I teach 5th grade English, spelling, reading, and writing crammed into two 48-minute periods each day. I am also the reading specialist/coach at our school. This is our first year implementing Daily 5 from Kindergarten through 8th grade. I conduct a weekly meeting where our teachers discuss and continue learning about Daily 5 and the CAFE, and a common struggle among us all is how to have meaningful strategy groups while also individually conferring with students regularly enough to see that a strategy is being practiced and applied. How does one teacher balance individual conferring for reading and writing, as well as find time to teach strategy groups? It seems there is never a way to meet all my students’ needs, and I find myself feeling frustrated, constantly searching for a way to make it easier. My students highly value their individual conferring because they know I truly care about what they are reading and writing, so… how can I successfully use strategy groups [so handy for teaching differentiated strategies] and individual conferring for reading AND writing, all while maintaining a Daily 5 structure with choice and brief focus lessons in between?!? Help!
You have quite the job and expectations!
To help us understand a bit more, I have a couple of questions for you. Have you all attended a face to face workshop with the Sisters? I ask because I’m wondering if you all are working Daily 5 CAFE out on your own, through the books and website, or if you have some of the materials from the Sisters presentation. That will help point you to some supportive ideas with the materials you have :).
Thank you for the speedy response! No, our teachers have not attended a Daily 5 workshop yet. We work at a very small Lutheran elementary school, and obtaining resources to get us to a workshop [none of which are even remotely close to where we live] has presented a challenge. I am hoping to attend the Tacoma workshop this summer.
That being said, here is more background. When staff met a year ago to determine whether to buy a new basal series or try Daily 5, thankfully the vote was unanimously for Daily 5! Our enthusiastic staff read and met about Daily 5 throughout the summer and I was there alongside each of them to assist in any way I could. Our only resources are the books, the website [which none of the teachers regularly access but me], and observations we did at another school that had been practicing Daily 5 for several years.
Continuing to meet weekly has definitely kept us accountable to Daily 5, and the conversations and sharing are developing a new dimension to our friendships. I see conferring, whether it be in strategy groups, or individual, to be a common struggle among us all. I attempt them all each day in 5th grade, but often I feel like I’m going in too many directions. For example, a common situation for me is when I see a student has chosen Read to Self, I don’t know whether it is appropriate or not to set up camp next to her and start a writing conference. I feel like I am diminishing her choice and breaking her stamina! Another example is when I teach a new strategy, such as identifying hyperbole in literature and analyzing its meaning, I get bogged down with so many other strategy groups and conferences that I feel I don’t follow-up with that specific student as quickly as I should. Am I going about this system all wrong?!?
Believe me, I have questions on top of questions [I also coordinate and teach Title I/SPED and aide in several classrooms at our school!], but any input on this area will greatly encourage our staff. Thank you so much for your thoughts and time!
Phwew!
I do understand how difficult and deep all those questions are! I’ll try to give some good references to infor here on the website that my help a bit.
Here’s a link to an article I use to remind both myself and other teachers I work with (I’m a reading spec) about keeping the conferences short. It’s called Teaching Towards a Target: http://www.thedailycafe.com/sites/default/files/legacy_files/Coaching%20Toward%20a%20Target.pdf. Click on the hyper link there to get the handout, which you can print and give to everyone. I think sometimes we try to carry on our conferences too long–I definitely tend to do this!! If you add up all the times listed, it’s less than 5 minutes.
As it refers to a bit in this document, if you have in mind which kids you plan to confer with on a particular day, give them a heads-up before you move in to a round. You might suggest that that pick either writing or reading (which ever you’ll be conferring with them about).
Here’s another link https://www.thedailycafe.com/articles/intentional-conferringdeciding-whom-to-meet-with. This one talks about how to choose which kids to confer with. This may help, as well.
