Daily 5 Chapter 4

I am so loving reading what everyone is doing or plan to do with Daily 5 in their classrooms!  Mrs. Miner's Kindergarten Monkey Business is hosting this week. Click below to check out all the great ideas and encouragement!

How do I start out with enough books??

When I first started teaching, I went to the library, thrift stores, and asked for book donations for my classroom. I used many of the Scholastic mini-books. Here are a few:

With our reading series, I usually have a teacher set to print out mini-books. I have quite a few of these mini book sets and love them. There are also many teacher websites and blogs that have mini-books. Cherry Carl has numerous free ones at her sites. I have joined and used Reading A to Z for leveled mini-books in the past. I highly recommend joining their free trial. You can download some of their free resources.

1) How far into the school year do you think kinders need to be to be able to begin the process of Read to Self? What is realistic? When do you plan to begin implementation?

From the first day of school, I teach my students how to read. I think this reading is instilled from the belief of "If you want it, then teach it." When I first started teaching, we had DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) for 30 minutes. With my 4 Blocks training, DEAR became my Self-Selected Reading time. During the past two years, with new administration at my school, we no longer have that 30 minute DEAR time. So, now I incorporate more into my 90 minute reading block.

Read to Self does not last long on the first day of kindergarten. I aim for 5 minutes, but watch my students to see if I need to make adjustments. I also do not open my entire classroom library up to my students. Before reading, I introduce my class library. We discuss the labels and baskets of where books belong. I start with rebus readers. We talk about using pictures to tell a story. I have my students sit in a circle with me during that first week of school to practice reading our books. Sitting in a circle allows me to model with my little ones, as well as seeing them. I usually try to finish up before I see too much restlessness. That way they are excited about it the next day. After reading, we discuss how to put the books away. On the second day, I follow the same procedure, but now add a couple more basket of books. I keep introducing baskets of books as long as they show responsibility. If not, we keep reviewing, until we get it. If you are familiar with 4 Blocks, during Self-Selected Reading there are group basket of books. I select around 25-35 books for each of my groups. I usually introduce these to my students at the end of the first week or beginning of the second week. These book baskets have varied reading levels and types. We also make lots of little mini books in class and that is what starts my students own book bags/boxes.

2) How will you make sure that each child views him/herself as a reader (whether they are reading words or not)?

Because all my students can use pictures to tell their own stories, whether it makes sense to me or not, they can read. I do introduce “eagle eyes” on that first day of school using my stuffed animal eagle. He reminds us to use the pictures. I have not had a blind child in my classroom. I wonder how someone would explain reading to a blind kindergartner?

I also discuss environmental print with my students. All of them can recognize something that is meaningful to them. They bring in words they can read, and I make it a big deal that they can recognize these big words. They are proud of themselves too and they learn from each other. They bring words from home and we make a song book using their environmental print words.

3) What are some ideas you have about "Launching Read to Self" in kindergarten? How will you go about it and what are some ways to make sure it is "kinder friendly"?

Definitely a day by day basis focusing on practice and predictability. Although it can be routine, I provide excitement and novelty by adding something new by sharing the different choices, books, or buddy reading. In addition, using anchor charts will help my kinderkids better understand and remember what we do during that time.

4) How will you/do you build the children's belief that this IS important? What can we do to encourage the ones who do not value it and create disruptions for others?

There seems to be "the one" who needs extra support and attention in this, so that is who I focus on with extra encouragement. He or she may need practice to read the pictures to me. He or she may need to find a place where they can focus.

5) How valuable is Checking In and Reviewing with kindergarteners? How often will you do it? When will you do it? What are some different ways to "check in"?

We review before starting and assess how well we thought we did afterwards. I do reward often that first month of school. I use a Filling buckets concept in my class, and my students earn stars to fill their bucket. For each set of ten stars, they earn a different prize. I wean off as my students become more independent.

6)What are some problems that can occur during this problem (either that you anticipate with your kinders OR that you have experienced)? How can we be proactive about these issues?

My kinderkids have had issues of focusing for more than 3 minutes with reading to self. I usually work with them to give them strategies to read the book, by encouraging and modeling reading the pictures. Then I back off, and reinforce right away as needed. Sometimes, I give a child a timer (3 minute sand timer) and it does help.

I introduce little by little each day, adjusting depending on my class needs. Some classes, I can introduce more, as they seem to already have independence. While other classes, I have to introduce more slowly, and review more, since they are less familiar with the choices. I do work on encouraging and telling them that they will get more choices.

When I read this book a couple years ago, I checked the Daily 5 website and they have a great video to show how they handle children who have difficulties with read to self. There is a great write up about it as well. I watched and read it again! Click below to go to the specific video:

http://www.thedailycafe.com/public/178.cfm

Have a wonderful July 4th!!