Choosing Books

Choice is important!
Here is an excerpt from my literature review about choice:

Linda Grambrell (1996) said, “when children told us about both narrative and information books they ‘most enjoyed’ reading, over eighty percent responded they had self-selected the books from the classroom libraries” (p. 21). One huge component of The Daily Five is allowing students to make their own choices about not only what they choose to read, but which activity they choose to do during each rotation. According to Boushey and Moser (2006), “choice is highly motivational and puts children in charge of their learning” ( p. 20).  Through my research, I found several ways of teaching students how to choose a good book to read. My favorite method was presented both in the Boushey and Moser text (2006) and Williams, Hendrick, and Tuschinski’s article (2008). Both sources present a method called IPICK. In the IPICK method, students should know their purpose for reading, make sure the book they choose interests them, they are comprehending the text, and they know the words in the text. As a teacher, it is hard to give up control in my classroom. However, after researching, I can see the benefits of giving up my control and allowing my students the opportunity to make choices about their learning. Allowing students to make choices could make huge improvements in the amount of work, quality of work, and the engagement in my classroom.

Here is a picture of my classroom library!

 

 

I have tons of books that have been sorted by category, author, or level. The students choose books from the library to read during read to self and read to buddy time.

Obviously, kids cannot be going back and forth between the library and thier reading spot. So I stole a teambates idea and got each kid a  "book bin" to store thier books in.

They look like this:

Each kid is allowed to have 6 books in thier bin to choose from at a time! (Please ignore the names... I wll figure out from someone more technologically savvy how to blur them)

How do they choose a book? This strategy was intentionally taught to my students. Hopfeully they use it! They use this strategy in the library as well :)

When do they get to choose a book? Well we certainly wouldn't want to call it choosing books. That doesn't sound very fun! In our classroom we call it shopping for books! How exciting! Each child has an assigned day to shop each week so they do not flood the library at once to get new books.

Here is how it is posted in my classroom!

 

 

Boushey, G., Moser, J. (2006). The daily five: Fostering literacy independence in the elementary

 Grades. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Gambrell, L.B. (1996). Creating classroom cultures that foster reading motivation. The Reading

Teacher, 40 (1), 14-25.

Launching the Daily Five

Boushey and Moser (2006).  laid out a five week plan for launcing the five components of The Daily Five in a classroom. From the outset, teachers must relay to thier studnts that they trust them and believe they can become better readers and writers. Teachers must create a sense of urgency and provide clear expectations for what this time of day should look like in their classroom. The book clearly laid out the procedures teachers should take to teach students thier responsibilites to complete each of the five tasks.

Well, my class did not have 5 weeks to spend launching the program, so I had to modify it a bit. So over the past three weeks my class has worked VERY  hard to learn the different components of The Daily Five designed by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. The kiddos and I have worked together to create anchor charts that lay out the expectations, and procedures they should follow at each station. They have practiced each station and built up their stamina for working at each task indepenedntly.

I highly reccomend the Boushey and Moser text to any teacher! To practice and build stamina they reccomend creating anchor charts, posting the charts, modeling incorrect behaviors, modeling correct behaviors, and practice of course!

My students and I worked on launching The Daily Five for three weeks, and this week they began visiting the different stations during small group time. I am VERY proud of how they are working independently so far. I cannot wait to see what types of data I collect and what my data shows.

Boushey, G., Moser, J. (2006). The daily five: Fostering literacy independence in the elementary

        Grades. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.


For now... A few pictures to see what we have been doing! It is easier than writing out :)

Anchor Charts

 

 

Working on Writing

 

Students are keeping thier writing journals "folders" in these colored baskets separated by thier reading group.

 

 

Listening To Reading

A CD player with headphones and books in a basket!

 

 

Word Work

 

 

Read To Self

 

Read To Someone  Buddy

 

 

Changes...

Okay... so already a few changes in my otherwise "fabulous" plan!

• The snow day last Friday, meant that I did not get consent forms back last week. However, most of them came back on Monday.
• Since I did not have all of the consent forms returned from my focus group, I will not have six students to collect data on.

So...

• I am planning on sending consent forms home with 6 additional students tomorrow. Hopefully they will come back on Thursday.
• Then I will be able to choose 3 girls and 3 boys of various reading abilities, socioeconomic statuses, and cultures. Hopefully this will make my focus group more well rounded. I might get crazy and choose 4 boys and 4 girls! I will see how I am feeling tomorrow.

Tomorrow is my first day for field notes. I am nervous about multitasking teaching a reading group and observing/taking notes! Wish me luck!

Timeline

Here is my current timeline:

Sorry about the print quality. I am having technical difficulties!
Hopefully I will be able to stick to this, but there maybe a few small changes :)

The Setting

I teach in a self contained first grade classroom at Z Elementary, a public school in Fayette County. Approximately 715 students attend Z Elementary. Of those students, 49% are Caucasian, 34% are African American, 9% are Hispanic, 5% of the students are listed as other, and 2% are Asian. This year, 39% of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch.

The 24 students in my classroom reflect the diverse culture of our school. There are nine Caucasian students, eleven African American students, one Hispanic student, one Asian student, and two students listed as other in my classroom.  I have 10 boys and 14 girls.  Of my 24 students, 10 are reading below grade level according to the MAP, (Measures for Academic Progress) assessment. These same 10 students also tested below grade level according to the DRA, (Developmental Reading Assessment). Providing small group time and independent work time will be important in my classroom to reach the varying needs of each student. I need to ensure all students, especially those reading below grade level, are productive during their independent time as well as small group time. I also want to foster positive habits and ideas about literacy. I hope to find a plan that will be successful in my classroom for student’s independent work time.

To complete my action research I will be using a group of focal students as described in Pappas Raymond-Tucker (2011). I will focus on one of my four reading groups. My focus group is a group of six students reading slightly below or right at first grade level. This group of students is representative of the general population in my classroom. There are two boys and four girls in this reading group. There is one Hispanic student, two Caucasian students, and three African American students. Throughout the project I will focus on this specific group of students to collect and analyze my data.

Pappas, C.C &Tucker-Raymond, E. (2011). Becoming a teacher researcher in literacy teaching and learning: Strategies and tools for the inquiry process. New York: Routledge.

Getting Started

I am getting ready to start my very first action research project! To tell you the truth, I am pretty nervous about the process. It is a major process (research question, collecting data, analyzing data, coding, and formulating results)!

My action research will be investigating the following question:
"How will The Daily Five make my students' independent time more productive and improve their attitudes about reading?"

I am ready to start collecting data in the next week or two. Look for a more specific timeline in the next few days. I will be posting about my findings twice a week. I am sure it will be a wild ride, so be sure to check back often to see how it is going!