Journal 20 Halloween

I decided today that we wouldn't do the Daily 5.  I figured I wouldn't get authenthic reading out of my students and they wouldn't be interested in reading their independent reading book unless they involved scary stories.  Instead we did academic Halloween activities and all in all was great.  I did have 6 students ask me throughout the day when are we going to do the daily 5.  It warms my heart to hear that. 

Of course second period my principal walked in and we weren't doing the daily 5 and I felt awful because I've been raving to her about it!  I explained why we weren't and she explained she just wanted to see 3 classrooms and enjoyed the pumpkin science activity we were doing and the discussions my students were having. 

We have all 5 dailies introduced so tomorrow begins the mini-lessons and small group work.  Looking forward to it already! 
Happy Halloween! 

journal 19-introducing listening to reading

Today I introduced listening to reading which is the final daily that I haven't introduced yet.  Besides a few minor glitches with Cds not working it went pretty well!  The struggle that I forsee with this is getting students to stick with the same book from week to week that they are listening to.  I had 4 students on the CD players because that's all I had and then I had 2 on storylineonline.com.  They really enjoyed it because I had picked the books that I had that the website had and they were able to read along.  It's not necessary bc the website shows the book as it goes but they enjoyed the Polar Express and Thank you Mr. Falker.  I shared with the boy who listened to Thank you Mr. Falker that it was my favorite book ever and he said "it might be mine too."  I don't think he had ever read it before but he seemed to enjoy it and really was able to hear the pain in Patricia's voice as she went through the story. 

While today worked on i worked with the small group at Text Talk/Word Work.  It went well and the students seemed to be engaged, but not as engaged as yesterday's group.  They didn't seem to sense the sarcasm as well as yesterday's group did.  I tried to have chats with them about it but I really wanted them to try to see it themselves.   

I was most impressed today with my students' ability to move from one daily to another.  They know that when they are finished with their daily, they are to go to read to self.  They did this well.  I started to keep a tally chart of the check ins that we have-thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs middle.  There were 17 kids that had their thumbs up and I had them talk about what they did well.  Some answers included, "I went from work on writing about reading right into read ot self without bothering anyone.  I was excited to get my nose in text."  Another said, "I finished listening to reading and didn't want to disturb anyone in my group about what I was supposed to do, then I remembered the teacher told me to go to read to self last week so I found a comfy spot and went right into read to self."  I had 3 kids give themselves thumbs down and when asked them why they said, "I was just so interested in what the other kids were doing at listening to reading that I wasn't able to stay in my book."  I asked that particular child how they could imrpove next time and he said that he could probably ask if he could switch his spot (they're only allowed to have one spot unless they ask to move).  Then I had 5 kids give themselves thumbs middle and one kid said, "I wasn't really listening to the text that we were reading with someone because I didn't like it.  I think that next time I may just choose to read to self if no one in my group wants to read a book that is just right for me." 

From their responses, I can tell that they are using the vocabulary that I've been using, they are making wise choices about what they are reading and they are more aware of what a just right book is for them.  I still can't believe how quiet it is in the classroom during the daily 5.  It's wonderful. 

Some things I'm wondering/staying up at night concerned about-
-Are my highest students really being pushed?  One was at work on writing about reading today and he picked the same prompt that he did last time.  Should I regulate what he can pick?
-If I move away from the Text Talk/Word Work group, will they be as involved as they have been?
-I still haven't taught a strategy lesson but I'm going to next week.  Is this going to negatively affect my students?  A lady from the fellowship said that the more time I put into the procedures the more time I will have for deeper small grou work later on. 
-I'm wondering if I should have a focus on my small groups.  I was thinking QAR and differentiating it with various books and the types of questions.  I saw this helped a lot last year with the group and I only worked on this right before testing.  I also noticed that when they are faced with a question that isn't right there they don't really know how to appraoch answering if.  I'm thinking all my students could use the help with this.  I think I'm going to use the SRA leveled texts.  They are pretty rich text for the most part especially when we get to unit 4 about the Solar System.  Just another wondering...

journal 18 praciticing

Today we pracited the 4 dailies that we have so far.  I find this really helpful and notice that the kids are really responding to what vocabulary, the stamina building and so forth.  I didn't really have anything moving happen today.  I had 17 kids say thumbs up and 7 say thumbs down.  Not sure what's going on there.  Just one of those days...