As far as strategy groups go, I think if your teachers have been doing more of Guided Reading kinds of groups in the past, it’s a bit of a chance of thinking to move to strategy groups. Here’s a link to a great article about that. https://www.thedailycafe.com/articles/moving-from-leveled-guided-reading-groups-to-strategy-based-groups. There are a couple of links to other articles on the right hand side that would be good to look at now.
That’s enough for now ;). I’m sure others will chime in on your posting, too, so take the advice that will work for you.
If you do have the opportunity to attend the Tacoma workshop, I’d DEFINITELY say to go!! It’s so inspiring and helpful to talk with teachers from all over to get ideas. I think I’ll be at that one, too!!
You also might want to look in to and consider the online seminars. You can pick a seminar with a focus on Daily 5, CAFE or Math Daily 3. Here’s a link to info about those:
https://www.thedailycafe.com/workshops/10000
Your questions are such good ones and queries we all deal with! Here is something to consider: we are finding a consistent trend in our own work as well as classrooms all over the world where there are fewer strategy groups being conducted and most of the Daily 5 time is being used with individual conferring. The reason? Strategy groups can be hard to manage for some teachers and many find the length of the group lesson to be so long that it doesn’t jive with the brain research and cuts into individual conferring time. Here is an article to consider. https://www.thedailycafe.com/articles/Narrowing-the-Focus-and-Length-of-a-lesson-to-Make-it-Brain-Compatible
I did just read your article about individual conferring vs. strategy groups, and in my personal experience, while students enjoy both, they absolutely CRAVE the one-on-one conferring [relief!]. They are literally begging for a “conference” each time I pass by them! The best thing about the individual time is I know my kids’ reading and writing strengths, weaknesses, and goals inside and out, and they do too!
I am looking forward to reading the articles you have both provided and sharing them with other teachers. Switching to the Daily 5 structure has been a tremendous shift for all our teachers this year, but they all wholeheartedly agree it has helped create an atmosphere where every child truly loves reading and writing, and we look forward to continuing the Daily 5 journey together as the years unfold!
Thank you all for the support and immediate feedback - I’m sure I’ll be back with more questions soon!
I truly agree with Joan that one-on-one conferring is the heart of meeting the needs/goals of each of our kiddos. It’s a little hard for many teachers to give up small groups time at first, but we all seem to get to that point of realizing that even if you have 3 kids working on a specific strategy, each one’s needs is a bit different. 5 minutes of one on one time means so much more than 15 minutes where you go back and forth between kiddos in a group.
To support what Joan said above, look at this article in the “Tip of the Week” I read today:
https://www.thedailycafe.com/articles/Are-Your-Lessons-the-Correct-Length-for-Your-Student-s-Brain-Development?ct=t(Ode+to+Teachers)
Yes, I have used that research this year to help me time my focus lessons. In fact, I just spent time last night explaining to a parent the structure of my classes and why I only teach in 10-minute intervals [I teach 5th grade ELAR]. Interestingly, the public school district in my town is making a shift away from Daily 5 for tier 2 and tier 3 students saying they need more direct instruction than Daily 5 allows. Some district teachers will still use the Daily 5, but it sounds like it will no longer be mandatory. I hear this, yet I have a student in 5th grade who was tier 3 in third grade [teacher used a basal so I pulled him for reading intervention], tier 2 in second [teacher used guided reading/Daily 5 which I coordinated with her], and tier 1 this year in my class, testing recently at grade level 7.5 in reading… and he has dyslexia! With proper intervention, Daily 5 works for ALL students. Our primary teachers have trained their aides to regularly confer with students which has doubled individual conferring time - amazing! I am also working on a system of regularly conferring with tier 2 and 3 students right inside their classrooms during their Daily 5 time, but scheduling can get tricky with that. Oh, if only I could clone myself!!!
Have you heard of schools moving away from Daily 5 because of lack of instructional time? It has presented an interesting challenge for me as a reading specialist because I feel it is my duty to research and understand both sides, then make decisions that are best for our students. Of course, we are going Daily 5 stronger than ever next year, but seeing our district schools considering a change because of too much independent choice was interesting… Penny for your thoughts?
