Daily 5 - Chapter 5

 

I'm going to start off by saying so far I LOVE Daily 5.  I love how much pre-teaching and  practicing that this framework allows!!!  I love that it doesn't assume that all kids gets something the first or even second time!!!  This is so important in special education!!!  Our kiddos that often need more coaching and practice than most kiddos to become independent... but it is possible with PATIENCE!!!  Anyways on to chapter 5....

Read to Someone:

This past year I did lots of partner reading or Read to Someone (D5 language).  When I first started this I picked my kiddos partners (knowing all of the behavioral issues that could possibily happen with kiddos with autism).  I also spent a lot of time modelling the appropriate behavior.  My kiddos loved partner reading... It was AMAZING at how well they said on task!!!  I was fortunate to have 3 EA's in my class.  At the start of the year my EA's spread out around the class sitting with specific groupings of kiddos...By the end of the year there was only 2 kiddos that need EA's by them!!  They were so INDEPENDENT!!  I'm super excited about the "EEKK" strategy.  I think that this is something that my kiddos would respond really well too!!  I also love all of the comprehension checks that D5 has the partners do!!  Its great!!  A lot of my readers that have autism have a difficult time with reading comprehension.  The can read a passage fluently and with expression but understand little to none of it!  I think that for my kiddos I would use visuals to support "check for understanding". 

Listen to Reading:

My kiddo last year loved this!!!  I mentioned some of the resources that I have used before but I will list some of them now!

• http://www.willoughby-eastlake.k12.oh.us/classroom/technology/stories.htm#Sing
•  http://www.setbc.org/setbc/accessiblebooks/
• http://tarheelreader.org/
• http://www.storylineonline.net/
• http://meegenius.com/
• http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/online-storytime-books-toys/379002381/
• http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/bookflixfreetrial/

Daily 5 - Chapter 4

I'm joining "First Grade Blue Skies", "Tales from Outside the Classroom" and "Tattling to the Teacher" for Chapter 4 - Read to Self.

Three Ways to Read a Book:

• read and talk about the pictures
• read the words
• retell a previously read book

Launching Read to Self:

I love that "the sisters" include the students in creating anchor charts.  I love that the student's actual words are included on the anchor charts!  I also love that they encourage modelling of both appropriate and inappropriate behaviours during Read to Self.  I also love how much time they spend practicing Read to Self.  With the population of students I teach, they are going to need lots of practice and encouragement to become independent!

Guiding Questions:

In reflecting on your students' work with these strategies, what can you celebrate at this point in the year?

• This past year I did not use the Daily 5.  I am excited to implement it in the fall.  Even though I didn't use Daily 5, my students did daily self-selected reading.  At the beginning of the school year my kiddos could only read independently for between 30 seconds and a minute before becoming distracted.  We continued to practice self-selected reading and how we could read.  By the end of the year we were up to around 10-15 minutes!!  This was a HUGE accomplishment for my kiddos!!!  With that being said, not all of my students could do it for 10 minutes.  As a special education teacher, I am curious how I can make Read to Self super successful for kiddo who don't access books in a traditional way.  This year I have used SETBC Books, TumbleBooks, Classroom Suite Books for the kiddos that couldn't interact with literature in a typical way.  If you are also a special education teacher, how do you help your students access literature during Read to Self?

How might you help your students continue to build stamina within these areas?

• I think with the population of kiddos I teach, we would need to start at 1 minute for practicing Read to Self.  I also think that it will take us longer to increase the independence time and I'm not sure that my kiddos will ever get to 30(+) minutes of independent reading.  With my kiddos 30(+) minutes of anything is a REALLY long time.  Often they can only engage in activities for up to 20 minutes!  I also think its really important that you build stamina and encourage appropriate reading behaviour.  If you allow them to build inappropriate reading routines then you will have struggles for the rest of the school year!  I can't wait to see what this looks like in the fall!

Errorless Writing

This year I began using the program Classroom Suite 4 with some of my students.

I have struggled for the past few years with the writing block in my class.  I don't want my students to just practice printing (this isn't writing!), but they are not all developmentally ready to print sentences or don't see the power in writing.  This year I figured out how to program the "Errorless Writing" portion of classroom suite.  It is AWESOME!!  My student are able to independently get there ideas down on "paper" just like their peers who are typing or printing!

Daily 5 Book Study

I've heard so much about Daily 5 over the past couple of years, that I finally bought the book.  I'm excited to follow the Daily 5 Book Study.  

This year I have had the wonderful opportunity to be part of a provincial pilot project - "Literacy for All". We had our final meeting on Friday.  At the meeting, it was announced that they have received additional funding to continue the project for 1 more year!  I super excited!  I feel like I am a much better teacher because of this project.  This year we used the resources "Meville to Weville" and "Children with Disabilities: Reading and Writing the Four Blocks Way".  These are fabulous resources and I think every special education teacher should have a copy of "Children with Disabilities: Reading and Writing the Four Blocks Way".  It's an AMAZING resource!!  It gives you ideas of how to adapt literacy instruction for my kiddos!!!  For the second year of the pilot project, we will be using "Daily 5" and "Cafe".  As a group of teachers we will be adapting and evaluating this resource for special education classrooms in our province!!!  I'm super excited!!!  The book study (listed above) came at the perfect time!!!  

First Blog Post Ever!!!

Welcome to my first blog post ever!  I thought I would start of my blog by introducing myself and my hopes for this blog!


My name is Kelsey.  I am married to a wonderful man named Brad.  We have a dog "child" named Morgan.

I am a special education teacher and I'm finishing my 5th year of teaching (only 22 more days until summer vacation!).  I am currently teaching in a self-contained special education classroom.  Actually all of my teaching experience has come from self-contained classrooms!  I love teaching with technology!!!  I am in the middle of my Masters in Special Education and my research is in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Assistive Technology (AT).  My hopes for this blog is to share my ideas for teaching children with significant needs through technology.

This year I have had the honour and privilege to be part of a "Literacy for All" pilot project.  Please visit our wiki!  This project has introduced me to 2 great resources.  First is "MeVille to Weville".  This resource was designed for students with significant challenges.  MeVille to WeVille provides these students with a balance literacy program.  It is based on the idea that all children can learning.  My favourite part of this resource is the "action dictionary".  This dictionary provides AT modifications.  MeVille to WeVille is broken into 3 units - "Me", "Family" and "School".  It provides students opportunities for lots of repetition!!!  I have been using it consistently for 4 - 30 minutes blocks a week and we are just starting the second unit!!!

The second resource is "Children with Disabilities: Reading and Writing the Four Blocks Way" by Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver.  This book is an adapted version of Pat Cunnigham's literacy program "4 Blocks of Literacy".  It provides ways to adapted the four blocks of literacy (Working with Words, Guided Reading, Self-Selected Reading, Writing) using both low and high tech. AT.  

I hope to share resources and files I have created for the 4 Blocks of Literacy over the next little bit!!