Responding to our Reading and Much more...

Our week was very successful! The kids are enjoying Daily Math. I have to say that it was extremely easy to introduce the routines because they understand what is expected of them right away! The I-Charts were done very quickly and the kids used the same language from the previous I - Charts we created. While creating the Math with Someone I - Chart our math teacher was in the classroom and needless to say, he was very impressed. After modeling and talking about the I-Chart, each day one game was introduced and the kids played for two rounds. The math lessons and the lesson activity book are still being done in a whole class setting. This will change as the kids learn more of the Daily Math choices. As for “Math with Someone” here is a quick overview of the games introduced:

Fact Fluency: Before playing the games students should decide if they will be playing using addition, subtraction, or multiplication. This game is played very similarly to the card game war. The deck is spilt amongst two players (or however many players are playing). Each player has their cards facing down and at the same time they flip over two cards from their piles. Both players figure out the sum, difference, or product of the two cards. Whoever has the highest number takes both sets of cards. This continues until one player has no more cards in their hands. The player in the end who has the most cards wins the game. However, I always tell my kids that they are all winners by learning their math facts J Note: My students take out the kings. Jokers remain and are used as a zero, Jacks are 11 and Queens are 12.

Go Fish: This game is played just like the original Go Fish game. Only a few things have been changed. Each player receives 9 cards and the object of the game is to get pairs that equal the sum of 10. When it is a players’ turn they ask the other player if they have…. If the other player has the card they must give it to them and then pick one card from the pile in the middle. If the player does not have the card that was asked for, they say “Go Fish”. “Go Fish”, means to take a card from the middle pile. The first player to have all sums of ten in their hand, wins the game. Note: Jacks, queens, and kings are taken out. Jokers can be used as zeros again.

Sums of Ten: Sums of Ten is our version of the memory game. 20 cards are laid out on the floor, face down, in 5 rows and 4 columns. The object of the game is to flip over two cards that equal a sum of ten. If the cards equal a sum of ten the player takes the match, if not the cards are flipped back over and it is the other players turn. When all cards are taken, both players count their pairs. The player with the most sums of ten, wins the game. Note: Jacks, Queens, and Kings are taken out.

 

Bingo: We have a multiplication bingo game. Enough said, haha!

 

Guess my Number: 3 players are needed for this game. The deck is faced down in the middle of two players. Both players pick one card and hold the card facing out against their forehead. The third player says the sum, difference, or product of the two numbers (this should be determined beforehand). After knowing the sum, product or difference and the other player’s card, each player guesses what they think their card is. For example if the product is 22 and Player A sees that Player B has 11 on their forehead, they should guess 2. Whoever correctly guesses their card first, gets both cards. The player with the most cards in the end wins the game.

 

For this next week we will continue to practice playing the games during two rounds. However, I will start taking groups this week. So the kids will Meet with the Teacher during one round, and play games for the other two rounds. I can’t wait to see how it works out!!!!!

Daily Five and CAFÉ….

We are moving along very well in both Daily Five and CAFÉ. Our strategy for this past week continued to be “listening to your inner voice” and “leave tracks of your thinking”. The students were asked this week to write letters to me. The first paragraph needed to be a summary, second paragraph was important information about the story, and the third paragraph was their thinking. I got a wide variety of letters! Some blew me away with how wonderful they were, while others need some work. The letters gave me great information though. I was able to see many different strategy needs and strengths. I plan to utilize these letters during my conferences. For example a few kids showed me in their letter that they have great difficulty with writing summaries (they told me every detail), while other students may have made connections but not connections that further enhanced their comprehension of the story. Also, I had many kids who transferred their thinking on the Post-Its straight to their letter. I used these letters as great models during my mini-lessons. I plan on having the kids write one type of response every week. As I said I get great insight into their reading and thinking. Responding to reading is a wonderful assessment tool.

