Daily 5 Book Study - Chapter 5

So, we meet again...for our collective musings about Chapter 5: Read to Someone and Listen to Reading. Thanks to Kelli from Castles and Crayons for hosting :)

Read to Someone

As I reread this chapter, I realized that in my haste to get Read to Someone up and running, I missed an important aspect of partner reading - focused lessons on three ways to Read to Someone:

1. Check for Understanding with one book

2. I Read, You Read with one book

3. Read Two Different Books with two books

I introduced these options, but more as an afterthought..."oh yeah, you can echo read and read two different books"...oops!!! I see now how helpful it is for my students to check for understanding and build fluency with their partner when making the literacy choice of Read to Someone.

One other rookie mistake I have come to realize is that I allowed my students to pick their partners right off the bat...I should have picked partners first, then allowed them to choose partners once they had a week of Read to Someone lessons under their belt...and a focused lesson on choosing a partner.

I wanted to share part of this wonderful Read to Someone pack by Kylie from Down Under Teacher. (I couldn't find the exact link anymore, she may have taken it down due to all the copyright hub-bub).

 What are your classroom "norms" for Read to Someone?

Listen to Reading

Through our district's technology grant, I was blessed with acquiring four (yes, I said 4) iPads for my classroom. I begged my Campus Technology gal for headphones, but she could only spare two extra sets for my iPads. I also have two student computers and a laptop. That will give me three options for seven students (usually of a group of 22) when introducing Listen to Reading. Woo-hoo! Of course, I will need to use a couple of the iPads when small group instruction starts for the students in the group.

How do you work out the rotation for Listen to Reading? I'm thinking once it's all up and running, I will have five ways for my students to Listen to Reading...two computers, one laptop, and two iPads. I see it working out a little better when we have built up our stamina and have more than one rotation...but in the beginning, when we have one rotation...how do you do it? Tell me, pleeeease... 

Here are some listening resources that my students have used in the classroom (click on the links to get more info...)
Starfall activities range from letter/ sound knowledge/ manipulation and builds up to reading fables
Storyline Online stories read by actors/ actresses
Online Storytime by Barnes and Noble stories read by authors and celebrities
PebbleGo (does require a subscription) wonderful resource for non-fiction reading

I found these Listen to Reading accountability pages, you can find the rest of Stephanie's huge packet here :)

What resources do you use for Listen to Reading?

In case you missed it (I posted Chapter 4 slightly late, uhhh yesterday), here's something I created to help introduce each literacy choice: I Can...Literacy Choice Picture Displays. Your students can reflect on what each literacy choice should look like/ sound like. These can be displayed and replaced/ updated with photographs for visual reminders in your classroom.

get the rest of it here

When introducing the literacy choices to your students, do you follow Read to Self with Read to Someone? I know I read in a later update that the "Sisters" recommend starting with Read to Self then Work on Writing (with student choice being added before a different literacy choice). What order do you introduce these in your classroom?

Daily 5 Book Study - Chapter 4 and a Freebie

Hi, friends...had this been published on the day it was supposed to be, the chapter picture may have been a wee bit more meaningful...but, alas...here I am...with Chapter 4: Read-to-Self. We have layed the groundwork and now we can get started!

But, first a big thank you to our hostesses Jennifer from First Grade Blue Skies and Laura from Tattling to the Teacher!

The basic introduction for our kiddos is the Three Ways to Read a Book:

find the rest of Janaye's packet here

What I think will be a little bit easier for me to explain (in a more meaningful way) is "reading the pictures" due to the other book study that I'm participating in: In Pictures and In Words by Katie Wood Ray. What I have read so far helps me understand that the illustrations have been as carefully chosen as the words the author has used. I needed to help my kiddos "read" the pictures as deliberate decisions and not look just look at them as funny pictures or splashes of color...which is also really cool to look at, though...

As I reread this chapter, I found myself honing in on key phrases that will help make this a seamless part of our classroom culture:

* multiple short practice sessions, with repetition and discussion throughout the first weeks of school (p. 46)
* the tone for the entire year is established during the early weeks of school (p. 47)

It's simple, right? Discussion, model, practice, check-in, discussion, stamina, perfection...right?! Well, ok, not perfection, but pretty close...what I mean is that once we put into place our expectations and explain why it is important to Read to Self, using our I-charts, correct/ incorrect model, and check-in discussions, we should have a good foundation for all the other literacy tasks to come...

