What Does My Literacy Program Look Like?

This year I have changed  my literacy program by providing more choice for my students to learn, show and share their learning.  Recently I was involved in a discussion on how I use Daily 5 and the Cafe in my classroom.  While I do Daily 5 in my room I'd say I do a modified version of the program.  Below is an insert from the e-mail I sent to a fellow colleague explaining my version of the Daily 5.  I am posting it here with hopes that it may help others but I am just as eager to hear how you are using Daily 5 in your classroom.

In a typical day I do three rounds of daily five two before recess, and one between recess and lunch, followed by math before lunch.  What that does is  allow me to focus on literacy and numeracy before lunch, and other topic areas in the afternoon (which most often also include literacy or numeracy).

 I do a modified daily five because I dictate the focus of the rounds but provide choices with in each round. Our first round of the day is word work and my students have a ton of choices with in that. Sometimes I will start the round with a mini lesson either on our weekly word wall words, or a letter pattern, word family etc but these mini lessons are quick.  Then everyone is learning in their own way, getting what they need from what they are doing. It frees me up to 1:1 conference with kids re their writing or reading. My room isn't silent at this time but the conversations are those of children engaged in learning and helping each other. My kids also do their planners and change their home reading

books at this time. Typically this is 20 - 30 minutes.

My second round is reading. I begin it with a story and a learning focus.  Here is where I introduce Reading Power and Cafe strategies in a whole group setting.  Then I set my class off to do read to self.  At this time my LST kids are also pulled for reading instruction, and I do student swapping with another grade one teacher at my school on Thursdays.  All my kids have to read to self for at least 12 minutes (sometimes longer). My kids are well trained here and they know the room has to be quiet. During this time I typically work with a guided reading group either strategy based or reading level based.  I may actually do less of this next year because kids have such different needs and 1:1 conferencing is just the best way to meet those needs and have those strong connections with your kids. After about 12-15 minutes I let my students know they have free read - which for me includes listen to read, and/or read to someone. Actually they can read what ever they want as long as they are reading.  Again this isn't always a silent time but it is an on task and focussed time.  I will continue working with my group or start more 1:1 conferences.  My students read from their just right book boxes during read to self but are free to read from any classroom book or digital books during free read. This brings us to recess.

After recess we meet again for another story (writing focus) and/or mini lesson. I tend to teach a new writing concept each week so Monday/Tuesday often has the longer a mini lesson (still no more than 10 minutes) while the rest of the week the mini lesson (review)  is quick followed by more time to write.  I get a lot of my mini lesson ideas from the book No More I'm Done by Jennifer Jacobson. It's a really great book. It is here that I can also teach new forms (which can also be pointed out during the reading mini lesson time). For the most part my students have free choice on what and where to write. There are times where I structure what they need to write but this is few and far between.  We deal with non fiction writing both here but it is also gets covered during our science/socials inquiry in the afternoon.  When we are studying fairy tales we learn about writing stories, and for the most part they write them too. If I don't see something that I need to see I'll ask a student  to demonstrate that they know how to do that. So when I need to I will highly encourage kids to write what i need them to write when I need them to write it to demonstrate learning but again this isn't often. Most of the time though my goal is to foster a love for writing, because with that love writing forms just become different ways to show the love of writing.  This year was certainly a year of experimentation on my part of letting go of telling my kids what to write but my students have surpassed all expectations I've had.  I have truly engaged readers and writers. 

My students also write two mornings a week, and read with a friend every day after lunch. We have families in to read twice a week too.  Twice a week I do a structured phonics lesson (McCracken) and we add poems to our poetry book once a week too so there is word work/writing/reading at other parts of the day.

During my small group instruction I focus on reading strategies (cafe strategies). We talk about reading and writing strategies in many different contexts because they are beneficial in all parts of learning. I figure the more tools I can give my young learners the better.

As for kids that have more trouble working independently creating a team of learners has been key for me.  I have kids who take care of those that are struggling so I rarely have to intervene. It has a lot to do with class culture in my class. I also refocus when I need to. We use the mind up chime for calming and being mindful. We talk a lot about expectations and how if your behaviour is affecting the learning of others then your behaviour has to change. 

Grade one is a huge year in terms of learning to read and write.  I take the "learning to read and write" challenge very seriously and I  do what I can to create authentic readers and writers who can think and problem solve on their own.  Literacy is engrained into everything we do but this modified Daily 5 time does play a key part in  my students literacy instruction. 