journal 17 introducing text talk

Today was a good day.  The last couple of Mondays haven't been that way so I was glad for this break in the manic Mondays.  Today was the introduction of Word Work.  However, unlike the daily 5 I'm incorporating vocabulary into this daily.  In the true daily 5 fashion the word work is students working on spelling patterns.  During our center time, I do have a spelling center in which students work on their spelling words.  So I thought about what was another way I could utilize this daily.  Last year I wrote an RFP for Scholastic Text Talk and quite honestly we haven't found a way to fit it into the curriculum of the basal.  I thought about it for a whlie and thought wha better way than to put the Text Talk curriculum to use in the word study daily.  It's a little different than what the true Text Talk program calls for because majority of that is done whole group and I'm using it in a small group.  Another thing that I'm doing differently is I'm having the kids read the book independently or with someone.  It went great.  I was super prepared which I think helped.  I made a situation sheet in which students highlighted what situations described the words at hand and then I made mini-Frayer model word webs which I thought was going a little slow, but it was super effective.  After me and one other student alternated reading Dear Ms. laRue we worked on the situation sheet while reading and I introduced the Frayer word web to them and they were off.  I thought it was great because I let them draw an example and a nonexample.  They loved that prat.  At the end of this I asked the students what they thought and what was the best part and one student said "there wasn't really a part I didn't like."  Another said, "I liked all the parts if that's okay."  Then when I asked them to share something with the rest of the class one student said, "it's really fun you learn new words that you've never heard before and then you get to think about them." 

One thing with this is reading the book did take a little while but maybe it wll get better.  I'm also thinking maybe I can find recordings of them or maybe I can record my voice?? I had a stronger student and myself alternate reading.  It was great to work with a small group. 

Another thing that I did differnetly was instead of having students move their clip and decide on where to go I had them move in their center teams-5 teams, different colors.  This isn't true Daily 5 fashion but I thought it would be a way to assure that students are going to each daily once a week.  I also told them that they could read with someone that they want to if they aren't in their center team but I didn't have anyone ask me to change who they can read with and go with someone outside of their center team.  This worked out really well.  Another thing that I did differently was I made the back rug the spot for read to someone so that the chatty group would be secluded and not bothering the read to self and work on writing about reading group.  This worked well too. 

I was surprised today by how honest students were with the check-ins.  I had one student give himself a thumbs down and a good number of students give themselves middle thumb.  I think I am going to start tallying how many each.  I asked the class how they could improve their reading next time and heard "I could try to keep my eyes in text more and not worry about other kids and what they're doing."  (I did not say that but it sure does sound like me I thought.)  Another kid said, "I could abandon my book and get another one that I'm more interested in."  I couldn't believe that they are starting to use the language that I've been using around them.  So glad to hear that and to see the honesty.  That little boy that talked about abandoning his book went book shopping at SSR and he approached me and asked if he could go book shopping so that he could be more interested in his book.  I can't believe the independence I've been seeing in quite a few days.  I was really pleasantly surprised because this boy is one that isn't a reader and isn't really engageable if that's a word??  Happy with today's results!  Tomorrow is another practice day and then listening to reading is being taught on Wednesday and pracitced on Thursday!     

journal 16 the daily five game

We don't get a chance to do the daily five on Fridays because I have to give the tests that the reading program we use has.  I hate it but I also love it for one reason-I graded the assessments from last Friday and noticed that even though we hadn't done whole group many times before and hadn't read the story 3-4 times in the week, my students scores on the assessment weren't different from the weeks prior when we had read the story 3-4 times.  This shows me that what I was doing isn't effective.  It also shows me that doing the daily five the way I have been doing doesn't inhibit their ability to pass the test that I'm mandated to give.

