Kindergarten Smiles - The Daily 5 Chp 2 - Bookstudy

Wow!  What an eye opening chapter!  How perceptive the authors are on what works best for children to develop independent readers.  What has taken me so long to discover this book?  Can't wait to implement the Daily 5 in August!

1.  Do you trust your students? How do you build this trust? Are you able to trust them and allow them to be independent throughout all aspects of your day? Are you going to be able to stay out of their way?

I have always trusted my students by the end of the year. I set high expectations about learning, behavior, and community.  However, it always seemed to take forever to develop.  I have to remember that building trust will = continued learning.  I have never felt like I could completely let go of the 'control' factor.   (I just didn't think Ks could manage themselves too early in the year.)  I can't wait to see how this will all unfold before my eyes.   In order to to build trust in a class, a sense of community will need to be established from the start and develop over time.  Since I use Kagan Cooperative Learning structures, building trust within our class shouldn't be a problem because Kagan supports developing classroom cultures.  In our community circle, (ie...class meeting each day) we discuss what we had learned the day before and goals for the day, but other than tell my kiddos what their special was for the day...I didn't really talk about schedule.  They just knew by how I had set up the structure of the day what was coming next. Of course, I did have a posted schedule with cute little pictures and times but honestly I never referred to it once the day began. After reading the section on community, my aha moment was that in order for my students to  build their trust in me and each other, we will need to construct more ideas (design the schedule...giving 'choice' whenever possible, and more ownership in the selection of books that we read together as a class) as a community of learners.  I thought I started in the right direction last year (we used the community circle to create our class expectations for behaviors and rules)...I just didn't take it to the next level.  My biggest challenge will be to stay out of their way.  Control...control...control...can I really let go and let a room full of Ks monitor and manage themselves?  Ugh! That will be my biggest challenge.  I will need to read more.  :)  "I think I can, I think I can."

2.  How much choice do you give your students throughout the day? Do you go over your daily schedule with your students or is it just 'posted' in the room?

Well, currently not much but I feel like it is tied closely to my lack of 'releasing the responsibility to the kids'.  Even though I thought I was giving them say in their community, my reflection now reveals that I was still pretty much in control of everything.  Ugh!  Am I troll or what?  I hope by continuing my reading of The Daily 5, I will acquire more insight as how to 'release them' without 'losing' them.  Mostly, my schedule is just posted in the room but I rarely use it as a functional tool.  After the reading, I now see just how important it is to visit the schedule briefly each day.  It will really provide my Ks with a definite sense of time and help them scaffold skills for managing themselves during The Daily 5 component.

 3.  How are you going to create that sense of community where students will hold  

each other accountable?

I use Kagan Cooperative Learning structures to build community and throughout the year.  We start with community circle where we set up housekeeping by creating our class expectations, rules, how we treat each other and learn about A/B buddies.  As a whole group we develop charts with visuals that will be posted as reminders for students throughout the year.  At the tables, children sit in groups of 4 and select a zoo animal to represent their team (I provide them a limited choice (yeah!) and then they color their animal together...as the year progresses teams create their own zoo animal.  Teams change each quarter or if needed by the teacher.  My students learn about face partners and shoulder partners and how to be responsible for their team tool basket.  I think I am on the right track... because there is a LOT of demonstration and modeling with Kagan structures (and holding team members responsible is a key component.)

4.  Student ownership in learning?   How do you instill this in every child?

I believe that the idea of setting a purpose + choice = motivation will be instrumental for students to develop ownership in their learning.  It seems to me that having conversations with your children about why they are doing what they are doing will establish their ownership.  I already do this during read aloud when I set the purpose for reading and demonstrate a reading strategy.  It seems simplistic to me to just carry this idea over to other areas of instruction throughout the instructional day.  Why didn't I have this book last year?  Another aha moment!

5.  Stamina! How are you going to build stamina with reading? independent work?

Will you use a timer?  Will you set goals?

My current school system has Ks building stamina over the entire school year.  No more than 3 minutes at the BOY and only up to 10 minutes by the EOY.  If I continue to follow this rule, than I would never get to teach any small group.  This is very frustrating because to make up for their lack of stamina in being able to read for any real length of time, I am guilty of providing 'sponge' activities during their center times.  ie...busy work (great stuff...but busy work still the same)  I am always making center tools, game, activities...my job never seems to end.  Kagan has software for sale that have various timers,  I didn't use them to later in the year last year...which was a mistake.  It took my kiddos FOREVER to stop paying attention to the timers and get work done.  Lesson learned.  Start early in the year, then you can introduce additional timers with cute graphics and it won't be such of a distraction.  I am VERY interested to see how the structure of The Daily 5 will help sculpt my class and empower my children to become independent learners. Wow...some change down the road...my mind is all a buzz with excitement!  "I think I can, I think I can!"  :)  I think I will get started on Chapter 3.