Daily 5 Book Study Chapter 3: 10 Steps to Teaching and Learning Independence

Thanks again to Brenda at Primary Inspired for hosting this Book Study.

I'm talking to you about my favorite part of Daily 5.  

INDEPENDENCE!

I know you're probably saying "I work with children.  Independence isn't part of their vocabulary..." Rest assured friends... students can and will be able to work independently.  You just need to be diligent and help them get there.  How you ask?  

Follow the 10 steps outlined by the sisters 

whenever you're introducing the components of daily 5.

Step 1: 

Identify what needs to be taught!

Set an objective for yourself and the students.  It's so important for kids to know what they're learning and the expectations.

Step 2: 

Set a purpose and create a sense of urgency!

I call this the 'BUT WHY??!' Step.  It's the step that helps create the feeling with the students that every moment is spent learning and practicing.  Speaking from experience...the kids will truly value their time spent reading and learning.  They won't let anything get in their way.

Step 3:  

Record desired behaviors on I Chart

As a teacher I know how important it is to use visuals including anchor charts so when I read this step I actually did a little dance!  I've drawn up this kind of anchor chart during my first few years of teaching.

What you can do after making this is have the students practice, take pictures, and place them on the anchor chart.  It helps keep students accountable.

Step 4:  

Model most-desirable behaviors

Because this is something you'll be doing for the entire year, it's important to show students the correct way from the beginning.  It also means more when you teach expectations using a positive and specific approach instead of the No's and Don'ts.  It becomes a part of your culture.

Step 5:

Model least-desirable behaviors, then most-desirable

After students know your expectations for the behavior it's ok to have them identify inappropriate behavior, but it should be specifically centered around the affect your behavior has on reading.  For example when you model off task student behavior it's important to talk about whether it's making you a better reader or not.  The second part of this step is actually repeating step 4.  Always go back to the correct modeled behavior so students remember the expectations.

Step 6:

Place students around the room

It's easy to think that students may be able to place themselves around the room, but let's be real... sometimes teaching can be like herding cats.  It's better to place students in appropriate spots first.  If you do that they can rely on these as base places they know they will be successful in.

Step 7

Practice and build stamina

This step is kind of self explanatory.  Allow the students to practice.  Gauge and record their stamina!  The sister recommend several different ways but I love having my students recording their own data.

Check out this example from Mel D and her Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations.

Step 8:

 Stay out of the way...

Easier said than done I know.  

I have to restrain myself from doing what I know to do... weave in and out between students, check in, praising for correct behavior, etc.

But it's so important for you to LET THE STUDENTS PRACTICE ON THEIR OWN!  

If you don't the students will struggle with working without your praise and check ins therefore eating up the time you could be using with individual or small groups.

NOW...

That doesn't mean you get to kick off those sensible shoes and surf Pinterest.  

*ahem administrators take note*

During this time you can be recording the students stamina.  You should be aware of the movement of the students around the room.   Running out of stamina behavior looks like students getting drinks, talking to one another, etc.  

Step 9:

Use a quiet signal to bring students back to the gathering space.

Quiet signals are exactly what it sounds like.  They're meant to help students associate that noise with coming back together as a group.  Kinda like Pavlov dogs if you think about it.  Something calm is what the sisters recommend... I've used quiet instrumental songs or a rainstick. 

Step 10:

Conduct a group check-in; Ask, "How did it go?"

Conducting a group check in is really for the students.  It's a chance for the students to self reflect their stamina or behavior. Ask students specific questions and let them identify strength and areas of improvements.  

I personally love using the 4 finger self assessment. 

1- I struggled focusing, and really need to practice this behavior.

2- I stayed focused but still could use practice.

3- I am focused most of the time.

4- I have mastered this and can help others with this.

An InLinkz Link-up

Daily 5 Book Study Chapter 2: The Foundations of Daily 5

Thanks again Primary Inspired for allowing me to join a Book Study.

Wow!

What I just finished reading was such a powerful chapter.  

I finished reading it thinking... 

"This is exactly what I want my classroom to be like!"

This week we're all talking about the second chapter which is all about the foundations of Daily 5.  

I kept thinking about how important foundations are to buildings... and ended up drawing myself huge pyramids that involved what was found in this chapter.  But I thought to myself 

"How can I show people what popped out to me the most?"

So I decided to find the quotes that emphasized these key points.

- Trust & Respect

- Community

- Choice

- Accountability

- Brain Research

- Transitions as Brain & Body Breaks

Trust and respect are foundational for good teaching in general.  

But how do you gain and give trust?  

It can't be a blind trust, where you hope and pray for the best.  You have to make sure that students are being explicitly taught how to read and write before you can trust them to do things independently.  The quote above emphasizes how trust and respect affects your classroom and the students you interact with.  Now... that being said you may have explicitly taught them and they may falter in their stamina and on task behavior but it's important not to slip back and start blaming them or thinking they "CAN'T" do something.  Instead it's important for you to reflect and say, "It's time to practice more and I need to provide more support".  It's a two way street.  You have to show respect and trust in order for your kids to be able to do it too. 

