This provocative statement sets the tone for the first chapter of the book. It immediately made me think about the kinds of activities that I had children doing when I ran my Literacy groups. Whilst I always tried to cover a range of Literacy tasks during these sessions, if I'm really honest my main focus was on the Guided Reading group and the other activities facilitated a time for me to spend with this small group. I always hoped that it was uninterrupted and it mostly was, however, there were always a number of students who were completely disengaged in the tasks but had learnt to leave the Guided group and me alone! It is questionable really if my structures were meeting ALL of my students learning needs. To go with this I generally had a HUGE pile of stuff to mark at the end of each session and that was seriously frustrating!
In The Daily 5 "The Sisters" discuss openly and honestly in this chapter about how their focus changed from when they first began teaching to today. They developed the structure out of frustration with their inability to engage students in independent, meaningful reading practice. They say that the difference between then and now is that they have integrated the common core routines into a framework that they have called the Daily 5. In developing this they realised that it was critical to demonstrate and focus their teaching on what the child and teacher are to do in each component. They have incorporated explicit teaching and practicing of behaviours.
Chapter 1 has some great tables exploring the differences in "The Sisters" teaching and behaviour management from then to know. They go on to discuss how the Daily 5 evolved for them.
"Looking back at our teaching experiences, we have noticed a definite progression in the way we have managed our Literacy block. We began with a teacher driven model that relied on busywork and artificial reading and writing activities (worksheets and so on). We slowly progressed through centres to where we are now, with the Daily Five. The Daily Five is a student driven management structure designed to fully engage students in reading and writing. pg 12
The Daily 5 consists of:
Read to Self
Read to Someone
Work on Writing
Listen to Reading
Spelling/Word Work
I look forward to presenting Chapter 2 soon which will shortly be followed by Kate presenting Chapter 3!
- Do you believe each of your students are engaged during your Literacy Group Time?
- Are you burdened with coming up with new ideas for activities whilst you do Guided Reading?
- Do you often get interrupted when you are working with a small group to manage other students work habits/behaviour?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
Deb
11 comments:
When observing my class in literacy activities i have noticed that i would have a handful of students that do not seem engaged in the activities and because of this they disrupt other students in their group.
This makes me think that the students that are nor engaged are probably not get anything out of the literacy activities that i have planned.
It's been a little while since I was involved in literacy centres in this sense (Prep is obviously a little different), but I definitely recall how overwhelming it felt to get them ready (particularly in Kindergarten), especially when it was time to change over their guided reading books. I felt like I couldn't do literacy groups without a parent helper and I was relying on that extra pair of hands and eyes! Apart from the fine motor activities we did in kinder, which were open ended, highly engaging and had a real purpose, it really did feel like the rest of the centres were "busy work." I almost wish I could come off Prep so I could get in and try D5, as it sounds wonderful.I also LOVE the concept of explicitly teaching expected behaviours and how this is embedded into the programme. Isn't it just as important for childern to be learning HOW TO LEARN, not just the content?
Hi Fay and Michelle,
Firstly let me say welcome to the discussion and our first online PD venture!
I think I'd we asked a hundred teachers we'd get a similar response.....there's always a handful of disengaged students. At times I think we've just accepted that as normal and pushed on regardless contending ourselves in the knowledge that mist students were doing ok. The reality of that is that it's really just not good enough and we all need to look at how to prevent that. The explicit modeling, rehearsing and revision of expected behaviors is imperative. ( I have the advantage of knowing what lies ahead in the book- so can't wait to share these chapters with you)
Michelle you are so right when you say that it's about students learning skills rather than content....that's where one of the most significant changes in Ed is occurring! It's a real mind shift to let go of the content driven notion and look at the skills being taught and learnt. Why is it such a mundshift? Because it doesn't always look pretty in a program, it calls for frequent revision of a program, teacher frustration sets in when you can't tick off those planned lessons and you look back when evaluating the term program and say I didn't get to half of it and because it's not so easy to assess, no topic test, no work sample showing knowledge of content and a heavy reliance on observation, interpretation and teacher judgement! Too scary for some! Do I hear both of you ladies saying.....sounds like an Early Childhood practice??? You'd be correct.....as primary teachers we've got a great deal to learn from EC teaching methods.
The Daily 5 structure is very much about skills based learning and I can't wait to learn more!
Deb
I can't wait the read more of the chapters to see how it works. I would also like to see how other teachers have gone about using it in kindy classes.
