Daily Schedule

Here's what my days look like (ideally...it doesn't always work out!):

8:10-8:20 - Seat work
8:20-8:30 - Greeting, Morning Meeting
8:30-9:00 - Writer's Workshop
9:00-10:15 - Daily 5 (3 mini lessons and 3 independent work/small group sessions)
10:15-10:45 - Snack/Recess
10:45-11:30 - Calendar, Math
11:30-12:00 - Social Studies, Science or more Math
12:00-12:10 - Clean up!

On Fridays, we do art, write about the Star of the Week and finish any work that is left over from the very busy week!

Writing

The Daily 5 program includes writing as one of the 5 activities kid should do daily to become better readers.  Last year, my students had the choice of writing center, where they could write freely and use writing materials in the classroom.  They could add to morning journals or begin new pieces.

This year, we are using the new Common Core Units of Study by Lucy Calkins school-wide for our writing instruction.  This includes a writer's workshop nearly every day.

Since the whole class gets significant writing time most days, I am not including writing in Daily 5.  I am working with such a limited time frame each day, it seemed redundant to have more writing when I could keep kids focused on word work or reading activities.

Overall, my students are doing well with Daily 5 and enjoy the time they have to work independently.  Their current selections are:

• Read to Self
• Read to Someone
• Word Work
• Listen to Reading
• Computer/iPad (I am doing a pilot for an iPad app, so my classroom now has 4 iPads in addition to two desktop computers)

Rather than small group reading, I am currently giving DRA assessments during my class' Daily 5 time.  Once I have their new reading levels, I will create new reading groups based on their needs and start working with them once again.

Reading Groups: Management

A few ideas on managing the class while trying to run effective reading groups:

• I try to make my schedule predictable so that the kids will know what to expect.
• I don't change my Word Work choices very often so that they don't have to be re-taught (now that they have a good repertoire of  activities, they need much less time).
• I wear a hard hat while teaching small groups (or when assessing - any time I don't want to be interrupted.)  It's a real hard hat that I painted and used scrapbooking stickers on.  I call it my "Work Hat".  When I wear it, only emergencies can be reported to me - bleeding, fire, or throwing up!  If I see someone trying to get in to talk to me during a group, I point to my hat, and they usually move along.  If they think it is important, I try to walk them through some problem solving without letting them tell me what is happening (Is someone hurt?  Is there something you can do to make it work for a few minutes until I can fix it?)
• If kids are disruptive (seems to be my Read to Someone kids, usually...) I ask them to come sit near me.  I try not to go through the rules again or anything that takes time from my group - just a few words (or a glare and point, if I'm lucky!) to get them back into the routine.
• I use a timer to keep me on schedule.  I find that they really are only able to hold it together on their own for 10-15 minutes, so I try to make sure I don't push them past that and end up with behavior problems.

Reading Groups: Scheduling

Once I was ready to start pulling reading groups, I had to come up with a plan of how I would see everyone each week.

First, I divided my students based on DRA level into 5 groups.  I have 25 students, so groups of 5 work well in my classroom.  I may have more, smaller groups as we get further along, but right now, this works.  I have one group that has my kiddos with very few letters and/or sounds; one group with my "advanced" kids, mainly those who are ready to actually read a book together (DRA levels 1-4), and then my other Pre-A kids who have a solid alphabet-sound foundation grouped into 3 groups for skills, behavior and whatever else I could think of to balance them.

This chart lives next to my teaching table.  Each of the small slips is a child's name.  The groups are easy to change.

These groups will continue to change based on the needs of my students.  I will DRA again in February, and that will determine any major changes.  I expect much more variety in my group levels after the next report card, as a few shoot ahead.

I looked at my week, and figured I have a total of 11 slots for groups.  This is based on 3 groups Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and two on Tuesday (when we go to the library).  This is VERY idealistic, but I want to push myself to stick to it, as it means I see every child every week, at least once.  I wish I could read with every child every day, but it's just not realistic in the classroom setting I am in.

I started with my lowest group being seen 3 times.  Because they are far behind the other in my class, and we are no longer working on individual alphabet letters in class as much, I wanted to make sure to I was spending time with them.

Then my next groups each got 2 slots.  After Monday, only a group's second/third session with me is scheduled in my last slot so that, if we don't get to all three sessions in a day, I am not leaving out a group's first lesson.

This is my basic weekly schedule.  Mondays involve a lot of modeling, but if I have time I get to my purple group an extra time.

When we start a session of Daily 5, I pull my reading group out first.  They sit at my teaching table while the other students choose their activities so that I don't confuse them (or myself!).  Then I assign two children to computers, and the rest get to choose Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work or Listen to Reading.

It's getting complicated, but it's working for us most days.  The kids love to meet with me, and there are enough other activities that those outside the group stay pretty busy.

Hope this helps!

Reading Groups: Resources

I started reading groups as soon as my first trimester report card assessments were in the bag.  I felt like I was assessing constantly for the first 10 weeks of school, so I rarely got to work with small groups of students.  Now, we get a break from the reporting, so I can dig into reading.

My groups are leveled by DRA level.  Most of my students were not able to read the A level book; a couple were able to go up to an A or 1; one is far beyond that.

I am using a few new resources this year.  I have Words Their Way (plus the letter and picture sorts for emergent readers edition), which has picture sorts for phonemic development.  We use these sorts for our after school intervention groups, too.