I decided not to abandon the “Flat Stanley” book. After writing my blog last Sunday night I went into school the next day and told my kids I was thinking about abandoning the “Flat Stanley” book. Some kids asked why, while others said they thought I should. I explained to the kids that I wasn’t enjoying the book because it didn’t match up to the Secret Garden. I explained that this happens a lot in my personal reading life. Many times I will read a fabulous intense book that it is so hard to find a book to read right after. Or at times I will read an intense book (Jodi Piccoult) and then want an easy read afterwards. I wish I could have taken a picture of them looking at me during this conversation, their faces were so serious! They loved hearing about myself as a reader. After sharing these experiences with them I said that I felt if I abandoned the book, I might miss out on a great read. I also told them that sometimes they might have to read books (Guided Reading) that they are not thrilled with but need to stick with them, so it wouldn’t be a good example if I abandoned “Flat Stanley”. By the end of the week we finished the book and had some great discussions. Was it my all time favorite read aloud, definitely not, but every book has something to offer and this was a great lesson for my kids on sticking with books. Next up Edward Tulane.

My goal and strategy for this week will be Expanding Vocabulary and what to do with all of those interesting words we are finding. I will be discussing and teaching a lot about context clues. Edward Tulane is a perfect book for this. It is a book that has a plethora of vocabulary words that we can use to really get to know the characters. I want my kids paying attention to the new vocabulary, using context clues, and also utilizing the words in their daily language. While reading “The Promise World” I took note of new and interesting words. After finishing the book I had a list of six new words. While looking over the list after closing the book, I was not able to define these words, although I understood them while reading the book because I used the context clues. I hope to teach my children many different context clues strategies this week, all of which I will put under the Expanding Vocabulary section.

 

Along with Expanding our Vocabulary, another goal will be comprehension, with the strategy being “Get to know the Characters”. The students will learn how to relate to the characters and get inside of their heads. Again, I will be using Edward Tulane. We will discuss our connections to the story and how they enhance our comprehension. We will also watch the growth of Edward Tulane and the other characters in the books. I love the book, “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane” and I can’t wait to incorporate it into my CAFÉ strategy lessons this week!

 

Both professional development books I mentioned in my last blog are very good. These books are “Still Learning to Read” and “Notebook Connections”. I am enjoying the practical lessons and information presented in both books and I look forward to implementing it into my classroom. More to come on my use of these books in future blogs…

 

This past weekend was the Teacher’s College Reunion. I feel a little guilty that I didn’t go, but my reasoning was good. Quite honestly, I felt if I went my brain might have gone into overload!!!!!! As you know, I am in the process of introducing many new things into my classroom (Daily Five, CAFÉ, Words their Way, a new ELA curriculum, and now Daily Math), along with read a ton of Professional Development books. At times I feel that I need to give myself the space and time to grow on my own. Use one or two resources and then blossom in those, with my own tweaks in the process. Every time I open a new book or attend another conference, I am like a kid in a candy store. I want everything introduced into my classroom and I want it all now! Obviously this is not practical, so in thinking about going to the TC reunion I felt I needed to take a step back and continue with what I am currently doing, right now, in my classroom.

Words of Advice:

Try tuning into your inner voice while reading. It is truly eye opening when you try to do the strategies that you ask of the kids. During the last few weeks I have been tuning into my inner voice, making mental images and keeping track of interesting words. I plan to use a Reader’s Notebook to track my thinking and share it with my students. I’ve been sharing my thinking, but I think it will be more meaningful if they see it written down, in a notebook or on post-its. It is also very helpful for me to see which strategies I use as a reader and which strategies I almost need to force upon myself.

 

Have a great week! 

Daily Math

Tomorrow we are starting Daily Math! I know, I'm crazy!!!!! Why am I putting another thing on my plate????As if Words their Way, CAFE and Daily Five weren't enough!  The reason why I decided to try this is because my kids are the most on task during the Daily Five time and it is the least stressful time of the day for me. SO... I think it may help to do so in math. I will use the PACE menu (posted on Pro Teacher). We will do three rounds and 3 mini-lessons just like Daily Five. I have 4 math groups and also a math teacher who pulls kids out. So I will meet with each group one round, every day. The other two rounds they will choose from Math with Someone (card games my student teacher and I made up to practice facts), Write Math (I want the kids to write story problem books) and Math Challenge (problem solving). They will choose Math with the Teacher (this is where they will do the Lesson Activity Book), and then two other choices. I can't wait to try it out! 

