Week 16

Comprehension- Inferring

My 4th grade teacher facilitated a wonderful learning experience for her students with a great explanation about the difference between inferring and predicting.  The teacher brought all of her 4th graders to the carpet and reviewed what they knew about inferring and predicting.  As they struggled with the words to articulate the difference, she reassured them that she would give them a great way to remember the difference.  She presented them with a bag of puzzle pieces and asked them to infer what the puzzle was.  The kids passed the bag around and were able to make "inferences" based on what they saw.  For example, the students said they saw whiskers and it was pink, so it had to be a Hello Kitty puzzle.  The teacher then asked them if they would be able to confirm that inference.  The kids said yes because they would know what type of puzzle it was once they put it together.  The teacher then shared with them that what they had done was make a prediction because a prediction can be confirmed.  She then explained that sometimes inferences and predictions overlap, but in this case, they had made a prediction.  The teacher then shared with them a piece of art and asked them to infer what the art was (see picture below).  The students said the picture was anywhere from an airplane to a blue whale.  The teacher probed further and asked if they would be able to confirm their inference.  The teacher shared that their thoughts were inferences because without the author there, they would not be able to confirm their inferences.  An inference is based upon their schema and the context clues and may or may not be confirmed.  The kids really seemed to grasp the concept and the difference between the two.  I have taught inferring for years, but this simple demonstration made it much clearer for the students!

Week 14 and 15 
Expanding Vocabulary-
One of our 2nd grade teachers has the structure of Daily 5 up and running and is implementing Café.  One strategy she used was under the Expanding Vocabulary title.  She focused on Using Word Parts to Find Meaning.  The  teacher used the word submarine and subway to talk about the prefix of sub- meaning under.  The students then generated other prefixes and suffixes of known words to help them see that if they know the meaning of a word part, they will be able to figure out the meaning of the whole word.  For example, unfair or playful.  Take the known word and figure out the meaning of the new word.  This is a great way to talk about prefixes and suffixes without running off several worksheets and practice the drill and kill.  Make learning more meaningful by discussing strategies as they come along in their learning!

 

At this time of year, Café boards should look pretty full, as the students should have learned a variety of strategies to help themselves be better readers.  This will also allow the teacher to have more of a menu to choose from when conferencing with students.  Below is a Café board from a 3rd grade classroom.

 

Weeks 12 and 13

Conferences and Report Cards

These past few weeks have been a time to complete assessments and get ready for report card conferences.  Teachers will use their conferring notes to share with parents the goals their child is working on in Reading.  Teachers will also use the DRA level to share their child's progress towards meeting grade level proficiency.

Week 11
Comprehension- Recognizing Literary Elements-
This week one of my upper grade teachers used a resource from the DRA Teacher's Guide for her mini-lesson.  The form was asking the students to look at the literary elements.  The teacher used a familiar text, The Three Little Pigs during her modeling and guided practice.  The students completed the form below with a partner.  Then the students used the form in their independent reading time.  This mini-lesson will lead up to summarizing the text.

Week 10 Conferring-
   Conferring is one of the most important components of the Café time.  Teachers meet with individual students to discuss goals they need to work on as a reader.  Teachers find this the most valuable time because they truly get to know each of their students.  The students feel connected with the teacher and know that the teacher really cares about them as individuals.
  Conferring can be a little intimidating until you have had a little practice.  Carl Anderson had a simple starting point for conferences...just start with "How's it going?".  Let the students guide the conversation and you will be amazed at how much you learn from your students and how much they benefit from this one on one time.
  Teachers often have questions about how often to meet with students.  Most of my teachers try to meet with their students as often as possible, but as we all know assemblies, field trips, etc. can interrupt our normal class routines.  BUT...don't let scheduling get in your way of getting started.  Once you start, you will realize the students you need to meet more often with and the ones that can be given goals that you can check on a little less frequently.  Below is a copy of some of the notes from a 4th grade teacher's conferring notebook.  I will write more in the future about conferring because it is so vital to the success of your readers!

Week 9


This week teachers were pulling small groups.  In our primary grades teachers pull for guided reading.  They have spent several hours completing DRAs with their students and are able to begin small group instruction.  To help with lessons for each group my teachers have been using The Next Steps for Guided Reading.  Teachers find this resources valuable because it is easy to read and has clear lessons on what to do with each group.

