I went to a great seminar about Brain Gym and yoga in the elementary classroom. Here is a link to an artile that I found about the importance of creative movement. http://www.scribd.com/share/upload/11207465/2ga1y5yj5j1fees2ggtw

Daily 5 After the Conference

I went to a Daily 5 session at the M.Ed. conference last weekend and was a little disapointed with the lack ideas that I was given. I did however come away with this daily student check in that I adapted to make it work in my classroom. I think that I will start Daily 5 next year at the beginning of the year. I have also started putting together lots of file folder games for the word work section. http://www.scribd.com/share/upload/11207368/oloioxximhef2oxtyrh

Daily 5-So I have decided to make it my own!

As for the five different "centers" or activities students can choose from, I have decided to change them a bit. I still have students do: read to self, read to someone, listen to reading and word work, but I have added language arts games instead of practicing writing. I love my writer's workshop and am in no way going to give that up...especially after all of the research that I did that found that it was the best way for students to become effective writers. Even more so though...I have seen so much growth in my students due to writer's workshop. I think that the Language arts game activities give my students another opportunity to practice the phonics and grammar skills that we have been working on and it gives them a fun way of doing that. I have also taken away my students ability to choose which group they go into each day. I know that student choice is super important, but the group of students that I have this year just can't seem to handle it. They never remember which activities they have already done and "accidentally" repeat the ones that they like. This has left me with groups of 8-10 students in one activity at a time and it just hasn't made things productive. I have tried keeping track of their choices for them, but that didn't seem to work either. I figure we can go back to student choice once they have gotten the rest of the routines down.

Since I am making things my own I thought that I would branch out from the daily five and look for ways to enhance it through literacy stations. I found this article that I thought was helpful:

http://www.stenhouse.com/pdfs/0353ch01.pdf

The Daily 5- Is it too late to start this effectivly?

So I have been implementing parts of the Daily 5 in my classroom for a month or so. After reading the book and discovering that this format has students spend like 2 hours in the Daily 5 every day I decided that there was no way I could squeeze that kind of time out of my already cramped day. So I have been having my students spend approximately an hour in my reading block. I guess you could say that my classroom is set up more like a reader's workshop than a Daily 5 classroom as I have taken bits and pieces of information from many different resources to make a unique model that I hope will work in my classroom with the group of students that I have this year. So far we have spent a lot of time talking about the students behaviors should look like and have spent some time creating I-Charts. Unfortunately, I think that their routines and behaviors (good and bad) are pretty set for the year. It is hard to break old habits this late in the year. I think that what I need to do is spend more time at the beginning of the year forming good habits. That is something that I have never really spent enough time on and plan to make a priority next time. You live and learn I guess.

The Daily 5 - Classroom Management

I have been reading up on The Daily 5 and have begun implementing it in my second grade classroom. It has been interesting to say the least. We spent the last week with mini-lessons on the procedures and expectations of The Daily 5 which I wish I could have done at the very beginning of the year. I feel as though I am trying to break old, bad habits and that they are not breaking all that easily! We have spent a lot of time creating I-Charts to refer to in case we are not sure what the expectations for each area are and the students seem to enjoy it. I have also invested in a classroom Yacker Tracker to help my visual students self regulate by showing them with a green, yellow, or red light whether or not the sound decibles in the room are too high or just right. Most of my students are doing a great job transitioning and we are defiantly building "stamina", but I am still struggling with what to do with my few kiddos that just can not make it for even 5 minutes without a reminder. At first I was doing what the book suggested and just stopping all of the students after the first reminder...but I feel like after a week of doing that the rest of my students who are on task are suffering needless consequences. I understand the premise behind stopping everyone when one person cannot be on task, but what if you have one of the students who just doesn't get it? A student who is not influenced by peer pressures or who cannot physically control there off task behaiors? Any thoughts?

If anyone is interested in the book I am reding here is a link to the website:

http://www.the2sisters.com/the_daily_5.htm

The Daily 5

In my struggle to make my literacy block more effective and applicable to my second graders I have began researching "The Daily 5." I have recently purchased Gail Boushey and Joan Moser's book The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independently in the Elementary Grades. I am wondering if this is the answer to my current management problems during reader's workshop. I would like to find out how they have managed to create an atmosphere of independent learning and responsibility in their classrooms. Right now I have an hour dedicated to reader's workshop and I often feel frustrated at the number of times I must redirect and quiet my students. I have tried many different strategies that have focused on solving the difficulties of the individual student as well as the difficulties that we have as a while class. I am hoping that I can find some answers to my questions and provide my students with genuine learning experiences.