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.

Word Work

I went off the book and began Word Work last week (The 2 Sisters choose Listening to Reading next, but I am not ready to deal with CD players yet!).  I needed to assess kids for progress reports, and it was the easiest to begin with what they already knew!

Right now, I am using a single activity as a required Word Work, and then a few independent activities as "May Do's" if they have time.

I use the little "My __ Book" for each letter.  We do it as a poem in a pocket chart first, and then the students have to complete it independently during Word Work.  It is a routine I taught from the first week of school, so they are comfortable with the it and know what to do without needing much instruction each time.

Here's the pocket chart version (my pictures are mixed from two different weeks, but they all look basically the same):

I read it, then we read together, and then they come up to use highligher tape to show the focus letter (blue) and any sight words (purple) we have learned so far.

And the student version:

They must

1. Write their name.
2. Color the pictures.
3. Highlight the focus letter (by coloring with a light-colored crayon, underlining, circling, etc.)
4. Highlight our sight words (in the same manner as above).
5. Read to at least one friend who signs the back.  If I am available, they may read to me (one way I check in or 1:1 correspondence, sight words, etc.)

"My Ss Book" - from last week, but all the letters look the same.  Each has a different poem with sight words and letter matched pictures.

Word Work is done at tables, by themselves or whispering with a partner.

Since we have done this many times before I named it "Word Work", they are able to do this exercise independently (and help a friend who might forget!)

This is the "Must Do" of our Word Work.  Once it is finished, they may choose another Word Work activity.  Right now, I have two choices.  The first is a capital and lowercase matching game I made a few years ago (in my TpT store).  The second choice was added after one week of practice; it is just cards with the kids' names and plastic letters I found on clearance at Lakeshore.  They can match the letters from their names or a friend's name.

I store Word Work in plastic drawers.
 

Drawer 1 is the "Must do first" little books.
Drawer 2 (and we have a Drawer 3 now) are the choice activities to be done after the book is finished.  I may eventually add another drawer, but I don't want to overdo it.

It went very well, better than I expected, actually.  I still need to remind them to clean up, but everyone is getting their work done with minimal teacher input, and I was able to finish assessments for progress reports!

I introduced Word Work alongside making choices - check out the next post!

Teachers Pay Teachers

I wanted to share a resource that helps me with Daily 5 and much more in my classroom.

How often have you made something for your classroom that you KNOW other teachers would use?  Do you hate "reinventing the wheel" and recreating good ideas you have seen?  Teachers Pay Teachers is a website that allows teachers to sell their self-made classroom materials.  This includes worksheets, Powerpoint presentations, printables, bulletin board materials and much, much more.

Of course, I don't know many teachers who want to pay a lot for their classroom materials!  The great thing about TPT is that every seller must post as least one FREE item.  It's free to join, free to download and free to use most of the materials.  You can also earn points by giving feedback and by making purchases to buy more items.

A few examples of things I am using this year (both paid and free):

• Chevron Classroom Labels by teaching with peace
• Alphabet Classroom Display by Easy Peasy Primary Resources
• All Set?  You Bet! Classroom Management Materials by Deanna Jump
• Daily Math Journals by DeeDee Wills

Some great FREE Daily 5 Resources:

• Daily 5 Anchor Charts by Mrs. Jones' Creation Station
• Daily 5 Posters by Mrs. Hos
• Daily 5 Posters by Kristine Weyher

There is too much to show here, but hopefully you find some good resources for all areas of your classroom.  

And if you're a do-it-yourself type (like me!), you can become a seller with just a few steps to help fund your purchases.

Beware - you can spend hours looking through this stuff!

Read to Someone

We made it to 8 minutes of Read to Self after about 9 days.  Our best incentive was the other kindergarten class beating us to it!  Once they were able to hit the 8 minute mark, my class was sure they could do it, too!

As I promised them, once we reached 8 minutes of quiet independent reading, I introduced Read to Someone. First, we made a chart to hold our ideas about how to make sure everyone was reading.