On Friday we did one round of Math with Someone. I wanted my kids to play a math game together and figured rather then having them practice wrong, we should make an I-Chart. I was so impressed with my kids, everything they learned in Daily Five was transferred to this one round of Math with Someone. It was so easy and they quickly understood my expectations. I'll blog more about this next week when we have more rounds. 

Daily Five is going well in my Cafe 48. At times I have to remind my students of the correct behavior and we will do a quick modeling. I am continuing to read a chapter book during the transitions, I feel this allows for me to begin my mini-lesson right way, before all kids are at the carpet. The kids are also anxious to hear the chapter book. We finished the Secret Garden. The kids and I were so sad that it was over. It will definitely be a book I will revisit throughout the year and refer back to. There was so much depth to it. Right now I am reading Flat Stanley but I think I may abandon it tomorrow. It isn't working for me after the Secret Garden. Although, it is short so maybe I should stick with it and then read Edward Tulane. I can't wait to read that book! So good! 

My kids are all reading The Diary of the Wimpy Kid. I think this will be the next book on my personal reading list. Seriously, I don't get these books! It is so difficult to have a conference when the kids are reading this book! AHHHHH! Maybe if I read them myself I will get it. Unfortunately, many of the kids who are reading it, I know the book is not Good-Fit. So then we have the "dreaded talk". Not to mention that the kids who are reading it probably don't have many connections or schema for the book because it is about a middle school kid (I think?). I won't say anymore until I have given it a chance myself, otherwise I am being unfair. 

This week I hope to have my students writing some sort of response to me other than post-its. They are doing so well with leaving tracks of their thinking, but now what? I want them to take these post-its and look further into them. Other wise I find my kids write on post-its, only to throw them out when they finish the book or after our conference. Doing this takes away from the value of the post-its and their thinking. I hope to have the kids glue there post-its in their Reader's Notebook in order to see the growth or their thinking. Currently I am reading the Professional Development book Notebook Connections. I hope to get some good ideas from this book. After reading this book the PD book Still Learning to Read was recommended to me. I ordered it on Amazon and I'm looking forward to it arriving in the mail. 

Wishing everyone a wonderful week! I'm looking forward to blogging next weekend with updates on Daily Five, Cafe, and now Daily Math! 

Words of Advice:

Book Recommendation: The Promised World by Lisa Tucker 

Get a good night sleep on Sunday nights :-) I'm off to bed! 

A great week in review...

Daily Five and CAFÉ are keeping me up at night! The excitement I have over these two programs is ridiculous! Last night I was up at 4:00 in the morning thinking about how I can encourage my students to pick “Read to Someone” more often (I will talk more about this later). Instead of blogging I went downstairs to watch Grays Anatomy. Something about blogging at 4:00 in the morning just wasn’t sitting well with me, so I resisted the urge and instead turned to TV. It worked but then at 10 in the morning I woke and said to myself, “I just need to blog!”. So here it is Ladies and Gentlemen….

So much has happened in my classroom this week. First I would like to start off with the kids comments and stories about their learning. I visit “The Daily Café” and Pro-teacher often. I always come across kid stories that I can’t believe are true. I tend to read these stories about things that kids are saying and my response is first “Really?????” and then why don’t I hear these comments. This week I did! Not just one, but a few. While reading this keep in mind that I am sharing these stories with you so you can see the success of Daily Five and CAFÉ. Oh and if you have a cute story please share in the comments…. 

Story #1:

Student A is a struggling reader, whom the reading teacher and I work with on a daily basis to help. Earlier in the week it was math time and when I looked over at him he was reading the book “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, instead of doing his math work. This was not the first time I had to ask him to put away a book because it was not reading time. While looking at him two things crossed my mind, 1. He shouldn’t be reading during math time and he knows this and 2. Why is he reading the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”! That is not a good-fit book! I couldn’t resist the urge to have a mini-conference with him. He wasn’t paying attention to the math lesson anyway, right? I went over to him and asked him to talk with me in the hallway (the math teacher was teaching the class). When in the hallway we spoke about how I have asked him not to read during other subjects and he is continuously choosing to not listen. Tears start rolling down his face!! Student A is not a crier, so I knew something was bothering him. We sat there for five minutes without him talking and me asking him to tell me what was bothering him, so that I could help him. Finally, after 5 minutes he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, “I want to get better at reading and you said the best way to get better at reading is to read!” Wow! Needless to say we talk about this and of course the Good Fit book topic. 

