My Daily 5 Twist!

Do you remember that lunch date I had a week or two ago, the ones with my new BBFs (Blogging Buddies Forever) well one of the smart ideas was to schedule your posts, this way you don't feel so bad for not blogging...so tonight I am writing 5 posts that will be posted via a Schedule...what  a great idea...So now I can spend one night on blogging, four nights on Grad school and every other night on what ever (the boy, the classroom, the laundry...)

 

So here I am explaining to you what came to me at 7,000 feet up on my trip to Vegas earlier this summer. I am sure the two men I was sitting in between were thinking I was one weird chick, I had my notebook out scribbling designs of bulletin board and furniture arrangements and notes to think about...and here is what I came up with.

 

 

The ELA (English Language Arts) board. It is a way for me to organize my Guided Reading groups and make my kiddoes more accountable for their learning. Plus it allows me to informally use formative assessment as well as diagnostic assessment in the classroom.

As you can see, I've divided the groups into five categories.

This group will focus on Close Reads, the trick is they don't have to work together but they do have to Read to Someone OR Read to Self OR Listen to Reading as they are using the strategy of Close Reading and documenting their activities in their RRJs(Reading Response Journals) I will also have Close Reading materials to help them with this focus.

If your number is written on this laminated cardstock then your focus is on the Grammar Skill of the week, You or you and your group MUST be Working on Writing or Word Work and you must be providing evidence  of the skill. (I will be walking around as they are in their focus groups)

This group will be a Comprehension skill focus group. I could work with a group or pull individuals, it depends on the day and my scheduled conferences. It will make me more accountable to them by keeping our scheduled reader's conferences!

Just like the Grammar focus group, this group must Work on Writing or Word Work and produce evidence that they focused on this week's vocabulary. I will have documentation sheets and games for them to help each other with the skill.

Of course I had to include Spelling, I struggled with the heading...Spelling or Phonics...then decided Kids knew what spelling was and could relate to it better. Again the focus will be the phonics skill of the week with evidence included!

I am thinking the kids can switch groups every 15-20 minutes, ..but in the beginning I think I will just have them do two a day until they can handle the routine.
I am excited and hope this system works, I tried to tie in the areas my kids would avoid from years past with a CCSS twist...wish me luck and if you have a BETTER idea and want me to try it, leave me a link and a comment!