Actions speak louder than words.

If you've read my blog before you know I'm huge on creating community in my classroom.  I loved The Sisters' explanation of how trust and respect go hand in hand with community.  I also am glad they described community not just as something you start on the first day of school by getting to know one another...  It's something that is continued all year embedded in everything.  The quote about how community empowers students struck me because I've seen examples of how students will keep each other motivated, accountable, and engaged.  

 Choice.  Ooo boy!  Choice is honestly one of the most terrifying and powerful things in the classroom.  And after my reading, I would think The Sisters agree.  

Choice comes in the form of where the students can sit, what they read and write, and what activity they can participate in.  

That is something that can be scary as a teacher because all the unknowns.  

"What about noise?" or "Will they be working the whole time?" etc.

But choice is not something that is just given as whim, it's like trust and respect.  It has to be earned and only can happen with instruction and practice.  

I loved that it wasn't just talking about how accountability measure what students are doing.  

It was also putting the pressure on what the teacher has done to enable the students to be independent and accountable.  Teachers must teach their students explicitly what it looks like, feels like, and sounds like to participate in these productive tasks.  Then the students will be able to be held accountable and hold one another accountable.

 Brain research is one of the hottest topics in education so I enjoyed seeing it come up in this chapter.  If you read the quote above, you'd notice it's a quote about data.  

Let's just say you'r teaching the stereotypical method of lots of teacher talk and a little kid practice....

If you're in a room full of 9 year olds then their attention span is... well about 9 minutes.  

No matter how engaging your lesson might be after that time span you might see "off task" behaviors and want to start going into police mode.  

That's not fair to the students!  

After about 10 minutes just about everyone needs a slight shift to refocus.

Remember your last staff meeting if you need an adult reference!

Shorten your focus lessons, allow for student practice, and increase rounds of these.

This was my favorite part of the chapter because it emphasized that transitions are okay, and quite frankly important.  When using the workshop structure allows students a lot of time to practice but sometimes it is a long time to be mentally engaged. 

By having transitions during the Daily 5 allows:

- Physical breaks from student work sessions

-Kinesthetic movement helps give the brain and break to focus back at the task at hand.

-Provides time for students to shift gears and move onto another focus lesson.

Wow!  Good stuff!  See you next week with our next chapter!  

Daily 5 Book Study Chapter 1: "That was Then This is Now"

I was ecstatic when I heard Brenda from Primary Inspired was hosting a book study linky.  

And even more excited when she told me it was about Daily 5.  

I've been super interested in learning more about this reading structure and how to use it in my 2nd/3rd grade looping classroom.

So yours truly is curled up under her wedding quilt with her new favorite book and writing a weekly blog post!

#nerdalert

Without further a do... here's what I've gotten out of reading the first chapter...

After reading chapter 1, I was kicking my younger self for not reading this before I began teaching.  Lord knows I tried my best my very first year of teaching, but if I could change how I did things I would have been a better and much happier teacher.  

 While reading this chapter I doodled and highlighted to keep my thoughts straight... 

The sad and frustrated faces represents about how I felt at the beginning of teaching and when I taught straight from the basals.  It shows the exhaustion the women talk about teachers feeling.  But there is a break through once a structure (Daily 5) is implemented.  I particularly enjoyed the graph of busywork vs.  authentic learning.

The women who created this framework for reading instruction talk so much about their experiences and growth as educators.   They talked about how much busywork and management headaches they had their first few years of teaching.  I had flashbacks to my first year of teaching... and thought, 

"Thank God I'm not alone!"  There is so much busywork that I created for myself unnecessarily.  Instead of focusing on the kids in my small group in front of me I constantly felt like I was putting out fires with my off-task students.  But all that goes away with more structure, authentic reading and writing opportunities, and student choice.  Now, there is a gentle hum around the room. 

 I loved learning about the relationship between CAFE and Daily 5.  When the women described  Daily 5 as supporting the teachings in CAFE, I saw them like columns holding up the roof.  They can also be implemented in different ways to meet the needs of your own classroom.  As long as you're providing opportunities and structure you're helping set up students for reading success.  Below I only included one graphic of how the structure could work, but the book had at least 2 more!  

I think perhaps the most powerful part of reading this book was hearing that  Daily 5 is that it isn't something that you introduce on the first day and then begin your curriculum.  It's a process that takes time and depends on the group you have that year.  It is done by lots and lots and lots of practice.  It's done by repeated modeling and a great deal of structure.  "It's about creating instructional routines with students through focused teaching, student modeling, and practice."  I feel like it's giving the students the opportunity to mature into reading. 

Join me next week when I delve deeper with my friends into this wonderful PD book.