I must say, that I find that Daily 5 is the best thing for tier 2 and 3 kiddos. In the classroom, their teachers know they must (at least should) confer with all kids in Tier 2 or 3. I’ve explained to them what I said above, that 3 kids reading at the same level do not have the same needs–only fluency,one comp, one vocab, for example. Trying to hold a group lesson and meeting all their needs is probably not really meeting anyone’s needs clearly enough. ( know you know that, but that’s an “argument” I use to clarify why the short, but focused conferring sessions are so appropriate.)
When the schools moving away from D5 talk about “loss of instructional time”–I would ask, "What to they mean–lack of whole group teaching, lack of small group (like guided reading lessons) that go on much to long for kids to attend? What I’m afraid of is them going back to “worksheet centers” where kids have packs of papers to do while the teacher meets with small groups.
It’s hard to “hold ground” sometimes, but as your example shows, it pays off often for the kids who need time to read the most.
What research are they (those turning away from D5) looking at? Richard Allington, one of the top reading researchers, talks about the importance of time to read as the road to success for our struggling readers. If we’re not providing that time to read, they are the ones who suffer most.
I know the Sisters are working on a white paper to show research supporting Daily 5 which they will share with us when it is completed.
Keep the faith and hold your ground–it is the best route for our kiddos.
Only one more point :)–sometimes public schools (which I’m a part of) have to play the numbers games even when they don’t really want to–or know that best practices are really not being followed. Individual teachers have to make a stand to do what they know is best for children within the system in which they work. It’s a tough spot to be in at times.
Ok–I’ll get off my Soap Box now :). I love the conversations we’re having!!
I appreciate the research our district schools provide here because I use it to help me make more informed decisions without having to do all the work myself. You’re so right, public schools have so many different angles from which they have to approach education, which can be both beneficial and challenging. I have so appreciated my public school friends who share insights and keep me “in the loop” so I can better develop our literacy instruction over time with a balanced approach that really reaches our kids. I truly applaud those public school teachers who “make a stand to do what they know is best for children within the system”. I am so blessed to have the unique opportunity to build a literacy framework with fellow teachers and present it to our administration, rather than the other way around.
Those are great questions you posed about the loss of instructional time. I will be emailing them to my friend in the district soon to see what she has to say.
Our first grade teacher has enjoyed reading our exchanges the past few days. She’s an incredible leader in our Daily 5 team [and also my daughter’s teacher], and as we were discussing all things Daily 5 this afternoon, she mentioned how she had heard schools are also moving away from Daily 5 because the teachers were not always careful to teach to the standards and confusion over assessments and grading [basically because in Daily 5 there’s no “pushing paper”]. I’m glad she brought it up, because we had talked about this before, and this has been a challenging area for us to develop.
We are currently working to align our standards to the CAFE menu to help hold us accountable, and I have developed some creative ways this year to transfer conferring touchpoints to “grades” that I hope to share with our teachers soon. Do you have solutions to the standards/assessment argument? Your input on the loss of instructional time was extremely helpful and it’s this kind of information that will help me continue to drive the Daily 5 machine forward!
Have you read Allington’s paper titled “The Other Five Pillars of Effective Reading Instruction”? I’m a huge follower of his work, as well as David A. Sousa. Love that research!!!
I’m loving our conversations too - I can never get enough when it comes to literacy and learning! Thanks for your support!
Allington’s article “The Six Ts of Effective Elementary Literacy Instruction” is also a great read!
I love this article and refer to it often! The Sisters also refer to Allington often in their presentations, as well as many others in reading and brain-based research.
Are you in a Common Core state? If so, here on the website, you can find the CAFE menu aligned for each grade level 1-8, as well as the Emergent Menu. On the home page under CAFE, click on the CCSS Aligned menus. Not all language arts standards are there, but all the reading ones are covered. Here’s a link to the article by Allison Behne explaining them: https://www.thedailycafe.com/articles/cafe-with-common-core.
