Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Read to Self: Day #1

As part of learning routines and procedures for Daily 5--new to both 5th graders in Room 121 and Mrs.Allen--we began learning about everything Read-to-Self encompasses this afternoon.

We discussed the importance of reading to ourselves: become a better reader, become smarter, learn about new and exciting things, and become more independent. Then we talked about and agreed on behavior expectations during Read-to-Self for both students and teacher.

Here's our first I-chart for Read-to-Self as part of the Daily 5.

When we were finished with our discussion, we had several volunteers demonstrate examples and non-examples for what Read-to-Self looks and sounds like. Myka and Madison were model readers who  made it so easy for the rest of us to match all of the behaviors on our chart to exactly what they were doing. Landon and Caleb showed us exactly what not do by moving around, reading aloud, distracting others by throwing things across the room, and hardly reading anything at all.

With just a couple minutes left of school before the announcements, we were able to practice Read-to-Self as an entire class. It took about 30 seconds for everyone to find a spot and begin actually reading, but they soon got right to work!


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What does the S stand for in 'daily s?'

Mrs. Hamman's Class said...

Dear Mrs. Allen’s Class,

We enjoyed reading your post! It sounds like our classes have a lot in common. We are fifth graders, too, and we are also following the Daily 5. We liked your idea of having a few students model what to and what not to do during Read to Self---we did the same thing today!

We have a question for you. When two students sit together during Read to Self, how do you keep from talking and disturbing others? This is something we are working on and we’d love to hear your ideas! We will keep visiting your blog.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Hamman’s Class

Nancy C said...

Looks like you are off to a great start! The kids look so engaged in their reading!!! Way to go 5th graders!

We will be starting next week on Tuesday! Can't wait. It will be new for my fourth graders and myself. I hope to share your blog with them so they can see how other classes are doing the same!

Thanks for sharing!

Mrs.Allen said...

Anonymous-- the 5 stands for the five different literacy components in Daily 5: Read-to-Self, Read-to-Someone, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Listen to Reading.

Mrs.Allen said...

Dear Mrs. Hamman's Class,

We think that's wonderful how your class is also implementing the Daily 5 and having success with Read-to-Self!

As far as your question, some of us can handle sitting next to others without socializing while some of us cannot. We are still learning to self-monitor, so we can be more independent. We had some trouble last week with a couple people choosing to whisper, but after we checked in and discussed successes/concerns, our Read-to-Self time was back on track. Something we discovered that has helped tremendously is to not share seats since any minor shifting can be distracting to the person sharing the seat with us. Hopefully, that helps your class a little bit!

Anyway, we look forward to visiting your blog soon and learning from you as well!

Sincerely,
Room 121

Mrs.Allen said...

Nancy- Thank you so much! We look forward to visiting your blog soon and keeping up with your Daily 5 successes as well! Hope your first couple weeks have been going great!

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