Our Literacy Classroom in Action!

Elementary schools revolve around reading and writing.  Those skills are so important for the children we serve to develop and master.  Our classroom uses the "Daily 5" framework to provide plenty of opportunities for our kids to authentically work on these areas on a daily basis.  This framework allows students to become independent in their reading and writing practice, so the teacher can have plenty of time to work with small groups and individual students.  You will not see a lot of worksheets or busy work when you observe our literacy block in action.  Instead we strive to have kids read and write at their own levels on topics that interest them.  The beginning of the year has been spent developing these routines and developing student "stamina."  We have also been learning and reviewing our reading strategies in comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and vocabulary.  We will soon be getting ready to kick-off our small guided reading groups.  Here are a few glimpses of the kick-off of our Daily 5 routines in our classroom.

Read to Self is always a favorite.  Nothing beats curling up with a fabulous book and getting lost in an awesome story!  Reading takes a lot of practice, so remind your students to be reading at least 15-30 minutes daily at home too.

Work on Writing is quickly becoming another favorite time as students brainstorm and talk about their interests during mini-lessons and then write about things that are meaningful to them.  It has been awesome to see their excitement during writing time.

Students eagerly anticipated the launch of Read to Someone.  It is great fun to share a story with a classmate.  Plus each student gets to be a reading coach during this time as they help their partner use their reading strategies successfully!  Ask them what it means when they say "Time or Coach."

 We keep our "Good Fit" books in book bins.  Every Friday we get to go to the library to check-out books.  We also get time to "Book Shop" in the classroom to find all those great books to fill our book bins.  Students are reminded to use the "I PICK" Strategy to help them find that "just right" book for them!

We also use "Listen to Reading" as a way to hear good models of fluent reading and to practice our listening comprehension.  We will be using different websites and apps to do this.  A student favorite is Reading Eggs on the laptops.  We will also be introducing Book Flix and True Flix (available through Keystone AEA's On-line Resources) as a place to check-out some great books.  Students can access all of these resources at home also.  We have been putting their passwords into their blue folders, so if they have trouble logging-in check there.