Almost exactly one year ago, I posted about my Literacy Block in my Grade Two classroom. Throughout 2011 I modified things with my team teaching partner, Kathleen Morris.
Now Kathleen and I are teaching Grade Four, and I have been receiving lots of questions about how I am structuring my literacy program with the older students. I thought it was timely to provide an updated post of the Literacy Block in 4KM and 4KJ.
For those of you who are unaware, I adopted some elements of The Sisters’ CAFE and Daily 5 programs with my students last year. It is difficult to incorporate every aspect of the Daily 5 because of time constraints, but so much of what The Sisters believe makes sense, and I recommend you read their books if you haven’t already.
My literacy program incorporates parts of the Daily 5, CAFE, the Early Years model and technology is also used regularly. I have no doubt Kathleen and I will continue to change our program and modify our structure to meet the needs of our students. The presentation below shows how I currently structure the two hour Literacy Block in my classroom.
Dear Kelly,
Thank you so much for sharing the structure and planning for your literacy block. I am also implementing the Daily 5 and CAFE strategies for the first time this year with a Year 5 class. I wanted to improve my explicit teaching of reading strategies as well as to give the students more choice and influence over their activities and goals in literacy. After hearing about The Sisters’ work I thought it sounded like it might help me to do this. First term was short with so many interruptions due to swimming program and sports events and I’ve only managed to teach the Daily 5 and my expectations for each task. Over the holidays I’m going to reread the CAFE book and plan for really getting stuck into it from the start of next term. I am working alone this year rather than in a team so it is a great help to hear how others are implementing these strategies. Thanks again!
Michelle
Hi Michelle,
I agree, the CAFE approach really helps to teach reading strategies in an explicit way. The students respond really well to it, and the inclusion of independent reading to practise the strategies helps focus the kids.
Good luck implementing it next term and enjoy your holidays!
Thanks for a great comment,
Kelly
Hi Kelly,
Thanks for the information on your literacy program. There is so many conflicting theories on how to structure your literacy program, but I think I have hit the spot with yur adaptation and incorporating the CAFE and daily 5.
Keep it coming!
Cheers
Sarah
Hi Sarah,
Glad to hear you have come up with a literacy program that is working for you and your students.
Thanks for your support,
Kelly
Hi Kelly,
Thanks for sharing your Literacy structure – it’s always fascinating to see how other teachers run their programs (and great for getting ideas, too!). This year I’ve been slowly incorporating aspects of CAFE/Daily 5 into my Literacy teaching, too, and it’s going great.
This year’s been quite interesting to set up in my literacy teaching, primarily because of the quite different needs of the Preps and the Grade 1s in my room. We run 6 literacy sessions a week (due to a timetabling change made across our school this year), and the first 5 sessions I run are based on the Early Years model, with aspects of Daily 5/CAFE, and the 6th session (for my Grade 1s) is a ‘free choice’ literacy activity – which I often theme. (The deal is that the 1s have to finish all their literacy responses from the first 5 sessions in order to be able to choose a literacy game/word work activity/special themed literacy activity.) In giving the 1s an extra session of their choice activities I have the opportunity to spend more an extra session with my preps.
I’ve also been running Sound Waves this year, too. All my kids love it – drives me a bit bonkers, though, because the prep and 1 programs are so different to implement!
Thanks again for sharing!
Stef
Hi Stef,
Having taught Prep for a few years and also Grade 1 and 2 when I first began teaching, I have always had a lot of admiration for those who teach a Prep/Grade 1 composite class. Finding that balance between teaching the Prep students the very basics and foundations of language and simultaneously scaffolding the Grade 1 students (many of whom I’m sure already competent readers and writers) seems like a daunting task!
It sounds like you have a very effective program in place and I am sure your students are thriving in your care.
I agree, Sound Waves is a great spelling program, although I’m sure I have it easier than you do running it with Grade 4 kids!
Thanks for your terrific comment and insight into how your are running Literacy!
Kelly
@ Kelly,
There’s such a diverse range of abilities in a P/1 – which is both daunting and rewarding. It’s made me rethink a lot about how I run literacy (and to a lesser extent, numeracy) in the classroom. Still, it makes for a very interesting day (every day!).