Read to Someone chart.

New Read to Self chart - I made them smaller so they fit under my whiteboard, a more permanent position.

We reviewed the ways to read a book with a partner.

Next, we modeled EEKK (Elbow, Elbow, Knee, Knee) and how to share one book.  After one pair modeled in front of the class, everone had to sit EEKK at the carpet to see how it felt.  This was difficult for a few students: one with special needs that tends to avoid sitting so close, and for those who have trouble controlling their bodies in such close proximity to others.  This will take time for them, but we keep practicing and reminding each other.

We also modeled a quiet voice - just loud enough for our partner to hear.  I have them show me with their hands how big their voices need to be for different activities - Read to Someone needs a voice about as big as holding an apple; Read to Self needed silent voices (hands clapped together flat), and recess uses big monster voices!

We began reading in short practices.  For the first days, I chose partners.  I used my jar of name sticks and just pulled two at a time.  I didn't worry about matching reading levels or splitting behavior challenges - I just matched them up to get them seated and trying to sit next to someone and choose a book.  I used my timer for 4 minutes the first day, and the class did a great job.

What is so nice for my class, and I would assume for most kindergarteners, is that this mode allows them to talk.  They had such a hard time not talking for several minutes in Read to Self.  Now, they can stay still much longer because they are in a conversation with their partner.

Today, I allowed them to choose their own partner.  They had one minute to find a partner for themselves.  When they had one, they stood on the carpet with their backs together.  Anyone without a partner was matched after that.  Everyone got right to reading, and we did a solid 7 minutes with no disruptions.

A note about the book: The Daily 5 Book has a lot of detail about training kids to take turns reading, check each other's comprehension, etc.  My students are not really reading in depth, so we have focused on taking turns "reading" or telling the story, making sure that both partners get a turn to talk.  As we move through the year, I expect that they will be reading more and we will likely need to revisit how we spend out time together in Read to Someone.

I-PICK

Once my students were able to sustain 3 minutes of reading, I felt they needed the boost of choosing their own books.  Since they are only beginning kindergarten, most are not “reading” – they are looking at pictures and inventing stories, maybe identifiying a few letters or sight words, but not reading the full text.  A choice of their own book for their book box was a good incentive to hit that 3 minute mark, too!

I introduced the IPICK chart quickly.  Again, they are choosing books for pictures and interest, but not for reading level.  I focused on “I choose a book” and “Interest”, encouraging the students to choose books with pictures and ideas they thought were interesting.  I plan to come back to this later as they begin to actually read words and look for books that are a good fit.

Then they got to choose one book from my classroom library.  It is divided into fiction and nonfiction, and in labeled bins.  It will take them a while to learn to put them away, but for now, they can find topics they are interested in or books similar to what I might share in class.  I made sure that some of the stories I have read aloud were included so that they could have the opportunity to revisit and retell a story they had heard.

Non-fiction, divided by topics; big books haven't been used yet, but will eventually be available.  The little bins on top will eventually have a small selection of DRA-leveled books.

Fiction - mainly by author or series.  I also have a bin I call "Buddy Books" - doubles that I will let them use for Read to Someone.

A few days later, and we are going strong.  We are up to 6 minutes of sustained reading.  They know the Read to Self expectations very clearly, and love to see our Stamina Graph go higher and higher.  On Friday, I will let them trade in their current books for new choices to keep in their book boxes for the next week.

I set another incentive for them: when we get to 8 minutes, we will add a new way to read (hopefully next week). 

Week 1: Introducing Read to Self

We dove right in the first week of kindergarten!  It was not easy, but we're making good progress so far.

Our first lesson (on Tuesday) was on 2 ways to read a book.  I chose a level 2 reader from my leveled books called The Picnic.  

This book have very simple (and fast!) text, and the pictures add a new dimension that is not in the words with ants stealing the picnic food.

I believe this book came from the Avenues set...

The goal is to show students that the pictures are just as important as the words, and that the pictures can tell a story all by themselves.

