How's It Going?

A conversation after school on Friday with my friend Angela and reading Kelley's blogpost today got me thinking. In a good way.

How is Daily 5 going in my class? Well, as usual, I started off great, we made I-charts, graphed our progress with read to self, read to someone and word work. But then, as usual, I got nervous about not having reading groups, hoped for the best, expected the kiddos to go for 15 or 20 minutes when we were barely at 10 before, and got very frustrated when the time was more management, and not good teaching.

So, what next?

Time to back up. Reteach the dailys. Make more I-charts. Keep the I-charts on the board (they have been hanging out in a folder -duh- how is that supposed to help anyone?). Practice. Graph. Practice again. Model. Do it again. Review the charts. And not worry that I the aide in my class is thinking I am crazy. Time to reread everything I blogged about over the summer.

Thanks Angela and Kelley for prompting me to evaluate and analyze my reading/Daily 5 time.

It is not too late. It is never too late to improve on what I do.

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But I could use some advise...

My school does not have a reading series (that is both good and bad). So I am not quite sure what my first graders could be doing during word work time. Are there activities that are on-going or create something new each week?

What do you have your first or second graders doing that is meaningful for word work time?

Thanks is advance!