"When we follow routines day after day, our students can use their energy to grow as readers and learners rather than to figure out what we expect them to do. And we in turn, can focus our energy on teaching, not managing, or independent learners." -Kathy Collins. I can connect this to cooking...recipes I am unfamiliar with, I repeatedly look back at the directions and follow them step by step to figure out what I am supposed to do. But the recipes I have made over and over, I can alter and change to make new things and try new ways to make them better. I want kids to know the expectations so well, they are willing to be risky and try new things.
Gathering Place:
I refer to my gathering place as "the nest" Just like baby birds, the nest is where they learn skills they need before flying off and trying them on their own. In class, we need a place to learn all together, before we go and try reading strategies independently. A lot of helpful reminders about our jobs as learners surround this space. Here is one of them that helps us remember how to hang out in the nest.
Appropriate Books:
Before we get to choosing books, we spend a lot of time talking about how to choose books, why to choose books, how we are all different and unique in our reading lives. We do the shoe talk...shoes that fit one person might not be a good size for another.
Because I hope that choosing books in the classroom library, would help students navigate through the public library, my library is organized by author (fiction) and topic (non-fiction). I do have baskets full of the easiest books, because without fail, every year those are my kids always trying to sneak "too hard" books into their bookbag. So I do make them choose all their books from these baskets. For more on the library, see this
post.
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| non-fiction |
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| fiction-chapter books |
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| easy readers |
The books are leveled, using reading lexile.
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| Lexile is written inside the book |
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| All the books have dots on the s |
Overall, my chickadees were pretty good about picking just right books. There were a few who had a check in with me, so I could make sure they were on the right track. My biggest issue with picking books was kids who wanted books that were way below their level....every week we were we having discussions about trying books that would grow them as readers.
Each student has a 3x5 card. I write their lexile number range and the matching color dot on their card. They use that to help them find just right books.
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| Bookbag |
Anchor Charts:
Of course, the anchor charts that the sisters put in their book are a staple to setting up a successful Daily 5 system. But my favorite routine, that I think really helps with the stamina and being on task is about three kinds of readers. I have posted about it before, but here is a refresher. I tell my kids there are three kinds of readers; pretend, dutiful, and engaged. We define these three traits and talk about what a reader looks like while doing them.
Pretend: Book might not be out-eyes moving around room-they may distract others-off task.....
Dutiful: Is doing what they are supposed to be doing-might be easily distracted.....
Engaged: Loves their book-is not distracted-might show emotion because of story-not distracted-hard to put book down
Then we act them out and try to guess who is showing each trait.
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| Students put thumb up when they were ready to guess. |
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| Can you find the three traits? |
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| Engaged reader is thinking, "I like this book. It is cool." The
dutiful reader is thinking, "I don't like this book, but she told me to
read it." The pretender is thinking, "I like dogs." |
My kids remember this all year long...and use those words to help each other stay on task! We review our own reading behavior each day and ask ourselves what kind of reader we are.
Getting students back to the carpet The student of the day, gets to wind it up (they all LOVE this job) and it plays "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." They play the song for about 30 seconds and by the end everyone has made it to the "nest." To encourage the 30 second transition, I let the first 5 students to the carpet area move their clothespin up, on the clip chart!
Then we choose our next session choice. At first this is slow, but after a couple weeks we have got the alphabetized list going and everyone has signed up and on their way to session two within 30-45 seconds....sometimes we even time it and try and beat our record. Here is what I use to record what they are doing.
My other favorite thought from this chapter was the 10 Steps:
1. Identify what is to be taught.
2. Set a purpose and sense of urgency.
3. Brainstorm behaviors desired using an i-chart.
4. Model most desirable behaviors.
5. Incorrect model-least desirable behaviors, then repeat most desirable.
6. Everyone practice and build stamina.
7. Teacher stays out of the way.
8. Quiet signal-come back to group.
9. Group check in-"How did you do?"
10. Repeat 1-9.
This matches our school PBIS Behavior teaching model.....why not apply it to class instruction as well.
For more Daily 5 Book Study thoughts, check out,
Happy Wednesday,
A Versatile Back to School Checklist
Also, I have been given a blog award by Jenn @ Owl Things First...love her and her cute blog! Go check it out!
