The Daily 5, Second Edition Online Book Club-Chapter 7 (Part 2)-Check-In and Beyond

I'm about ready to begin my 3rd week of summer vacation, and wow have we been busy. But, it's a great busy....family and friends kind of busy (not lesson planning busy). I'll take this kind of busy anytime! 

I'm contemplating what professional book to get and read next. I have a few ideas, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! 

O.k., back to business...here is the 2nd part of Chapter 7. 

The topic of "checking-in" is once again discussed in this chapter, but there is a new spin put on it. Once students built stamina and independence, the purpose of a check-in changes. The purpose is no longer on behavior (but if needed, it can always be shifted back to that for a check-in or two). Instead, the purpose now focuses on what the students are going to do. Before beginning each round of Daily 5, students are gathered for a check-in. Before being released into their next round, each student must make a choice (as to what Daily he/she will go to) and be able to tell what he/she plans to work on at that Daily. Students' choices are recorded on a simple form. It is also at this time when I'll tell students who I will be meeting with (for guided reading or for reading conferences). Their default Daily is almost always Read to Self. 

As stated in the book, students do take making their choices and stating their goals/purpose very seriously. I take this one step further. At the end of each round of Daily 5, when students just sat down to gather, I have them do any one of the following:
*Turn to learning partner (elbow buddy, etc.), and tell that person what you did (what you are proud of).
*Turn to learning partner (elbow buddy, etc.), and share writing that was done during that round.
*I read writing, completed by students, to the class. We comment on it. Wow-does this hold them accountable!!!
*I tell students to hold writing up so I can see it. 
*I randomly pick a few names on popsicle sticks and ask those students specific ?s about what they did/what they worked on. Or, I'll tell those students to tell the class what they just did (what book they read, what reading strategy they worked on, etc.). 
I can't tell you how powerful check-in can be, and it only takes a few minutes. 

The remaining sections of this chapter give some additional reasons why Read to Someone, Listen to Reading and Word Work are powerful. Suggestions for each of these are also discussed. 

Read to Someone:
This particular Daily can get a bit noisy and be frustrating to some teachers. First, keep in mind the many benefits of this Daily. Some of these include increased fluency, motivation to read, the number of texts read and a non-threatening setting to practice reading skills/strategies. 

Here are some tips to make Read to Someone work for you and your students:
*Use the 10 Steps to Independence to introduce and teach your students how to Read to Someone
*Repeat the steps until you are sure your students have acquired independence and stamina. It is far easier to take the extra time to do this at the beginning of the year than to rush through the steps and find your students still don't know how to properly Read to Someone when you are well into the school year. Due to the fact that this Daily 5 choice takes a long time to get up and running, it is suggested that it should be introduced last.
*Limit the number of students who choose Read to Someone. You know your students. Some rounds, I allowed 6 students to choose. Some rounds, I only allowed 4 to choose (they were the louder ones). That worked very well. 

Listen to Reading:
Listen to Reading offers many of the same benefits as Read to Someone and Read to Self. Students are naturally motivated to use technology as long as it's developmentally appropriate and they know its specific purpose. 

*It may be necessary to assign a few of your "tech savvy" students a helper role for Listen to Reading. 
*If we all worked in classrooms where every student had his/her own iPad, wouldn't things be easier? We all know we don't all have that luxury (or at least I don't). So, you will need to get creative. Storia (ebooks by Scholastic) works well on netbooks/tablets. CD players (and, dare I say...tape players) also work! Various free websites work as well. Talk to your colleagues about what they use for listening. 

Word Work: 
Again, the benefits are plenty for Word Work. Some of the many benefits include practice with vocabulary and spelling for all students. This Daily 5 choice is so easy to differentiate for your students. I use the suggested list of materials and tie it into our Words Their Way instruction. Each of my three word study groups has a different word list (kept in one of 3 labeled containers). I noticed my students need more practice with their word sorts/lists and were not getting a ton of at-home practice, so that is why I decided to set my Word Work station up to focus on Words Their Way. It made a huge difference in students' acquisition of spelling skills.  If you are having difficulty thinking of what to include at this station, keep in mind these 2 simple things:
*What do your students need (in terms of word work practice)?
*How can you keep it simple (in terms of materials used), yet effective (think of targeted word lists used)?

I can't wait to tackle Math Daily 3 in my next post. This is my current work-in-progress. After reading about it during last school year, and doing some of my own research, I decided to implement this into my daily math block (instead of waiting until the next school year).  Upon implementation,  students made immediate connections because they already had The Daily 5 in their background knowledge and daily practice. Also, I saw motivation for math activities soar (something that was definitely lacking).  This was the main reason I bought this new edition of The Daily 5. So, check back soon for the post on Math Daily 3 (and my newest TPT product that is a tried and true winner for math).