I have also noticed that some of my students are not engaged and also disrupt others. Mel and I spoke last night about the daily 5 and we are going to set up some tubs with some books for the students, aimed at their levels, so instead of chossing any random book when they are reading to themselves, they can choose one from their tub. This will give our more advanced readers a chance to get into picture books. I have seen students in other schools use a post it note for a bookmark with their name on it so it is not borrowed by someone else. I AM looking for fresh new ideas! Would love to see how Stage 1 Reading Groups are done.
Interupted usually by the kids so excited about spelling on the interactive board and tangled headphones on the computer!! Oh - not to mention the chat factor!
Wow, I've only read one chapter so far but I can already tell this is going to be a great read! When I read the sister's description of their previous years guided reading lessons, I (unfortunately!)thought they had had a peek in my classroom. :)
I find guided reading the most stressful to teach as I always feel that I have to be stretched in 22 directions. Then there's all that time-consuming searching for resources (or making them myself it I can't find what I want) which sometimes means I will spend more time planning for the lesson than it actually lasts!
Thankfully, it looks as though help is at hand! As I only have four weeks left with my 1H darlings, I'm setting myself a goal to incorporate at least one of the explicit strategies each week. Will let you know how I go...
Literacy Activities in my class is always fairly hectic. Most seem to be engaged. I am wanting to change my focus for my guided reading group and have them read either to each other or read into the computer for others to listen to.
Spelling, this year has been my most successful, because of allowing studens to have the control to test each other daily.
As fo noise level, I think we need to dispense with the idea that the perfect classroom is noiseless. This has its place, but if students are to engage in learning they need to be encouraged to discuss what they are learning with each other.
Hi Kel, G, Jen and Kate
Welcome to the conversation! It would seem that organization is a huge issue for us all. So true that when it takes longer to plan the activities than it takes for the lesson to run 4 or 5 days a week..... there's something wrong with that!
Kate, the Read to self and read to others might cover what you're wanting to do there. I think there is still a place for Guided Reading and explicit teaching of strategies....maybe not as we have done it though. Years ago when GR was the new buzz it was all individualized and it took ages to get to meet with each child. Also because of the need to manage the rest of the class and keep them on track it meant that the session was, short, interrupted or simply didn't happen enough. So the small group scenario came into play. It has worked for a time, but I think it's def time to rethink the levels of student engagement in terms of the whole group. I think the Daily 5 will allow a return to an individualized conference strategy or even a very small group approach.
Kel, I'm with Kate on the chatter thing. If it's purposeful and engaged chat that doesn't disturb other kids I think maybe we should embrace it. I've always felt that a group of kids engaging in conversation and collaborative learning is more powerful than any teacher directed lesson I've done. The caution is in the kind of chat going on though.....disengaged and off task? Then we need to look at what kinds of tasks we are asking kids to do.
Wow Deb, Kate and Kel, you have really encouraged me this week. We have included a sight word bingo game in our guided reading groups and it is more meaningful than other activities, but it is a little loud. Thanks for encouraging me in your discussion on noise in the classroom. Yes, when it is MEANINGFUL, it is useful! I think sometimes we revert to the old 'A quiet classroom is a good classroom'but you can have a class of quiet students who are totally disengaged. On the other hand, when we did our sink or float lesson in Science, the class was a 'hive' of activity and they were ALL on task! The discussions that were going on were all related to the activity. My students that interrupt me are always the same students, so I have to speak to them about when to see the teacher. I have seen teachers use a hat or bunny ears in Reading Groups so that the students have a visual reminder not to interrupt the teacher unless it is important.
Wow Deb, Kate and Kel, you have really encouraged me this week. We have included a sight word bingo game in our guided reading groups and it is more meaningful than other activities, but it is a little loud. Thanks for encouraging me in your discussion on noise in the classroom. Yes, when it is MEANINGFUL, it is useful! I think sometimes we revert to the old 'A quiet classroom is a good classroom'but you can have a class of quiet students who are totally disengaged. On the other hand, when we did our sink or float lesson in Science, the class was a 'hive' of activity and they were ALL on task! The discussions that were going on were all related to the activity. My students that interrupt me are always the same students, so I have to speak to them about when to see the teacher. I have seen teachers use a hat or bunny ears in Reading Groups so that the students have a visual reminder not to interrupt the teacher unless it is important.
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