First, I "read" the pictures.  I played up the silly idea that the ants are taking the food, and really tried to get them involved in the story.

Next, I went back to the beginning and read the words.  We noticed that the words did not tell us about the ants, so we needed to read those pictures to see the funny part!

Lesson 2 (Wednesday) was learning the third way to read.  I retold the story (with the kids' help!), remembering where the funny ants were, and when we called the picture "the orange juice" and the words just said the juice.  How interesting!  I wrote the basic ideas on a chart.  This whole piece was very FAST - we needed our attention for the next piece.

I used little icons and gestures to help my non-readers remember what was on the chart.

That day, we also attempted our first Read to Self.  No illusions here - it did not go well.  I set up book boxes for my students ahead of time.  In their boxes on the first day was one letter book (the first letter of their name.)

I got these boxes at Ikea - packs of 5 for $1.99.  It's the best deal I've found.  I reinforced the front with fancy duct tape, and then added a name sticker on top.

These books have just pictures of items and a single word that begins with the title letter.

I made an I-chart (but I forgot the I!).  I talked with my students about what it looks and sounds like for everyone to read to themselves.  We had a few children model the correct way.  I tried to have a student model the incorrect way, but he was very focused on showing me he could do it correctly!  

We got ready, went to our reading spots and . . . lasted about a minute.  One just got up to put his book box away, a few started laughing about pictures in their books, and others were moving around the room.  I wanted to stay positive, so we charted 3 minutes on our Stamina graph.  Like the book says, they can't tell time!

Lesson 3, we reviewed, reviewed and reviewed, modeled, modeled, modeled.  I added a second letter book to their book boxes to help them have more to read, and reminded them that they could read a book again!  We were ready and . . . two minutes.  Maybe.  Again, kids were talking, getting up and sharing books.  

We aren't doing Daily 5 on Fridays, so we had a little break.

This morning, we were ready.  I added a third book (a non-fiction book from my classroom library - more pictures, more interesting!) to their book boxes.  We reviewed, we modeled.  We read our charts.  I introduced my timer, which beeps when the time is up.  I made sure they knew what they were listening for.  Then . . . 90 seconds.  Put the book boxes back, came back to the carpet to break it down.  I asked them what went wrong, and they knew exactly what (and who) needed a fix.  We reviewed again and . . . 2 minutes.  

I was really hoping to make it today, I decided to go for it.  We reviewed.  This time, they felt like others were talking to them, so they had to tell them to be quiet, and therefore it wasn't their fault!  I quickly taught them to silently remind a friend to be quiet by putting their finger in front of their lips (without a SHHHH sound).  We modeled that, too.  Then, I told them that if they could do 3 minutes, they would get to choose their OWN books for their book boxes . . . oooh!!  We were psyched!!

They did it!!

They "read" (or sat quietly) for 3 minutes, per my timer.  I ignored one bathroom trip, and one student with special needs who still struggles to not talk (though his neighbors silently reminded him).

Everyone got a smelly sticker, and tomorrow we will learn about picking a Just Right book!

Welcome!

Welcome to my Daily 5 blog.  A few notes:

• My goal is to post once a week.  Maybe twice, depending on how the week goes.
• I am looking at Daily 5 from a kindergarten perspective - some of my experience won't translate to older students.
• I try very hard not to reinvent the wheel - I "borrow" most of the ideas I use in class.  The blog roll on the right has most of the blogs I regularly follow.

This is my 5th year teaching kindergarten. My class has 25 students (today!), 14 girls and 11 boys.  About 50% are English Language Learners (ELL), and a significant portion are from low-income families.   Most have had some preschool experience (ranging from 2 years of private preschool to 6 months of Jr. K to 18 days of kinder "bootcamp" in the summer, which I taught).  In this first week, I have learned that they are wiggly, noisy, like to dance and read "Pete the Cat".

My next post will cover how we managed introducing Read to Self in the first week of kindergarten!