I'm in the same boat, Melissa. It's hard to get everything in! Here's my very FLEXIBLE scheduling information. I, too, am VERY interested in what others are doing.
I teach 2 sections of 5th grade Reading/Lang Arts. One section is a solid two hour block (except for two days a week where over 1/2 of the kids get pulled for large group band practice... THAT'S another story). My own section of kids I get between 1.5-2.5 hours each day, but somewhat scattered depending on the day. (I also do Social Studies with my own kids as well for 30-50 min most days.) Right now, my solid two hour block goes MOSTLY like this: 8:30-8:45/55 (15-25 minutes) WORD WORK Including Word of the Day, Working with spelling words (grouped by phonetic pattern and/or based on roots, prefixes, suffixes), and Vocabulary words from the basal. 8:45/55-9:05/20 (20-40 minutes) Modeled/Shared/Interactive Reading We are all practicing the same thing (often one of the Mosaic reading strategies) with a common text (usually our new Literacy by Design basal from Rigby) and reading together, within small groups, or with partners 9:05/20-9:35/40 (15-40 min) Independent/Guided Reading OR Literature Circles USUALLY kids use this time to independently read and practice skill or strategy discussed during our whole group time with their own self-selected text (although sometimes I direct them to a specific text or genre depending on what they need and what works best for practicing that skill). While they read, I require them to record their thinking on sticky notes as proof of the application of said skill/strategy. They are also allowed to take Accelerated Reader quizzes during this time. We've also done literature circles twice for two weeks each during this time so far--LOVE IT and the kids are BEGGING to do it again! :-) We will at least one more time this year. Once in a WHILE I meet with a small group during this time, but usually I'm busy answering miscellaneous questions, responding to kids who are excited to show me something in their book, conferencing with a handful of students, or doing some kind of one-on-one reading testing. 9:35/40-9:45 (5-10 min) SHARING TIME I randomly (or not so randomly some days) call on kids to SHARE their thinking from independent reading time which they have recorded on sticky notes. I remind everyone "Eyes on speaker," and then they all learn from each other and quite often like to add their own two cents worth to someone's thinking. Those notes then go on notebook paper placed in their individual reading binders as a form of formative assessment for me. 9:45-10:00 (15 min) STORY TIME! I read aloud from a chapter book. If we skip this, I hear about it! Even 5th grade kids LOVE to be read to! 10:00-10:30 (30 min) WRITER'S WORKSHOP I include 5-15 minute grammar mini-lessons during this time or a "DOL/Daily Oral Language" sentence at least. As far as the actual writing portion, I read and LOVED Aimee Buckner's book 'Notebook Know-How" and used that as a starting point earlier this year to introduce daily writing. We now alternate every few weeks between "playing around" with a mode of writing in our composition books, to working through the writing process using legal pads for first draft, and typing (and editing) 2nd/3rd/possibly 4th drafts. Wow! Sorry that's SO long. I'm looking forward to hearing what others are doing! My main question would be how important do you all feel DAILY Guided Reading IS at this age, especially IF/WHEN the kids are getting 15+ minutes of focused independent reading within their reading level? -Michelle TG/IA/5th www.mrstg.com -----Original Message----- Can some of you elaborate on the time frame all of this is being completed within? _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