In my district, we are fortunate to not have to give numerical letter grades until 3rd grade. We use our running records, Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark assessments, our school’s CBAs (curriculum based assessments), and comprehension checks to help form our progress reports which are a narrative. We do as you said as well–use the touch points to explain progress and areas of concern. Our upper grades (3-5) do use traditional grades. The teachers integrate a lot of Social Studies into Language Arts, and the comp checks serve as part of the reading grades. They use DRA’s to check reading levels. I don’t know if this helps you or not . . .
I thought of another article from the website that might be good to share with your friend, too. I posted it at my school, and we had some very in-depth conversations about it. The main idea is–are you truly doing Daily Five?
https://www.thedailycafe.com/articles/Daily-5-or-Centers
To answer your earlier questions, no, we are not a common core school. We use Concordia Lutheran standards which are much more detailed and lengthy than common core, making aligning them to the CAFE a tedious, but very worthwhile process. As a reading specialist, my goal for the teachers is that by categorizing standards according to CAFE, they are beginning to recognize which standards they teach well, which ones they need to work to teach better [it has brought quite a bit of insight to me as the 5th grade teacher - talk about quickly finding your strengths and weaknesses as a teacher!] which standards are developmental and span over several grades, etc. It will hopefully encourage more communication among teachers as we pass kids along from one grade to the next.
Ohhhh, your post about centers vs. Daily 5 is very timely for me. We definitely have a combo going in our school. Some teachers are more comfortable with centers, and others jumped into Daily 5 headfirst and just went crazy with it! My biggest concern right now for our teachers doing centers is the conferring, which brings me back to the original reason for this post! Based on observation over the course of the year, I see that our “center teachers”, while still maintaining Daily 5 buzz words like “Read to Self” and “Work on Writing” struggle more with the one-on-one conferring. I don’t see them having individual conferences often, mostly because they are trying to manage or guide a center that students need support to accomplish.
Centers are still a huge change for these teachers from where we were a year ago… before this year our literacy was all teacher-guided with very little student choice. Honestly, I don’t mind the “center” approach if it makes teachers more confident [except it still diminishes student choice!], but how do I encourage them to step out there and do one-on-one conferring? I have modeled in our literacy meeting how to confer teaching a strategy with my first grade daughter as the “model student”, showed them how to access the ever-growing brief focus lessons and assessment lessons/rubrics, and I even recorded teachers so they could watch how their colleagues are conferring. Any insight you have here would be helpful… I am trying to respect our teachers and meet them wherever they are ready to be met, but I still see that conferring is crucial to student success! Do I continue to gently prod them toward individual conferring, or do I leave it alone?
When you mentioned going to the student as opposed to the student going to you, I have the students come to me. When we are conferring it is a book that we chose together that is on their reading level. I usually give them three choices, have them look through them, and pick one for themselves. If they find they don’t like it, there is another one handy for them to use. They are free to choose other books from the class library when they want, but we only work on the book that we chose together during conferences.
I also live in a remote area and took the online seminar. It was everything I needed to get me started. The teacher is encouraging and always available for questions. I highly recommend it.
Absolutely loving your feedback!!! Thank you so much for sharing how you manage conferring in your classroom! We are still so new to Daily 5, and for most of our teachers, the idea of one-on-one teaching is new, and sometimes even awkward. We laugh often about times when we’ve sat and had a student read aloud, then not know what to do or say next! I really appreciate that you provide three books from which a student may choose to demonstrate understanding of a strategy. I find that using their best fit books can be tricky sometimes. For example, the other day in 5th grade, I was teaching figurative language as a strategy, specifically watching for metaphors/similes in our books. I was soooooo relieved when each student I conferred with that day actually had a simile in his/her story! All I kept thinking was… what if they don’t come across figurative language during reading that day!
I find I confer both at students’ desks and call them to a work table, which I think confuses my kids who like predictability. I like that you are consistent with where you confer… I could definitely benefit from that practice!