So each Friday my students parent journal to their parents.  They write about what they did during the week.  I always watch to see what they write and this week one student wrote that they continued to learn about the daily five game.  I couldn't help but chuckle because it's not a game at all!  They're having fun reading and this is a major change for them so they don't think that it's learning.  I haven't really taught anything new in terms of content but we will get there.  It's great to think that they think this is a game because this particular student is a sturggling reader and hates reading but she's having fun and thinks it's a game!!  I love it. 

journal 15 rotation

Today began with me asking my class what it was that they didn't like about using the basal yesterday.  Many answers ranged from: 
     -It's boring.
     -It's too easy. 
     -It's too hard.
     -We don't get to choose what we want to read.  Some people don't like nonfiction texts.  (said a girl)
     -Some people don't like fiction texts.  (said a boy)
I was quite impressed with their honesty.  I did tell them that we still have to use it but we don't have to use it the way we had started the year using it.  We are going to be more independent readers.  We then had a discussion about stamina and was surprised to find that many students remembered and knew what stamina was.  My example from my training for the century ride really helped it stick in their brains.  We also talked about increasing their fluency.  The students that I have been doing a read with speed intervention knew exactly what that was. 

We then reviewed the three dailies that I've introduced so far.  Then we moved our clips (totally need to change this) and went off to start the rotation.  It took a little longer to get into the rotation mainly because we haven't been taught how to choose partners and they're moving clips and it takes them so long to find their clip.  I am totally changing this because it wastes about 3 minutes of our time.  I'm going to have them have a checklist to keep track each week where they go.  The clips was a cute idea but it just doesn't work.  The other thing was the eruption of noise when those going to read to someone were trying to find a partner.  I was surprised by how many kids went to work on writing about reading.  I thought my entire class would go to read to someone but they didn't.  A handful of kids read to self and another handful read to someone. 

The sweetest part was one boy was working with my nonreader and reading his  books from Reading A-Z.  I had talked about when you do read to someone you have to read just right books for everyone.  In this case, the Reading A-Z was a level A which wasn't just right for one boy but it was just right for another boy.  If he doesn't read these books with his partner, he doesn't do read to someone so it was sweet to see that another child in my class was so accepting.  After a while I pulled my nonreader and did a few tests on him and did a making words lesson with him since he had missed this on Tuesday when he normally does it because he was absent.  It was a great lesson.  It made me realize that with the old way of teaching I wouldn't have gotten to this this week and he wouldn't have gotten his making words lesson.  I used the information from the day before with NWF and did a short lesson on blending.  I showed him how to do it on his hand like they do in the primary grades and it worked out so well.  I was very happy that I was able to have this time.  Now, I just need to figure out how to pull a group and him in the same day.  It's a work in progress.  Even though I have my apprehensions it's making me the kind of teacher I want to be.

Journal 14-no daily five wahhhh

The title of this is a perfect title for today's daily five or lack there of.  I had a sub today because I had to finish TRCing my students so I didn't leave the sub with any daily five plans.  In fact I just had her work out of the basal which is something my students haven't spent much time in in about two weeks.  At lunch we were reviewing my plans for the afternoon and she said "is this center time also known as the daily five??"  I told her no and she informed me that quite a few students had asked her throughout the morning when she was going to let them do the daily five.  She wasn't sure what that was and in fact thought it was a game that she didn't know how to play!  It made me so happy because they are actually enjoying it.  They are actually having fun reading.  All part of my plan and goal!!  :)

Journal 13 the third daily

Today was a much better day than yesterday.  I don't know what it was.  I have some worries I guess that get the best of me but I just have to remember that what I'm doing is going to be effective and I do have to spend the time practicing the procedures just like I have to at the beginning of the school year. 

Today I introduced the third daily-read to someone.  My oh my I haven't ever heard such a loud roar come from my class until I announced the read to someone daily.  I few kids had had this last year but I'm not sure how consistent the expectations were so I tried to tell them things were going to change a bit because they're in third grade. 

So we made the I chart and introduced EEKK.  I have already taught my students knee to knee and eye to eye so elbow to elbow knee to knee wasn't that much different.  I told them they could pick between the two and decide which they would like to sit.  Then I introduced the check for understanding.  In the book the sisters have a check mark but I didn't think we needed another prop in our world so I showed students how to make a check mark with their fingers and make the check noise with their tongue.  They were then off to start.  Boy oh boy should I have talked about volume because did my classroom erupt with a loud teacher voices and kids reading.  I immediately brought them all back to the back rug and discussed teacher voices between librarian voices and had students show how it should go and how it should not go.  Then they were off to start again and it was much better.  It was still noisy but then I rememebered each student was reading to someone so I had to expect that.  I wondered that when we begin this should I have a space in the room dedicated to read to someone as not to bother the other students?  I wonder...

