look closely to grab what you need.
3. Organization- Color coding makes it easy to gather student sheets, sort, and place in the appropriate file at the end of each day. This is even a sorting job you can have students help you with.

WAIT. THERE IS ANOTHER WAY TO COLOR CODE TOO!

But that’s not the only way to color code your data sheets! If you aren’t like me and you don’t want to assign a color to every student, or maybe you have too many students on your caseload to do that…. you can color code this way!

Color code each TYPE of data sheet a different color. Lunch sheets are always orange and daily sheets are always green… this makes it easy to find the sheet you are looking for when you are on the go!

To download my editable data sheets, click here.

For more information on collecting data, read this post.

Read about color coding schedules, in this post.