I swore up and down I wasn't going to be a teacher again until August. This girl needs a break. However, (as predicted by my husband and anyone who knows me really) I have had a hard time keeping my brain away from school.
Especially when I found this great Daily 5 Book Study linky party over at Lory's Page!
(I've never been a part of a linky party so bear with me as I continue to figure it all out.)
I am on such a Daily 5 kick right now I couldn't help but break my summertime rule and join in on the fun. I student taught in Raleigh, NC right as the Daily 5 fever broke out and was fortunate to be apart of the whole learning/launching process in a Kindergarten classroom. It was new - and as with most new things, a little overwhelming, especially when we thought about Kindergartners "reading to themselves". But by the end of the year, we were all in love! And I was really eager to start Daily 5 in my own classroom....
....which kind of happened. I just finished my first year, teaching Third Grade, in New Bern, NC, where Daily 5 hadn't quite picked up yet. Because it was really all I had seen and because I had had so much training in it, there were definitely certain aspects of the Daily 5 present in my classroom this past year. But I'll admit, I was scared to go in full force by myself.
This year is going to be a completely different story. I actually just finished a book study at school with a group of teachers who have caught the bug and are excited to officially start Daily 5 next year.
If you're not hooked after reading Chapter 1 (which everyone can relate to and probably has very similar stories to share) then read it again. Because I promise, you'll like what you hear. And take it from someone who has seen it happen - it works!!!
Like I said, the routines in my classroom this year were sprinkled with Daily 5. We had I-Charts explaining the Teacher's Job and the Student's Job during reading stations and we had a "stamina clock" that we tried to beat. But next year I would like to be even more systematic. We didn't do a lot of rotating through the stations and my mini-lessons were poop. I think starting at the beginning and being very VERY consistent throughout will be a huge help next year. My reading block went through a lot of changes this year so it was hard to get our time line down pat.
My biggest question, as we continue reading, is how to find a better way to align our Daily 5 time and my mini-lessons to our standardized testing at the end of the year. I never, ever want to teach to the test, but there is a certain amount of prep-time that needs to go into it. This year I would spend about 30-45 minutes on a lesson, going over our particular skill with some type of activity, and then we'd go into center rotations for the rest of our 90 minute block. But this isn't how Daily 5 lays it out and I didn't love doing it that way, it's just what worked. Help?!?
If you're interested in reading and sharing, head on over to Lory's Page and link up! I think this is going to be fun!
Hugs,
Marianna
P.S. I'm working on three other posts in my drafts waiting to be published, so stay tuned ha!
I'd love to hear more about your routines with the stamina clock. How did you present this with Kindergarten? I also posed a question on my blog and in Lory's comments... would love to have your input.
ReplyDeleteBTW. I'm working on something for Kindergarten in which will align mini lessons, common core, and Daily 5. I will have it posted next week. I know it's not third grade but it might help jump kick your planning.
Talk with you soon!
Cheryl
Primary Graffiti
I timed stamina a little differently in Third Grade and Kindergarten but it was still the same concept. In Kindergarten we went straight from the book and started building our Read to Self stamina with everyone showing on-task behavior. We had a chime that we used and as soon as someone was off-task we chimed the chime and students came back to the carpet to review our I-charts and show examples of proper/improper behavior. Then we tried again. Once we got past 5 min. we started just recording the time on the board each day. So if we had 7 minutes of on-task behavior before we had to chime the chime that's what we wrote on the board. Our goal was to get to 15 minutes, which we did fairly quickly. That was all during the "launching phase" of each element. After we reached our 15 min. we stopped counting stamina.
DeleteIn Third Grade, I used http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/ on the smart board so they could they see how long they had been working. (They have a stop-watch that counts up and a countdown depending on how you're using it.) Because we weren't technically doing Daily 5 and we weren't rotating through, our goal was to just see how long we could stay on-task. And as soon as someone was showing off-task behavior, we stopped the clock and it started back at zero.
In both cases, I explained what stamina was and why it was important, especially when you're reading and writing. My kindergarteners really seemed to pick up on that concept and loved to brag about how much stamina they had reached each day.
And that sounds GREAT about the alignment. I'm actually not 100% sure what grade I'll be teaching next year so I'm kind of just getting all the input I can, especially with the new common core!
Let me know if you have anymore questions! :)
Thanks!
Marianna
I do like the idea of using the chime to end the reading session and remediating whole group before allowing a second chance. =D
DeleteThank you,
Cheryl
i am glad you are so excited about daily 5!! so am i! :)
ReplyDeleteMy books cannot get here fast enough . . . come on AMAZON!!! I loved reading your post and I hope to be on board sooner rather than later. On a side note, those parent gift pitchers are fantastic! Glad I found you :)
ReplyDeleteKelley Dolling
Teacher Idea Factory