Motivating, Enlightening, REAL = The Sisters!!

Friday afternoon Mrs. Butson, Mrs. Houston and I traveled to Chicago for a 2-day workshop taught by THE Sisters. I think Sara and Leanna would agree it was AMAZING. It was one of the most powerful workshops regarding literacy I have ever attended. ( I can say that after 18 years of PD and graduate classes!)

We were star struck! 

Who are the sisters and why are they so popular?  Gail Boushey and Joan Moser are two elementary teachers that created a workshop model and assessment system for literacy. Their method has become a powerful literacy movement across the world.  The Daily Five does not hold content but it is a management system that has the students doing the hard work and it provides time for teachers to meet every student's strengths and needs.

Why is it so popular?  

• it's research based
  
• tested and used by real teachers with real readers of various strengths & needs 
• it takes very few items and materials to implement  (the main source....books,books and more books)
• it is developed around the big five : comprehension, accuracy/fluency, phonemic awareness/phonics, vocabulary and writing  
• it gives a road map of strategies every good reader uses 
• student assessment drives the teaching
• differentiation for every student 
• it places the learning responsibility on the student..students do 80-90% of authentic reading and writing

The Daily Five and The CAFE can be found in every state across our country.  The management system and research based strategies are helping teachers and districts show growth in student's reading and writing success and in teacher's motivation & excitement to teach literacy.  Each system has evolved and improved since the sisters wrote the book.  They continue to learn various research ideas and they constantly do their own action research as a teacher and coach.  Leanna, Sara and I hope to offer an after school session to share our insights and new learning but until then I wanted to share my many "aha" moments.  I have about eight pages of typed notes so I will try to give the big picture.

Wonderful downloads,ideas!

A few of my learning moments:
 The Daily Five is a structure which allows teachers to teach each student.  Based on the Big Five: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Accuracy-Fluency, Comprehension, Vocabulary, Writing

Read to Self is the foundation & Writing is the 2nd most important structure
Students must be reading & writing 80-90% of the time
Richard Allington's research - teachers must know his research!!

This was powerful insight regarding brain research!

The sister's thinking and teaching has changed and progressed since the books were published.
Mini-lessons: 10-15 mins. max!  Longer lessons should be broken into 2 mini-lessons whenever possible.
New research for the sisters: Brain Rules by John Medina and  Dr. Ken Wesson's work (a leading brain researcher)

T-charts
The sisters no longer brainstorm with the students when creating their T charts for each round introduction lesson.  They lead and tell the students what the round should look like.  Keep kids on task and focused.  Too many young students cannot process brainstorming ideas for a quick end result.  Teachers state this is "your job" and this is "my job".  Most importantly...this is going to be so FUN.  Tell them explicitly this is the great fun and stress how important reading and writing will be in their lives.

Word Work in their classroom
10-15 mins max and then have student move into writing
beyond this time..kids begin to mess around or become off task

Listening to Reading
Great for ELL students, beginning readers or non-readers, these readers need to be doing this round more

You only need a few things! 

Older or high readers should not be doing this round. Kids who love to read...let them read over partner reading and listening to reading.
It's all based on NEEDS not because it's fair.

Partner Reading
Explicitly model, model, model
Teach Coach-Time strategy
EEKK
NEVER assume young students can do this...it takes explicit teaching and modeling.  DON'T overuse partner reading

Materials/Supplies

To do the Daily Five a teacher needs very few materials!  

Spend ALL of your money on books NOT supplies.

Supply suggestion: wipe off boards, stamps/magnets, paper, pencils, chimes, sand timers  REALLY this is all you really need!

This management program takes away so much stress and busy work for teachers! We are not in the 90s .....learning to read and write can NOT happen with arts and crafts.
It is all about the READER not the activity!

Launching the Daily Five
Teachers stay out of the way when they are building stamina during the 1st 2weeks...don't hover or constantly talk during the student's work.  Use the 3 minute stamina building.
Do not even make eye contact!! You do not want kids to rely on YOU to ensure they are doing their job.  Even the dreaded teacher stare down is encouraging dependency on you.
Do not create independence by teacher saying "good job" or "sit still" and so on.
Model correct behaviors and practice correct behaviors
Incorrect behaviors:  in front of entire group state what went wrong, label it and stop it right away!
For the challenging kids:  practice 2 mins. at recess then out to play.  Kindly call the child on it- in front of the group.  Tommy, you had a hard time sitting in one spot today, you will practice with me at recess time because I know  you can do it.  This sets the tone to all the other students that the teacher is the ALPHA in your room not a student.   I loved this part!! :)

They would NEVER change the CAFE menu.
Comprehension must come first...it's the most vital part of reading!!
CAFE menu: let the kids write out each strategy you teach to the whole group.  Making meaning must ALWAYS come first.
Its hard, but refrain from printing the strategies.  Let the kids do the writing. Kids need to have ownership in developing it and make each child the expert of that goal if they are chosen as the writer.

With a sound structure of the Daily Five and the assessment-to-instruction steps that the CAFE system offers every teacher, RtI works perfectly.  It allows the teacher to differentiate and truly teach the individual reader and writer.

Curriculum Cohesiveness
All teachers using the same assessment systems for every child.  Pulling a child out of the classroom can create confusion for the student and deter or even delay learning success.
Interventions and classroom instruction both focus on the same skills and strategies each child needs based on their assessment.  ONE assessment for the child-not my assessment or their assessment-our assessment.  The sisters talked about this area a lot!! All based on Richard Allington's research.

We learned so many more things but I will end here! Many of you already do the Daily Five but I hope our new learning will benefit you too.   Be sure to ask if you have questions or something sparked your curiosity.  Stop by or email Leanna and Sara...their enthusiasm for the Daily Five is contagious.  We hope to share before PLC time on April 24th.

Great Advice:  What journey are you on as an educator?   

Teaching is never "done".  The effective teacher must continue to learn professionally, growing and evolving.

Do you complain all the time and point fingers?  

No teacher is perfect but all of us should be improving in some form with our teaching. 

Be proactive not reactive! 

Recommended Books and Research Articles  (links in red)
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
Brain Rules, John Medina
Dr. Wesson-What Everyone Should Know About the Latest Brain Research
                (at end of the article..links to other articles by Dr. Wesson)

Reading Essentials, Regie Routman
In Pictures and in Words, Katie Wood Ray
Write Like This, Kelly Gallagher  (highly recommended for upper grades & high school)

Readacide, Kelly Gallagher  (great read and a frightening reality is addressed regarding our society & reading)
The Book Whisperer, Donalyn Miller (especially for upper grades)

RtI From All Sides, Mary Howard
Assessment in Perspective, Clare Landrigan & Tammy Mulligan

Richard Allington (any of his articles and books)

Using Basal Readers, Dewitt (article March 2013)
Margaret Mooney's Guided Reading (New Zealand teacher and researcher, New Zealand has the greatest literacy rate in the world)

Happy Reading- Mrs. Speake