Week 7 and Week 8


Week 7 was a busy one for me and around campus, so I didn't have a chance to write anything specific.  BUT...for week 8 we held a K-1 Literacy Night.  Our amazing K-1 team of teachers put together a presentation for parents about Daily 5.  They also shared specific strategies to support their child as a reader at home.  They showed a video of how to preview a book, so parents could see how to read a new book with their child. They also shared the bookmark below, so parents have some strategies to use at home.  We also had books available for parents to take home and read with their child.  We didn't have quite the turnout we had hoped, but the parents that did come, were engaged and excited about taking new ideas and books home!

Week 6

This week, teachers were working hard to get their DRAs completed, so most continued to have Daily 3 going.  In Café, some teachers started working on summarizing text.  Check out the posters below to see how they modeled it.

Week 5


This week our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders are working on Read to Someone.  Teachers spent time charting what the students responsibilities were and what the teacher would be doing during this time.  Check out the chart below to see how our third grade teachers introduces it! 

 

 

 

 

In our upper grade classes, they are focusing on Comprehension.  I observed two 5th grade class where the teachers were modeling their questioning strategies while they read.  In one class the teacher was reading Henry's Freedom Box and in the other class the teacher was reading Hurricane.  Both stories lend themselves for great modeling of questioning strategies.  After the teacher modeled her thinking, she then had students turn to a partner and share the questions that they came up with while they read.  Right now both teachers were just modeling the questions they had.  The next steps will be to share the different types of questions readers ask and the different types of ways these questions can be answered.

 

 

Week 4

This week our 1st grade classes introduced Listening to Reading.  When I visited, it was day 3 of implementation.  The teacher was talking to the students about taking care of the headphones because three sets were already broken.  Getting first graders to take care of the cd players and leap pads takes a little while, but once the newness wears off and the students start to take ownership of there equipment there is less time spent on management of the materials.  During my visit, I also observed the teacher during the mini-lesson portion of the second rotation.  The teacher was completing enough rotations that day so every student had the opportunity to participate in the Listening to Reading station.  The teacher provided 8 listening centers, so every child could have a chance to try it out.  The teacher felt like this would give every child a chance to experience Listening to Reading which would allow the class to have a rich discussion about management of equipment, etc.  Below is a picture of one of the rotations.

 

Café in our 3rd grade classes focused on Fix-Up strategies.  Both teachers did mini-lessons on using fix-up strategies to help students comprehend what they are reading (this strategy goes under "C" on the menu).  Both had an emphasis on Summarizing the text.  Check out the chart below to see how they kicked it off.

 

Week 3


This week most of my primary classrooms are working on completing their Developmental Reading Assessments (DRA) so they can begin their small group instruction.  Because the students have really been able to read independently (anywhere from 1st graders reading about 15 minutes to 5th graders reading 28 minutes), the teachers are able to pull individual students to complete their assessments.

Week 3 for our 1st and 2nd grade classes brought to life the Work on Writing choice from Daily 5.  Our 1st grade teachers are focusing on retelling in writing.  They modeled for their students how to write at least 2 sentences to respond to their reading.  They also modeled how to make lists, and how to write the room(from songs and poems around the room).  The students are busy little writers during their Work on writing choice.  With two of the Daily 5 components under way, the teachers are able to run at least two rotations with mini-lessons in between, giving them an opportunity to do their DRAs.  Listening to Reading will be introduced next week...looking forward to it!

Most of our classes are at different points in their Café, or reader's workshop.  3rd grade is still building stamina while working on Monitoring Comprehension with Fix-up strategies.  In our upper grades, they are focusing on several strategies.  One strategy in particular, Adjusting and Applying different reading rates to match text to work on fluency is my favorite to sit in on.  Teachers use the Read Aloud, Goldilocks and the Three Bears to model how to change their rate, voice quality and tone, etc.  It is always fun to hear the teachers talking like Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear.  The kids, especially the upper grade kids, get a kick out of it too!  After the teacher models this, the students work in groups to practice adjusting their reading rate, etc. with a read aloud that the teacher provides them.

One fabulous, easy way to keep the conversation going about reading is during class meetings.  Our staff typically opens each day with a class meeting to check in with the students.  On Friday, I had the chance to sit in on a class meeting in our 4/5 multi-graded class and was excited to hear them talking about what Café strategies they had used the night before during their reading homework.  Three girls were talking in a small group, two had used the Back up and Reread strategy to help them with parts of the story they had not understood and one had used Tune Into Interesting Words.  One girl said, " I was reading and I wasn't thinking so I had to go back and Reread."  Yes....that is what this work is all about...getting the students to monitor their own reading process!!  Nice work!

