So, I have started several books lately and have put them all down. A change in jobs will do that to you. I began "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," "A Clockwork Orange" and "The Education of Little Tree" and they all sit, but the book I'm reviewing I read in one sitting. I realize that the typical books reviewed here are pleasure reading books, but since nobody has been posting for ages, I figured I'd just go ahead and throw something out there. I don't want this little blog to shrivel away. Not sure why, so much, except maybe that the changes in life over the last month have been so surprising and life-altering that I still want to feel connected to something above letter sounds and beginning reading strategies with rhyming words, calendars and patterning. Oh, I love this stuff, but I also mourn a bit, leaving the library. So, anyway...
"The Daily 5" by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser is almost biblical in it's use in the school district I work in, if you happen to be a classroom teacher. I've heard amazing things and I was eager to read it so I could start envisioning how I would implement this practice into my Kindergarten classroom. My class is an interesting group behaviorally and academically. They are challenging, though they've made significant progress in the past 2 weeks. As I read this book, I felt hopeful and also intimidated. Baby steps, I suppose.
Basically I am going to be teaching the kids exactly what each step of the Daily 5 will look like- we'll be creating anchor charts to show what read to self, read to someone, listening to reading, writing, and word work will look like, what the expectations should be, and building stamina in making these things happen so we can become excellent readers. Mini lessons, independent practice and coming together to review, then repeat with the next section (which the kids get to chose the order of things they'll do once it is rolling). Sounds doable-ish. I appreciate that the sequence is broken down in the back with what, and how, to teach to get things started. I like that the charts we'll make together will show what the students should be doing and what I, the teacher, will be doing. I think having the students know my purpose will be most beneficial. My job will be to work with students, not to manage behavior (that is their job, God help me!).
Though I am feeling, as a new job always feels, overwhelmed, I am hopeful. I LOVE teaching early literacy. I mean, I seriously love it. I knew I was where I belonged when I nestled up next to the students in our bitchin' reading nook during our work station rotations (which will be sectioned up as read to self and word work in the future when I implement the Daily 5) and they were reading to me from the class mini-book we made and had worked with, tracking the words correctly (not really reading, but approximating), looking up at the illustrations to get help with what those words might be and seeing them finish, beaming with joy that they had done it. They don't have their sounds mastered yet, but they were really trying. Even my most challenging student was successful and he was brave in his attempt. It filled me with a sense of fulfillment and comfort that I am supposed to be in the classroom. I just wish I could know it all NOW and be the teacher I know I can be NOW, but I have to give myself time. I'll get there and I WILL get the Daily 5 going in the next few weeks. It's some good stuff.