My afternoons are a lot more free for child centred inquiry studies.  This afternoon block allows my students to use these skills in other authentic/meaningful ways.

Now I'm curious, how do you teach literacy skills to your young learners?  

Small Steps Can Take You To Great Places

I've never been one to make resolutions.  I've always thought if there is something in my life that I'm not happy about I need to find a way to fix or change it.  I don't have to wait for the calendar to switch over to a new year to make a change.  For me change happens as soon as I recognize that change has to be made.

This school year I have been making a lot of changes.  I started the 2011/12 school year with quite a different mind set than I've had in the past.  For one thing  I spent the summer of 2011 not training for an Ironman which left me with a lot of spare time.  I spent a lot of that time learning from others through Twitter.  I read educators blog posts, and started making connections with other like minded educators. I began to develop my Personal Learning Network (PLN).  While I've spent many of my previous summers swimming, biking, and running ridiculous distances this past summer I spent it learning.  By the time term one began in early September I was determined to better integrate technology into my classroom.  I took small steps, but those small steps have taken me to great places.  Here is a recap of my growth term one:

• I created my first  class blog and kept it updated with regular posts all term long
• I learned several different Web 2.0 tools and tried to use them with my teaching
• I participated in a weekly Grade One twitter chat
• I helped present technology tools to my staff at two professional development days
• I made myself available to help answer my colleagues technology questions
• I visited several other primary class blogs and was particularly inspired by what I learned from Leanne Kolenberg and Jackie Nelson's blogs in Adelaide, South Australia
• I attended the BC Primary Conference
• I attended the first three of five "Engaging the Digital Learner" technology dinner series evenings put on by my school district
• I was inspired by two fellow Canadians Aviva Dunsiger (Ontario) and Kathy Cassidy (Saskatchewan) as well as several other educators from around the world
• I introduced my students to their individual blogs and was amazed by how powerful they are

• I  read (or almost finished reading) five professional books including Drive by Daniel Pink, Mindset by Carol Dweck, Choice Words by Peter Johnston, Math Exchanges by Kassia Omohundro Kedekind, and No More "I'm Done" Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades by Jennifer Jacobson.

• I arranged for my school district's loaner set of iPods and shared them with my staff
• I got to know my technology helping teacher, Orwell Kowalyshyn and utilized his knowledge
• I got to know my district's Director of Instruction, Elisa Carlson and shared my journey with her
• My professional blog link was added to a list of teachers and administrators blogging in my district
• I wrote an article for an international reading organization which will be published later this month
• I got invited to join a local high school for iPad training at the Apple Training Centre

• I was given a district iPad to use with my class

• I loaded the district iPad with over 100 apps all geared towards helping my students with their learning

• I  created story bird accounts for my students 

• I had many professional discussions while running with two fantastic teachers at my school Megan Birdsall and  Erica Segec

When I started this school year  I had no idea that it would take me to where I am today.  I was just taking small steps on my journey.  If you are reading this blog post as someone new to Twitter, or new to getting involved in this global world of ours, my biggest piece of advice is to take it one small step at a time.  Perhaps you can leave a comment on a blog that got you thinking, or retweet a tweet with a link to an article that inspired you.   Each small step will lead you towards your greater place.

If you are experiencing a rapid growth year like I am I'd love to hear from you.  What do you struggle with? How much support to do you have? Does having or not having support change your desire to grow? Obviously I'd love to hear from you.

Teaching Children to Read - Keeping It Simple

Sometimes I think we over organize our reading programs with literacy rotations, guided reading sessions, and many must do jobs for our students. In the past I was one of those teachers rotating students through a weekly rotation, planning different activities for my different levelled learners.  I think I spent so much time making sure my students were on task doing the right thing that I had little time left to actually teach my students.  This year I've tried something different, and so far I like it.

This year I am trying to start every reading session with a read aloud.  Sometimes the read aloud is purely for the sake of enjoying good literature, but more often than not it's used as a tool to teach my students a specific reading strategy. I try to make sure that all my students are in my class during the read aloud.  This isn't really new for me, but ensuring that all my students are present for this lesson is.