Story # 2:

In talking with my kids about inner conversation, one of my students raised their hand and said, “When I have a inner conversation while reading a book, I noticed that my voice and me are reading the book together, at the same time!”

Story #3:

While checking in for our third round the other day multiple kids raised their hands and said, “Can I meet with you to talk about my strategies and goals?” How cute!!!! So this round went a little longer than normal but I couldn’t resist meeting with these children. During the conferences I was SO impressed by my students abilities to choose goals and strategies that truly met their needs. They were able to express to me why they were choosing the particular goals and strategies.

In addition to these great stories, many other happenings took place in CAFÉ 48. We had a successful week meeting our goal of 3 rounds on all days. I was also able to meet with Guided Reading groups, Words their Way groups, and conference with individual students (next week I will tackle strategy groups). Doing all three in one week was a lot to handle!!! The schedule I spoke about in my last blog worked out wonderfully, although a few minor changes were made. I added another two rounds of Guided Reading. Now my groups are being met with on Tuesday and Thursday, however these may at times turn into Strategy Groups, depending on the children’s needs. Also, on Fridays we will have two rounds of Words their Way assessments, the third round will now be devoted to strategy groups and/or conferencing. Next week I may try partner testing. I’ll keep you updated on that, if it happens.

The mini-lessons that took place this past week were all devoted to “Listening to our Inner Voice” and “Leaving Tracks of your Thinking”. The books I read were “Fly Away Home”, “Ruby Bridges”, and the “Secret Garden”. All three books had the children thinking and wondering. We also had a few mini lessons on “Noticing when you are confused while reading”. As I have written in the past many of my mini-lessons come from the Comprehension Tool Kit, Reading with Meaning, and Strategies that Work. I am using the existing strategies on the CAFÉ menu and also adding my own, as need be, to match our reading and writing curriculum.

During my mini lessons this week I saw the benefits of having the CAFÉ board to keep track of the strategies taught. While talking about “Listening to our Inner Conversation” and “Signals that we are confused”, my kids would raise their hands and say, “Isn’t this similar to Check for Understanding” or “Don’t we already know that we need to Back Up and Reread if we are confused”. I love how my students see the connections between all of the strategies and they are also using the language on a daily basis. For writing this week, we started to learn about writing letters and responding to reading in writing. We will continue these lessons next week. In past years I noticed that my children’s letters were not up to par with my expectations and I would continually have to meet with a few students. This year I want to take it very slow and model, model, model!

Listening to Reading was also in full swing!!!! My kids LOVE listening to reading. Of course getting to be on the computer was a HUGE perk. We did however have to go over the guidelines for Raz-Kids. If you use Raz-Kids tune in now… Although the Raz Rockets is a wonderful tool and motivator the children quickly learned that if they just click through a book or quiz, they will still get points for Raz Rockets. When I looked at the records for the week many children read 5 or more books, but were not doing well on the quizzes. This was a great indicator that they were not listening to the stories carefully. So we installed guidelines for Raz Kids. The children are now allowed to choose a second book for the day after they receive a 100 on the quiz or tried the quiz 3x’s. You may be saying wow a 100 that harsh! I agree, but this is teaching the children to go back to the story when they don’t get an answer correct. I explained to the children that if they get an answer incorrect, they should reread the story with that question in their mind. I also told the kids that if they tried 3x and still did not get a 100, to choose another story and I would review the original story with them in a conference. However, they must try at least 3x. “Student A” from the earlier story did this and was so proud of his 100 on the 3rd try. When we checked in after the round in which he did Listening to Reading, he said, the first time he took the quiz he didn’t do well, the second time he listened to the story again and still got a few wrong, but after the third try he got a 100!!!! WOW! I can’t even begin to write out all of the benefits that he got from just this one round of listening to reading. This one round truly instilled in his head that when he is confused, if he go back to the story and rereads, he will understand the story better.

