http://www.raz-kids.com/main/BrowseCategory/id/new

This is a wonderful resource to use with all your students. Our school has a subscription to this program. Students have a log in, and their current reading level is entered into the program. As the students read the books and complete the assessments, it moves them to the next level based on their score. They can use this program at home and at school. It is great, because many kids do not have books at home, but usually have a computer... this way they get to use the computer and read :). Also, it is good because the teacher can monitor a student's progress by accessing their account and seeing how they are doing or what they are struggling with.

http://www.dawcl.com/

Are you trying to create a culturally diverse classroom? Do you want to represent all your students, but do not know where or how to begin?

This resource makes it easy to do just that. It provides us with a database of book awards around the world, and books that fall in specific search criteria or awards. It is rather easy to use, all you have to do is select the search you need; multicultural, historical, ethnicity, publication date, language, etc... This makes it really easy to find the books you need to have a culturally relevant classroom.

http://www.fictionteachers.com/classroomtheater/theater.html

This website has a lot of resources to make reading come alive in your classroom. This link will lead you to the section on classroom theater, but if you look to the left there are many different tabs with lesson plans, how to write stories, poetry, and so much more. Most of the things are free, along with sections for purchase.

Check it out! With all the resources there I am sure there is something for you.

http://www.sanchezclass.com/reading-graphic-organizers.htm

This website is great because all Graphic Organizers are listed by name. All you have to do is click whether you want it to open in word or as a pdf file, save and print. The best thing to do is to print one master copy of each, and create a binder for future use. You never know which one of these graphic organizers you will need, but it is much easier to make copies if you already have a master copy in a binder.

Some of the graphic organizers on this site are character study, literature response,sequencing, story map, and sooo many more. These graphic organizers will help your students with comprehension and understanding the text better.

 http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/storystarters/storystarter1.htm?Name=Ian&Grade=4

Although we all maybe familiar with Scholastic, I am not sure how many of us actually use all of the resources available to teachers found on their site. Here is a great link for the kids to get excited about writing.

It is really simple and fun to use. Once the students click on the website (you can have this already on your favorites for students to access easier), it takes them directly to the story starters game machine. They have a choice of which buttons to press...as they do so, they have to read what it is asking them to write about. These story starters are so fun and silly that it will get students excited about writing. Cool thing is, they have to read what they need to write about first, so they are practicing both skills. Enjoy :)

Book Review: The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser "the sisters"

Background:

This book was written by two sisters; Gail and Joan. The book's main purpose is to instruct students in small groups, while other students are busy working and managing 'themselves'. The purpose is not to just give students 'busy work' but to actually have students develop stamina and become better readers and writers. It is about students monitoring their own behavior, instead of the teacher doing all the monitoring. It gives students responsibility, while the teacher is instructing on student's own instructional level.

Organization:

The book is organized in a reader friendly way. First, it gives the background of where 'The Daily 5' came from and has a page of how these two sisters/teachers evolved in their literacy/small group work and came up with the Daily Five. The book is broken up in two sections; The Daily Five Basics, such as the introduction, from management to its foundations, and routines and concepts. Section two is The Daily Five in Action which actually goes into how the Daily Five looks in a classroom. It focuses on read to self, read to someone and listen to reading, work on writing and word work; and then putting it all together.

Main Point or Summary:

The Daily 5 is made up of five components; Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Listen to Reading. The foundations of the Daily 5 are trust, choice, stamina, sense of urgency and staying out of the way of students work. In order to launch this literacy program, there needs to be an established gathering place where you gather with your students to review their progress, etc…. Each student needs to have book boxes based on the I PICK book models at their own instructional level. The classroom needs to have the Daily 5 anchor charts posted around the room so that before each independent work session students can go back and refer to. Signals need to be established, and correct and incorrect behavior needs to be modeled.

How it Works:

First of, this book can be used K-12, not just elementary. Of course, appropriate work for each grade level needs to be designed by the teacher. Here is a brief description of how some of these strategies worked in my kindergarten classroom last year. We started of with Read to Someone, where we started with anchor charts, how to pick the right books, and modeling the correct and incorrect behaviors. Each time we started something new we only tried it for 3 minutes (this is very important). The moment a student modeling incorrect behavior, stop and gather at the meeting place and review what happened. Then model again and have students try one more time. During this time, teach students how to sit EEKK style (Elbow to Elbow, Knee to Knee), and what the partners job is. Once students manage this, time it each day to see how long they lasted (building stamina). Your goal is to get students actively involved and engaged in reading, while building stamina.

The second step of Read to Self, where again you again model incorrect/correct behavior (usually students model this, and they love to do this) and then follow the same routine. Start with 3 minutes and build on, there is only reading involved and no talking. If there is talking, you ring the bell or whatever you came up with to signal for students to meet at the gathering/meeting area.

My students were in kindergarten, and they read anywhere from 35 to 45 minutes independently. Of course, everything was taught to them, such as how to pick appropriate books and how to read a book; read the pictures, read the words, retell the story, so that everything could be done independently while I worked in small groups with students at their levels.