A big bonus to a P/1, after just one term, is noticing how settled the preps are into a routine – having the grade 1s to model for them – and how much the grade 1s have stepped up to be those role models.
Stef
Hi Kelly,
I enjoy reading your blog. When you do reading during the literacy time, are the children reading texts related to the integrated unit?
Thanks,
David
Hi David,
Thanks for your comment.
Generally students are choosing “good fit” books individually, which means they choose books of specific interest to them. My students all have favourite authors/types of books which they are allowed to choose themselves (as long as they are not too easy/difficult of course), so they are not required to read texts related to our integrated topic. Some students do choose books related to our unit of work though.
Thanks,
Kelly
Hi Kelly
Thanks for sharing the structure of your literacy block.
I had a year out of the classroom in a dedicated maths role in 2010. I changed schools and regions in 2011, so I had quite a few adjustments to make. I felt really frustrated with my reading program last year and just couldn’t establish an effective routine for conferences and guided reading. I have been reading about the Daily 5 and CAFE for awhile and wondering about ways to implement it in my 3/4 composite.
So, to get to the point, I am returning from the holidays on Monday with a structure in mind to begin implementing CAFE. I don’t think I can manage the full Daily 5 every day, but am going to try to incorporate some of the principles in my rotations and see how it goes.
I am also hoping to get my class blog started and incorporate that into the literacy block too. I think it offers lots of opportunities to build writing skills at point of need. And, dare I say, the Ultranet just does not cut it for these opportunities (she whispers), as much as I try.
Wishing you a happy start to term 2 and a big thank you for being such a generous mentor out there in the blogosphere. You are truly appreciated!
Regards
Deborah
Hi Deborah,
Thanks so much for your insightful comment.
It sounds like you have had a period of transition with your teaching over the past couple of years and hopefully you’re looking forward to the term ahead! I definitely will never be able to fit in the full Daily 5 either, which is why my program is modified quite a bit from the Sisters’ original program. I just love that the focus is on reading. I love that my students are practising reading strategies in such an explicit way.
Good luck with the blogging journey, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! It such an authentic way to teach literacy. My biggest piece of advice for incorporating blogging into your program is to do it every day! If you have even just ten minutes of blogging included in your daily literacy block, it will just become part of the routine and the kids will be so much more engaged with it. I agree with you about the Ultranet too!
Thanks for your kind words, much appreciated!
Kelly
Hi Kelly,
What a fantastic post. I am a second year teacher, who has a 3/4 class this year with a much bigger reading range than I had last year. As such, all year I have felt that the reading groups/guided reading sessions aren’t working for various reasons. I’ve been doing a lot of research to see how other people structure their literacy time and the daily 5 kept coming up. It was such a pleasure to find two resource rich posts about how aspects of the approach are being implemented in an Australian classroom.
Have all levels at your school taking this approach or is it just you and Kathleen at the moment? How is that working for the school? I really like the way you have structured your literacy block to include the daily 5 and cafe approach along side blogging. I think I will definitely order the books now and hope they arrive just in time for the school holiday break.
Thank you for sharing your approach to literacy.
Warm wishes,
Casey
Hi Casey,
Thanks for your terrific comment. I definitely recommend you order the books, they were so easy and enjoyable to read. I had a few “lightbulb” moments as I read them.
I think the CAFE model is the most important and beneficial part of The Sisters’ work. Teaching individual reading strategies in such an explicit way just makes so much sense!
A few classes in my school have started using the Daily 5 and CAFE model (or parts of it anyway), although I think some teachers are keen for more information and PD to really understand the theories behind it. I always just people to read the books, as it’s the best way to learn! I am part of the newly formed Literacy PLT at school and our goal is to give staff information etc about the Daily 5 and CAFE so that people can confidently use it in their classrooms later this year and next year.
Happy reading!
Kelly
Hi Kelly,
Thank you for sharing the activities that you have during your Literacy block.I have heard of the Daily 5, you have rekindled this urge for me to look more closely into it.Now that the holidays are almost here. I may do a bit of reading and try to implement this in my Literacy block.Next year I am going to team teach. So I guess I would have to work closely with my team mate, choosing books that are covering the integrated topic for the term.I really like the way you have modified the Daily 5 to suit the needs of the class. I plan on doing the same.
All the best for 2013
Iris