Here are some goodies I have found:
I like this Read to Self poster using the acronym RIGHT:

You can find the rest of Leslie's free posters here :)

I found this stamina graph and plan to use it this year. I like it because it shows progression or digression over days:

You can find the rest of Mrs. Magee's free stamina graphs here :)

The one little bitty part that I have struggled with is not making eye contact when they are building stamina and I am at my reading/ small group table. Usually the behavior is fixed once I give "the look" but does it take away from their self-monitoring? Please tell me you do the same thing :)

After some self-reflection and pondering, I have decided that my kiddos sometimes need more help knowing what the literacy activities are supposed to look like and sound like. So, I came up with these: The Daily 5 Literacy Choice Picture Displays. A mouthful, I know, but basically a way for students to show you their thinking and a way for you to display the correct behaviors as ongoing models.

get the rest of them here 

I will leave you with one more: "Your brain will be very busy when you are reading!" (p. 48) Don't you just love that quote?!

What will you do differently with implementing Read to Self this year than you have done in the past?

P.S. If this wasn't enough, or you just want need MORE, you can also find me guest posting at Tori's Teacher Tips...please come check it out!! That's right, double-duty, baby!!

ONE more thing...I have a winner for my 200 Facebook Followers and 100 Blog Followers Giveaway!!! Yes, there can only be one...Susan F...your goodies have been sent your way...enjoy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Books, books, and more books...part 1

Hi, friends. Nothing says summertime like a glass of cold lemonade. Or in my case, a pitcher of Sangria, tangy citrus lemonade. Basically, it's a mixture of the juice of several lemons and limes with honey and raspberries added in for good measure (vodka is purely optional). It is so yummy.

Although I have officially been out of school for 17 days, I spent the better part of four days purging my 4-shelf file cabinet (which I gave to a colleague), one day in G/T training, and made a whirlwind overnight trip to Lubbock for my daughter's new student orientation. I am gonna be a Red Raiders momma!

So, my summer has been off to a slow start. But, now, I can start to relish in (part of) my Amazon book order. Some of these books I found through this amazing blog Books that Heal Kids.

Pink!by Lynne Rickards is a story about a boy Penguin named Patrick that wakes up one day and is horrified to discover that he is pink. He goes in search of flamingos due to their similar color, but soon figures out he doesn't fit in with them. He returns home and realizes that despite his unusual color, there's no place like home.

My Mouth Is a Volcano! by Julia Cook is a book I desperately needed last year for one of my kiddos. I could have read it to the class (and to him at least once a week) as a good example to show how (constant) interrupting distracts the speaker and others' learning.

Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells is not new, but I wanted it to go along with these great literacy activities from DeAnne over at First Grade and Fabulous. This packet includes cause and effect, retelling, and sequencing events. She is indeed fabulous!

I got Conscious Discipline: 7 Basic Skills for Brain Smart Classroom Management by Dr. Becky Bailey because of all the great things I have read about it from Heather from Heather's Heart. She is not doing a typical book study per say (no reading deadlines), but she just started posting how it has changed her classroom discipline and how she interacts with her students. She has 25 posts on CD, and I haven't even read them all...yet. But, I will now :)

Pink Tiara Cookies For Three by Maria Dismondy is the typical story of a friendship between two girls that is interrupted when a new girl moves to their school. Thus, the friendship triangle begins.

I love using children's literature for author studies, to supplement academic content, and for teaching citizenship lessons through character discussions.

I would love to hear from you! What new books have you found recently? What are your go-to read aloud favorites?

Reading Buddies

First of all, happy Friday! It has been a week full of mild chaos change: losing a student (her family moved), math testing, and inside recess (due to all the miserable much-needed rain). But, we ended it on a good note - Friday book buddies!

Every other Friday, each of my students reads to a 6th grade book buddy. We alternate classrooms, and it's always a big treat for my kiddos to visit the 6th grade classroom (which is outside in a portable building). I look forward to seeing a few of my former students (sadly, many of them move away after first grade). Some of my students are nervous at first, but they seem to warm up to their reading partner pretty quickly.

At the beginning of the year, we spent a lot of time in the areas of read-to-self and read-to-someone, (from The Daily 5), that my students were able to transfer their good reading habits to their book buddy time. I was very impressed and proud of my students and their partners as they found a good spot and got busy reading immediately! Since my students' book boxes are full of self-selected books, they stay engaged in reading for the whole 30 minutes. Some of the partners are pictured below.

I spend this time quickly monitoring my students reading and making note of the level and genre of their book choices. It is nice to see the 6th graders, some of whom have had some behavior issues (typical 12-year-old angst), participating wholeheartedly during this time.

I've partnered with the same 6th grade teacher for the last several years. Do you do book buddies in your classroom/ school? We usually extend the classroom partners to include Valentine's Day exchanges and an end-of-year ice cream get-together. If you have done book buddies, what do you do beyond the reading buddy time?