At my school I am extremely lucky.  I have an excellent Learner Support Team (LST).  Typically as I finish the read aloud and the mini lesson someone from our grade one LST team appears at my door.  They are there to collect my struggling readers.  They come four days a week and my struggling readers are slotted into one of three groups.  You see, there are three LST teachers that work with our grade one students at the same time.  The three of them take a look at all the struggling readers in our four grade one classes and create reading groups depending on the needs of our students.  Their groups are fluid  and the children in my class that require additional support are also fluid.  The LST teachers work with the low of the low, the medium low of the low, and the high low of the low freeing me up to teach the reading to the rest of my students.

When those students are taken from my room the rest of my students turn to their just right book boxes.  These boxes are filled with books at their just right reading levels, along with books that they are keen to learn to read, and/or old favourites.  We keep our past guided reading books in these boxes too.  With their book boxes in hand they find a comfortable, safe place to read around the classroom.  Once everyone is settled I start a timer.  During this time most students read independently on their own.  I have read over and over again that one of the best ways to become a better reader is to READ.  During this time my students READ.

While most of my students are reading I pull a small group for guided reading.  I find in term one I tend to pull similar reading level groups as we are all new to reading strategies for comprehension, accuracy, and fluency.  During these small group sessions I always have a focus, and a reading strategy to teach (or review).  As I begin term two I think I will have more of a balance between similar levelled reading groups, and strategy specific groups to encourage my groups to be more fluid. While I am teaching this small group of children the rest of my class is on task reading.

Sometimes the timer goes off before I am done with my group sometimes it doesn't. It doesn't really matter though.  My students that have been reading books from their just right book boxes know that once the timer goes off the students are free to "free read".  In my room "free read" can include pretty much anything as long as the  main focus of the activity is reading.  Some children head on line to Starfall or Tumblebooks.  Others play with our word blocks to create sentences. Some share their book box books with friends.  Some continue to read on their own.  Some explore the literacy centres I created in the past.  With the introduction of our class iPad some are reading there.  But really, the goal of this time is to continue to have my students practice their reading and to be perfectly honest I don't really care what they are reading as long as they are reading.  A favourite activity this month is playing the oops game - focussing on reading our weekly word wall words. Last month they were into reading a silly story starter book that as you flipped the pages you created different (funny) sentences.  It's amazing how easy it has become for me.  Instead of me gearing my students to read this, or complete that reading activity, they are happily choosing what they want to read.  It's also cool to see my stronger readers share their knowledge of reading with my less able readers.  My goal is to have my students read and by giving them this "free read" time, they are reading, what they WANT to read. It's huge, and so simple to do.

As I finish up my guided reading group those students also join the rest of their classmates at "free reading".  During this time I am free to have one on one reading conferences with my students, or to rotate around the room and chat with my students about their reading.  It's a magical time and provides me with so much insight into my students reading.  It's invaluable time spent teaching and learning with my students.

We end each reading session with Reader's Chair.  Depending on time we have at least one student read to our entire class.  We provide feedback on their reading, and provide suggestions to help them improve.  It's powerful learning/teaching.   I think in the coming term I may  look at perhaps having more reader's share their reading.  I'm thinking about maybe having a different reader's chair take place in the four corners of our room so that more children get a chance to share their reading to their classmates.  Not exactly sure how it will look but it is something I'm thinking about.

So my question to you is how do you teach reading? What have I forgotten in my reading session or how could I make it even better?  I look forward to hearing from you.

My Students Made Me Proud Today

Today I started my official student bench marking in reading by administering the Fountas & Pinnell reading assessment.  I feel as though I have a pretty good idea of where my students are reading at because of the reading I do with them, the books they are taking home for home reading, and the many conversations I've had with them.  But there are still things I'm curious about despite having all this data.  By administering this "official" assessment I feel as though I gain "authentic" data which can be compared across all grade levels in our school (we all have access to this assessment kit).   It also helps confirm for me, what I think I already know.

Today I worked with five students.  I was not surprised to see that they tested out pretty much exactly where I thought they would test out. What did surprise me was the number of strategies that I've taught them this year that they are using while reading.  One student made a prediction about the story as soon as I read her the title.  Another was inferring as she was reading, showing me that she was obviously using her brain.  One of my English Language Learner (ELL) students understood everything she read in her story, until the story pattern changed because a skunk entered the picture.  She has no prior knowledge on skunks but instead of reading on, she stopped and asked me to tell her about skunks.

It's moments like these that make me really proud to be a teacher.  Have you ever experienced moments like this? I'm curious to hear how your students have made you proud.