I was really excited at the response to this.  I again worry because I'm spending so much time on procedures but I know this will pay off later. 

journal 12-off day

I think it happens to me at least once a week that I seem to have an off day.  I just woke up grouchy and kind of stayed that way throughout the day.  I felt off... 

The Daily 5 went well today.  We began our day by meeting at the back rug and discussing what we had learned last week and the dailies that we had learned.  Then we reviewed the I chart for working on writing about reading and I introcued the activity cards that I had made over the weekend.  These seemed to be a big hit and the kids seemed to be better able to write for a longer period of time.  We also had a discussion prior to begin our daily practice of what it meant to build our stamina.  I think they're getting the concept and when I brought them back I explained that we had made it for 25 minutes uninteruppted.  We began at around 9:37 and were able to sustain ourselves until 10:12.  We are gaining stamina. 

I was struggling with my thoughts today.  While I do see that my students are working and I know that I'm still working on teaching the basics of setting all this work up, I am concerned that I'm not doing a lot of teaching of reading yet.  I know I need to think about this like I'm starting this at the beginning of the school year with the procedures but I just feel like I didn't really teach any content today.  I don't want my students to lag behind the other classes.  I know what I'm doing will have major results in the end, but for today I was worried that I'm teaching a lot of procedures for the seventh week of school.  A part of me is also slightly worried about will this really help my students to grow which is what I'm really hoping this will show.  I want this year to show major growth in my students and I want this to be the program that we use in my school.  I guess I'm just worried about failure and will I be successful with this?  I know in my heart of hearts that this is the right thing to do and I know that my students seem like this is working for them but it's just a concern I have. 

Another thing that I worried about today was that I didn't get to the basal.  Students were working on reading to self and writing about reading so I didn't tell them yet that they had to read the story at at least one of the dailies.  I know that at the core of the program I shouldn't be telling them what to do during their daily time but I do think there is some good material in our basal.  As much as I hate to say that. 

I tried giving each student a magnet and moving it to what daily they were doing but it did not work at all.  I had a huge crowd of students standing waiting to put their clip on the right daily and we were only picking from two!!  I think I'm going to have students a small excel sheet and they will keep track of what they did each day.  When we get this all up and rolling I'm goign to have students go to a different daily each day.  I'm not sure if this is what is really suggested with the program but I seem validity in it. 

I also introduced book bags to students today and they loved them.  they were very excited to have just right books.  They are keeping those in their desks and for the most part they fit...I only see one on the ground as I write this.  I think that will help with movement. 

Up for tomorrow I have Read to Someone Day 1.  I'm really excited about this one and I know my students are too!  :)  Can't wait.  It's nice to be really excited about something and knowing deep down that it's going to be effective.    

Journal 11-no daily five=a sad teacher

So today was Friday typically the day of the tests and I can honestly say I missed the work of the daily 5.  I did wind up giving the test even though we didn't spend much time in the basal this week so we shall see how the students do and I guess that will make my decision on whether or not I continue to use them as my assessment.  Like I've said before it's one of my struggles and I just am not 100% sure of what I would use to replace them.  Hmm...

My principal did mention today in the ILT meeting that we should probably consider moving away from the basal and mentioned the daily 5 and that some of her friends' schools are using it.  I am excited that I am going to be implementing it and may be helpful in a real good change in my school.  It got my very excited and made me feel very supported.

Journal 10-two dailies

Today began the introduction of work on writing about reading.  The typical Daily 5 classroom has work on writing as one of their dailies.  I changed this and made it into work on writing about reading for a few reasons.  First, my students have started reading response journals in their binders and I'd like them to become more adapt at it.  Second, I think I'd like to begin grading these and the best way to get authentic work and not work that their parents help them with is to have them doing some work during school.  Finally, and probably the biggest reason is-in reading the daily 5 I realized that the schools that this was developed in don't have an additional writing workshop time.  My school does and in fact I teach it.  We have 3 classes dedicated to writing workshop in which my students work on writing.  I want them to increase their stamin in writing and comprehension and I think writing about reading will help with that. 

