We're five weeks into our year together. When we return on Monday, it's October 3rd. Slowly, ever so slowly... we're learning routines, building stamina, and setting the stage for what the rest of our year will entail. My thoughts are jumbled this morning, but I think some of them are worth sharing!
I've trained my first graders to know we're finished with a session when I shake my little "egg shaker." It's a very quiet, unobtrusive sound... to match what our room sounds like during our sessions. I would love to have chimes but haven't found an affordable set yet. Plus, after 3 years, I'm used to the sound of the egg shaker! ;)
After many conversations and lots of reading on Twitter, I'm easing up on the noise level during our Daily 5 time. As a teacher, I'm not usually a stickler for a silent classroom. In fact, I thoroughly enjoy the excited buzz of voices. However, during Daily 5 time, I've made it more or less a silent time in our room. What does this do for collaboration? Well, it more or less eliminates it. Other than Read to Someone and Listen to Reading time, my first graders work alone. How does this foster engagement and working with others? It doesn't. So I'm easing up. If children are quietly chatting about what they're writing or reading, who am I to "hush" those conversations? If children want to work with a partner while they make their focus words out of magnetic letters, why not? I'm hoping this will continue to be a calm, quiet(er) part of our day but am trying to build my stamina for allowing a bit more noise! (Truth be told, I'm sure my need for silence goes back to the days of crazy loud centers while I was trying to meet with guided reading groups!!)
We've already established Read to Self, Work on Writing, and now, Listen to Reading, as choices during our Daily 5 sessions. This coming week, we'll begin building stamina for Word Work. Because children have already pre-learned how to use many/most of the Word Work materials, I am guessing it won't take long to establish the necessary stamina to add it to our daily choices. Time will tell!
If all goes well, Read to Someone will be the last one introduced the following week. This puts us right on track for my goal of having Daily 5 up and running by the end of October. However, should my first graders start losing stamina or need to slow it down again, by all means, I will honor their needs! My ultimate goal is not to throw everything at them and have to revisit/relearn later. Ultimately, I want these behaviors to stick throughout the year. Slow and steady is what will finish our "race." :)
~Komos :)
Great work there Laura. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in your room. As for chimes, I use a single chime similar to this http://www.musictherapysuite.ca/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=104 and the kids love it. I love it too. I use it three times a day just to calm them (I have a very anxious group of students this year). I used it to get their attention when our big buddies were working with us (think over 50 super excited children working in one room at once) and they all heard the chime and stopped what they were doing right away. It's an amazing tool, and at $10 very reasonable too.
ReplyDeleteAs for students working together I think it's great that you're letting it happen. I've always let my students "help" one another while I"m busy working with a small group or individual students. I just need to make it clear that they are helping one another and not doing the work for each other. I've had good success with it though and I'm sure you will too. Thanks again for this blog. While I don't follow the daily five as it is written there are many aspects of it that are part of my program too. Karen
Even though I'm all the way up in 5th grade, it sounds like we're on similar pages. We're doing great with stamina, and tomorrow I'm going to begin letting them choose which activity they do during each round. I'm looking forward to mixing it up a bit so that there is that buzz of students working together on different activities. It's way to hard to conference with kids when the entire room is silent!
ReplyDeleteI've recently figured out how to control my iTunes on my promethean/mac through my iPad! So depending on the mood of the day we clean up to different songs. Sometimes it's something slow and just instrumental and sometimes it's something we'll sing along to. I find that having a song keeps my chatty ones quiet and gives us a goal for being finished with clean up (by the time the song ends for short ones). It's pretty fun to do the clean up to music and helps me control the mood. Mondays often need a sing-along to wake them up and Fridays often need something relaxing to keep the mood going!
ReplyDeleteI've been following your blogs all summer...way to go with working out the nuances of Daily 5 in your classroom. I love how you are going slow...working on stamina and having the courage to do it! I am an Illinois teacher and lately, giving ourselves this time is really hard! I also smile about your need for a calm atmosphere vs. the need for their sweet and purposeful interactions. I agree with Jacquie with the use of the music. Putting the sound volume where you like their talk to be helps me also. This year, I've made use of a reading tent for Read to Someone ! They are loving it.
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