Daily 5 Reading Rotation

The end of Term 1 so time to reflect on my Reading programme and think about any changes that are needed.

What went well: 

• the class love Daily 5 and the structure of the rotation where they know where they are going and what is happening next
• they enjoy the variety of activities - the iPad-Padlet photo & caption, Steps, Listening Post, Handwriting/ Publishing or spelling and guided reading with T
• activities are independent and children are encouraged to problem solve or ask a friend to help 
• my planning is much more in depth and follows the Reading progressions made by the Curriculum taem last year
• I am coming to terms with teaching children reading at the lower colour levels after usually starting at Orange or Turquoise most years previously
• the children are learning that it's okay to revisit a text and to discuss and interpret the story so that a book can last a few days
• I am keeping up with Running Records for children who are 6 for 6 year netts and for those due for National Standards anniversary reports (ie turning 7)

Changes/Next Steps:

• I need to try to fit in at least 4 reading groups or rotations most days as time goes so quickly and distractions happen so that some days I only get through 3 groups
• it took a while to establish routines! how to Listen on the listening post, how to EEKK and silent read/Read to self, setting up Steps, and showing how to use Padlet
• L&A observations/feedback and suggestions from Toni in the last week before the end of term mean that I will trial having the children read a text before they come to a guided reading session - I will need to show them how to record their attempts at "tricky" words
• this will hopefully make more productive use of Teacher time
• I will use the Gerald Duffy skill/strategy checklist that Toni gave us as a basis for my planning
• I will make sure that the children who have not been "producing the goods" on their Padlet page are monitored more closely and are made more accountable - having a buddy peer assess their work
• I will change the Padlet writing activity in a couple of weeks to recording fluency reading using Audioboo - reading a text or poem - then listening to it and giving feedback to themselves or a buddy

Padlet - Term 1 2014

This has turned out to be the most successful app for the beginning of the year for my Year 2 class. It is so versatile and has enthused and motivated the children into taking photos, videos and writing and then sharing their learning with their parents.

As an introduction to Padlet we had class pages where we all wrote on the same page.
Now:

everyone in the class has their own Padlet page 

each page is uploaded to the class blog -  http://www.chelseabachelors.blogspot.co.nz/

it is then able to be accessed from home as well - several children have taken off with this and have added photos and captions of themselves at home

writing on their Padlet page has become part of the Daily 5 reading rotation 

writing on their Padlet page has become part of the writing rotation

children choose what they want to write about - choose or take their own photo, write their own title and write their own sentence/caption

Audioboo - another favourite to use again in 2014

248 boos for 2013! Wow what a lot of fun and it shows how popular and easy this app is to use. We used it as an activity in our Daily 5 reading rotation - read a poem and record on Audioboo using the iPad, listen to your recording and self assess whether you want to save it or rerecord - or listen to someone else's boo. 

Everyone few days we would choose a few boos to listen to and using our 'Star and a Wish' system we would assess them - by the end of the year the children were quite used to hearing their own voice without feeling embarrassed and were taking on board the advice of their peers.

A Star = something good about the reading
A Wish = something to improve for next time

The children would often choose to embed a boo onto their Kidblog page or would often want to tweet it.

The other use for Audioboo was to record the children reading during a running record. I never did play it to a parent during a meeting but it was useful for me or for a child to listen to the change over time - comparison from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

The Daily 5 Literacy Programme

Attended Ignition13 - April 22-23 at Albany Senior High - an unconference led by Emerging Leaders NZ.

It was great to meet and be amongst other motivated and passionate teachers who wanted to share their ideas about what is happening in their classrooms.
Hence a light bulb moment!! And reading 3 books in a week
"The Book Whisperer" - see last post
 "The Daily 5" 
"The Daily Cafe"
by Gail and Joan (the 2 sisters) 

The Book Whisperer

By Donalyn Miller
What an inspiring book - basically:

• letting children choose their own reading material to bring to the guided reading lesson 
• having teachers group their children according to the skills they need rather than by age levels
• giving children uninterrupted time and space to read the books they have chosen
• guiding them to choose the right books at the right level
• showing an interest in what they are reading
• teachers showing and sharing their love of reading

= children developing a life long love of reading