I started off the blog mentioning that I wanted the children to “Read to Someone” more often. I think this is so beneficial for their fluency and comprehension. I also think that the students will learn a lot about the use of the fix-up strategies through coaching and time. My problem is that currently the kids are required to do “Read to Self” and “Word Work”. This only leaves one round for complete choice. Usually during the third round the kids really want to do “Listening to Reading”. With only three rounds, how can I get them to choose “Read to Someone”? Any suggestions??? I will definitely talk with them this week about the benefits of read to someone. I may even tell them that they can choose either “Read to Self” or “Read to Someone”, instead of saying “Read to Self” is a must. Both choices have wonderful benefits!

Well, that is our week in a nutshell! I told you a lot of wonderful things happened! Please leave comments…. I love to know that people are out there reading my blogs! I also want this blog to be a place for reflection and sharing with other teachers who are using Daily Five and CAFÉ. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

As always…

Words of Advice:

Tune into your inner voice while reading a book. It is a great learning tool that will enhance your teaching. This past week I have been trying out the reading strategies I teach the kids, in my own reading. Paying attention to my use of these reading strategies, has really helped me to understand what I am asking of the students do.

Also, if you are a third grade teacher (maybe other grades too, but I know it works for third) read the book “The Secret Garden” to your children. This book is a wonderful read aloud that lends itself to teaching and discussing many reading strategies! We have 2 more chapters left and I know my kids are going to be very sad when it is over. My next book will be “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane”.

Enjoy your long weekend! Now that I have blogged, I look forward to a great night of sleep!!!!

Until next week…

 

 

"Good Fit"

When I first started reading Daily Five and CAFÉ I thought of the words “Good Fit” and would immediately relate them to the “I Pick” strategy and what makes a BOOK “Good Fit” for kids.  However, my thoughts of what “Good Fit” means has changed. I now use the words “Good Fit” for everything we do. Often I’ll ask myself, “Is my teaching “Good Fit” for all children in my classroom”, “Boys and girls, make sure your literacy nooks are “Good Fit” for your literacy needs”,  “When we pick our individual order of choice for daily five, pay attention to your needs, and decide which round is a “Good Fit” round for each of the daily’s”. By this I explain to the kids, if you know your stamina is longer in the beginning of Daily Five, you may want to choose Read to Self first.

Wow, who knew that two words could completely change my thinking and teaching! Wednesday night was Back to School Night. If I had a dollar for every time I said the words “Good Fit” or “individual needs”, I would be a millionaire today. Throughout the night, for every topic and subject area I explained to the parents that each child learns differently and will be taught in ways to meet their own individual needs. I also explained the children would not all be receiving the same “words their way” words, multiplication quizzes, math strategies, reading goals and strategies, or behavioral management.

Back to school night went really well and I could tell the parents were very impressed with Daily Five and CAFÉ. One parent said she loved how her daughter was learning so many strategies to use while reading and in math (we use the Pace Board). The parents also loved when I told them about appointments and how the children each have appointments to meet with me. As I was talking and listening to my inner voice, I was truly amazed by how far my teaching has come! I attribute this to the two sisters and their philosophy on teaching.

How has my teaching changed…choice, choice, choice! The children in my classroom now have the ability to make choices for themselves and therefore take ownership of their learning and/or actions. When I speak with the children in my classroom, I speak a lot about choice and how their choices are impacting their learning. If we choose to follow the I-charts for the Daily Five, we are also choosing to become better readers and writers. If we choose to fool around, we are also choosing to not to become better readers and writers. Now this may sound harsh but it is true and it works. My students are respecting themselves as learners and their classmates. My kids are also tuning into the ways that they learn and so am I.

