In my classroom, there are a number of different literacy lessons put in place. The very first week, she "launched" the C.A.F.E. (comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and extending the text), the Daily 5 program, and a few of the small moments and idea notebook ideas. We used Making Meaning in the classroom as well with read alouds, shared reading, and individual reading.
The children have book bins that they were given by us, the teachers, at first. Slowly but surely, they have been able to "browse" the classroom library for "just right" books that they will maybe do either better at reading or think is more interesting. The books are leveled slightly but not to the extent that there are groups in the class that only read this level and the other group reads this level etc.
I would really like to attempt to do a few of the activities in the book club plus book such as the fishbowl activity because I would really like my students to be able to have a real discussion without me or my CT facilitating it every step of the way. Having partners and sharing is a good idea but I would love to have the students be in smaller groups that the whole class could then critique and learn eventually. I would also like to think outside the box of read alouds and maybe have students read aloud to the class to practice expression and fluency. A lot of students are still struggling with reading to their partners. All of these things are activities that I would have to teach to the children as well as teaching them the norms of what I expect during these activities.
After reading this post I get a good sense of exactly how many different literacy components are used in your classroom. Our classroom visits at Glengary yesterday, however, gave me an even better understanding. I have never seen the "C.A.F.E" or the "Daily 5" because we do not use them in my classroom. Your CT organized it on the back wall in a way that made it easy to understand for a parent/ or stranger to the room. How do you pair your students for partner reading, do they pick, do you pick, or is it random?
ReplyDeleteI have also thought about incorporating the fishbowl into my classroom at some point. Im in a 4th grade room and I think that it would be very beneficial for the students to hold a discussion, thats not always teacher lead. So it is something that I will talk to my CT about trying in the future.