It was tough today to not be walking around assisting students.  They are so unsure about the reading response letter that I was conferencing with students about their writing which wasn't surprising to them because I do that often during writing workshop.  I didn't bother students who were reading to self, but just worked one on one with those that were working on writing about reading.  We were able to stay still for 15 minutes today stamina building!! Then we met back for a quick meeting and check of how they thought thye did during that Daily.  I can't believe how well the signal is going.  It's something that I hadn't used before-just a wind chime my cooperating teacher had given me when I finished student teaching-and I just rang it the first day and it's stuck as our signal to meet back at the back rug.  I can't believe how it's just transformed my class and me.  I feel so much more calm and actually my students mentioned how my voice is much more quiet during the daily 5.  :)  I love their honesty.  After a brief meeting and check-in I had them switch from working on writing about reading to read to self and vice versa.  I wasn't sure about this change and if I really should be telling them that they had to change.  They don't recommend it in the book but I don't know if my reluctant writers would ever go to that daily?  I think when I get all 5 up and running I'm going to say that they have to go to each daily at least once during the week.  We were able to stay in that situation for 17 minutes before any movement or distractions.  I again conferenced with students and finished TRCing a student. 

I am struggling with something and I suppose it's because it's my first week with this.  I don't know if I should try to continue to squeeze in my basal instruction at the very end of the reading period.  Ideally I would not like to because that would take away from small group/one on one instruction.  I am just so apprehensive to let go of that and I don't know why.  I know it's not what's best for my students.  I guess I just want to make sure that this will give me results in movement of my students.  I know in my heart that it will but I'm just so nervous for some stupid reason.  When i get all the fives up and running I want to tell students that they have to read to self the story one time, listen to the story one time, or read to someone the story one time.  I think this way it'll still allow me to give that test at the end of the week and still get an authentic view of what students can do independently with a text that they haven't read 4 or 5 times.  i do think there is some good texts in our basal series such as all the nonfiction that we have but I just don't want it to be the sole focus of my reading period any longer.  This makes me feel like a good teacher.  I like that.

Journal 9-stamina

Today was Day 2 of the daily 5.  We reviewed the I chart that we made yesterday-we laughed that I put I chat on the anchor chart and read to self time is supposed to be quiet!  Then we reviewed what the student's jobs should be and what the teacher's job should be.  Then I discussed just right book choices and explained that many children shouldn't be in picture books unless I have told you to do so.  Then it came up, what about when they're reading holiday books and I told them I wanted the holiday books to not be used during read to self time and that maybe we could change that rule when we have book boxes.  We then reviewed increasing our stamina and was surprised to find many students knew what the word meant but was also surprised by who knew it because they're the ones that don't have any reading stamina! 

We then reviewed the three ways to read a book and were off after a 8 minute long review.  We are sure building our stamina as we went 13 minutes before any distractions.  Yesterday was 10 minutes before any movement which isn't a huge gain but it's a gain!  There was quite a bit of book shopping that went on after that 13 minutes but I guess the fact that we don't have book boxes yet and we read to self yesterday for approximately 24 minutes and then had SSR, they should be done with their books.  I'm going to look into book boxes or ice cube tubs or large plastic bags at the dollar stores.  I am lacking storage in my classroom so I'm not sure where book boxes would go...We shall see.

While read to self time went on today I was able to complete two TRC tests and do a combined making words lesson with my nonreader.  It was so great.  I really think that if my school was to implement this it would dwindle down the teacher complaints with not being able to have time for small groups.  The Daily 5 gives you the time.

I'm loving how this makes me feel as a teacher.  I feel so in control and so calm.  I am looking forward to when I can conference with students about their reading during the daily time but for now I am giving them their independence and trying to not 'scare' them with me walking around.  I did go to blow my nose in the front of the classroom a few times but that was only to see who was reading where.  I really want them to know that I trust them and I believe they can do this.  It seems to be working.  At lunch the other day we had a discussion about assessing during the school day and that one teacher was worried that her students were doing a worksheet while she was testing on her palm.  I thought about this today while i was testing and realized that my students were doing authentic work and not just worksheets...each of them with the exception of a few were reading just right books.  Plus if my principal were to walk in and see what I was doing she would see that I've introduced one of the dailies and that we are practicing and it's not that I'm trying to be lazy but rather that I'm trying to build that teacher/student trust that I don't think exists too often anymore. 

