Daily 5 Book Study - Chapter 1

As usual, I'm late to the party! We've been in the middle of this crazy move from Hawaii to Florida and still don't have internet hooked up or any of our household goods.  Since we're at the in-laws for the weekend (sitting on real furniture), I can finally join up with the Daily 5 Book Study for Chapter 1 that is being hosted by Primary Inspired.

What I LOVE most about this chapter is reading how the Daily 5 has evolved from 5 rotations a day to 3.  I could honestly never see how teachers were able to do 5 rotations a day!  What a relief it was for me to hear that 3 rotations is totally fine, and it's even more fine to do what works for YOUR class! 

Chapter 1 really hit home with me as I thought this past school year of teaching a 2nd grade resource room. Last year was probably my most difficult year of teaching, and I'm using this year to reflect and  figure out how I can make it better!

This sentence really hit home with me so much that I posted about it on Instagram.

"Our reading time was this daily, frantic dance."

That described last year perfectly, and as I read Chapter 1, I realized that I should have done even more explicit teaching and practicing of behaviors last year with my students so I could have avoided that daily, frantic dance.

As I finish reading the rest of the revised Daily 5 book, I'm excited to think of the possibilities for this upcoming school year.  I'll be teaching a 1st grade general education classroom and I know this framework for running my Language Arts block will help give my students plenty of authentic time reading and receiving high quality literacy instruction.  

Make sure you stop by Primary Inspired to check out the rest of the blog posts about Chapter 1.

Daily 5 & CAFE ~ Thoughts for Special Education

Last week, I mentioned that I had the opportunity to see The Sisters speak about using CAFE in the classroom.  You can read about that {here}.  It was really great getting to visit with my Hawaiian blogger friends and listening to The Sisters talk about teaching reading.  It was really motivating and got me thinking about how I've taught reading in the past.

There were a couple of points that made me really think about how Daily 5 and CAFE apply to special education.

Idea #1:  Small groups should be 2-3 students. 

When I heard that I was like WHAT?!?!  2-3 students???  Since I've always taught special ed (except for a half year gig of teaching PreK), I've mostly done all small group instruction.   Although, I don't think I've ever had groups as small as 2 or 3 students.  My groups have typically ran 7-8 students at a time.

The Sisters showed us some videos of them working with a group of 4 students.  And guess what?  Even The Sisters only got to interact and teach with 3 of those 4 students.  I really got to thinking about how I've conducted my lessons, and they are right.  Four or more students in a group is really too many.  I know I could get a lot more quality instruction with a group of 2-3 students.

How many students do you typically have in your small groups?  Do you think 2-3 is feasible?

Idea #2: Students should be reading their own books during small group instead of all reading the same book.

This thought was another one that I really had to think over.  I have always done guided reading where students are all reading the same book.  I "try" to listen to each student read their book aloud, while the other students whisper read to themselves at their own pace.  Honestly, I wouldn't get to all of the students or my groups would be way too long since I had too many students in each group.

The Sisters mentioned that if all students are reading the same book the lowest readers will piggy back off the stronger readers.  So true!  I've witnessed that so many times with my students.  If students have different books on their independent reading level, none of them can piggy back off each other.  Brilliant!

Idea #3: Everyone who teaches the child should be informed of what the other teachers are doing.

The Sisters discussed how often students who are receiving services are pulled from the room and none of the teachers know what the other teacher did.  I admit I've been guilty of that as the special education teacher.  I pull students into my room, I teach them, and I send them back.  The gen ed teacher has no idea what I've done or not done.

Really, that can't be in the students best interest.  One suggestion was to have a folder or notebook for the child and each teacher jot down the date they saw the student and what skill they worked on.  If all teachers are teaching from the same thing (such as using the CAFE system), everyone can easily look at what was done by the previous teacher.

Idea #4: Students should receive interventions in the classroom.

The Sisters really emphasized that students should receive their interventions right there in the classroom.  The students who are receiving these interventions are typically the lowest performing students.  By pulling these students out, we are expecting them to remember bits of information from different teachers who are often teaching different curriculum or materials.  Is it really fair to expect our lowest performing students to retain all of this information and apply it?

I've never taught inclusion before, so I don't feel like I can make a valid judgement on how I feel about inclusion.  The Sisters made some sound arguments that made me wonder if inclusion is the best method for reaching all of our students.  I feel like this model could really work if teachers are providing a lot of small group and individual conferencing to give those lower performing students more support and guidance.

Idea #5: All of the teachers working with a student should meet weekly to discuss what's been going on and decide on the next steps.

Of course, when they said this I'm thinking, "Sure in a perfect world all of the teachers would have a time to meet weekly but no way is that happening."  Right?  I mean we're all so overwhelmed with teaching and planning and assessing and now you want us to meet weekly?

They actually had a great idea to make this possible and doable on a weekly idea.  Once a week, the teachers who work with the student (i.e. SPED, ELL, aides, etc.), meet together during a Daily 5 rotation right in the classroom.  Instead of pulling a small group during that rotation, the teachers would meet and the students would complete their Daily 5 rotation.  Wow, another brilliant idea!

I know what you're thinking, "My admin would never agree to this!"  But that kind of collaboration could make a world of difference in helping meet students' needs.  I've always struggled with finding time to meet with the gen ed teachers and really discuss the student.

So there you go!  Do you think any of these ideas could be implemented in your school with your students?  Do you have any great ideas for how to best support our special education students?

The Sisters in Hawaii!

This past Saturday I got the opportunity to listen to The Sisters with some of my Hawaiian blogger friends.  Gail and Joan were so kind to take a picture with us, and we felt like we were with celebrities!

From left to right: Gail, Courtney from Teaching in Paradise, Tonya from Tonya's Treats for Teachers, Corinna from Surfin' Through Second, Nicole from Teaching With Style, me, and Joan.

It was AMAZING and so INSPIRING!  I had read both the Daily 5 and CAFE books a few years ago, but it was so much better to hear them speaking in person.  If you're not familiar with The Sisters, you can read more about them, the Daily 5 and CAFE {here}.

They shared some really great information that any teacher in any grade can use and implement in their classrooms.  The focus of this conference was on using CAFE in the classroom.

There was a TON of information shared, and I took LOTS of notes!  During the next few days, I'm going to share with you guys some of the more important things I took from listening to The Sisters.  Some of the things they said, really impacted me as a special education teacher.  They brought up some really great points that I hadn't thought of before but made perfect sense!

So this is going to be a short blog post for today, but I'll be back later this week with more info and stuff I learned!  For now, I want to leave you with this quote:

"If we continue what we've always been doing, we'll get the same results."

And now isn't that the truth?