Last week we tracked back in for part to two of our first nine
weeks!! I loved starting the year having
three weeks to feel out the class and then have a few work days to “finish”
getting ready!! It was just enough time to reorganize my books by levels!! I was so excited to have these baskets ready
for students to use during Read to Self!!!
I also attending a school workshop on starting the Daily 5 and
decided to “try again” We started with
this graph from the left side the first 12 minutes stand for how long we were
reading before we left. We created a new
set of rules for Read to Self and then started the timer.
I sat back at the Guided Reading table and
watched to see if the students were following the rules. When the students began sharing and talking I
stopped the timer. We made it for 5
minutes. We came to the carpet and then
gave a thumbs up if we thought we did our best and a thumbs sideways if we
thought we could have done better. This
allows the students to self assess. And it allowed us to take about if we were reading.
We reviewed the rules and tried again, we made it for 8 minutes that
time! I told them I was so proud of them
and we talked about what we did right!! We
again did the thumbs up/ thumbs sideways.
Next we did a Word Work activity as a class. We did create a list of rules and I had the
students work quietly. I wanted the
students to practice working like they would work in the Word Work station. I also timed them to get an idea of “how long
they would need to be able to read”. The
students took 20 minutes to complete the activity. So I knew they needed to be able to read for
at least 15 minutes or more!!
The next day we review the rules for Read to Self and I told them
if anyone broke the rules we would have to STOP! We only made it for 2 minutes. We did the thumbs up/ thumbs sideways and
most students knew they could have done better.
We talked about what we did right and wrong. We reviewed the rules and tried AGAIN!! We made it 10 minutes!!! I told them I was so PROUD. Again we went over the Word Work rules and
did a second activity that will be in Word Work.
We continued Read to Self each day like that:
Wednesday we read for 12 and 14 minutes,
Thursday we read for 14 minutes,
and by Friday we read for 17 minutes!!
Thursday we read for 14 minutes,
and by Friday we read for 17 minutes!!
Each
day we practiced activities for Word Work or Work on Writing as a class, following
the rules so that we would they would know what to do in that station!!
Today we started all of the Daily 5 at once. We were able to do three rotations. Tomorrow we will finish the last two and try to start all over. In between each rotation I do a minilesson, Work Work, Comprehension, or Work on Writing!
Hope this helps!! I'm excited to keep trying!!
This week we are starting our farm unit!! I promise to take some pictures and post them soon!!