I'm sure I will say it many more times this year but I feel like the kind of teacher I've always wanted to be with this...

Journal 8-Start of the Daily 5 making me the teacher I want to be.

Today was the first day of the Daily 5 in my classroom!  It ws perfect.  It made me feel like I had been searching for an answer to teaching students effectively in Reading and I believe I have found it. 

A few of my students had a teacher who had 'done' the Daily 5 before so they were familiar with the idea, but after discussing it, I'm not sure if the teacher was doing it the way that it's supposed to be done.  I introduced read to self and they were mezmorized by the fact that I was going to allow them to pick their own just right book.  The other difference was when I asked what my job during the daily 5 would be they responded to grade papers!  I just explained that it was going to be a bit different now that they were in third grade. 

We started at 9:39 after our mini-lesson in which we made the I Chart.  It took us exactly 10 minutes before the first person was off task or looking around.  I was TRCing a child during this which was difficult because I'm not used to this-I'm used to having to manage the class or be up and moving.  I felt like I gave them the trust and I had told them what I expected and they were really giving it to me.  They were actually reading.  One of my apprehensions with beginning this was what if students were doing fake reading.  They weren't!  They actually were lost in the text.  It was so wonderful to see.  And boy oh boy how quiet it was!!  It has never been this quiet before!!  At 9:52 we met again using a sounder maker that I hadn't used yet and we met for a 5 minute mini-lesson on 3 ways to read a book.  Many of the students were fans of reading the words which I was so glad to hear because they're in third grade!!

Some of my thoughts during this first session was how do I get a nonreader to choose a just right book?  Or is it just the exposure to the books that is good?  I'm torn with that.  I was surprised by how well they did-give them a little trust and they take it a long way.  I also wondered if they could do this on the first day of school?  I have had them for 6 weeks now so they are used to my expectations and how much I love reading so is part of the success of this from the fact that I've had time to build those expectations and procedures?  I had some other questions but many of them were about book choices and it brings me to believe that we need to have book boxes.  So excited about this!  It's realyl made me happy.  My boyfriend said when I talked to him at lunch and he asked how my day was and I said "really good,"  he said he had never heard me say my day was like that!  I felt like a good teacher today.  I felt like the kind of teacher I have always wanted to be.

journal 7-'off day'

Today was a 'day off.'  Funny how that is.  I spent the day studying and reading and rereading the daily 5 and the cafe.  Aside from lunch with my boyfriend that's all I've done.  Funny how that works.  But I don't mind.  I feel like sometimes teachers need to have one of those days where are you do is think about how effective you are and work on improving your practice.  I am very excited about this now.  I feel like I kind of understand and am feeling very empowered to teach.  For once in a long time I feel like tomorrow I am going to go to school and teach my students in the best way I can during reading.  I often have this confidence when I am about to teach writing but I've always known in the back of my head that I'm not teaching reading in an effective way, but with the Daily Cafe I feel like I will be.  As best I can understand it, the Daily 5 is the management portion and the Cafe is what is used to teach the comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and vocabulary strands.  It's the mini-lessons that I will use as strategy lessons.  I like how the book gives an example of what a Cafe board should look like at the end of the year.  It kind of will guide my teaching. 

I feel like I've even thought of a way to keep those awful reading tests in motion.  Why do I feel a need to keep them in place?  One-I share a twin with another teacher and she will continue to give those assessments so I feel as though I should as well.  Two-I know that while they aren't too rigourous in their content they do give a good glimpse of what students can do with right there questions.  Three-embedded in these tests are extended response questions which is something that I need my students to know for the ISAT.  Four-there is good content in the Basal program that we use.  As much as I hate to admit it-I love the Earth Moon and Sun unit.  It emerses students in nonfiction reading and gets them excited.  Plus we read this at the same time our science teacher teaches about the Solar System so students get so excited.  I do also think that some of the stories that are nonfiction are worth reading.  I think the fiction stories in our series aren't the best but there are good nonfiction pieces in there.  I can't believe I just typed something in defense to the basal.   

If I continue to implement the Daily Cafe next year I will probably think of alternative methods of assessment but since I am just getting my feet wet and don't want to overwhelm myself or my students I am going to try to figure this out.  I've decided that I'll have the students either pick to read the story in either one of the dailies- Listen to Reading, Read to Self, or Read to Someone.  Then they'll read it as homework one night and that will give them two reads which I think it more authentic than reading it 3-4 times weekly.

