Hi friends!
I'm so excited about writing this post about our Daily 5 rotations! So many teachers I talk with ask me, "How do you fit all your activities in?" and "I just don't have time to do what you do!"'
Rotations. Rotations, rotations, rotations.
I wrote about how reading The Book Whisperer forever changed my reading instruction in my March Madness post. Check it out!
The most important things I learned:
1. Students must CHOOSE what they are reading or they will hate strongly dislike reading! (How many times have we fought that battle??) Unless they already love reading, but we'll get to that in a bit!
2. Students must LOVE what they are writing about.
If those two things don't happen, they will never fall in love with reading and writing. Which I feel go hand in hand. I also agree with the author when she says she has a love/hate relationship with AR. But, my students are so incredibly proud to see their points climb, and these days I'm more on the love side. :)
We use the Journeys reading series. Our parish bought it for us 2 years ago and I really love it! I think they chose some great stories, but if I had to read the same story, over and over, for 5 days, I would not want to read at all! I would rather take anchor texts and relate them to the skill of the week (main idea, sequencing, text features, etc.)
Let me just jump right in with what we do. I have a 75 min reading block, but I am SO FORTUNATE to be self contained that it may give or take a few minutes. I usually do a 15-20 mini lesson with the weekly reading skill, and ELA skill, then (4) 10-15 min rotations. We call it Daily 5, but I actually have 4 rotations: read to self, work on writing, word work, and listen to reading. My rotations range from 10-15 min each. My groups are ability grouped, which helps me zero in on specifics. Instead of having a set teacher table rotation, I go back and forth with the groups I'm meeting with. For example, this past week we were finalizing our stories to send to the publisher for our class book. So, a few days my work on writing rotation came to the teacher table. We were also doing a whole class book study on Jake Drake Know It All. I think it's always been in my teaching DNA that I did not like doing a whole class book study. Partly because I am a reader and I always have been. So I remember how painful it was to not be able to read at my own pace in school. However, our Journeys series sent us a class set of Jake Drake. and my students were pumped about it! So, instead of listen to reading they came to me at the teacher table. My high group might be able to make it through 2 chapters while my lower group might only make it halfway through one chapter.
But, I knew for sure they were engaged while I was reading (so they are listening to fluent reading:so important) or they were on task while a group member read. If they read aloud to me, I usually do not do more than 2-3 sentences per student, because it helps keep their attention, and keeps them on their toes. I was truly blown away by the progress they made! That chapter book is in fact an AR book, and I only had 2 students make an 80% (missing 2 questions) on the test, with many 100% and a few 90%. What was more important to me....they were all so PROUD! I really do have some readers this year and I truly account it to their access to a vast range of books and actual TIME to read! However, I did have many, many students reading on a 1st-2nd grade level, so as much as they read, they really weren't diving into chapter books. Using D5 rotations with these novels has allowed me to differentiate my instruction and really boost their confidence as readers.
I was anti-bookbox!!!!!
I was not about to spend the money nor did I think I had the room. Boy, was I wrong!! They are amazing!! I lucked out and found some great ones cheaper at WalMart, and have a shelf under my Promethean Board to house them. My students fill their boxes every morning, which means they are NEVER without reading material. I'm sorry if I am jumping all over the place, but there is alot that goes into our day! My library is arranged ABC by title. OMG. Why didn't I do this sooner?? I do write the AR level on my books, but I don't feel it is AT ALL beneficial to limit students to certain levels. If you are actively monitoring students, you will catch if they are being lazy. And, the ultimate goal is to teach your students how to pick just right books! And, hopefully if they are reading a book too challenging they will be able to self assess that they are not quite ready for it. I have a student, natural born reader!! She just finished Harry Potter and is now working on a Babysitters' Club mystery. How many of you just want a simple read after you've read a challenging book?? I know I do! I have sports books that some of my boys love to just look at Steph Curry's 3 point shot. I purposely order those books because it keeps them reading, they just may need a break from a heavy book! All I can say is I've never seen my students coming in with a 1.2 reading level in 3rd grade, earning 63 (yes, 63) AR points in one 9 week period!! 100% of my class went to the last AR school party and as of Spring Break my students had earned 1,832.2 points! To me, it's just impressive and I owe it all to this: they have learned to LOVE reading!