Week 2:

Week 2 is where the first, second, and third grade teachers really focus on Read to Self.  Now that the students have built a little stamina, they will start to put more than one book in their book box and will be able to read for longer periods of time.  Both the first and second grade teachers are excited to see how much quicker the students are able to get into the routine of Daily 5.  Since our goal is to get kids to read independently and practice the strategies they are leaning in the mini-lessons of Daily 5, we are excited to see the students already motivated to read for longer periods of time.

In first grade, the students have all found a good fit reading spot and are able to read for up to 8 minutes now!  We are plugging along with our stamina!

 

Café in our upper grade (4th-6th) grade is underway too!  All of our classrooms have their Café boards up and have already covered a few strategies such as Cross Checking.  It is always great to walk in a classroom and see 4th and 5th graders using their bodies and chanting "Does it look right (cross arm), Does it sound right, (cross other arm), Does it make sense (open both arms)?  This strategy really seems to help with helping students to monitor their reading.

 

I had the pleasure of watching my multi-graded 4/5 teacher teach a lesson on expanding vocabulary, Tuning into Interesting Words.  She was using a read aloud, Smoky Night, and sharing words like, hooligans, that stood out to her.  She also used Oh the Places You'll Go, to share some interesting words.  She then asked the students to go back to their just right books and use post-it notes to write down some interesting words.  It is always great to see how teachers share their thinking and model for their students what proficient readers do to make meaning as they are reading.  This lesson was only about 7 minutes long, but it will give the students a great strategy to help monitor their understanding.  In future lessons, the teacher will introduce a tool for the student to use to collect their interesting words!

 

 

Week 1:

During Week 1 our teachers really emphasized building stamina for reading.  In first grade, they  were able to get up to about 3 minutes of independent reading, whereas second grade was up to 11 minutes, and our upper grades were up to about 15 minutes.  Since this is our second year of implementation, the first and second grade teachers are all seeing how comfortable the students were with Daily 5 and how much easier it is to get Daily 5 up and running.

This first week, all classrooms talked about the 3 Ways to Read and created posters for their students.

 

Teachers also discussed the importance of reading for a purpose.  Each teacher generated a list with their students so they could refer to it in future lessons.  The list below was generated with first graders.

 

Two strategies all the classrooms (1st-6th) focused on were the "I-Pick" chart and the Read to Self.  Teachers know the importance of having the students understand how to choose just right books for themselves.  Since this is year two, most of our students are well versed in understanding their reading levels and what are great choices for them as readers.  We utilize the DRA(Developmental Reading Assessment)school wide to know what level each student is at and to determine our instructional strategies for small group instruction (but we are not there yet...this is only week one...we are just getting the kids back into the routine of reading independently and choosing just right books- the DRA and small groups will come in future posts)

Both pictures are from our 3rd grade class!

 

I am also sharing a modified version of the I-PICK chart that my 4-6 SDC teacher uses.  She uses an individual chart for each student to refer to.  She uses more visuals and smaller groups for instruction, but the students are exposed to the same expectations.  ALL of our students are expected to become independent readers and thinkers- and we know they ALL can!

 

 

 

 

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome to my Daily Café blog.  A few notes:

• My goal is to post once a week.  Maybe twice, depending on how the week goes.
• I am looking at Daily 5 and Café from a whole school initiative.  I will be sharing with you glimpses into classrooms from teachers from across grade levels (1st-6th).  Each teacher is making sense of the Daily 5 and Café based on the students in their classrooms and their comfort levels.  None of us are experts, we are all learners and are willing to share our experiences.
• I will try to share with you some of the highlights from the classrooms and some of the areas that we are trying to find ways to improve. 
• We have, as a staff, read both the Daily 5 and Café books and have learned a lot from the 2sisters websites. 
• Because I will be positing from various grade levels, I will  try to keep a variety of lessons and be specific with which grade level I am highlighting.
• As a school we are focusing on Daily 5 at Kindergarten, First, and Second grade.  We begin to utilize Café in First and Second, but really emphasis it in our 3rd- 6th grade classes.