I'm beginning to implement this week.  I was originally going to wait until this week was over because I don't want to rush it but I feel so pumped to start this work.  I am going to start this week by introducing Read to Self with three days of pracitce and then Work on Writing about Reading (which is different than what the sisters call for in their book but I decided on this because my students have a response part in their portfolio and we already have a Writing Workshop time dedicated in our schedule so I don't want them to get confused.)  I secretly think if they write about their reading they will push their comprehension.  I am so excited!!  Starting tomorrow with the I-chart on Reading to Self.  Wish me luck!     

journal 6-frustrations and ideal classroom

So I'm taking a class to finish off my sped endorsement with the Union and a university in Chicago.  But I go to class today and the professor says that they told him that he can't teach the class anymore and he's a professional and that's why he showed up.  But if he hadn't there wouldn't have been anyone there to teach us?!!?  So anyways it got me thinking-another example of things that teachers try their best at things and work so hard and are willing to get to class early on a Saturday morning and then poof someone other than a teacher can decide what goes on and it can totally change.  It's so frustrating to think that teachers don't have a voice in important decisions regarding their education and the education of their students yet we're the ones that get the heat on the news and media.  I don't know got me frustrated...In other news-I started reading the Cafe today and I'm in love.  It's my ideal classroom!  So excited to get started and collect my ideas and prepare this coming week and then get started in a week!  Ready to make a difference and teach the students what they need to be taught-not just what a program thinks each third grader should know.

journal 5-assessment concerns

Today was a better day.  I was really trying to see where the good in my teaching is.  My students amaze me everyday and yes I get overwhelmed but I still love what I do.  The thing that I'm most concerned about in implementing the Daily 5 and the Cafe is what exactly will I use for assessment.  In our basal program (which I know doesn't meet the needs of my students) we have those weekly story assessments.  I want to know what am I going to use to replace those assessments?  When I think about it, those assessments don't really show me anything except that they are able to answer those right there questions.  So will a reader response journal be a good replacement?  What else can I use as a grade?  last year I wrote an RFP for Scholastic text Talk and I'm wondering if there's something in that program that I could use for vocabulary/word work part of the daily 5?  I am still going to continue to use the spelling tests because it's what the students need to know with the patterns and prefixes and suffixes when we get to them but I'm just worried about taking away that test and getting complaints from the parents.  I know that to truly implement the daily 5 and cafe that I need to completely abandon the basal but a part of me thinks maybe I could keep it in the listening to reading section and have the students listen to the story on CD there, then reread it at home and then take the assessment?  this way parents aren't getting upset and I actually am getting a better picture of what students can do because they won't have heard the story 3-4 times?  I mean a test only allows students to see the text 1-2 times if they reread it so maybe it'll be better to do it that way?  I am going to consult with my principal and the other lady in the fellowship and see what she's going b/c she has the older version of the basal program that we have.  We shall see.

Journal 4-rough day in the life of a teacher

Today was a rough day.  I know teachers have those days where they don't know why they're in the business and if what they're doing really does make a difference.  Today was one of those.  I have a child in my classroom who has difficulties remembering things and isn't able to do things.  I'm concerned about the kid and I want to get the kid evaluated but the school psyc won't because of the attendance issues in the past.  It's so frustrating and I don't know what to do.  I feel like I've been trying so hard with the kid and it doesn't matter what I do because there's someone else that makes the decision.  So frustrating.  I'm hoping that with implementing the daily 5 that i'll be able to meet the kid's needs BUT also meet the needs of all the other students in my room.  That's what I'm so worried about-I'm spending so much time with this child that I'm not meeting those other students' needs.  We shall see-I ordered the cafe tonite.  I'm excited and frustrated.  Bad day.

Journal 3-new question

The last 2 days I have had a meeting withmy principal for the ILT.  The two days were spent looking at the English Language Arts Common Core standards and how we're going to adopt them throughout our network.  The first day left a little to be desired but it did get me thinking.  One of the biggest pieces of information that we were handed was that our school just has a small amount of students between the 25% and 75%.  Majority of our students are either below the 25% or above the 90%.  The they talked about how our basals used in our network only reach our 50% students.  So basically, the curriculum that we're using is not meeting the needs of majority of our students.  We need change to be able to continue to challenge those students.  The other thing about the common core is that it calls for the use of complex text and authentic reading. 