I was not about to spend the money nor did I think I had the room. Boy, was I wrong!! They are amazing!! I lucked out and found some great ones cheaper at WalMart, and have a shelf under my Promethean Board to house them. My students fill their boxes every morning, which means they are NEVER without reading material. I'm sorry if I am jumping all over the place, but there is alot that goes into our day! My library is arranged ABC by title. OMG. Why didn't I do this sooner?? I do write the AR level on my books, but I don't feel it is AT ALL beneficial to limit students to certain levels. If you are actively monitoring students, you will catch if they are being lazy. And, the ultimate goal is to teach your students how to pick just right books! And, hopefully if they are reading a book too challenging they will be able to self assess that they are not quite ready for it. I have a student, natural born reader!! She just finished Harry Potter and is now working on a Babysitters' Club mystery. How many of you just want a simple read after you've read a challenging book?? I know I do! I have sports books that some of my boys love to just look at Steph Curry's 3 point shot. I purposely order those books because it keeps them reading, they just may need a break from a heavy book! All I can say is I've never seen my students coming in with a 1.2 reading level in 3rd grade, earning 63 (yes, 63) AR points in one 9 week period!! 100% of my class went to the last AR school party and as of Spring Break my students had earned 1,832.2 points! To me, it's just impressive and I owe it all to this: they have learned to LOVE reading!
This is a group at the teacher table during our Jake Drake novel study.
Read to Self:
Reading Harry Potter
Another important factor: learn what your students are interested in! We learned about Jesse Owens and during his Olympic time, Adolf Hitler was in control of Germany. My students wanted to know more about that time. I found this Holocaust biography, and could not believe the response to it! She finished this in one day! Every chance she got, she was reading it! She also told everyone how wonderful of a book she thought it was!!
I love this. So much. Books all around.
One of my Arabic students reading Who Is Malala Yousafzai. This student has shied away from chapter books all year. This book is on a 4.9 reading level. She finished in two days and made 100% on the test. It matters WHAT they are reading!! She said, "Mrs. Bolden, I've never seen a book about someone like me until this one. Can we order more?" Um, you bet sweet pea!! Courageous Women pack was on the next Scholastic order!!
Work on writing. Along with writing comes more reading! I implemented a monthly writing menu, and again, my students blew me away! We started in October and they have been on a writing spree ever since! All the exposure to the texts throughout the year helps get their creative juices flowing as writers! As much as I love the Journeys series, it lacked the writing pizazz I was looking for. If students are constantly being told what to write about, compare these two characters, blah, blah....you guessed it...they will not want to write!! My monthly writing menus are in my TpT store if you want to check them out. :)
Informational writing.
Opinion writing.
Narrative writing.
I struggled getting all my spelling and ELA instruction in. Word work to the rescue!! My students are now currently working on ELA task cards in their reading interactive notebooks. They ALWAYS need grammar practice!! They are also available in my store.
I started this post to talk about using novels in my Daily 5 rotations, and I hope I've made sense for the most part!! I will use varied novels, depending on the group's reading level. To begin:
High: The BFG by Ronald Dahl
Med. High: Crenshaw
Med.: The One and Only Ivan
Med. Low: Charlotte's Web
Low: Magic Tree House Dinos at Dinnertime
I'm creating book studies to go along with all these books. I am soooooo excited because some of my mediums need a push to try chapter books. Another huge bonus for me: I only need 5-6 copies of each novel!! Much easier to get together!!!
Please tell me your favorite read alouds in third grade!! And, please tell me your tricks using rotations!! Feel free to ask me any questions, I'm sure I've left out important pieces!!
Happy reading!!