Thank you for sharing… I hope others will share how they are conferring, what has worked, what hasn’t worked…ANYTHING!!! I’m loving these discussions!
I think moving from small groups to conferring is a BIG step for many teachers. I think your idea of “gently prodding” is a good one. Eventually, they’ll see the true benefit of individual conferring. I know it took a couple of years for teachers at my campus to ingrain the idea that every child’s needs are different.
For example: Children who need an accuracy strategy will not have the same needs. So. . . while we may introduce a book at the same level for a group of kids, their specific needs may differ from using beginning sounds to chunking sounds in a word.
If the teachers are doing running records, those differences will show up.
I just want to make another point here–taking running record on a regular basis is so important!! BUT not just taking the running record, but analyzing the the errors. Are they accuracy, syntactical or meaning errors? Looking at those errors will help you decide where the problem really lies.
You know, our first grade teacher does running records regularly, and I am so impressed with how she uses her results to make instructional decisions. Because we are still working on strengthening our conferring methods, and we are layering 6-trait writing on as an instructional/assessment model for work on writing, how do I convince our teachers of the importance of running records? As far as I know, our first grade teacher is the only one who uses them. And you’re so right… analyzing the error pattern is the crucial piece to the running record! Do teachers see the value of the running record over time, just as they will with the individual conferring?
If think if you remind them that they don’t have to take the RR on the whole book, but only a 100 word part of the text, that may help. When they realize that only takes a minute or two, a sigh can be heard :). If you remind them that as they listen, they can get a “feel” for the fluency piece–does it sound about the right rate, is there expression–then they can concentrate on the accuracy.
Several of us use a form that is basically a table with 100 boxes, 10 in each row, it becomes really easy to know when you’ve reached that 100 words. (it’s nothing fancy, but I’ll email you a copy of the one I have.) I would really encourage them to do this at least once a week, especially on those kids they have concerns about. This can also help teachers see if the material they are reading is at a good fit level, or if they need to adjust up or down.
Maybe you could give them a little coaching session about analyzing the errors and determining the true strengths and problems of the reader. I think once they see how much this little two minute informal assessment can give them, they’ll embrace it, as well.
I am new to Daily 5 and am the only one in my entire district doing this!!! I am a little nervous! I teach 4th grade. As far as running records, are there passages that I need to buy in order to do this, or do they just read a book they are already reading? At the beginning of the year, is there a common passage I need to find in order to start figuring out their goals? Can you email me the copy of the 100 boxes you use for running records? ([email protected])
First of all–breathe :).
Good for you for being the pioneer! Most of the running records I take weekly or biweely are from the books the kids are reading. Depending on my purpose (fluency, accuracy, comprehension), it may be a “cold passage” or a reread of about 100 words.
Do you now have in place any kind of reading inventory–like DRA2, Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Kit–in place at your school now? If so, use those. If not, there are resources that you can use online, like Reading A-Z. I could recommend others, if you’d like.
I will gladly send you copies of the 100 box sheets that I use.
This Discussion Board is a great place to get the expertise of many experienced teachers, and the website can answer lots of your questions, so visit often!
I’ll send the copies now.
We do not have any assessments in place for 4th grade in my district except for universal screeners which only tell me fluency. We use Aims Web. I have asked for DRA but was told no due to funds. I have asked for Burns and Roe Informal Interest inventory but have not heard a reply yet. This is why I am so nervous!! I have no way to assess them and school starts Aug 1!
Thank you so much for your help!! I GREATLY appreciate it!
Hi there!
It’s great to see this thread still going!
Last year was our first year with Daily 5, and it was amazing. I’ve never seen kids [and teachers] so excited to read and write! I am currently working as the K-8 curriculum/RTI coordinator in our school, and I spent a great deal of time last year coaching our K-4 teachers as they implemented Daily 5 [I taught the 5th grade ELA sections myself].
