The Daily 5

I'm dedicating the month of June to reading Professional Literature and going to LOTS of Workshops to get a base of how I want to run my classroom. In July, I'll start writing my lesson plans for the semester (since I already cleaned my room for the most part and arranged it the way I wanted the last 3 weeks of school!).  I just finished the book The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades by the Sisters, and it was awesome!!! I definitely am going to implement this structure in my classroom next year.
My reflections on the book:

• Easy to read and follow
• Gives EXPLICIT instruction on how to implement, although reading the exact words of the teacher gets redundant, however, it's necessary!
• Is achievable ONLY IF you are committed to it.
• LOVE the Daily 5 components: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Word Work, Work on Writing
• LOVE the table in the appendix which breaks down the first 5 weeks of implementing the Daily 5.
• When placing students around the room, what are the other students doing?
• When letting each child tell you what s/he wants to do first, how is bad behavior avoided?
• Do I HAVE to do all 5? I'm thinking three 20 minute sessions? Does that ruin the whole thing?
• Students choose where to sit in room, who to work with, when they want to do each component.
• I REALLY enjoy whole group teaching and grand discussions, still doable in the whole group time in between each session?

Some of the questions I'll think about as the summer moves on. Overall I really enjoyed the book and learned a WHOLE BUNCH of new information and management ideas I didn't know before!

Next book on the list,  Making the Most of Small Groups: Differentiation for All by Debbie Diller. After reflecting, I decided small groups and stations is where I need to gain more expertise! So here goes!

Professional Development

Last week I attended two really good workshops, "Differentiated Instruction with Guided Reading" and "Reader's Workshop: Making it Make Sense." I have been working to improve my small groups and what to do in small groups, so I took away the most helpful information from Differentiated Instruction.

I had SO many misconceptions about Guided Reading! I really didn't even know what it was! I thought it was choral or round-robin reading in a small group. WRONG! It's actually modeling in whole group, then in small group they read by themselves while the teacher walks around and monitors the reading, supporting where needed! So, here are some things I took away from the workshop about Guided Reading:

1. It is NOT choral or round-robin reading.

2. Reading groups are DYNAMIC, which means they change often.

3. A student will read new text EVERY TIME they read(a poem, the rest of an unfinished book, a new reading selection, etc.).

4. Guided Reading is a gradual release type of teaching. It is more STUDENT centered in small groups.

5. Small group time is NOT for phonics activities (whoops, that was a golden nugget to me!)

6. When student is stuck, prompt first, "What do you remember from our lessons that will help you figure this word out?" Then, "What have you already tried?"

7. Figure out reading groups from Reading Records, Word Tests, Letter Identification, Hearing and Recording Sounds. NOT TPRI and STAR tests (whoops again, but hey! I'm learning right?!)

8. Small groups should last no more than 20 minutes.

9. There is a difference between Reading Skills (TEKS/Curriculum) and Reading Strategies (HOW to read).

10. The RAN Chart. I LOVE it! It allows for mistakes and to be able to correct them! WAY better than KWL chart!