Language:
- Daily Five: The Daily Five is a structure used across MSB during the 100 minute language block. There are literacy 5 centres: Read to Self/RAZ Kids, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Word Work and Work on Writing. Students are responsible for tracking their progress through each of the Daily 5 and are regularly assessed for management skills. Click here for more on the Daily Five!
Co-created criteria for each of the Daily 5 stations and our expectations for guided reading.
You'll also notice how important it is to have the stamina necessary to complete each station independently.
This is the tracking sheet students use to monitor their progress through each of the Daily 5 stations.
- Guided Reading: During the Daily Five, small groups of students are beginning to meet with me for guided reading. Students are grouped based on ability and learning sessions run no longer than 20 minutes. Each guided reading group has a unique focus including, differentiating vowel sounds, sight vocabulary, using text features, reading comprehension, decoding skills and a variety of reading behaviours.
- Shared Reading: Each week a new poem is prepared and sent home with new suggestions for corresponding sight words. We review the poem on a daily basis at school and search for items that we're learning about (e.g., sight vocabulary, consonant clusters, 'tag team' sounds/digraphs, familiar 'chunks' or pieces of words).
Click here for more information about the components of a balanced literacy program
- Writer's Workshop: This term's featured text type is Retell. During our read aloud time, students have thoroughly investigated the features, patterns and purpose of many different retells and have also successfully followed the steps of the Writing Process to publish their very own retell about the Acton Fall Fair. Now students are beginning the process all over again by brainstorming a list of retell topics, carefully considering the potential of each.
- Reading Behaviours and Comprehension: Students are learning that there are many different behaviours and strategies involved in reading. It isn't as simple as 'sounding it out'. These behaviours are modelled and shared during read alouds and are then released for independent practise during Daily 5. The behaviours that we've focussed on so far include:
To watch a video clip reviewing Daily 5 stations and reading comprehension strategies, please click here