I have two great examples of tuning into my kids learning:

1.  There is a child in my classroom that always stands at the back of the carpet when I am reading a book or doing a mini-lesson. At first this made me a little uneasy (Hmmm… must be the controlling part of teaching). Although, I was a little uneasy about this, I allowed him to do so. I made sure to check in with him during the lesson to see if he was paying attention. He was always able to tell me what I just taught or would do a great job at checking for understanding. As time went on, a few other children joined him at the back of the carpet. This led to a discussion of knowing themselves as learners and if they feel they learn best standing and listening, I am okay with that, if they are truly paying attention. Oddly enough, the daily Café website recently had an article about standing room only in future classrooms. The kids who are standing truly need to be doing so in order to pay attention. I have a child who is constantly playing with objects in his desk while I’m teaching. On Friday, my student teacher noticed that he went to put his hand in his desk, then stopped and walked over to the back of the carpet away from his desk! Wow!!!! Talk about that self-control and how much of my teaching time was not wasting telling him to pay attention. He used his self-awareness and made a great choice!

2.  This second example took place during word work. The kids have a job to first sort their Words their Way words. After they sort their words they are to choose a Tic-Tac-Toe spelling activity. Well, again my student teacher spied something really great (it is so nice to have an extra pair of eyes!). Two kids were working together and playing charades with their words. When she approached them after the round, they told her about the game they made up. Taking turns they would act out the meaning of the word for each other. The features of the words this past week were short and long vowel words. Before acting out the word the “charadee” would hold up one or two fingers, to give their partner a hint of whether the word is a short or long vowel word. Not only did we love this word work game, even better it was made up by two kids in the classroom! I can probably bet that next week many of the children will be trying this game out.

Last week I mentioned in my blog that I was tutoring a first grader. The structure of this tutoring session was completely different than past tutoring sessions. Having the two sisters in the back of mind, I remembered to follow the “10 steps to independence”, along with taking many brain breaks! The hour tutoring session was broken into 10 - minute mini-lessons and daily five rounds. We started off by reading a book together (read to Someone). I read a page of the book and then he read it after me. After this we went over to the smart board and he listened to a book on raz-kids.com (listen to reading). When he completed the book he took a quiz online and had the opportunity to build his raz rocket. During this time we did a mini math lesson on the amount of points that he could spend and how much the rockets accessories were. Next, we had a CAFÉ strategy conference and set a goal and strategy for the week. The goal we came up with is accuracy and the strategy is “flip the sound”. I modeled what this strategy looks and sounds like and then he tried it in his reading. He read the book aloud to me and I supported him through the strategy. He helped me put the strategy on a big index card and will now (hopefully) practice it at home. After learning the CAFÉ strategy we went back over to the smart board and did Word Work. I found a game online where he was given a clue for the word and then together we tried to spell out what we thought the word was! Wow of wow!!!!! Even just writing about this tutoring session I am amazed by how much we got done in an hour. Believe it or not I only got one yawn! The yawn came at the end of the session and I took it as a hint that we were nearing the end :-).

Well I am also nearing the end of my blog for today…

Next week my class has a goal to get in three rounds each day.  We are also continuing with Words their Way, but next week the kids will be receiving their individual word lists. It worked out where my class will be broken up into three stages, Alphabetical, Within Word, and Syllables and Affixes. In addition to Words their Way, we will also be starting Guided Reading and Strategy Groups! Ahh!!!!! That is a lot, but I think we can do it! The reading strategy I will be tapping into is “Listening to your inner voice” and “signals that you are confused while reading”.

My student teacher and I stayed after school on Friday and I think we came up with a great schedule. Each day the students will need to choose both read to self and word work, the third round being a choice. When I say third round I mean their third round, not necessary the actual third round of daily five.

Monday:

Each round I will introduce "Words their Way" words in small groups. Children will read to self one round, word work in another (with the teacher) and choice for their third round.

Tuesday and Wednesday:

Round 1- Conferencing and Appointments

Round 2- Guided Reading Groups 1+2

Round 3- Guided Reading Groups 3+4

Groups 1 and 2 will choose read to Self for Round 2.

Groups 3 and 4 will choose read to Self for Round 3.

They can also choose read to self during another round.

Thursday:

All three rounds will be devoted to conferencing and/or strategy groups. 

Friday:

Each round I will be meeting with a "Words their Way" group to give them their assessment. Children will read to self one round, word work in another (with the teacher) and choice for their third round.

I would love comments or advice on how my schedule sounds!

Words of Advice:

Stretch your thinking about what “Good Fit” means.

Have a great weekend and week!