After thinking last night a lot about my action research project and thinking about the fact that I wasn't completely sold on my question that I had purposed because I didn't feel a passion about it I decided that this year I want to take my action research and abandon the basal.  It's not meeting the needs of majority of my students.  I want to do what's  best for my kids.  I have a nonreader and I have a student reading at an instructional level of a seventh grader.  I need to be able to meet those kids needs.  With that said I talked to my old reading specialist who is actually my inspriation for becoming a reading specialist myself and she suggested I look into the daily 5.  I already had the book so I pulled it off the shelf last night and just finished reading it cover to cover.  I am in love!  I got the permission from my principal today to direct my research towards that because I think she's starting to think that we need to change our way of teaching reading and if I have an entire year of research that supports using the workshop, Daily 5 approach people will probably be more likely to change.  I am so excited about this!!!  I plan to finish out the current unit in our basal which will end at the end of next week and then I plan to begin this.  I feel like I'm going to be using what I've been taught through my Masters and really delving into whether I am helping kids or not.  I'm feeling very excited about my teaching right now becasue I know it's headed in a direction that's centered on what's best for kids and not necessarily what's easiest and least controversial.

Yay!

Journal 2-possible question

Today was an interesting day.  AFter staying late to work on Friday I arrived at work and looked at the bulletin board schedule and found that of course I hadn't realized my class had the big bulletin board for October.  So that of course started off the day a bit weird because they couldn't do their typical mini-math but had to do a small moment story about Halloween. 

Then I after school I had to rush around to put up the bulletin board and to get 2 days of sub plans ready so that I can go to an ILT meeting with my principal tomorrow morning!  Crazy busy.  Then I had to head downtown to meet with the ARLI fellowship group.  What a busy day!

I've sort of decided on a question...What happens when I have students track their reading progress?  I've been thinking so much about how often we have students take tests and how often they don't even get to see how they're doing.  Either we don't have time or time just passes us by.  I want to show my students their results about how they are doing.  Since we are assessing all the time, I think it's time to do something positive with those scores.  I have read a lot about alternative assessments and portfolios and student tracking and I think it's going to be beneficial.  The only thing I'm worried about is what do I do with those students that are so low???  I don't want to hurt their confidence but I do think they need to take ownership of their work and some of their learning. 

We put a lot of pressure on students to do well on tests that prior to getting there we need to be honest with them about how they are doing and try to have them set goals about what they want to do in order to make the cut.  We shall see where this takes me!

Journal 1-wonderings

I meant to have this up and running the last two weeks since my last ARLI meeting but the life of a teacher has gotten me!  I'm still trying to discover what my research question will be.  I want to do something about interventions and what works but I'm not quite sure yet.  The professor in charge of the fellowship suggested writing about your wonderings so here goes...

I wonder...
*how I will do it all?
*how will I reach all the needs of my students?
*how did they get to third grade and there's still such a large achievement gap in general education?
*should I be excited that one student went from 3 wpm to 12wpm in three weeks? 
*do we celebrate those small successes?
*does it work to have students at such a young age as third grade monitor their progress and see how it goes?
*do portfolios work?
*how do you stand up say despite attendance issues in the past something else may be wrong?
*will they really be able to respond to their reading?
*will responding to their reading make them better readers?
*how do I manage reading response journals in third grade?
*will my students in need of challenging find the reading response journal challening enough? 
*how can I keep my two boys that are exceeding challenged but at the same time teach one of their peers letters and sounds?
*has teaching always been this difficult?
*will it always be this difficult?
*my first year people said it would get easier-when does that start?
*if I use QAR as a skill that they need to learn and will I see growth among all of my students or just the ones that need challenging?
*how do I maintain rigor in my classroom?
*can I do this?

So much to think about!!

Teacher Journal

I am honored to have been selected as a very competitive grant/fellowship.  During the next year of my teaching I will use this blog as a journal of my wonderings and the action research that I do.  I'm excited about this opportunity but a little scared at the thought of all the possibilities and places my wandering mind takes me.  Join me in my journey!