I’m curious - do you have any support from a reading specialist or literacy coach in your district? Also, what are the other teachers doing in your school to teach ELA if not Daily 5? Are you concerned about resistance from your principal/superintendent? Last, do you intend on also using guided reading in your classroom? I’m asking these questions because it sounds like your all alone in this, and support is so important!
It sounds like what you need most is initial assessment ideas to get you a jump start on setting goals for your students. Here is what I will do to support our teachers at the beginning of the school year as they look to do the same thing:
Honestly, the STAR and DIBELS give you more of an overall picture of the student - generalities and patterns over time… I prefer running records for the immediate feedback it gives me for all students, and it really helps as we use guided reading in our school. Running records are quick, provide usable data, and they are great for helping you share information to parents about student progress [I work at a private Christian school, so we have extremely involved parents ]
I use the Burns and Roe inventory/CORE Diagnostic testing for Tier 3 students only. I like Burns and Roe for specific info in areas of comprehension/fluency domains and CORE Diagnostic for specific info in the phonics/phonemic awareness domains. These inventories don’t give me the guided reading score I’m looking for to help my teachers with their daily reading lessons, so they are reserved at our school for me to use with our kiddos who aren’t responding to Tier 1/Tier 2 interventions in the classroom.
I buy EVERYTHING off Ebay! If your school is not able to help fund you, try looking for books there, although if you are going to spend your own money, I’d invest in a Reading A-Z subscription. I think the subscriptions run around $110/year. I have used it for years, and it has helped me support my teachers with everyday differentiation for Daily 5 - I couldn’t live without this resource! Plus, the subscription is immediate - no waiting for a book to be mailed to you!
Overall, I’m sad that you don’t have anyone in your school who is making this journey with you. As the person behind implementation of Daily 5 at my school, I can tell you our parents struggled with the change, and our teachers sometimes felt like they weren’t communicating their goals with Daily 5 very well. We are committed to making independent lifelong readers and writers at our school, and we will forge on this year, taking what we learned and making Daily 5 even stronger, but we are in it together, and I know I could not have done it without my teachers - we all support each other. Let me encourage you with this: I believe in developing high trust with my students, and Daily 5 helped me develop trust quicker because I was regularly conferring with my students. They knew I listened, and they knew I cared. I would find interesting books, read them myself, then recommend them to my students. Pretty soon they were doing the same for me! Daily 5 is worth the effort it takes to get it going - you won’t ever go back once you invest in it!
Would it be okay if I email you more resources next week?
What a lot of great information form kacieelizagaray!!
At this point, if you can’t get much $$ support, I agree that Reading A-Z might be the way to go. I looked at their site, and they offer a free trial, so you could look around and see if it would work for you. There was an ad on their site about a new online running record tool–don’t know what it looks like, but might b e worth checking out!
I agree that it would be great for you to find a buddy to start this journey with at your school–doesn’t necessarily have to be the same grade level–I recommend a good friend :).
I noticed the title of your original post was strategy groups AND individual conferring–HOW?? I recently attended a Sister’s workshop, and they talked about how many teachers they talk to all around the country are moving away from groups and concentrating on individual conferring. This really gives you that time to work on each child’s needs.
Yes, my original post was in a time of extreme frustration with trying to balance individual conferring and small groups - I did adjust to just individual conferring last spring toward the end of the year to experiment for the upcoming year, and it was more beneficial. I also like conferring with partners who are reading the same book together - I can double dose strategies for comprehension, even though it isn’t as individualized. I found my 5th graders loved reading books with friends!
I forgot to mention I recently purchased an actual running record calculator. It is still new in the box, but I will be practicing using it later this summer with my daughters before using it at school. If it is user-friendly, I will be purchasing them for all my teachers - looks pretty handy!
Unfortunately, time didn’t allow me to attend a Sister’s Workshop yet. I’m hoping to get some online classes though when school starts. I am so glad our school decided to go with Daily 5 - it has changed forever the way we view teaching and learning in all subject areas. I knew it was a full success for our teachers when our Kinder teacher asked about Math daily 3!