I am also using The Next Step in Guided Reading.  The great thing in this book, for me, are the lesson plan templates for guided reading groups.  It breaks down the elements to be taught in guided reading.  This is very valuable to me, since I was never really taught how to do guided reading - I was just told to do it.  That left me to make it up in a lot of ways!  This book has a set of activities to rotate or use as students show needs and templates for lesson plans for different reading levels; most of my students are in the pre-A or Emergent lessons, where a few are ready to start looking beyond.  You can print lesson plan templates similar to those in the book at Guided Reading 101.  This website is also a great resource for guided reading materials and ideas.

My goal is to have a lesson plan prepared for each group each time I meet with them...that is developing as I get more familiar with the lesson plans.

My next post will cover how I fit in my groups each week.

Listening to Reading

We finally began Listening to Reading before Thanksgiving.  I was waiting for the students to have the "Daily 3" (Read to Self, Read to Someone and Word Work) down before I added anything else.

I have 5 CD players.  I have tried individual tape players and group "listening centers", but they have always been a mess - kids not are not at all familiar with tapes, so the idea that it has be rewound, or turned over, was far beyond them, and it made a lot of work for me.  CDs are instantly ready each day.

We don't have a huge supply of stories with CDs.  We get what we can from Scholastic.  Our kinder and first grade classes share, so it helps to provide some variety.  One teacher made copies of CDs, so that a listening center pack of 5 books would each have a CD, and each class could keep their own.  I am working on collecting more books, but as it is, I only change them every 5-6 weeks, since each child only gets to do listening about once a week.

I set them up by putting each CD player and headphones in a canvas bag I bought at the dollar store last year.  The bags are different colors to help them remember what they have already done. 

Each bag gets one book; I put the CD in and they are told not to open it.  I colored the buttons with permanent markers to help them remember which to push - green for "play", red for "stop". 

I modeled listening with the whole class.  We listened to the story together, practicing when to turn pages.  I ended up having to show them about the skip buttons, since several of my CDs have more than one version of the story (some have songs, and they all have with and without page-turn signals.)  This is tricky for them, so I still end up helping with buttons sometimes.

Last year, I had the problem of the stories not being long enough - students would finish before the end of our 10-15 minute cycle was over, and then need something to do.  Last year, I gave them white boards.  This year, I thought I would introduce a response page for the stories they read to increase their engagement with the books.  The page I created has them write the title, 6 words they know from the book (sight words or other) draw a picture of a character and of their favorite part.  It is still difficult for most of them after one or two tries, but I am hoping that over time, they will be able to handle this easily, and perhaps an even more complex response page for some.

Two responses from "The Pirate's Tale"

Making Choices

Once I was ready for Word Work, and I was sure my students could handle some independent reading time, I began allowing them to choose the order of their activities.

We began making choices with just Read to Self and Read to Someone.  Each student made their choice; those who wanted to Read to Self grabbed their book boxes and chose their reading spots first.  Those who wanted to Read to Someone waited at the carpet, then had about 30 seconds to find a partner.  I asked them to stand back to back with their partner to make it very easy to see who still needed a partner).  If there is an odd number, I allow a group of 3 rather than force someone to Read to Self.
 

Once everyone was settled, I set my timer for 8 or 9 minutes, and they got to work, which I held one student to assess them. It was a little noisier than when I was more watchful over their reading, but overall, everyone read.

A few days of practicing those two choices, and we were ready to include Word Work in the menu.  I made a clipboard with every student's name and the three choices.  For the first round, they may choose any option.  Luckily, they are pretty spread out and don't have the mischievousness to conspire with friends to all choose the same activity!

My clipboard.  I put a small dot in the column for each student's choice.  Names down the side, and "Self", "Someone", and "Word Work" on the top.  The little c's on the side are to note who got to use the computer that round. 

I also began letting students use my 2 old, decrepit student computers.  I set them up to use Starfall, which is very simple to navigate.  I am experimenting with my most independent workers first so that I can find a few "computer experts" who can help troubleshoot when I am working with small groups - someone who can close a rouge pop-up, or click an icon in the favorites bar.

Kids who are using computers or those who I will be working with one on one are dismissed first, and then those who choose Read to Self and Word Work are dismissed as they make their choices.  Those who choose Read to Someone wait at the carpet and follow the same process described above.

The work time is not silent, but it is "inside voices".  Those who choose to move around the room when they should be still might be separated or assigned a spot near me; a few reminders for smaller voices might have to be given.

When the round is over (either my timer goes off, or I decide we're done - usually about 8-10 minutes), I ring a bell, and everyone cleans up and returns to the carpet. We do a short lesson (maybe a read aloud, phonics practice or sight word review), and then repeat the choice process once again.

Clipboard for 2nd round:

I used a new color to note the next round.

About thee-fourths of my kids are able to remember what they have already chose and choose a different option.  Others need a reminder that they can't choose Read to Someone every time (and one or two need to be told that legos is not an option...you know, they're still kindergarteners!)

We repeat the same routine, and I get in a second chance to sit with someone one on one.  Eventually, this is when I will pull a reading group or do DRAs.

After time is up, same thing: ring bell, clean up, back to carpet.  Another mini lesson, and we're on to our third round.

I put a vertical line to show one day's work; I'll use the same page next time.

At the end of an hour, everyone has read alone, with a partner, and completed at least one word word activity, and I have done two or three mini lessons (one before the first round, and then two between rounds).  I have worked with students, and there is no mess to clean up, no centers to re-stock and minimal prep for the next day.