After these two, we went into writing; writer's workshop. (same thing, model, send of to do independently, etc…)

Word Work was one of their favorites. This was set up in a literacy station format with a variety of activities to help with practicing correct spelling of words. My students did this for 30 minutes in absolute silence. They were always engaged and working (of course we had to build stamina to get there, but that is one of the main point of these strategies.)

I also added Listening to reading and had a lot of books with CD's for students. (Also, follow the routine of modeling, sending of independently, etc…)

During all these stations, I continued calling groups and working on guided reading, reading strategies, etc…. Small group instruction based on their level really made a difference, since not all students needed the same thing.

Recommendation:

Above, I gave just a brief summary or explanation of how it worked for me. I did not go into detail for each since I think it would be beneficial to get the book and read it. I highly RECOMMEND this book to any teacher. Not only will you have better readers and writers, but students that are more independent workers. I absolutely love this and definitely plan on continuing to use it in my classroom. I saw a huge improvement in my students reading, writing, and independence. I even heard from the first grade teachers how these students were doing much better compared to ones that were not exposed to The Daily 5.

Purchase book on Amazon:

 http://www.amazon.com/Daily-Five-Gail-Boushey/dp/1571104291/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329011309&sr=8-1

Further information:

This is the link to the website of these two teachers and all about The Daily 5, and also their second book The Daily Cafe. http://www.the2sisters.com/

Monica, get it! You will love it :) I think that this book can definitely be used in any grade level. I can not wait to read The Cafe...have been meaning to pick it up.

http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/leftwich/#author

Since a big focus of our class is reading, what are some things we should be reading or have part of our classroom library?

Although we all know the importance of representing all of our students in our classroom, many classroom libraries that I see do not represent all students in the class (including mine). Not that we may not want to represent these students, but also due to the lack of books on specific cultures.

This article talked about the importance of using diverse literature in the classroom. Although it is geared for the pre-service teacher, many teachers that have put this on hold, can learn something from it. The article talks about how using this type of literature in classrooms will create more accepting classrooms, and provide opportunities for new possibilities.

Not only did it talk about the importance, but about what teachers need to do to feel comfortable using diverse literature. More specifically, it talked about the ABC's model; "The model contains several tasks…write an in-depth autobiography, a biography of a person from outside the students' culture, and a cross-cultural analysis explaining students' thoughts about the similarities and differences discovered…It is through this analysis that teachers begin to construct awareness of their own perceptions regarding race, class, gender, and related social issues." (Leftwich p.1) Often times, teachers are not comfortable teaching something if they themselves do not know how they feel about a certain topic. That is why it is important to first look at the way you as the teacher feels by completing the ABC's model.., before going on and introducing the literature to students.

Then the article went into a study of how this model looked in an undergrad class, and what needed to be done for this to be effective in the classroom. Osborne argues that "…teachers must identify their own biases and prejudices before they work with children from minority groups." (1).

I chose to do this article because I teach in a very diverse school. I started looking at my own classroom library to try to find books to represent my students, and out of hundreds and hundreds of books, I have about 5 that I can really call culturally diverse and relevant. It is my goal this year to find as many books as I can that will represent all of my students. I have a huge Middle Eastern population, and while searching for books, I have realized that there are not even that many books out there. It is surprising to me since, especially Michigan, has a huge Middle Eastern population. I think this article has good points on showing us teachers what we need to do first in order to have a successful culturally diverse literature classroom. It is not just about teaching reading, but about what we are teaching through reading. Acceptance of one another is very important.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/341/

For my first journal, I chose to read an article about teaching ELL students to read, and what we should take into account when teaching them. The reason I chose ELL students is because I am a Title 1 teacher, with majority of my time spent on reading with them. Many of these students do not speak English, yet alone read it.
The article was broken up in 5 sections, or reading components. It gave brief descriptions of each reading component, such as Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary Development, Reading Fluency: Including Oral Skills, and Reading Comprehension skills. After each component, it listed examples of things to do, and/or considerations to take into account when teaching ELL students.
Although this focuses on ELL students, I think any teacher who wants to freshen up about important components of reading should read this article. It will give them ideas to use to help students become better readers, or to just spark a new idea of creating activities based on one of the ideas shared.

Thanks. Yes definitely, I love the example of how in depth the teacher went when teaching vocabulary. It went from a basic reading lesson and the meaning of vocabulary, to visual and hands on learning. I think for the ELL students, the more they can get their hands on things and actually see, then they are more likely to know the actual meaning of a word. I plan on creating more of these types of lessons. I think that I just needed a little inspiration :) Another example that I liked in the article is the talk about fluency and how fluency should not be confused with accents. I think I need to pay more attention to this, and not mark my students down because of that. I am not sure if I was doing this before or not, but I think this is making me more aware that just because they say it differently (accent) that it does not mean that they are not reading fluently.

Hey Michelle, your story made me laugh too. Thanks for sharing the book title, I actually have heard of it and was interested in reading it, and then just completely forgot the title. :)