I could cry with pure happiness because you are giving some great advice. Unfortunately, my school district does not have a literacy coach or a reading specialist that could help me. We have a literacy leader in my school but she is a writing teacher and teaches 8th grade and has no idea about younger grades. My principal is great in that she lets us teach however we feel best suits the students (I have her daughter this year AAAAAAA) . The way I have taught in the past 5 years since we moved to departmentalized in 4th grade is by teaching with whole group novels. We would read it and I would teach our state standards that way. I refuse to use a basal. I just don’t think the stories make the students love reading which I think is my purpose of teaching. I have never done guided reading. I have never conferred either. I have always had great test scores but I just didn’t feel like my students left my classroom loving to read. I wanted to make a drastic change and that is when I found daily 5. I have done nothing but research this summer.
The other big challenge I have is that I have 80 minutes with three blocks. I am the ELA teacher which means I have to teach reading, grammar, writing, spelling, and vocabulary. to about 60 plus kids. I am trying to wrap my head around getting all of it in. We are tested on 3 genres of writing which they read a text and have to write with one of the three (informative, persuasive, and narrative). I am working on getting my room done this week so I can start wrapping my head around all of the teaching and scheduling before kids arrive on Aug. 1.
I appreciate all of the help you have given me on assessment. It has really taken some of the burden off. We used to have STAR but no longer do. I have never heard of DIEBELS but will look in to it. I have talked to someone today about F&P assessment so fingers crossed!!
Absolutely! Email me anything you would like to share!! You might not want to email me with your personal email because I may drive you crazy with all of my questions going through my head!!! LOL!
Thanks again. My email address is [email protected]
Keep asking questions–and this is a great place, because you get ideas from teachers all over in all kinds of situations.
You might want to look into Literature Circles for your students, as well. This will get them into novels, but not all in the same novel, and the levels can be appropriate for different groups.
The Sisters discuss how by 4th grade, most students don’t need a lot of word work, so you can spend more time on reading and writing. Of course, vocabulary comes through everything we read or write. To help with higher level vocabulary, you may want to focus more on Greek and Latin roots and derivatives. Are you familiar with Words Their Way? There is a word sort book designed just for this work ( you can find it on Amazon for like $20). It really is great for vocabulary development and support.
In Daily 5, you’ve probably seen it discussed that by this level, you may want to plan for 2 rounds with a mini lesson at the beginning of each round. As is suggested in the book and online, start with Read to Self in place. Next, introduce Work on Writing. Have you looked over the Launching Lessons? Great place to get your mindset in place.
Of course the 10 Steps to Independence are invaluable, and should be given adequate time to get in place. Don’t be in a hurry–best to take the time to build stamina and independence before delving into everything else!!
| Title | Category | Replies | Views | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Is CAFE going to be aligned with the Texas TEKS? | CAFE | 8 | 6.5k | 9 months 2 weeks |
| Alignment of Daily 5 & CAFE with Cambridge Learning Outcomes | CAFE | 0 | 4.8k | 2 years 3 months |
| CAFE strategies book list | CAFE | 10 | 5.8k | 2 years 3 months |
| Alignment with Australian Curriculum | CAFE | 4 | 1.3k | 2 years 5 months |
| Lesson Planning | CAFE | 0 | 1.7k | 4 years 2 months |
| Question about Comprehension--Use Prior Knowledge to Connect with Text | CAFE | 0 | 950 | 4 years 2 months |
| Sharing Videos Online | CAFE | 2 | 1.1k | 4 years 3 months |
| Daily 5, small groups, and conferring 6 feet away | CAFE | 4 | 1.6k | 4 years 3 months |
| New Ready Reference guides | CAFE | 6 | 2.5k | 4 years 3 months |
| Mini Lesson Variety | CAFE | 1 | 1.7k | 4 years 3 months |
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