Thursday, July 5, 2012

Daily 5, Chapter 4

D5

This week’s Daily 5 book study (a little late due to yesterday’s festivities) is hosted by Laura, Jennifer, and Tessa.  It narrows the focus to the first element of the Daily 5 – Read to Self.

This chapter was very helpful in how to teach kids to become independent readers.  Whether doing the Daily 5 or not, kids can’t be expected to know how to read independently without being taught how to do it.  The almost step-by-step plans on how to introduce, model, and practice the concept seem easy to implement with positive results.

Some key points that resonated with me…

There are three ways to read a book

  • Read and talk about the pictures
  • Read the words
  • Retell a previously read book

I like that all reading levels are taken into consideration here. Our emerging readers’ skills are being honored with the picture walk/reading.  The retelling of books that have been read will probably do wonders for reading comprehension, which is always a concern during independent reading time.

Each of these ways must be directly taught, discussed by charting what they look like, modeled, modeled, modeled, reflected upon, and then modeled, modeled, modeled again.

As written of in the other chapters, building reading stamina is the ultimate goal.  The authors say their goal is 30-45 minutes of independent reading time.  That seems awfully lofty for 7 year olds, but I can see how their plan for the gradual build up of minutes will lead to success in something that has always been a struggle for me to manage.

In addition to frequent modeling of what independent reading looks like, modeling what it doesn’t look like plays a big part in the authors’ success.  Using those kids who will have the most difficulty staying independent for too long to demonstrate the incorrect way of reading to self is modeled and laughed at (taking care of that negative attention issue). Then they are asked to model correctly (gaining the positive attention from teacher and classmates). Over time this will instill the correct behaviors into those kids who struggle with them the most. 

Some questions I have for those who are currently using the Daily 5…
Do you require all the books in the book box be read in the “three ways”? 

As the amount of read to self time is increased, do some kids finish all the books in their book box before the independent time is up?  Before shopping for new books?

For both these questions, my concern is that the kids run out of reading material before their independent time is over.  Those early readers aren’t very substantial and can take just seconds to read.  Do you have systems in place for when/if this happens, or are kids required to reread those books in their boxes?

Another great chapter!  My mind hasn’t turned off since starting this book thinking about how it will work with my classroom.  There are things in my established program I can tweak to make this fit, and also things in the Daily 5 I will need adjust to fit into the district and state requirements we are held accountable for.  But so far, it seems to be quite manageable within what I’m already doing which is a relief.

Here’s the linky thingy

14 comments:

  1. When my kids had read to self they would have 5-8 books in their box. Yes, some days they reread the books numerous times. We talked that by rereading a book they are working on fluency, accuracy and comprehension. So it is wonderful that they can read the book more than once. Since we talked about this often, they were more than willing to read a book more than once. Good luck!

    Alyce

    Mrs. Bartel’s School Family

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    1. Thanks Alyce! I really appreciate your insight on having already implemented it. I was hoping that was the case - the book boxes seem really manageable and seem to make independent reading really manageable.

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  2. I fully agree with Alyce. When my students said they were done, I told them to reread the books in their bags again. Practice makes perfect. They need lots of pratice to become the best readers they can be. They got the hang of it and started to slow down as they were looking at their books. No more excuses to get up and walk around!

    Aloha,
    Corinna
    Surfin' Through Second

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    1. Thank you so much Corinna. The wandering around and not actually reading is the what my independent time has looked like in the past and it drives me mad. It sounds like it's important that they have enough reading material to get them through their time, but there needs to be a "what if" discussion with the class about what happens in that, and other scenarios that come up.

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  3. Yes, but are you not after them using reading to vacuum up information. To bypass as rapidly as possible the slog. Or at least using the draw of information on what they like to sugar the pill of the slog. So if you are going to have them reread due to your narrowness of book choice are you not defeating the notion entirely.
    Yes I can see the rereading of books they like.

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    1. Definitely, lack of book choice would defeat the purpose. That's not the reason for my question though. My library is extensive, remember the 100+ boxes I moved :) so having enough books for the kids shouldn't be an issue. At my new school we also have a public library right across the street that we can access which is so exciting. I wondered more about if the kids have read the material in their book boxes before the weekly, biweekly, or even daily book shopping, how that was handled in classrooms using them already. I think actually getting into it once the year starts the procedural aspect of it will become clearer on how it will work and how often the kids will have to select new books so they aren't having to reread all the time. With that being said, rereading helps with fluency, so it won't be all bad.

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  4. I don't formally require kids to read all of their books all 3 ways. Many of them will be read all 3 ways, however, because they'll be using the pictures for enjoyment and context clues, they may be retelling a story as they read to someone or during a conference with me, and they'll usually read the words. Graphic novels, comic books, and wordless picture books really emphasize reading the pictures. My students are allowed to book shop in the mornings before we get going. When they complain that they've read all their books, I ask them why they didn't go book shopping that morning. They are usually ready to exchange books the next morning! Typically kids have 5-10 books in their bags, but for my very lowest readers, I'll go up to 15. If they're good fit books though, even my lowest reader takes about 5 min. to read a book. That's 6 books in a 30 min. period, so she shouldn't run out. Kids who race through their books might conference with me about what it looks like to read the words, and what a good fit book is. Great questions!

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    1. Great answers too! Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Listening to what you all do is making it clearer in my mind. Each chapter has taken some time to process in order to see how it fits into what I currently do. Everyone's responses really help. I've not gotten to the read to others chapter yet, but I can see how the ways of reading would overlap into that as well. I hadn't even thought about conferencing with those kids who were racing through their books, duh! What a great discussion to have.

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  5. Replies
    1. It was great! I'm not all that patriotic, but it's just as good as any reason for a get together. We had a fun bbq at Jason's and then watched the fireworks from his neighborhood. We had beautiful weather too. It was even chilly in the evening, which was so nice.
      Hope yours was fun too!

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  6. Wow! You're really thinking and questioning which will be sure to make Daily Five a success in your classroom. I have been doing Daily Five and I do not require that each book fit all 3 ways to read a book. My kids keep 6 books in their book boxes: 3 books from the leveled library and 3 books from the other classroom books. If they finish early they have to reread. If this seems to happen a lot, I check in with them to see if they are truly choosing good fit books for themselves. Also, lower level readers may need more books. Hope this helps.

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    1. That sounds good. I appreciate the insight. I'm really excited about getting going with it.

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  7. I love the idea of building stamina! It goes along with a teacher's expectations for their students. They do not come in with stamina--but it is built. I am now following your blog through email! I would love to have you come and visit my blog.

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  8. I agree with some of the PPs. I don't look at the reading 3 ways as a required task. It is just instruction so kids will understand that everything they do in a book is a "way to read". I see students of all skills areas read books all three ways. As soon as they get the hang of picking a just right book,the "way" they choose to read all falls into place. In my class, kids have anywhere from 5-10 books in their boxes. We do have a minilesson on what happens when they finish their books and what it looks like (redirect to the i chart for RtoS) I have NO problem with reread...it is what builds fluency and accuracy. In guided reading groups, when you are listening to a child read, the other kids in the group HAVE to reread until you get to them. It is something that they need to learn and practice. That's why I do a mini lesson on it so they are practicing the right way. Great questions and I loved reading how everyone answered them!!! I hope at the end of our study there will be some kind of Q&A thing...

    rene'

    A Passion For Primary

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