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!

Four Days Left of School!

There are four days left of school and I'm so excited! I can't WAIT to be able to read books, work out whenever I like, take time to PLAN lessons and find materials for them, and travel! I really enjoyed teaching through themes this year, so this summer I plan on making folders that have all the lessons, materials, and pre-made examples in them. LAST summer I had done this for all the novels I had hoped to teach to the Fourth Graders, but that all changed 4 days before school started, right? I suppose if I ever teach Fourth Grade again I can use them!

On another note, I LOVE teaching a small group! During the day I catch myself smiling from ear to ear while observing the students working so quietly, every single student engaged and lost in their work. Just imagine how much more students can learn and reach their potential in classrooms with smaller numbers of students. But, we just continue to get more and more students in the classroom. Oh well! More love to be spread! Have a wonderful day!

Professional Development

I LOVE going to professional development and can't wait for the summer so I can go to some workshops and learn so much stuff! So far I've signed up for a Reader's Workshop and Differentiated Reading Instruction. At our local teacher supply store, Jacque's, they're offering a whole bunch of development opportunities in July for a cheap price! Does anyone know of any other workshops that are worth it that's offered in Texas?

Classroom Clean-up!

I FINALLY bought Debbie Diller's Spaces & Places and have been moved to TAKE DOWN MY CRAZINESS on my walls! A parent from another class walked in and said, "Woa! This classroom is busy!" (and she wasn't commenting about the kids per say) So I started taking stuff down. At the beginning of the year when I was informed I would no longer be teaching 4th grade, I had less than 24 hours to move and set up a whole new classroom so I LITERALLY THREW things up and stuffed things in different nooks and crannies. SO, it's safe to say that I needed to give my classroom a serious cleaning and take the time to PLAN it out for effective student learning. All year I've wanted a wordwall that didn't look cluttered and was interactive. So, I moved it to an old chalkboard in the classroom, bought all new sight words, painfully cut every single word, and put magnet tape on the back! And now.....

IT's AWESOME! The kids were SO excited to be able to take the words down and use them during journal time!

Next book: The Daily 5 by The Sisters...which I've already started implementing during FYP!

I Got an IPAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got an IPAD for my CLASROOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited about it!!!!!!!!! OHHHHH dear! I've been praying to be able to use one for a year! And I LOVE it! We're doing a dinosaur unit for FYP and the kids have been playing dinosaur themed games! Also, I taught them how to record themselves reading because YES! Ipad 2 has a camera!!!!!!! And the kids understand everything to do and how to use it! Oh so much fun! They can watch themselves read and realize that they need to read with more expression or a little bit louder or even which words they miss every time! They love it! Here are some pics.

It's Been Way Too Long!

Whew! I've almost made it to the end of my first year in First Grade!!!!! Looking back, the year FLEW by! Although the next week seems to be coming very slowly! I haven't been posting because my class and I have been working our tails off getting our fluency up and preparing for Second Grade! Bryan ISD has an extended year for those students who did not pass some subjects. So, I have six students staying an extra to weeks and it's been GLORIOUS!!!! I'm SO SAD when the school bell rings and they have to leave! And believe me, these are some of the students that made me run out of the room with a scared look on my face! Their demeanor is different, they're willing to SIT and Listen, and it's amazing! Much more posts to come with pictures of more activities we've been doing for the past 2 months!