When I did my student teaching, my lead teacher was just starting to implement Daily 5 and the CAFE, so my experience with it was very much learning along with her as she read and discovered. It was really nice to have someone to talk to and bounce ideas off of as I was reading myself. That is why I jumped at the opportunity to participate in the summer book study at We Read, We Blog, We Teach.
The book study is a bit of a necessity for me because the district I am moving to REQUIRES that all teachers use Daily 5 - CAFE is optional, but highly suggested. Since I have been teaching 7th grade math, I have had to dig out the big anyway to refresh myself.
The first thing I noticed when I pulled this book off of my shelf (besides the dust - shhhh!) were multi-colored tabs that I had placed in specific spots. I can't remember what the color coding meant at the time, but if I remember I will let you know. I like the tabs though, because I can remember where things are - (I believe the orange stickies were for anchor charts to make. I have been getting lots of inspirational ideas from Pinterest that I will share as I make them.
So.... onto Chapter 1: (Quotes from the books are in green - my takeaways are in red)
The book opened with a Regie Routman quote
"The typical teacher has children doing a lot of "stuff". How is what I am having children do creating readers and writers?"
This is really important for me to focus on and keep in sight. Because I am moving from middle school down to elementary a big part of me is caught up in the "cuteness" factor of elementary. I really need to keep in mind that although I may cutesy things up, my main focus must be on instruction and creating readers and writers.
P. 11 Has a chart that outlines the research base behind Daily 5 which is extensive.
The reason why the district I am moving to has adopted Daily 5 is because of the strong research base behind it. I really love the headings on top of each of the components and am thinking about a way to share with my students to provide them with a "Real World" purpose for each of the elements.
During student teaching I felt like the area that could be most improved was our focus lessons -they seemed to lack, well focus to be honest with you. I like the idea of focusing each mini-lesson on the topics listed. For example, the first focus lesson of the day would be a comprehension lesson, the second would be a reading strategy, the third would be word work, the fourth would be writing, and the fifth and last would be a sharing author's sharing where we review the skills and strategies we worked on that day.
I am feeling a bit more confident after just re-reading the 1st chapter, and am excited to continue this journey.
If you would also like to participate, the information is below:
Please check out the summer book study!
(It is not too late to start)
http://www.wereadweblogweteach.com/
There is a calendar available to keep you on track at the blog:
This looks great! I just ordered these books and I hope they come soon so I don't get too far behind
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