Students at Anacapa Middle School in Ventura know that it takes more than being smart to do well in class.

"It's not the smartest kids who do the best," said Jessica Bonnell, 12, reciting a familiar phrase on her campus. "It's the most organized."

Jessica carries a three-ring binder from class to class, holding her agenda, notes and assignments in each subject. And when she turns it upside down and shakes it, nothing falls out. If her work wasn't organized, she said, "I'd probably lose it."

As middle school students across Ventura County head back to school this fall, more and more are carrying day planners, three-ring binders and other materials as educators stress the importance of pre-teen organization.

Sixth- and seventh-graders no longer have one teacher keeping track of them, but multiple teachers with different rules and expectations. From keeping up with homework assignments to holding on to notes, students have more tasks and materials that they need to organize, and for some children, that creates problems.

It can be chaotic, said Anacapa teacher Laura Taylor, which is why she takes the time to teach her students to stay organized.

Districts throughout Ventura County hand out planners to help students keep track of work.

At Anacapa, binders are required schoolwide to keep track of notes and assignments for each class.

'Interactive notebook'

Jessica learned to organize her work in an Advancement Via Individual Determination class, an elective taught by Taylor to help kids get to college. The binder system gives everything a place, Jessica said, and she knows where to find what she needs.

Taylor also teaches students how to keep an "interactive notebook," which includes a table of contents, followed by each lesson, complete with notes, diagrams and explanations.

They have to bring it each day and keep it up to date, Taylor said, and it works. Last year, she handed out the notebooks on the second day of school, and by the end of the year, 90 percent of her students still were using them and said they'd be lost without them.

But sometimes, organization can become too much of a focus in school, said parent Susan Goodkin, executive director of the California Learning Strategies Center.

Children develop at different rates — girls normally faster than boys — and have different learning styles, leaving some at a disadvantage. When their grades are marked down because of poor organizational skills, students can end up feeling like failures, Goodkin said.

Principal Brad Benioff at Medea Creek Middle School in Oak Park said sometimes it's maturity and sometimes it's just how a child processes information that leads some to pick up the skills more quickly.

Some students can explain anything a teacher wants to know about a subject, but their organizational skills are so poor, they aren't able to demonstrate that knowledge in an assignment, Benioff said.

"With the constant pace of the curriculum, it's very easy to forget or lose track of an assignment," he said, and the school tries to help by teaching organizational skills.

Benioff sees validity on both sides of the grades debate.

If a child can demonstrate that he or she knows the work, it makes sense that they get a good grade. But at the same time, he said, there's a rationale for holding students accountable for meeting deadlines and keeping track of their work.

People are judged on organizational skills in high school, college and the working world, Benioff said, and if they don't learn those skills in middle school, they will struggle.

"We can help children not feel like failures," said Harley Baker, psychology chairman at CSU Channel Islands in Camarillo.

From ages 12 to 14, kids normally have developed the ability to manage their time and keep track of assignments, he said. Some struggle, but educators and parents can help by being sensitive to a child's individual needs.

Time management and organization can make or break students in their first year of college, said Sonja Montiel, an independent college consultant and founder of College Confidence in Westlake Village. But not every child will be successful at keeping track of assignments and his time in the same way.

Different learning styles

Everyone has his own learning style, Montiel said, so while a checklist might work for one person, it won't for another.

"It's great to introduce that tool, but if it doesn't stick, it's OK," she said. Maybe a student would respond better to color-coded notes instead of a typical day planner, or keeping track of assignments on a whiteboard at home.

Parents can help by asking about homework or looking information up on a classroom Web site with their child. But it's important to not be too intrusive, Baker said, and parents shouldn't take over the responsibility, which can perpetuate the idea that the child doesn't have to develop organizational skills.