Daily 5 Chapters 3 and 4 and Freebie

Have you been joining in our book study of the Daily 5 with my friends from Freebielicious ? If you haven't gotten your copy, you can still grab it below.  This the second edition of the book and they have made some changes and refined the program since the first book came out.

The more I read, the more excited I'm getting about trying this next year.  As you know, I was going to try this after the our book study a couple of years ago but for various reasons, I couldn't get it up and running.

Next year, my group is looking perfect for trying this new way of thinking.

This week is all about chapters 3 and 4.

Chapter 3 was all about the 10 steps to Teaching and Learning Independence.  These include:

Step 1: Identify what is to be taught.

Step 2: Set a purpose and create a sense of urgency

Step 3: Record desired behaviours on an I-Chart

Step 4: Model most-desirable behaviours

Step 5: Model least-desirable behaviours, then most-desirable

Step 6: Place students around the room

Step 7: Practice and build stamina

Step 8: Stay out of the way

Step 9: Use a quiet signal to bring students back to the gathering space

Step 10: Conduct a group check-in, "How did it go?"

Since I'm just starting out, I was most taken with the I-Charts.  Of course, the I-Charts really encompass some of the other 10 steps such as teaching the children how to find a spot in the room and building stamina.

Since I teach special education so I thought it would be important to add a picture to my charts for each of the steps.  

You can grab my charts for free by clicking on the picture below. These match the posters from last weeks post.

Chapter 4 talks about what you need to get started.  

1. The first thing is a quiet signal.  I don't really have one right now.  I was thinking about something like this:

2. A chart rack or interactive whiteboard.  I have this chart stand and I do have a Smart board.  I want to make these I-charts permanent so I will probably transfers them to chart paper to post in the room.

3. Tool, not toys.  This I will have to work on.  I need to a few thing together for those students struggling with stamina to keep them from turning to the toys.

4. Book boxes.  I just grabbed these boxes at the dollar store.  They were 2 for $1.50.  I'm not sure how long they will hold up but we will see.  They didn't have any boyish colours so I hope the boys don't mind the purple flowers.  I'm planning to put their names on the boxes and maybe their pictures.

I would have preferred solid colours like this.  Maybe next year.

5. A gathering place and focus lessons.  I'm really looking forward to doing the focus lessons.  I haven't decided on a gathering place yet.  Probably in the front of the Smart board.  

6.  I-Charts.  I talked about these up above.

7.  Classroom design.  This is something I'm still working on.  I been slowly decluttering my room and I hope to do more organizing over the summer.  I just created a little area for my books and added some stuffed animals to sit on. The children are going to read book so much more now.  I still need to organize my books though.  That will have to wait.

Thanks for reading.  Below are some more ideas for Chapters 3 and 4.  Happy reading.

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